Princess Ivy

As a teenager i went through a phase of reading Judy Blume. i remember tigers eye, blubber and others with affection. they were decently written and spoke of ordinary teenagers in modern day situations.they had a place at the time. the new blume seems to be jacqueline wilson. her books i've not read, although i've spoken of them. she is curently my daughters favorite, and she tells me plotsof the books. eg: she is currently reading one called the dustbin baby, this is the story of a child who starts off abandond in a dusbin. she recently read one called lola rose, in which the child and her mother run away from the abusive drug adicted father only for the mother to die of cancer... the details in the books are a lot nastier and more realistic than i remember in the judy blume's of my own youth. they give her nightmares! for goodness sake.
these are books for young girls, not quite teenagers, and yet unlike the judy blume's, they seem to focus on the worst possible aspects of humanity.

Leto

As most fairy tales before being Disneyfied. Even Harry Potter follows this trend. The first one was rather disturbing with the beating he received from his uncle...
Or you could think of Roal Dahl, Charles Dickens, Mark Twain and Countess of Segur. All well known child book authors, all with nasty details in that seems to horrify the parents but not the kid...

Why don't you ask Lex to lend you one of the Judy Blume first. And figure it out by yourself.

Princess Ivy

zoe is into the wilson. oh i know the history, heckk, i was of the ggeneration when dahl was considered evil. yet all those that you mention (exception of dickens who i've not read so won't comment) are positive. the difference for me between those works in which you have a clear cut villian and positive ending, and these, is the decidedly more adult nature of the characters and abject misery for misery's sake. i never try to stop her reaing, althhough i'm encouraging other authors, i just wish she'd read things with a more positive story and message

Leto

Countess of Segur was not always an happy ending. And The Miserables is certainly not one (especially when you're forcefed into reading it).
It's just a phase, she'll turn into other authors soon. Probably discussing with her friends in school.

BTW, is it me or kids are starting to read again ?

Sorry for having once again mixed your 2 kid names.

Princess Ivy

both names have greek origina and are the a-z of children, although the z came first. it's no problem babe.
i don't know about other kids, but mine have always been read to and encouraged to read.

Leto

Just a reflexion from thing I saw on World Of Warcraft : a quite surrealistic to read discussion about Baudelaire orphans while defending the city from Orcs, and later when one of the old crones stated Baudelaire was a poet first : "I known but mom says I'm too young for it". But certainly not for gutting orcs and trolls for a pastime.
People said that video games and TV are preventing kids from reading. Heard it throughout all my school time (which was false as I've already had my ratio of at least 4 books a week by then) and my job life. Now, people on WOW talk - also - about the books they currently read (and they're kids or teens at the time I usually log on), kids in my buildings exchange books between them and comment them from one window to another during summer (thanks god school started today)...

However, parents are not fond of the book they read : manga too violent, novelisation of TV series, romance teen novels, etc.

dwndrgn

So they're reading but they're reading trash according to the parents? Eh, no biggie. I still read trash. I turned out ok :biggrin:

Ivy, go to the YA forum at Chronicles for a list of good authors to push on your daughter, I'm sure many of them are available in your local library...if she doesn't have anything to read and she's anything like I was, I'd read whatever was available (explains why I never read kids books as a kid, I had a huge box of dad's books stolen from the attic to keep me company :biggrin.

Leto

Or so you say.

Same here. By Zoe age I've read most ot my granddad western pulp and was fond of murder mystery thrillers.

Just thinking of it, as she already live with two cats, why don't you offer her to read some Jackson Lillian Braun "Cat who..." mystery novels ? They're witty, funny, easy-to-read and not overbloody.

http://members.fortunecity.com/le10/...llianbraun.htm

Must be easily available on library.

Princess Ivy

she isn't interested in fantasy/sci-fi, until we got ella enchanted to watch. now she wants to read the book, and also shrek. i have no objection to pap, i remember reading all the nancy drews, secret seven's famous five's williams etc... as i say, its just that these particular ones are so negative, and my zoe is no little miss sunshine. i'll ask about the cat mystries, they sound right up both of our streets :biggrin:

dwndrgn

Do you believe me? :wink: