How to convince DD 10 to read anything else than comics (graphic novels)

[Anonymous]

Looking at our library account, my daughters have read hundreds of graphic novels over the past few years (along with e-graphic novels, graphic novels in school, etc.) There are so many great ones - we will sometimes read them together. I am an avid reader and am mostly just happy that my kids enjoy any kind of books/magazines.

That said- I agree they do need to learn reading stamina. Around 3rd grade I noticed my kids really never read chapter books. What helped was (1) finding a series to start on as a read aloud that they would then get hooked on (for dd1 this was Warriors, dd2 got hooked on the Kate DiCamillo books); and (2) school reading competitions. We are in Missouri, where they have nominate 12 or so books for an award every year, and kids who read 8 of them get a special field trip. Then if they'd read an Alan Gratz or Gordon Korman book in the reading challenge, they would often read more by that author.

Those two things really got them over the hump, and now at 10 and 12, they both read a lot of chapter books, especially the 12 yo. I see the 10 yo getting there soon. Graphic novels are still big too.

Oh - a third thing we do is watch the movie after all reading a book. If someone hasn't finished when everyone else has, there is some peer pressure to finish up so we can have the movie night.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All reading is good reading.

Many adults don't read at all. Reading graphic novels would be an improvement. Let your kid read what they want.

The bolded is just not true. Reading is a (minor) factor in character formation.

I'm with the posters who compare reading diets to food diets. There are junk books and they are treats.

OP I would take the first or second response's suggestion of a read-aloud. Or just require your kid to read a relatively short non graphic novel before you provide another graphic novel. Done.

This is a fabulous way to kill your kid's love of reading.

I do that sort of thing to my kids all the time and they are avid readers. Turns out I'm pretty good at knowing what they'll like.

I'm glad it works for your house, but I can't get on board with "requirements" for reading for pleasure. I make plenty of suggestions, sure, but they take them or leave them, and that's fine by me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Looking at our library account, my daughters have read hundreds of graphic novels over the past few years (along with e-graphic novels, graphic novels in school, etc.) There are so many great ones - we will sometimes read them together. I am an avid reader and am mostly just happy that my kids enjoy any kind of books/magazines.

That said- I agree they do need to learn reading stamina. Around 3rd grade I noticed my kids really never read chapter books. What helped was (1) finding a series to start on as a read aloud that they would then get hooked on (for dd1 this was Warriors, dd2 got hooked on the Kate DiCamillo books); and (2) school reading competitions. We are in Missouri, where they have nominate 12 or so books for an award every year, and kids who read 8 of them get a special field trip. Then if they'd read an Alan Gratz or Gordon Korman book in the reading challenge, they would often read more by that author.

Those two things really got them over the hump, and now at 10 and 12, they both read a lot of chapter books, especially the 12 yo. I see the 10 yo getting there soon. Graphic novels are still big too.

Oh - a third thing we do is watch the movie after all reading a book. If someone hasn't finished when everyone else has, there is some peer pressure to finish up so we can have the movie night.

Are you saying they never read chapter books in elementary school?

Alan Gratz writes great books. He also does graphic novels too because as a former 8th grade teacher he knows his audience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looking at our library account, my daughters have read hundreds of graphic novels over the past few years (along with e-graphic novels, graphic novels in school, etc.) There are so many great ones - we will sometimes read them together. I am an avid reader and am mostly just happy that my kids enjoy any kind of books/magazines.

That said- I agree they do need to learn reading stamina. Around 3rd grade I noticed my kids really never read chapter books. What helped was (1) finding a series to start on as a read aloud that they would then get hooked on (for dd1 this was Warriors, dd2 got hooked on the Kate DiCamillo books); and (2) school reading competitions. We are in Missouri, where they have nominate 12 or so books for an award every year, and kids who read 8 of them get a special field trip. Then if they'd read an Alan Gratz or Gordon Korman book in the reading challenge, they would often read more by that author.

