What Kids Read
May. 6th, 2008 04:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fauxkloreThe Washington Post reported on a survey of what children are reading. There are some fundamental flaws in the survey methodology, the most egregious of which is that they made no distinction between required reading for school and books children chose themselves. Still, I found the report fairly interesting.
It surprised me that boys read Charlotte's Web which I think of as very much a girl's book. It also seems that fantasy totally dominates children's literature, which is a big change from when I was growing up. There doesn't seem to be much interest in mysteries, which is another change. I loved Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, the Dana Girls and so on, none of which made the list.
S. E. Hinton's The Outsiders was the top junior high book and it's one I remember liking a lot at that age, too. High school reading still apparently includes To Kill a Mockingbird, a book I thoroughly and completely detest. Preachiness is always a major crime in literature for me.
The saddest part of the results was that the number of books read per year declined as the children grew older. Even if you only counted required reading in school, I'm pretty sure most of us read more than 7 books a year in high school.
It surprised me that boys read Charlotte's Web which I think of as very much a girl's book. It also seems that fantasy totally dominates children's literature, which is a big change from when I was growing up. There doesn't seem to be much interest in mysteries, which is another change. I loved Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, the Dana Girls and so on, none of which made the list.
S. E. Hinton's The Outsiders was the top junior high book and it's one I remember liking a lot at that age, too. High school reading still apparently includes To Kill a Mockingbird, a book I thoroughly and completely detest. Preachiness is always a major crime in literature for me.
The saddest part of the results was that the number of books read per year declined as the children grew older. Even if you only counted required reading in school, I'm pretty sure most of us read more than 7 books a year in high school.
