*Saturday’s Sound Off is an open venue for speaking out on issues related to books, book publishing, magazines, etc. The plan is that there will be no regular, sole contributor, but that this column space will serve as an online speakers’ corner, providing a platform for people passionate about books with something to say.
Where’s The Love? by Sandra Seamans
There’s been a mass proclamation spreading that people aren’t reading anymore, book sales are down, and the world is going to hell in a super-sized shopping cart. Now all of that may be true, but have you ever wondered why people aren’t reading?
Children learn to love reading in school. My grandkids are eight and five and they’re reading anything with letters printed on it. They want to know what the words are all about, are they telling a story, or feeding them information that they need to know? I’ve seen them reading the little ticker tape that runs across the bottom of the TV screen to see if they’ve got a snow day or, fingers crossed, a two hour delay. They dive into letters and sentences with a wild abandon that’s usually reserved for a swimming pool in July.
So why is it that by the time they hit high school kids hate to pick up a book and read? Could it be that a teacher said they had to read some lame-ass book written a hundred years before they were born? Yes, it’s literature, but teenagers aren’t reading to become scholars of literary works. They want to read about what interests them, what impacts their world and their lives. They’re almost grown up and have developed their own taste in food, clothes, and music, so why not let them decide what they want to read? For God’s sake, hand them a graphic novel, or a book about vampires, or a fantasy that wasn’t written by J.R.R. Tolkien. At fifteen the past belongs to those ancient people they call parents, teenagers want to live in the present with the future a dim dream they’re just starting to reach for.
I remember having to read “Ethan Frome” my junior year of high school. Yes the book was good, and an interesting sort of love story, but what did it have to do with me? At that time, absolutely nothing. What did I know about love and marriage? After I’d been married for ten years, I happened to run across the book and decided to read it again. And yeah, I got it then, because it was relevant to my life. But it also taught me a lesson about buying books for my sons. If you buy what they’re interested in or what they care about, they’ll spend hours pouring over the pages.
I bought my boys books about cars, about airplanes, about how to draw action heroes. All the things that interested them at that point in their lives. Now that they’re grown, I buy them books about hunting and fishing or how to wire a house or build a shed. I buy books that they want to read, something that will connect with their lives.
Now my grandsons are starting to read. The oldest one loves dinosaurs. I almost cried when I watched him play for a few minutes with the remote control truck I bought him, then stop and sit down to read the book about dinosaurs that I’d given him along with the truck. Now I’m thinking maybe a Harry Potter for Christmas or something with dragons, or hockey, because these are the things that spark his imagination.
Reading is a learned love. Teach your kids how to love books and the words that spill from the pages into their open minds by choosing books that reflect what fascinates them. Don’t cram reading down their throats by giving them books you think they should read. Buy something that will grab their attention and capture their imagination, not what captured yours when you were growing up. You can always share those books later, once you’ve sparked the fire for reading in them.
Give a child the gift of reading for Christmas this year. It doesn’t have to be your own child, donate books to Toys for Tots, let your own child choose a book for the classmate who’s name he drew for Christmas, anywhere you find a child, share a book. Give children the ability to love books because you cared enough to put a book that they could love into their hands.
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Bio: Sandra is a book lover who writes shorts stories and tries to share her love of words with everyone. You can find her scattered thoughts at http://sandraseamans.blogspot.
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