Well, I just added another book to my TBR. My grandma was the librarian when I was a kid. By age 12, I’d left the kid books in the dust. At that point, I’d read every Dean Koontz and John Saul book in the place. I’d tackled some of Robin Cook’s stuff and was making my way through Stuart Woods. The one and only time my grandmother ever came close to censoring what I read was in high school when I checked out Flowers in the Attic because everyone in school was talking about it. She didn’t bat and eye when I brought it up and checked it out to me. She couldn’t quite hold back the little mutter under her breath though. She said, “That woman is one sick puppy.” She let me have the book though and a couple more in the series afterward. Her little grumble was enough to clue me in that the relationships in the book were not normal which was all I needed to read the book in the right mindset.
Parents should have an idea what their kids are reading and be willing to talk about anything their kid comes to them with. If there’s something in a book that the parent thinks the kid needs some front loading on, they should do so in as brief a way as possible. There are very few books that should actually be denied to kids and those should just be a not yet rather than never.
Well, I just added another book to my TBR. My grandma was the librarian when I was a kid. By age 12, I’d left the kid books in the dust. At that point, I’d read every Dean Koontz and John Saul book in the place. I’d tackled some of Robin Cook’s stuff and was making my way through Stuart Woods. The one and only time my grandmother ever came close to censoring what I read was in high school when I checked out Flowers in the Attic because everyone in school was talking about it. She didn’t bat and eye when I brought it up and checked it out to me. She couldn’t quite hold back the little mutter under her breath though. She said, “That woman is one sick puppy.” She let me have the book though and a couple more in the series afterward. Her little grumble was enough to clue me in that the relationships in the book were not normal which was all I needed to read the book in the right mindset.
Parents should have an idea what their kids are reading and be willing to talk about anything their kid comes to them with. If there’s something in a book that the parent thinks the kid needs some front loading on, they should do so in as brief a way as possible. There are very few books that should actually be denied to kids and those should just be a not yet rather than never.
I laughed aloud at her muttered comment. Just the right amount of inflection. Good.
I mean, she wasn’t wrong either.