Those two things really got them over the hump, and now at 10 and 12, they both read a lot of chapter books, especially the 12 yo. I see the 10 yo getting there soon. Graphic novels are still big too.

Oh - a third thing we do is watch the movie after all reading a book. If someone hasn't finished when everyone else has, there is some peer pressure to finish up so we can have the movie night.

Are you saying they never read chapter books in elementary school?

Alan Gratz writes great books. He also does graphic novels too because as a former 8th grade teacher he knows his audience.

They rarely read chapter books in elementary school until 4th grade. Their reading groups would often have a chapter book they all read together. And their teacher would read aloud a chapter book. But they very rarely picked up chapter books during free reading time, whether at school or at home, until 4th grade. Even then, there was still a strong preference for graphic novels until they started 5th grade, when it became more balanced.

[Anonymous]

^ To clarify, their reading groups would read chapter books before 4th grade. But they did not pick the up independently before then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^ To clarify, their reading groups would read chapter books before 4th grade. But they did not pick the up independently before then.

Kewl

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looking at our library account, my daughters have read hundreds of graphic novels over the past few years (along with e-graphic novels, graphic novels in school, etc.) There are so many great ones - we will sometimes read them together. I am an avid reader and am mostly just happy that my kids enjoy any kind of books/magazines.

That said- I agree they do need to learn reading stamina. Around 3rd grade I noticed my kids really never read chapter books. What helped was (1) finding a series to start on as a read aloud that they would then get hooked on (for dd1 this was Warriors, dd2 got hooked on the Kate DiCamillo books); and (2) school reading competitions. We are in Missouri, where they have nominate 12 or so books for an award every year, and kids who read 8 of them get a special field trip. Then if they'd read an Alan Gratz or Gordon Korman book in the reading challenge, they would often read more by that author.

Those two things really got them over the hump, and now at 10 and 12, they both read a lot of chapter books, especially the 12 yo. I see the 10 yo getting there soon. Graphic novels are still big too.

Oh - a third thing we do is watch the movie after all reading a book. If someone hasn't finished when everyone else has, there is some peer pressure to finish up so we can have the movie night.

Are you saying they never read chapter books in elementary school?

Alan Gratz writes great books. He also does graphic novels too because as a former 8th grade teacher he knows his audience.

They rarely read chapter books in elementary school until 4th grade. Their reading groups would often have a chapter book they all read together. And their teacher would read aloud a chapter book. But they very rarely picked up chapter books during free reading time, whether at school or at home, until 4th grade. Even then, there was still a strong preference for graphic novels until they started 5th grade, when it became more balanced.

That sounds good. My son’s class started chapter books in second grade. I assumed they were all reading the book together but maybe not.

They read Roald Dahl books in the second grade, they The Family Under the Bridge, Roll of Thunder Hear my Cry, The Holes in 3 through 5 grade. After reading those type of books for school it was fine to read funny graphic novels. Even recommended.

[Anonymous]

My DD is younger, but I will qualify that as an avid Gen X reader, I hated the idea of graphic novels. But, I have really softened to the idea that reading is reading. Reading should be enjoyable, and who knows - my parents may have hated the choose your own adventure books I loved (Along with stuff too old for me, like Flowers in The Attic).

DD was begging for Raina Telgemier’s books. They’re graphic, but far from “comics” I think. “Guts” really struck a chord with me, even as an adult. There’s lots of challenging vocabulary, an excellent story, but laid out in a way that makes it interesting to engage in.

The thing is, this is what kids who have been raised on screens and in a media world are consuming. I’d rather my kid read a book with pictures than be on a screen.

Literature changed from Shakespeare to Jusy Blume. Language and story telling are always changing. You need to understand that these books are not to speak to you, they are to speak to the generation that your child is part of.

They can explore the classics when they’re older, but you probably didn’t read Ulysses as a child, and if you did, it probably didn’t resonate like it would now. Let them love reading, in whatever form speaks to them, so they can explore their world, and learn about what’s around them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DD is younger, but I will qualify that as an avid Gen X reader, I hated the idea of graphic novels. But, I have really softened to the idea that reading is reading. Reading should be enjoyable, and who knows - my parents may have hated the choose your own adventure books I loved (Along with stuff too old for me, like Flowers in The Attic).

