Paul R Wrote:My son - John - is 4 and his main love is books (well, maybe after cars!) He can't read yet, but every night after I've read him his bedtime story, he'll sit with a pile of books and 'read' them to himself.
I love that he's so into his books
Don't bet he hasn't taught himself to read... I did the same thing, and when my mother discovered I had already READ to the end of something she was reading to me, she informed me that if I had already read the book, she didn't need to read it to me anymore
.... so, let him keep up the pretense, but don't be surprised if he is secretly reading behind your back.... :p
However, the article compared kids reading "one book a day" with older kids reading "one or two a month." Well, as kids get older, the books DO get thicker and harder - so perhaps it isn't a valid comnparison! Polls can be developed and interpreted to say whatever the pollmakers WANT them to say! (I learned that in B-school....)
The other problem I have with this sort of info is the fact that MANY YA's are already reading ADULT books - I think often the categorization of books is set to the lowest common denominator. I had a great lower school experience, where we read great books at a young age - from the Wind in the Willows in second grade (when other schools were teaching Dick & Jane) to Black Beauty (unabridged) in 3rd grade, Mark Twain & Lewis Carroll in 4th, etc. I think publishers and schools simply underestimate the abilities of kids to absorb new material. And I HATE it when someone will say, "this book is for ages 10-14, s/he's only 9, can't possibly understand it.." Baloney.
Anyway, Dr. W, I trust you enough not to talk down to the kids, but rather draw them into your world and encourage them to read the "adult" books, which they might already be reading! And, please, don't them them categorize your "YA" books too definitively! Most of us "adult" (And I DO use that term lightly
) readers here will probably read them, too...