40 Going On 14

Reading…There And Back Again

In literature, film or life, how many conservations between parent and child have started off with, “When I was your age…”. Insert eyeroll here as the world-weary youngster awaits the inevitable follow-up tale of harder times. Cliché though it might be, clichés are so for an immeasurable number of reasons. I am a parent to no child but will evangelize to any young person I am in the vicinity of about how lucky they are in regard to the books available to them today.

A phenomenon began with the new millennium and what can only be described as the explosive success of the Harry Potter franchise. Suddenly publishers were demanding, and getting from writers, more depth of storytelling than ever before. Entire worlds and mythologies built, characters with a multitude of racial, ethnic and sexual identities and stories that edged, sometimes dived, into a darker side.

Make no mistake, by no means are the young the only ones reading from this glutinous feast of fiction. I lined up at every midnight event for the Harry Potter releases to get my copy and then spent the next 48 hours avoiding all human contact while I immersed myself in that magical world. Before Hunger Games became a huge bestseller, I was routing for a heroine that found herself besting the boys in this dystopian adventure. Whatever the stakes from a literal sense, the emotional stakes of today’s young adult fiction are commensurate with the raging hormonal intensity that befalls us all at that age.

We can’t speak about the wealth of quality in today’s young adult literature without at least an honorable mention to the last golden age of the 1970’s. Books of that decade became a cultural force that dealt with big issues like divorce, bullying, identity, drug abuse, poverty and sex in ways that can still hold up today.

I can think of no greater gift than a love of reading. Philip Pullman said, “after nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.” With books you can experiences different realities, become educated on anything imaginable or better yet, have your perspective challenged. They can energize, elevate, impower or caution. They can encourage you to surrender or to fight. They can demand that you be still and listen. Recently I gave a book, one of those listed below, to the child of a friend of mine who is around 10 years old. The next day my friend told me he had finished it already. Took time away from all his other interests and read a book. Made from paper…

So, for all you parents of children, or children of any age, here are some recommendations for you. I leave you to manage your own parental guidance. Not much of any was applied to my young reading habits and I turned out okay.

18 Awesome Young Reader/Young Adult Reads

1. To Kill A Mockingbird – Harper Lee

2. Princess Bride – William Goldman

3. Holes – Louis Sachar

4. House With A Clock In It’s Walls – John Bellairs

5. Flush – Carl Hiaasen

6. Mysterious Benedict Society – Trenton Lee Stewart

7. Harriet The Spy – Louise Fitzhugh

8. Graveyard Book – Neil Gaiman

9. Inkheart – Cornelia Funke

10. The Borrowers – Mary Norton

11. Ella Enchanted – Gail Carson Levine