Quote:
Originally Posted by cfrizz
 Oh please, do get off of your high horse. So long as they are reading fluff or not, that is the most important point. I think it's great that a series of books have been able to get & keep kids attention and interested in reading. It is a habit that will last a lifetime, which will give them time to mature their reading material as well. But whatever they read, they should enjoy reading material that they like. Not what some people like you with their noses in the air expect them to like.
Do tell, what would you replace HP books with? |
*rides up on high horse, wearing top hat and monocle* cloppity cloppity..
What you read is more important than how much. For some kids Rowling may indeed be a gateway to a fondness for quality fiction, but considering the popular trends in fiction that followed, I suspect it only engendered the habit of reading crap. Potter readers moved on to
Twilight, then
Confessions of a Shopaholic.
I would replace HP with the likes of Peter S. Beagle, Michael Ende, Shirley Jackson, Philip Pullman, Madeleine L'Engle, and others. There are even many contemporary superiors like Darren Shan, M.T. Anderson, Rick Yancey. I'm not talking about dry classics, here, but a world of delightful, inspired young adult literature that engages the reader with artful prose and substance, in addition to providing entertainment. But that stuff requires parents or teachers who themselves appreciate good fiction, and are capable of offering guidance.
I don't think Potter is bad. It's just not very good, and there's enough very good, even great fiction out there that there's no excuse for fluff.
Then again, I'm just some random jerk being contrary for the sake of it.
Also top posting is evil.