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Book people think they know why 9-year-olds stop reading for fun

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Re: Book people think they know why 9-year-olds stop reading for fun

#21

Post by hjej »

octobus2021 wrote: post #10

Don't know why this is on HN but anyways. My youngest will be 9 soon. Finding books for him is pain. I started trying more in the last few weeks, grabbing more or less random things from my local library (beginning chapter books, chapter books). Most of them are series, he liked a few (Galaxy Zack, Time Jumpers, Desmond Cole books), did not like others (Magic Tree House, something called Byte, Code Breakers, and real…

If it's painful to you, you're doing it wrong. At 8 you should get him to the library and let him chose himself what books he wants to read. Also, you don't have to like the books he choses. You despising his book choice is irrelevant.

Re: Book people think they know why 9-year-olds stop reading for fun

#22

Post by octobus2021 »

hjej wrote: post #21
octobus2021 wrote: post #10

Don't know why this is on HN but anyways. My youngest will be 9 soon. Finding books for him is pain. I started trying more in the last few weeks, grabbing more or less random things from my local library (beginning chapter books, chapter books). Most of them are series, he liked a few (Galaxy Zack, Time Jumpers, Desmond Cole books), did not like others (Magic Tree House, something called Byte, Code Breakers, and real…

If it's painful to you, you're doing it wrong. At 8 you should get him to the library and let him chose himself what books he wants to read. Also, you don't have to like the books he choses. You despising his book choice is irrelevant.

If I just let him do what he wants he just plays on iPads or computers in the library (iPads have bunch of games installed, computers do not have games but you can obviously play Web-based stuff etc). He doesn't care much about books unfortunately. It's my job as a parent to make sure he does read something (I'm trying to find something he likes and something that's more of a long form as opposed to a comic). I do realize that the more I pressure him the less he likes it but I'm doing my best to find balance.

As for choice of books, both Dan Pilkey and Dan Gutman are considered controversial authors and a lot of parents feel uneasy about their kids reading their books. Check parents' reviews on goodreads or any other site, you'll find plenty of negative reviews, it's not just me.

Re: Book people think they know why 9-year-olds stop reading for fun

#23

Post by octobus2021 »

sn9 wrote: post #19
octobus2021 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just as I said, Galaxy Zack series (he must have been 7 at the time though), Time Jumpers (fairly recently, there's only 4 of them and I don't know if the author will write more), Desmond Cole (about ghosts). But that's pretty much all for the last 1+ years... I'm trying some of the "Scooby-Doo" books, not comics but regular chapter books, and he seems to read them at least. I'm going to try more "grown up" books (ju…

Mensa surprisingly has some good age-appropriate book lists linked at the bottom of this page: https://www.mensaforkids.org/achieve/excellence-in-reading/ (At that age, I was a huge Animorphs fan, but some parents might not be comfortable with the violence and gore.)

I had no idea Mensa did this, I will give this a try. I'm not sure he's up to all of these, but we'll try and see.

Re: Book people think they know why 9-year-olds stop reading for fun

#24

Post by coldtea »

RecycledEle wrote: post #9

When you can read for fun, it's fun. When your teacher criticizes you for not reading the boring book he/she ordered you to read, you stop enjoying reading and stop reading. It's the teachers' faults.

Kids read 50x as much at times teachers were even more strict and critical of them, so clearly it's not that.

The mass availability of low effort digital entertainment options is what made the difference

Re: Book people think they know why 9-year-olds stop reading for fun

#26

Post by cjf101 »

082349872349872 wrote: post #6
animal531 wrote: post #3

I think the big problem with reading is that it's much slower compared to other media. Add in the fact that you can also only read for so long before your eyes get tired and then people just naturally veer away from it.

If you read more than a little, it's much faster compared to other media. True about eyes getting tired, though: I try to take a break every few hours. > If I wanted to read, I'd go to school —B-H

Seriously. This is why I don't like how much knowledge is being locked up in video platforms. I can get what I need to know from text so much faster than video unless the knowledge in question is inherently 3d/visual.

Re: Book people think they know why 9-year-olds stop reading for fun

#27

Post by coldtea »

octobus2021 wrote: post #10

Don't know why this is on HN but anyways. My youngest will be 9 soon. Finding books for him is pain. I started trying more in the last few weeks, grabbing more or less random things from my local library (beginning chapter books, chapter books). Most of them are series, he liked a few (Galaxy Zack, Time Jumpers, Desmond Cole books), did not like others (Magic Tree House, something called Byte, Code Breakers, and real…

>Don't know why this is on HN but anyways

Well, for starters because HN is not just for programming and startups, things are on HN because they're upvoted (or sometime because it's some YC promotion), and anything that tingles our intellectual curiosity will do (it's even in the site's guidelines).

Re: Book people think they know why 9-year-olds stop reading for fun

#28

Post by nerdjon »

RecycledEle wrote: post #9

When you can read for fun, it's fun. When your teacher criticizes you for not reading the boring book he/she ordered you to read, you stop enjoying reading and stop reading. It's the teachers' faults.

100% this.

School largely ruined my interest in reading until I became an adult and re-found it.

Being regularly told to read boring books, of course any interest in doing it casually was going to go out the Window.

Sure there is value in needing to read certain things from an academic standpoint, Beowulf is a good example. But there was zero reason I needed to read "The Outsiders" when we just watched the movie after reading it anyways.

Just because something is a classic, doesn't mean we have to consume it in its original form to get the meaning.

Instead fill the library with a diverse collection of books, let the kid choose what they want to read, don't rush them, and importantly if it just isn't working let them move on to a new book.

Side note:

I know some people are going to groan at this. But seriously, books based on video games can be a fantastic gateway towards actually caring about reading. It is how I re-discovered by interest in reading as an adult.

Re: Book people think they know why 9-year-olds stop reading for fun

#29

Post by secstate »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #4
animal531 wrote: post #3

I think the big problem with reading is that it's much slower compared to other media. Add in the fact that you can also only read for so long before your eyes get tired and then people just naturally veer away from it.

I gravitate to text forums because watching/listening is too slow. Videos/images are good for instruction on how to do something though.

This. I find myself tremendously bored watching most videos online these days, scrubbing through to find things that are of interest. There's just so much filler and even when it's not, the information density is very low.

In the meantime, along with reading, I also have longreads in my RSS reader, so every evening I get a few fantastic long form online articles and feel pretty well connected to what's going on.

Re: Book people think they know why 9-year-olds stop reading for fun

#30

Post by MisterBastahrd »

I can only speak to my own personal experience, but I was a voracious reader as a child and then sorta just... stopped. The longer life went on, the more I was instructed to ignore or hide my personal feelings and so I just didn't find the characters in the books for my age group, who were largely written by women, to be relatable. There was as large a stretch between the main characters' behavior and what I was taught to do as there was between the real world and Mount Doom. I devoured the entire non-fiction section at my library in the historical and scientific sections by the time I was 10, and then just stopped going because there wasn't a point. None of the books were for me.

I've made attempts to get back into reading from time to time, but I always go into the more rigorous non-fiction areas. I picked up a Brandon Sanderson book and wanted to throw the damned thing against a wall because of how juvenile the narration was. It felt like a very poor apeing of HHTG or Discworld narration without any of the wit.

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