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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 297 277 CS 009 229 AUTHOR Reed, Arthea J. S. TITLE Comics to Classics: A Parent's Guide to Books for Teens and Preteens. INSTITUTION International Reading Association, Newark, Del. REPORT NO ISBN-0-87207-798-5 PUB DATE 88 NOTE 131p. AVAILABLE FROM International Reading Association, 800 Barksdale Rd., P.O. Box 8139, Newark, DE 19714-8139 (Book No. 798, $7.95 member, $8.93 nonmember).. PUB TYPE Guides - Non-Classroom Use (055) -- Reference Materials - Bibliographies (131) EDRS PRICE MFOI/PC06 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Adolescent Development; *Adolescent Literature; Adolescents; Annotated Bibliographies; Parent Child Relationship; *Parent Materials; Parent Participation; *Reading Materials; *Reading Material Selection; Recreational Reading IDENTIFIERS Reading Motivation ABSTRACT Approximately 500 books for teens and preteens (between the ages of 10 and 20) are listed and briefly annotated in this book designed to offer parents advice on adolescents and on books for adolescents. The first three chapters discuss the stages of adolescent development, and the fourth chapter talks about the adolescent as a reader. The fifth chapter discusses the wide variety of books for adolescents, and the sixth and seventh chapters list the book titles. The eighth and ninth chapters discuss terhniques parents can use to encourage adolescents to read and also examine the value of discussing books with adolescents. The 10th through 12th chapters help parents locate appropriate books, and the 13th chapter gives parents additional sources for finding out more about adolescents and how to deal with specific problems. (RS) xmmmmmmmmxmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmommmmmmmmmmammmmmmmmmmooOamxxm X Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * X from the original document. xxx********x***xx*****************************x************************ COMICS TOA Parent's Guide awakaT'reteens CLASICS Arthea J. S. Reed University of North Carolina at Asheville ila INTERNATIONAL READING ASSOCIATION Newark, Delaware 19714 INTERNATIONAL READING ASSOCIATION OFFICERS 1988-1989 PresidentPatricia S. Koppman, PSK Associates, San Diego, California Vice President Dale D. Johnson, Instructional Research and Development Institute, Brookline, Massachusetts Vice President ElectCarl Braun, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta Executive Director Ronald W. Mitchell, International Reading Association, Newark, Delaware DIRECTORS Term Expiring Spring 1989 Marie C. DiBiasio, Rhode Island Department of Education, Providence, Rhode Island Hans U. Gruniin, Language and Literacy Consultant, London, England Nancy W. Seminoff, Winona State University, Winona, Minnesota Term Expiring Spring 1990 Jerome C. Harste, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana Jane M..Hornburger, Brooklyn College, CUNY, Brooklyn, New York Merrillyn Bmoks Kloeflcom, Jefferson County Public Schools, Golden, Colorado Term Ex, sing Spring 1991 Vincent Greaney, St. Patrick's College, Dublin, Ire lane Dolores B. Malcolm, St. Louis Public Schools, St. Louis, Missouri Ann McCallum, Fairfax County Public Schools, Annandale, Virginia Copyright 1988 by the International Reading Association. Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Recd. Anhea J.S. Comics to classics: A parent'. guide to books for teens and preteens / Arthea (Charlie) Reed. p. cm. Bibliography: p. 1. Teenagers Book' end reading.2. ChildrenBooks and reading.3. ReadingParent participation.4: Young adult literatureBibliography.5. Children's literature Bibli. ography.6. YouthBooks and reading.I. International Reading Association.II. Title. Z1037.A1R428 1988 028.1'625055 dc19 88.10171 ISBN 0-87207-798-5 11 4 ti Nr. sta,- ,s^..zaut sasp,a1.14 Contents Foreword vi Introduction viii PART ONE Teens and'Preteens 1The Preadolescent and Reading 2 2 The Early Adolescent and Reading 6 3 The Late Adolescent and Reading 10 4 Encouraging Teens and Preteens to Read 13 PART TWO Books for Teens and Preteens 5 The Teenager's World of Books 20 6 Fiction Kids Love 29 7 Nonfiction Kids Love 62 5 PART THREE Sharing Books 8 Reading Aloud and Discussing Books 80 9 The Electronic Age and Reading 88 PART FOUR Locating Books 10 Selecting Books 96 11Borrowing Books 100 12 Buying Books 105 13 Books and Magazines about Adolescents 112 PART FIVE Appendix Book Publishers 120 Graphic design by Larry Husfelt Cover photograph by Mary Lowenstein-Anderson Photo credits: Mary Lowenstein-Anderson pages 6, 10, 16, 20, 25, 62, 80, 88, 100, 105, 113; Martha Brown pages 2, 9, 13, 29; Norman Prince page 96. iv 6 To my parents, Martha and Fred Staeger, who encouraged my love of books. 