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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We have a rule in our house that books are like food - you can read some "junk" (although within limits like age appropriateness) as long as you also have some "meat and veggies" type books. Yes you might have to slog through the "meat and veggies", but I'm pretty good at knowing my kids interests and finding quality literature that they will end up liking in the end.

That's what happened when I was a kid too. I mean, there was plenty of junk in the '90s. The quality of Boxcar Children, which I devoured probably 100 of, tailed off rapidly after about the first 3 or 4 and certainly by the time they got to the ghostwriters. Nobody says all the Nancy Drews and Hardy Boys were that great. Or Sweet Valley High. Or Babysitters Club. Maybe you didn't ready any of those?

There were junky kids books as far back as the late 19th century - sappy sweet Victorian novels that made for incredibly poor literature. The reason you don't know them is that they aren't still in print.

Just like my kids I also read Beverley Cleary, many Newberry winners and runners-up, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, All-of-a-Kind Family, Half Magic, Mr. Popper's Penguins, Lloyd Alexander, Andrew Clements, Lois Lenski, Marguerite Henry, Madeleine L'Engle, C. S. Lewis, Catwings, and so many more.

[b]And my kids also read things published since I was a kid that I think are great quality: Ways to Grow Love (a modern Ramona-like series), Heartwood Hotel, The Wingfeater Saga, The Green Ember, and so many more.[/b]

Honestly if anything I think there are [i]more[/i] great options for my kids rather than less. You can draw from the Golden Age of Children's Literature all the way through the good stuff still being published today. There's interesting literature across genres - quality mysteries (hello Encyclopedia Brown or High Rise Private Eyes), science fiction, fantasy, realistic fiction, animal fiction, and even some really great graphic novels (Zita the Space Girl).

Just find what's comfortable for your family and let the rest ride.[/quote]

I have not even heard of these or seen them in libraries or bookstores. And I spent over a year working in a children’s library and have volunteered at an elementary school. The titles I mentioned are pushed onto kids and advertised in the book fair and Scholastic order forms. [/quote]

We generally ignore Scholastic and the book fair in our house in favor of books like the above. I have my own sources that I trust for recommending children's literature. Not sure about the libraries you work in, but you can get all the titles you bolded via Fairfax County Public Library and there are often hold lines on some of the series.

As a PP mentioned, you have the power to influence what your child reads. Read-alouds, as someone else mentioned, are a great way to do that. Kids will happily listen to you read books they don't want to pick up on their own.[/quote]

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