DD was begging for Raina Telgemier’s books. They’re graphic, but far from “comics” I think. “Guts” really struck a chord with me, even as an adult. There’s lots of challenging vocabulary, an excellent story, but laid out in a way that makes it interesting to engage in.

The thing is, this is what kids who have been raised on screens and in a media world are consuming. I’d rather my kid read a book with pictures than be on a screen.

Literature changed from Shakespeare to Jusy Blume. Language and story telling are always changing. You need to understand that these books are not to speak to you, they are to speak to the generation that your child is part of.

They can explore the classics when they’re older, but you probably didn’t read Ulysses as a child, and if you did, it probably didn’t resonate like it would now. Let them love reading, in whatever form speaks to them, so they can explore their world, and learn about what’s around them.

Hard disagree that your kid will just naturally explore the classics as a child. One of my college English professors, on his blog, was just pointing out the way that The Wind in the Willows impacted JRR Tolkein and C S Lewis. It's much easier to read the classics if you steep your kid first in fairy stories, then in children's books from the Golden Age of Children's Literature (where the authors themselves were steeped in the classics), and then the classics themselves. If you think the classics matter - and some people don't and that's cool - then you should put your kid on a trajectory to read them. The best way to do this is really read-alouds. My kids don't particularly enjoy reading, say, the 19th century prose of George MacDonald but they'll happily listen to an audio book of The Princess and the Goblin or let me read The Light Princess aloud to them.

Reading is formation. Screens are too, but just because reading is better formation than screens doesn't make all reading the same.

[Anonymous]

^^^
meant "as an adult" in the first sentence there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The librarian at our elementary school says graphic novels are great for kids to read.
I say let it go.

Librarians aren’t experts in education or parenting. They can tell you a book is popular but that’s it. And frankly, if a librarian tells me a book is popular with kids these days, I’m probably steering clear of it for my own kids.

Certified school librarians are teachers. They know far more about education and literacy than you do. They have expertise both in teaching reading and in book selection that will help develop a love of reading.

And whether or not they are parents themselves, they know enough about bad parenting to know that a reflexive "if it's popular, it would be bad for my child" response is textbook lousy parenting.

[Anonymous]

I've been successful at guiding many of my avid graphic novel readers over to chapter books. (I'm me of those dreaded school librarians who knows nothing about education or parenting, mind you, so take this with a grain of salt.)

A good book talk is usually all it takes. If the reader loves Raina Telgemeier-type of graphic novels, I'll book talk some high drama friendship books. Anything by Barbara Dee usually takes off...Maybe He Just Likes You is a huge hit and gets passed around a lot once it breaks into a friend group. Dress Coded. Chirp. Flight of the Puffin. Fighting Words.

Start reading a high action, intense book with her at night. Try Alone by Megan Freeman. Across the Desert by Dusti Bowling. She will finish either book herself if you read the first 1/4 with her.

[Anonymous]

Maybe reward child with comic book for every certain number of books they read. Or could be reward based.

[Anonymous]

This has been an edifying thread! Some of the commentators on here make me glad I had the parents I did who let me explore whatever books I wanted, including comics, and "shocker" I went on to get a Humanities PhD and have even published a book. They never forced me to read a "good" book before the "junk food" book...ugh...I'll be laughing along to The Bad Guys, Captain Underpants, etc. with my DS, while he builds up his confidence to approach longer chapter books when he's ready. And yes, we do read longer ones together...sheesh, relax folks. And the hate for school librarians on here is ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Let her choose what she wants to read.

And also, read to her. Kids are not too old to be read to just because they know how to read. You can choose something you think she'd enjoy. Hearing you read with your intonation, etc. helps grow vocabulary. It also gives you and them an opportunity to ask questions and discuss interesting topics, emotions, biases, and other subjects. Listening to books on tape together works too.