too real! Library Comic #331

[orangerful]

THIS omg THIS

I can't tell you how many times I've wanted to say that "video games" line to a parent who insists on stopping their child from reading the book they picked out and WANT to read. *sigh*

Comments

[beccadg]

...I walk them over to the section that has everything from 2nd grade chapter books to 6th grader level writing and then I fangirl at them while the parents just stare...

That is awesome! I would have adored a librarian like that when I was in elementary school. I still feel very lucky I had a science teacher in high school that shared his love of science fiction with me so much that he let me borrow one of his Anne McCaffrey Pern books over one summer. Senior year before graduation we were encouraged to write thank you notes to the people we felt had helped us reach graduation. I made him one and told him, "So long, and thanks for all the fish." It made him cry. I couldn't believe I'd made an adult cry.

[orangerful]

That is so sweet. I don't think teachers get that enough in their lives, those little thank you notes - at least ones from people that really mean it. I always tell parents that everyone enjoys reading once they find their kind of book, which is why I cringe when adults want to force "classics" down their kids throats (or eyeballs I guess would be a more appropriate body part)

[beccadg]

That is so sweet. I don't think teachers get that enough in their lives, those little thank you notes - at least ones from people that really mean it.

Thanks. I'm sure teachers don't get thanked enough. I mean while I was a student who actually took the time to do some of those notes, even I only did five of them, and one of them was for my high school guidance counselor. That's four teachers out of four years of high school classes. I didn't even get to see two of those teachers after I sent the notes so I have no idea how they felt getting those notes. I know of the two I saw one cried and hugged me, and the other dodged me like he was afraid he would cry in front of a student. The guidance counselor hugged me without crying. He was so full of warmth.

I always tell parents that everyone enjoys reading once they find their kind of book...

I've mentioned my parents were comfortable with my reading comic books. It wasn't just that. They let me try as many as it took to find what I liked best. There are two things I say about how I got into comics. 1) I progressed from Archie to DC to Marvel. 2) I was initially attracted to any cover that had a female character on it, especially if she had a sword and-or was doing magic. The Archie I read was Archie's Friends Betty and Veronica, which I forget originally had the "Archie's Friends" part because I just thought of it as "Betty and Veronica." The DC title I was doggedly faithful to, still buying it after I'd fully embraced Marvel and the X-Books, was Amethyst Princess of Gemworld which, as you might guess from the title, had female characters that used both swords and magic. At Marvel I picked the early books I read the same way. Doctor Strange had a cover with Clea on it. Thor had a cover with Sif or The Enchantress. Alpha Flight had a cover with Snowbird or Talisman. Magik is one of my favorite Marvel characters because she's a mutant with magic and a sword. My parents were so tolerant of my trying things I bought issues of Red Sonja She-Devil With a Sword at the age of eight. They weren't put off by "She-Devil" or the chain mail bikini.

...I cringe when adults want to force "classics" down their kids throats (or eyeballs I guess would be a more appropriate body part).

I understand. Even within genre fiction with my parents, my father was always disappointed that I've never loved The Lord of the Rings the way he did. Course talking about classics of "serious literature" I've always hated Romeo and Juliet, but loved Hamlet, and I've never cared as much for Jane Austen as I do for the Bronte sisters. Jane Eyre is one of my all time favorite books. You never know.

[orangerful]

Yeah, I am of the mindset that just let people read what they want. I think the reason I have such disdain for classics is that I was forced to read them in school when my maturity level was nowhere near what it would be to appreciate Bronte or Austen or Dickens. And now I just get angry when I see them because I think of high school LOL.

My parents never stopped me from reading anything I wanted. My Mom said she could tell if I was going to make it through a book on my own and didn't really worry about inappropriate material and so on.

Don't even get my STARTED on having teens READ Shakespeare, something that is meant to be seen and heard. :|

[beccadg]

I wanted to get back to this sooner, but with mom and my ongoing health issues...

I think the reason I have such disdain for classics is that I was forced to read them in school when my maturity level was nowhere near what it would be to appreciate Bronte or Austen or Dickens

Ah. I didn't read until I was 8, but by the time they put me through a battery of IQ tests to decide if I should be placed in the Gifted and Talented program at the Junior High I was off the top of their reading comprehension scale. They had to just call it "college." I loved reading Jane Eyre in High School. Course I was puzzled about why we had to read The Great Gatsby in High School. I didn't get that until I read it again in College.

Don't even get my STARTED on having teens READ Shakespeare, something that is meant to be seen and heard. :|

Well, in my high school we didn't do full stagings of every play, but we did always read the plays aloud? I remember how frustrated my High School Freshman English class was that I got out of the class in the middle of Romeo and Juliet when I'd been the one reading Juliet. I also remember having been amused Sophmore year of High School that, while I was usually out sick a lot, it was the kid who was supposed to be reading Mark Antony that was out sick a lot, so I got to read most of Mark Antony as well as Julius Caesar himself. Of course, as I've said, my reading comprehension was off the scale before High School.

Just, I was suicidal Freshman year of High School, and I'm positive Jane Eyre, Hamlet, and my dad getting me into a College Creative Writing course saved my life. Hell, my love of Hamlet is so deep that after I performed Hamlet's "To Be or Not To Be" soliloquy for my Junior year acting course in College, and the professor allowed students to comment, one of them declared, "I finally get Shakespeare!" One of my favorite moments from College. I got an A for that course.

[orangerful]

I keep meaning to go back to "Gatsby" because I remember liking it in high school but don't ask my anything about it now LOL. I guess the immaturity of a lot of people with too much time on their hands clicked with me more than some orphan kid running around Victorian London?

I love Shakespeare but I've always been a nerd who rented the DVD from the library to see the plays. I think when the kids read the plays now, they do read them out loud in school but I have seen a few teachers give them as summer assignment reads and that's usually when I roll my eyes.