Hellobee Boards

I think a wide range of genres and types of books would be considered ideal in general. At this age I don't think that reading a few here and there will make much of a difference in terms of quality of books. I remember my mom would always tell me to read this book or that and that made me not enjoy reading as much. I liked reading when I was able to pick out my own books. And then my tastes expanded.

Superhero books are so cool! The good guys always win in those stories and that's the way I indirectly learned about karma.

While I think him getting to pick the books is wonderful, I would be less than enthusiastic about them as well, particularly if that's all you left with. Not all of them are equal though, and even within a series some books are better than others. I'd try to judge by the book and then fill in with some other books too.

I don't mind if my oldest wants us to read it once in a while but definitely prefer other books for sure! I did get some fireman LEGO books that teaches you about what to do when there is a fire. I'm SO not a fan of superheros these days... especially when he starts acting like one. Someone usually gets accidentally hit or run over when he's pretending to be them. :\

I don't mind them at all. I'm just happy when he's excited to read, no matter what the topic. DS has done this, too.

DS now picks books with topics that interest him, like space, spiders and all that. So, don't worry...this is just a short phase for a year or so. Kids' tastes in stuff changes all the time.

I think your 50/50 split sounds like a good idea. Just wait until he gets into the elementary aged graphic novels. The kids love them, and I love that they love to read them, but they are awful.

@.twist.: this is off topic but why do so many people hate Thomas the tank engine? I know little or nothing about it so I'm just wondering as I've heard several people express dislike of it!

@mrs. wagon: that's such a good idea to trade books with friends!

i haven't given much thought to superhero books, but i don't think i will be too picky about what books LO reads, as long as he enjoys reading and understands it is fiction.

What about some graphic novels?? They are a great way to get kids started with reading because they can read the pictures and put their own plot/story together. There's usually some real interesting story telling that happens with them!

@.twist.: hmm I suppose it would depend, my 7 year old students love the Lunch Lady, Baby Mouse, Mal and Chad, Owly, Giants Beware etc graphic novel series. So not your typical super heroes but they have really interesting story lines and detailed graphics.

We almost never buy character books at my library for some of the reasons you mentioned (Clifford is different though since he started as a book!). We do have some of those Lego visual dictionaries, but not a lot of picture books featuring TV/Disney characters. One of the big reasons is the books are almost always paperbacks so they don't hold up well with a lot of circulations, but I know the selector doesn't really think the writing is well done in most character books and I think she doesn't want to encourage too much TV watching with books about TV characters...but I'm not sure of all of her motivations behind not buying them.

I think some character books are fine, especially if they get kids reading, but if you are concerned/don't like them (I don't blame you) maybe next time ask the librarian if there are other superhero picture books they would recommend (there are lots written that are not about TV/Marvel/Disney characters and have pretty good stories). Maybe you can get him interested in better stories that still have a similar theme?

We don't generally censor the girls' picks at all. We do try to carefully select some options to have on offer based on their interests/tastes/past reading preferences, but anything they choose at the library is fair game. We just want them to love books and reading. It reminds me a little of a great Kate DiCamillo book we read where the main character loved comic books and the mom didn't want her reading them because she thought they were junk. I just think we all have our own tastes, and recognizing those generally means more reading happens. But yes, some of those pulp books are just so... UGH! Ellie likes some of the pulp Fancy Nancys (not too terrible, but not great), and Fly Guy (which I really just don't like), but she reads them and enjoys them. I know Mr. T turns up his nose at many of my book selections, and I am ALWAYS teasing him about how I can choose a book for him quickly because I just look for the words, "CIA," "explosion," "killer," and "fast-paced," in the jacket description.

@mrbee: Both. She still gets about an hour of read-aloud time per day (sometimes more if it's a weekend or something like that), and then she also reads to herself. Her teacher told us that she is the best reader she has had in her class in a very long time and is reading at about a fifth grade level. The school library relaxed their rule about not letting first graders check out higher level chapter books when she asked them if she could, since she was able to demonstrate that she could read and comprehend some of the books she was interested in taking home. It takes quite a while before reading competency/fluency catches up to your "listening level," so we will do read-alouds for the forseeable future.

@Mrs. Twine: I that you are still reading aloud to her! It makes me so sad when parents stop reading to children just because they're able to read. Different skills, both important for fostering a love of books!

@mrbee: We're the same.
I do think that kids who have been exposed to some good writing tend to dismiss the truly awful stuff. I guess I try to slog through the books I don't prefer since I know that, for a while, I'm their only access point. The repetition can get painful, but I usually just let myself go on auto-pilot and think about other things (awful, huh?). I mean, I don't do that until we are about five reads into the very.same.ranger.rick.magazine, but boy-- there are only so many times ricky racoon finding a geode feels interesting.

@mrbee: I agree, most of the TV character/superhero books are terribly written. A lot of the Disney/Winnie the Pooh ones are terrible too (not the original A.A. Milne). I think you've got the right approach by letting the kids pick a few that they like and then picking others yourself. They'll probably figure out pretty quickly that the stories in the superhero books are not as engaging!

@Aimed: haha, well I find him disrespectful! He seems to complain a lot and doesn't listen to sir top ham hat. The attitude he has in the books and movies does grate on my nerves!

I think if she wants to read then I will do whatever to encourage it. Too any kids have no interest in reading.