7 Foreword If you are reading these words, chancesare you are either interested in or con- cerned about your child asa reader. Welcome to the club. While membership in this "club" is informal andopen to anyone, it is some- what "exclusive' Exclusive in the unfortunatesense that potential members keep ex- cluding themselves, preferring insteadto join shopping clubs; sports clubs, television clubs, and video clubs. Reading, they mistakenlyguess, would take too much time and energy. And besides, children's reading is the domain ofteachers. As a parent, what do I know about reading? That depends on how muchyou want to know. If you finish reading this book, you'll know a lot more about children and their readingthan you knew before. The first thing you need to know is thatyou are a member of the largest and most important teacher corps in the worldyou are a parent. Everything that keeps us civilized, everything that is truly important, is taught byparents: how to live, how to love, and even how to work. This is accomplished largely through exampleand imitation. For more reasons than biological, Iam a parent because my parents were. As a child, I liked what I saw h4ppening inmy home and decided to do likewise in my own home. I am a reader for the samereason. I saw and heard my parents reading every day. Must be important, I thought, andso began my life as a reader. Although occa- sional exceptions do surface, it's safeto say that readers raise readers. Let's assume for the moment you have done all, the right thingsup to this point: Your child has seen and heard you reading; thereare books, magazines, and newspapers in the home; and everyone in .: e family ownsa library card. We might even safely say your child enjoys reading. NOW your child approaches the rocky shoals of adolescence. As hisor her appetite, hair, skin, voice, clothes, friends, and taste in music begin to suffer dramatic changes, you are worried the child's reading appetite will change. Rest assured it will. Butyou have much to do with whether it changes for better or worse. If you haven't replaced the books your child read in fifth grade, if your weekly trip to the library has become a monthly one, and if you find the family returning more borrowed videos than borrowed books, please note these are danger signs, sig- naling a negative turn in reading. Keep in mind that readinglike riding a bicycleis an acquired skill. The more you read, the better you read; and the better you read, the more you like reading. Conversely, the less you read, the less you enjoy reading. Therefore, the trick is to keep a child reading through adolescence. The environment you create or promote in your home is important. Is there a reading lamp beside your child's bed? Do you include magazine subscriptions and books among the gifts you give your child? Is there a plentiful supply of reading mate- rial in the family room, bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen? Most important, do you lead by example? Does your child see you reading? And if so, what do you read? One of the best things you-can do to raise a reader through adolescence is to read adoles- cent literature. If you have never read teen or preteen literature, !twill both surprise and please you and some of it will challenge, even provoke you. But until you have read adolescent literature, you will never be able to enthuse over it or discuss it. Your child may figure you don't care, and if you're not interested; why should he or she be. Arthea (Charlie) Reed's compilation of titles and annotations is a wonderful guide through the forest of young adult literature, not just for parents but for anyone who cares about adolescentsaunts, uncles, coaches, librarians, teachers and, obvi- ously, students themselves. Most of us know the books teenagers hate. Some of us still have scar tissue from when they were forced down our throats in junior and senior high schoolthe books that seemed to specialize in turning readers off instead of turning them on. (I suspect there were English department chairs who mistakenly rationalized: "Since reading dies in most people by age 19, we'd better squeeze in Shakespeare and Thomas Hardy before it's too late Didn't they ever wonder why reading died?) In any case, you'll find none of those books here. Here are the books that keep young read- ers reading, thinking, enjoying, and sharing with one another. Few things sustain a culture as well as reading. It could even lead to the day when you Will find passengers on planes reading instead of sleeping! JIM TRELEASE 9 vii Introduction hrough literature I becomea thousand (people) and yet remain myself. C.S.Lewis Recently, the father ofa ten year old asked me, "What happenedto Dr. Spock? Why did he stop givingme advice just when I needed him most?" This question has been echoed bymany parents. When our childrenare in- fants, toddlers, and in elementary school, advice is abundant abouteverything from rashes to reading. But when theyreach the preteen andteenage years, help is practi- cally nonexistent. The concern of this fatheris not new I remembermy grandmother's warning to my mother, "When the children are little, they are little problems; when theyare big, they are big problems!'From this distantmemory and this father's question comes the inspiration for this book.