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Books not worth the paper.
written by Julie R. Neidlinger 2 comments link this post
A friend emailed me about a book being used in a school that was questionable in nature. Normally, I'm very much against pulling books out of schools and classrooms, particularly if those people who are calling for it are parents who haven't read the book but have read a mailer from some parachurch organization decrying the book.
Nothing irks me more than people who insist a book is no good without having read it at all, going instead on the word or interpretation of someone else. To say they don't have time to read what their child is reading is shameful, and essentially says to the teacher that the person or organization calling for the ban knows what's best for the child, rather than his or her own parents. I love that, in my friend's case, the parents read the book instead of just marching to school in anger without knowledge of what they were talking about.
The particular book in question in my friend's case is written by an author who panders to children and teens with supernatural/horror stories that aren't well written and aren't stories remotely capable of gleaning meaning for life from them. They are, for no better word, pulp. Lowest-common-denominator books. The kinds of books I see touted by teachers in articles about kids reading simply for the fact that the trashiness of the books makes kids want to read and the teachers have been fooled into thinking that reading anything at all is the main thing.
"The kids just love these books! They can't put them down! I can hardly keep up with the demand in the library!" is usually how such a quote might appear in an article.
I disagree.
Eating anything at all doesn't provide the same function as eating well. Eat crap, feel like crap. Read crap, think like crap. I would rather have kids stumble along and read quality than be able to point out the quantity of chapter books they are whizzing right through.
Banning books
The photo in this post is one I took back in my days as newspaper reporter/photographer. I did an article (during the hyped banned-books month) about banned books. Every book in the pile is from my own library, and all are books that have caused problems with parents. I love to read, and I love to read the books my nephew is reading so we can talk about them -- even books like Harry Potter or others that give some parents cause for alarm. Stories that have elements that don't jive with my worldview are not necessarily worthless because of that mere conflict. The best stories ring true because we humans all have, essentially, the same story: a desire for value and love and heroism and truth and nobility and hope and excitement. It may come out in different forms, but the story is the same. We learn about our life through story.
I don't like banning books that have artistic or intellectual merit. The same protection and esteem is not a given for every book; just because it was published doesn't mean it has merit. Just because a book found a publisher doesn't mean it's sacred. Some books, frankly, are crap.
I've been on the receiving end of more than a few comments about my art and writing by people who think they've got a right to tell me how they think I've created something awful and harmful, so I'm not easily led into banning books for reasons like "there was the suggestion of such and such behavior" or "five swear words!"
However, I don't like teachers assigning poorly written tripe for kids to read simply because we're at a place now where we think kids won't (or can't) read a book that is challenging. There are good books and stories for every reading level. Find them.
Because of this idea, I actually had no problem with the situation my friend described. The book being used had no business being assigned to students to read not only because the content (dealing with zombie-like beings needing to kill more people for fresh blood or some such nonsense) was questionable for the age level, but because there is -- and I can guarantee it because I have read and know the author's writing style -- absolutely no educational merit to the story other than to get kids to open a book and lay claim to the fact that, indeed, they did read an entire book.
Children and fiction
I am reminded of the line from You've Got Mail, where Meg Ryan's character (Kathleen Kelly) is talking about the books we read as children:
When you read a book as a child, it becomes a part of your identity in a way that no other reading in your whole life does.
This is very true!
The books I read as a child somehow hover and shape the way I think about my childhood and the topics covered in the books. The visual images I conjured up while reading those books still haunts my synapses today, whereas I find the books I read now I forget in about a year or so. When I go back and read those books from my youth, the effect is not the same, not as magical. It is so incredibly important that the books kids read as children have value in their story and content and imaginativeness -- all of it! That a teacher would have such a worthless book be assigned to a class of kids is an outrage beyond the "I'm going to ban a book because there are swear words in it!" It is a level close to killing that unique identity kids get from excellent books and carry with them as a sort of intellectual and imagination savings account; it robs them of a certain kind of innocence.
The effect a book has on me as an adult is not the same it will have on a class of kids, so for teachers to take cues on what to assign or use in the classroom based on adult recommendations that say the book is harmless or the kids seem to "eat it up!" is beyond shameful.
It's robbery.
Reader Input: What books shaped you as a child? The books that stick in my mind strongly for the visuals and the stories that were used in the classroom include Where the Red Fern Grows, Island of the Blue Dolphins, Charolette's Web, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, the Ralph and the Motorcycle series, The Wind in the Willows, The Giver...and so on. How about you?
Labels: book stuff, childrens books, the reading life
Copyright (c) Julie R. Neidlinger 3/06/2008 07:18:00 PM
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2 Comments:
I'm probably not your normal person in this regard. Though an avid reader as a child, way more so than most kids (my Mom was a teacher), I'm not sure any book shaped me. I enjoyed them all, but can't remember any that became foundational to who I am.
On the other hand, in my early twenties I found myself oddly affected by two children's stories: The Velveteen Rabbit and "The Happy Prince." To this day those two continue to inform how I look at life.
By 
dle, at
March 09, 2008 11:15 PM
I recall reading Stuart Little and The Phantom Tollbooth at a fairly young and impressionable age. I was addicted to a series (the publisher escapes me) of biographies written for young adults that may have had a considerable amount to do with my becoming an historian.
I was also partial to Robert Louis Stevenson and Jack London. But the book that really stands out for me as a child was The Once and Future King by T. H. White.
By Rey, at
March 11, 2008 7:28 AM
