First -- by all means, please elaborate! I'll be doing the home improvement thing all weekend, so I may not be able to reply right away, but I will definitely be reading!
Second -- your point about mandatory reading is well taken, and that theme dominates a post over at SF Signal entitled "Of SF, Kids And Outreach". In it, JP mentions a reading program that his son is enrolled in, and points out the fatal flaw in its results-oriented, grade-based approuch:
Not only are the kids forced to read, its a grade after all, but they have to take a test after they finish each book. This isn't fun, its work.
He goes on to point out that there's a lack of young adult science fiction that's approachable and fun for kids to read. Now when I was a kid (and I'm in my thirties) I didn't read any "young adult" science fiction -- instead I cut my teeth on Asimov and Clarke. Yet having said that, by today's standards we might consider Asimov and Clarke "young adult" fiction because it was straight-forward, "ain't science grand?" science fiction. The Foundation trilogy and books like Childhood's End dealt with the rise and fall of civilizations ... but did so without mucking about with addiction, sex and all of the dark themes that many of today's mainstream writers.
So yeah, bring on the kid-friendly scifi ... and stop making reading such a damn chore!
btw ... if you don't mind me asking, what generation do you belong to? Not that you need to tell us, but I think it would help to inform the conversation.
Fri, 09/01/2006 - 10:17am
First -- by all means, please elaborate! I'll be doing the home improvement thing all weekend, so I may not be able to reply right away, but I will definitely be reading!
Second -- your point about mandatory reading is well taken, and that theme dominates a post over at SF Signal entitled "Of SF, Kids And Outreach". In it, JP mentions a reading program that his son is enrolled in, and points out the fatal flaw in its results-oriented, grade-based approuch:
He goes on to point out that there's a lack of young adult science fiction that's approachable and fun for kids to read. Now when I was a kid (and I'm in my thirties) I didn't read any "young adult" science fiction -- instead I cut my teeth on Asimov and Clarke. Yet having said that, by today's standards we might consider Asimov and Clarke "young adult" fiction because it was straight-forward, "ain't science grand?" science fiction. The Foundation trilogy and books like Childhood's End dealt with the rise and fall of civilizations ... but did so without mucking about with addiction, sex and all of the dark themes that many of today's mainstream writers.
So yeah, bring on the kid-friendly scifi ... and stop making reading such a damn chore!
btw ... if you don't mind me asking, what generation do you belong to? Not that you need to tell us, but I think it would help to inform the conversation.
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