Encouraging better library book selection for young children?

[xixstar]

If you take issue with some books available at the library, for their lack of quality and value, how do you encourage better choices or limit less than ideal choices. So I guess this is the 'twaddle' genre perhaps, but I'm specifically concerned about the storybook/picture book versions.

 

I strongly dislike what I consider to be commercial books, the books about Barbie or My Little Pony or Strawberry Shortcake, etc. I can't stand reading them because there just isn't anything in them worth reading, the story progression is strange, they lack interesting expressions or wording and they're so boring. But I do like to encourage my children to check out books from the library, however those are the only ones they really get drawn to.

 

We do get in small hooks in other characters from time to time or new authors but left to their own devices they would only come home with those obnoxious books. I started limiting it to just 1 character book and thought that was working but now it's 1 strawberry shortcake, 1 care bears, 1 my little pony, etc. I don't want to discourage them from being interested in books but I really don't want to read these books.

 

We do check out other books as well; I direct them to the other section to pick books at random or remind them of one they might like. They often really enjoy these too, but they're not as alluring as all the character books. And I understand that it's less exciting because sometimes it's hit or miss if they'll like what they find, so I understand that too. I also select books that I'm sure they'll enjoy too. But when it comes to free reading time (I'm still doing all the reading) they're bringing me the character books.

 

So I should just get over it and let them bring home all they want or keep pushing to limit those and encourage other books more? I really just want to say I'm done reading those but not sure that is the best answer either. DH says I need to find a library that doesn't have all those books (or at least not sorted out special) - ha, good luck with that idea.

[Farrar]

I always refused to read them. It was really as much for the kids as for me. I mean, how terrible is it to suddenly have your mother reading in a snarky tone and going, "Oh, good grief, that's a TERRIBLE moral!"

 

But I also always let the kids "read" them themselves and check them out. I would just inwardly roll your eyes at the five Scooby-Doo easy readers in your child's pile and say, "Nice choices, sweetie!" and let it go.

 

Oh, and get your own pile of "good" books that you do want to read, of course.

[marbel]

I always refused to read them. It was really as much for the kids as for me. I mean, how terrible is it to suddenly have your mother reading in a snarky tone and going, "Oh, good grief, that's a TERRIBLE moral!"

 

But I also always let the kids "read" them themselves and check them out. I would just inwardly roll your eyes at the five Scooby-Doo easy readers in your child's pile and say, "Nice choices, sweetie!" and let it go.

 

Oh, and get your own pile of "good" books that you do want to read, of course.

 

I did pretty much the same. I never told my kids they couldn't take something (unless it was inappropriate) but I would read it once, declare my dislike, and tell the child he or she could read it on his or her own if desired, but I wasn't reading that. I'd explain my reasons. For some reason my daughter was fascinated for a little while by the Bearanstain Bears (sp?) and I could not hide my scorn for those. Her taste changed pretty quickly.

 

Of course I always picked up a huge stack of good stuff too, and would enthusiastically read those. They eventually developed their own skill of discernment. Now, as teens, they pick up their share of twaddle but it's balanced with good stuff too. And I still bring stuff home for them, based on what I know they like.

 

And I still always grab too many interesting books for myself; they often go back unread but I take them anyway!

[PachiSusan]

I dunno. I'm in the camp of "it's not harmful and she's reading", so I'm fine with it. I won't *BUY* those, but sure, she can take them out of the library.

 

ETA that I require her to take 3 books that are age appropriate and of a better quality to every one character book she chooses.

[Rivka]

I have a longstanding rule that I don't read books based on a movie or a TV show. If they want those books, they can learn to read and read them themselves.

[T'smom]

Can you make two library trips, one where they pick out 5 of whatever book they want and one where you go by yourself and pick good ones? I did this for awhile. Ds would just grab something off the shelf and it wasn't something he would actually like, just the first thing he grabbed. I went by myself and picked things he'd really like while he stayed home with daddy! (Bonus: I got lots of time to browse the adult section!) He always ended up liking my selections more. He's almost 6 now and he's starting to be more discriminating.

[happypamama]

I always refused to read them. It was really as much for the kids as for me. I mean, how terrible is it to suddenly have your mother reading in a snarky tone and going, "Oh, good grief, that's a TERRIBLE moral!"

 

But I also always let the kids "read" them themselves and check them out. I would just inwardly roll your eyes at the five Scooby-Doo easy readers in your child's pile and say, "Nice choices, sweetie!" and let it go.

 

Oh, and get your own pile of "good" books that you do want to read, of course.

 

 

Yes to all of this. Also, the twaddle-ish books are the ones that mysteriously "have to go back" when I cull the pile. (Our one library lets us renew books a whole bunch of times, like ten, so I usually just renew the whole lot and periodically just take back several bags of books; the twaddle-ish books are the ones I take back sooner.) I will sometimes refuse to read the silly books, or I'll read them once and then say something like, "oh, we've read that one; let's read this one instead" the next time. But if they want to look at/read them themselves, that's fine.

 

As for older kids, they can read what they want, twaddle or not (as long as it doesn't seriously conflict with our family values), but as part of their schoolwork, they're required to read something decent every day.

[xixstar]

The refusing to read them idea I really like, but then it also feels unfair because they can't read. I sometimes set them aside for when DH is reading to them, but he also rolls his eyes and asks me to please throw him a bone and some better books.

 

We do take out lots of better books too - so yeah, I will probably just stick to something like I will only read it once. I now sometimes offer to read 2 better books instead though they don't always go for that either. If it was only 1 child, maybe it would drive me less crazy, but monkey see, monkey do in this house. :)

[Alte Veste Academy]

I always refused to read them. It was really as much for the kids as for me. I mean, how terrible is it to suddenly have your mother reading in a snarky tone and going, "Oh, good grief, that's a TERRIBLE moral!"

 

I do not understand how one expectes to teach children what quality is when one refuses to show them the opposite.

 

Bizarrely, I agree with both of these. I did refuse to read most, but by "refusing" to bring most home until they could read. It was easy enough to limit the number of books each could choose and guide them to quality. I would ooh and aah over what I found to check out, getting them on board with better illustrations many times. I did check out and read some on purpose. DD in particular had quite the thing for Disney princess books. So we would check them out. For example, I would read her the Disneyfied Sleeping Beauty and follow that immediately after with a gorgeously illustrated, literary quality Sleeping Beauty. Invariably, she preferred the latter. I think if you read, you should discuss. A child who is read fine literature will be more likely to develop good taste in literature, but I don't mind some twaddle. (Says the girl who would follow up Pride and Prejudice with an Archie comic in high school. :lol:)

[momma2three]

I always refused to read those books, but let them take them out. I take out some "good books," too, and then say "No, I'm not reading that one. But I'll read this one."

[JumpyTheFrog]

Why are they drawn to these books so much? At my library, my kids are drawn to the books displayed with the covers showing, rather than the ones on the shelves where all they can see are the spines. Perhaps it is the same at your library?

 

I agree that books based on TV shows and movies are awful. The writing is boring and the plot is disjointed and seems to skip around randomly. I find the Berenstain Bear books more tolerable than Ninja Turtles and the like.

[PachiSusan]

Why are they drawn to these books so much? At my library, my kids are drawn to the books displayed with the covers showing, rather than the ones on the shelves where all they can see are the spines. Perhaps it is the same at your library?

 

I agree that books based on TV shows and movies are awful. The writing is boring and the plot is disjointed and seems to skip around randomly. I find the Berenstain Bear books more tolerable than Ninja Turtles and the like.

 

I think they are drawn to them because they recognize the characters and they feel comfortable with them. Kids are notorious for not wanting to try anything new. Try to get them something new to eat ... LMAO!!!

[Coco_Clark]

I let my kids each pick out two picture books at the library, while I pick out three books for each. we end up with 15 books for the week, 9 of which I can guarantee are quality literature. Yeah, we get some twaddle but in the end it's only a small percentage of their intake. Add our school reading, our current chapter book, and all the books we own (which are ALL high quality) and its a pittance. I think of it like food...90% healthy with occasional junk never killed anyone.

