Anonymous wrote:I hate it when teachers and other parents shrug it off "at least he's reading something." I mean, some of us want our children to strive for better things. I say this as the parent of a kid who only reads some other dumb book series. I feel ya, OP.

Anonymous wrote:I do not agree that all kids will find their way to better books. Some need help. I told my son, when he was stuck in endless rereading of dog man and Wimpy kid, that he needed to read 20 minutes every weekday of a grade- level book. Yours might like the Andrew Clements books, which are realistic and set in school but lore clever with better prose and the occasional moral. My son also got into audiobooks—all the rick riordans are his lifeblood now.
Anyway, once he had done his 20 minutes, he was free to read other stuff. Yes, the English teacher in me doesn’t like it that a book is something that has to be forced, but , in the end, it bothers me less than the idea that he’s only reading the same weak stuff.

Anonymous wrote:At least he's reading?

Anonymous wrote:Our kid was like that with Dogman, and his teachers told us that as long as he was reading a book, it was fine, he'd grow out of it, and he did. As long DS is find happiness in a book, you're winning.

The exception, the teacher said, was Captain Underpants, because everything is misspelled.

Anonymous wrote:The author who created the series was a hesitant reader. He developed something silly to appeal to his former self to foster a love of reading.

For a kid who struggles with reading, these are motivating and go a long way in engaging an otherwise resistant kid.

I have 3 kids who varied greatly in their reading journeys, ranging from precocious/intuitive to needing more support (my oldest). My oldest actually became confident when she started nighttime read alouds to the younger two which led to bonding and genuine giddy laughter.

I’m pretty strict with manners and my kids have not become indoctrinated in delinquent behavior by way of these books. We discuss what appropriate behavior looks like and put boundaries on any inappropriate repeating of content.

And the good news is that a few tears later, everyone is reading for pleasure and read a variety of texts. I will say, the books are occasionally revisited and lead to a lot of fun connections between the kids.