Books, books, books

Oct. 23, 2007

You can tell I'm old-fashioned (or just old) by the fact that the media I read most consistently is still my morning newspaper. That may also reflect on my previous life as a newspaper reporter. I am a news junkie, although I do read features. A feature in my newspaper today was kind of depressing and kind of encouraging. Titled Reading Reality, the article was all about what teens are reading these days. The double point of the story is that we should be glad teens are reading, but young adult literature of today is a bit more adult than young.
Apparently, hot books these days include the Twilight series, about a teen who is in love with the undead. And then there is the "The Gossip Girls," which is a sort of "Sex and the City"-themed book about teens at a New York private school.
Themes like AIDS, violence and pregnancy are popular because they reflect the teens' real lives, according to this article.
Anyway, this inspired me to reminisce about my favorite books as a teen and a pre-teen. Plus, a yahoo group that I'm a member of has been discussing must-read books for middle school years.
So, here is what I read as a pre-teen and teen-ager:
My very favorite books when I was 12 were "The Diary of Anne Frank" and "Little Women," both of which I had read at least 10 times. I read everything by Louisa May Alcott. I had also run through the "Anne of Green Gables" series and the "Little House" series a bit earlier. Now, that's all very typical, I know.
But as a teen-ager I got really into all of Leon Uris' books after reading "Exodus," his novel about the establishment of Israel after World War II. I was kind of a WWII history junkie and read all of his books that dealt with that era.
I also got way into Herman Wouk, best known for "The Winds of War. "But I have to say "The Caine Mutiny" is my favorite. And then I was off on a Jewish author phase which included Chaim Potok, Isaac Bashevis Singer and Bernard Malamud. This lasted into college.
As you can tell, I found an author I liked and stuck to him or her until I had read most everything by him. Mark Twain is another author I enjoyed early on - more in middle school. My particular favorite was "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court." Twain's name has come up a lot on this yahoo group of classical home educators discussing good books for the middle school years.
I read a good bit of Judy Blume in my middle school years, although I wouldn't recommend it to my own kids in middle school. The books have an obvious agenda, and they are just not that great - in my opinion.
As a native of Eastern Kentucky, I wish I had been steered to some of the excellent Appalachian writers when I was in high school. But I never even heard of people like Lee Smith or James Still until I was in my 20s. When I first read Lee Smith, it was with a great sense of relief and discovery, "Oh, there are other people out there like us!" If you are from Appalachia, you know exactly what I mean. She is also a beautiful writer.
I was fortunate that I avoided "junk" reading in my teen years. But I always had an interest in history and in religion and that guided my reading choices.
My kids, who are 8 and 6, seem to like typical kid fiction -- although I happily admit to steering them away from things like Junie B. Jones and the Babysitters Club.
Olivia loves all the Beverly Cleary she has read so far: "The Mouse and the Motorcycle," "Ellen Tebbits," etc. Also she really likes the American Girl series of historical fiction books. Joey loves anything about science of history or the military.
For fun, though, nothing beats Calvin and Hobbes for them. Their dad is the same, but his serious fiction favorite is Daphne du Maurier.
Thus ends my rambling about books. No point really, not today.