[Incognito]

My kids are each allowed to pick out 3 books when we go to the library. I preorder lots of good ones (and ones to go with what we are learning about). I try not to make the horrible character books the forbidden fruit they long for, but I don't pretend to love them either. I will read them, but never choose them and with so many books around they don't end up being a big deal when they find their way in every once in a while.

 

HTH

[Mergath]

I let dd read what she wants. (She can read the books herself now, so it doesn't matter if I refuse to read them or not. ;)) She's on a My Little Pony kick at the moment :001_rolleyes: but I'm not too worried. I grew up reading stuff like Hank the Cowdog and the Sweet Valley books, and ended up majoring in literature in college, reading Shakespeare and Faulkner and whatnot. As long as the kids have a selection of quality literature at home, they'll read a decent balance of books. Honestly, I think it does more harm to invalidate a kid's choice in books by acting as if what they like isn't good enough for our highbrow literary tastes. One of the reasons kids grow up to love reading is because they can escape to other worlds in their books. Let them go where they want.

[Tanikit]

I am so glad I am not the only one feeling like this. My children are often drawn to books based on movies where the movie came first and then the book was written and these books are awful - they are so action packed and so full of characters that there is almost no story and I battle to understand who is who and what the point of the story is. I also limit these books and often know that I will not read them when we get home - I let the children use those ones as picture books unless they really beg me to read them as I cannot stand reading them.

 

The other way I handle this is to let them pick and I also pick until we have a big pile of books more than what we are allowed to take out - then I count them and tell the children how many have to go back and which ones have to come home with us and that way give them limited choices but also let them see the covers of some of the books I have chosen and sometimes they will choose some of these and put back some of the ones they would have taken otherwise. It doesn't always work, but at least they feel they had a choice.

[sewingmama]

I don't have an issue with them. Kids like them because they are familiar. I would only usually read them once though...no re-reading...once was enough suffering for me.

 

My dd likes the rainbow fairy books ...thank goodness she can read and I don't have to read those boring things anymore.

 

I read them quality literature...in their free time they can read what they want. When they were little I just tolerated it and just read what they chose.

[Elfknitter.#]

How about looking at https://multcolib.org/kids?

 

Jessie Bauer has a great bit about this in the beginning of TWTM. She made her kids checkout one book from each of several categories (science, history, art, craft, biography, novel, storybook, poetry), but the child could select any titles from these genres, PLUS as many other books of the child's selection that she wanted (age appropriate, one assumes). When the children were reading, they could read any of these, free choice. If your kids aren't reading yet, I wouldn't make the commercial books a "forbidden fruit", but I might refuse to re-read out loud any we had already finished, and then work our way into the "good stuff".

[kirstenhill]

I let dd read what she wants. (She can read the books herself now, so it doesn't matter if I refuse to read them or not. ;)) She's on a My Little Pony kick at the moment :001_rolleyes: but I'm not too worried. I grew up reading stuff like Hank the Cowdog and the Sweet Valley books, and ended up majoring in literature in college, reading Shakespeare and Faulkner and whatnot. As long as the kids have a selection of quality literature at home, they'll read a decent balance of books. Honestly, I think it does more harm to invalidate a kid's choice in books by acting as if what they like isn't good enough for our highbrow literary tastes. One of the reasons kids grow up to love reading is because they can escape to other worlds in their books. Let them go where they want.

 

This!!! I remember reading a lot of really low-quality books growing up, and I still ended up liking the "good stuff" and majoring in English in college as well. I don't have a problem with rejecting books because they are truly inappropriate or don't fit with your family's beliefs/values. I find the "good stuff" at the library for my boys, and let them find the Star Wars books, etc. Daddy does the bedtime reading so I let him read some of the really poorly-written stuff though. :laugh: When I read books to my boys, I tell them, you can pick one, and then I let them know that I have some I want to read to them.

 

When my daughter was five and just on the cusp of reading she was really, really loving those Daisy Meadows fairy books. Would you believe I read a couple dozen of them to her (they are really badly written, if you haven't experienced these for yourself)? But I also read to her a lot of quality chapter books in between those low quality ones. Then once she learned to read, she read tons of them on her own. Now at age 9 she is developing pretty high standards on her own. She recognizes herself the formulaic quality of the series books, and asks me to help her find really interesting books to read. She has almost become picky to a fault and "can't find anything" at the library. :huh: I have taken to requesting books and hoping to find some nice long ones that will keep her busy for a while. :laugh:

[airforcefamily]

I also can't stand books like that but I don't think they're harmful and I understand why the kids like them. That said, I have a rule that I will not buy them or read them. If they want to pick them out at the library or ask for them as gifts from other people they can either read/look at them themselves or ask someone else to read them.

 

I'm surprised anyone would think it's mean not to read them. I think it's ok to tell kids that you are not willing to be miserable while doing something simply because they find that activity entertaining. Music is a good example. I don't put on radio Disney in the car because I can't stand listening to it. When they are old enough to take care of their own portable radio and headphones then they can listen to it just like how they can read whatever age appropriate book they want when they learn to read.

[Aspasia]

I hate them, too. And our library has them on a table right smack in the middle of the children's section. It used to be a problem, but I straight up told the kids that those books just weren't as fun to read. They know to look elsewhere, and they're totally happy with the books they choose. Every now and then a random Toy Story reader or something ends up in the mix, but I just let it slide. And occasionally, one of the kids will walk past the character book table and spot a book that they absolutely must have, and I let that slide as well. As long as those books are the exception, I don't mind one here and there.

[Anne in CA]

I, also, dislike all books intended to sell something. Yes, those books are alluring. I also never reread the books, I did one time only on all books intended to sell something at some point. I also would read the "real" fairy tale and compare to the Disney one. The "real" Little Mermaid is so different from the Disney one that they only share the title. I made sure that my kids knew the difference.

[craftyerin]

I try to discourage the books based on TV shows or other such junk when we check out books at the library, but they inevitably beg for them. I usually agree to read them once, and then they get put in the back of the library book basket, where they're rarely thought about again until it's time to return them. Thank God.

 

To increase variety and introduce more quality books, I request a TON of good books as holds to check out when we go, and then they add their (sometimes questionable) choices onto that. Then, at read aloud time, we have mommy's choices and kids' choices. Mommy gets to pick all the books for school time. Mommy gets to pick one of the books for "before rest time". Each of them get to pick a book for before rest time, too, unless Mommy's choice is long, in which case only the helper of the day gets to pick (helper rotates). It works out well enough, forces some variety, and exposes them to more of what I'd prefer for them to read/listen to, and less of what I don't.

 

When they get old enough to read more for themselves, they'll be free to read the comics and cartoony books all they want, on their own time.

[marbel]

Just another thought on this... I know some folks are very opposed to their kids reading any twaddle but if most of us are honest, we read some too. I get two "women's" magazines, and I read fluff novels every now and then. A couple of moms I now who are most vehement about banning twaddle from their kids' lives are avid romance novel readers. Huh? Mom gets candy but kids don't? :001_cool:

[Dustybug]

I let my kids check out the character books as long as they aren't inappropriate. I don't purchase them for our home library, however. We do occasionally get one via a gift, etc. and that's fine. I will read them to them. I have read to my children from birth a variety of what many call "twaddle" and great, classic children's stories. My oldest, now 7 1/2 will simultaneously grab a children's poetry book and then head straight for Fancy Nancy. :p

[Courtney_Ostaff]

My daughter, at 5.5, just randomly pulls books off the shelves. She gets to pick no more than 5 ('cause she's five, see?) and I pick 5 on a topic that she chooses. So, for example, she's into constellations these last couple of weeks, and so I reserved 5 children's books on constellations for her. At bedtime, depending on how fast she got through her schoolwork (to discourage dawdling), she gets either 3 books (if she's dawdled) or 5 books read to her, of her choice.

 

I'm lucky though, in that she's only vaguely aware that Disney princesses exist, much less that there are entire series of books devoted to particular TV show characters. :)

 

I think when she gets older though, she'll have a 1:1 correspondence, like I did: 1 "good" book for every "fluff" book.