Can books be saved?

Posted in Mom Stuff
by besttech

Aisha Sultan St. Louis Post-Dispatch

When I was in grade school, I once was grounded — from reading. I probably was being punished for not cleaning up my room. I was in the middle of a novel, and I was reading at all the family meals, in the bathroom and late at night in bed.

So, my parents took away the thing that hurt the most — my book.

When my little ones start misbehaving, I threaten to turn off the television. It works every time, but it also makes me sad. I’ve read to them since they were born. I taught my daughter to read when she was 4. Some days we’ll spend an hour cuddled up in bed with a stack of their favorite books. We have mounds of books in nearly every room of the house, and only two television sets. But, so far, they’ve shown the TV a lot more love.

It makes me wonder: Are parents passing on their love of reading to their children?

Given the nearly infinite alternatives available, we have to redouble our efforts to make our children readers.

I grew up with Ms. Pac-Man on Atari and the then-new Nickelodeon on the tube. Now, there are nonstop cartoons available from the Disney Channel to the Cartoon Network to Sprout and Noggin for preschoolers.

Many children get hooked on computer games, the Internet or the Wii long before they can sound out “Hop on Pop.”

Studies by the National Endowment of the Arts show that less than one-third of 13-year-olds read every day, a 14 percent decline from 20 years ago. Among 17-year-olds, the percentage of nonreaders has more than doubled in that time, from 9 percent to 19 percent. Yet, we easily spend two hours a day watching television.

I was shocked to hear that kids do judge a book by its cover — literally. Mildred Rias, who has worked in libraries for 17 years and currently serves as a children’s librarian at the St. Louis County Library headquarters, says she has trouble selling old childhood favorites like the Mrs. Piggle Wiggle series to her visually sophisticated market.

“If the cover is not eye-catching, the kids are not going to read it,” she said.

Mildred grew up a voracious reader, as did her daughter. But her 12-year-old granddaughter is harder to entice.

When a movie comes out, such as “The Chronicles of Narnia,” it sparks an interest in the original work of literature. (Mildred’s granddaughter preferred the movie version).

Harry Potter notwithstanding, the one item libraries can’t keep on the shelf? “Graphic novels.” We used to call them comic books. In fact, some of the classics are being rewritten into graphic novels, so more kids are willing to read them.

It’s true that children are “reading” more: more e-mails, more text messages, more celebrity news.

But the experience of processing information with our eyes is worlds apart from being captivated and transported by the sheer joy of a reading a great book.

In our hyper-visual culture, the image has trumped the word.

Libraries understand this, and are changing with the times. This spring the St. Louis County library system rolled out a new initiative to lure young readers. Now, they can check out video games.

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Aisha Sultan is a columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Contact her at asultan@post-dispatch.com.