Right now one of the women who is in charge of the kids section is on maternity leave.  Which means that I've been working in the kids section more often.  There are many times when I am appalled by the behavior that occurs in that area of the store and sometimes its even the kids' behavior that shocks me.

Before you get up in arms about how a non-parent shouldn't throw stones because her glass house is empty, let me say its more my history of being a reader that causes my indignation.  I want to encourage everyone to read, regardless of what they are reading.  Many customers will have a three inch stack of magazines yet say they never read.  Unless that entire stack is "adult" magazines, I'm pretty sure there is definitely some actual reading going on when those magazines get opened.  

Back to the kids section.  I encounter many adults who want to push their child towards a certain kind of book.

"He reads a lot of science fact type books but I want him to read real books."

"She reads anything if there's a horse in it but if there's no horse she won't even open it."

"He's just starting to read on his own and he really loves those Captain Underpants books, but ummm I'd like him to read something better."

"All she reads are things that look like cartoons.  I want her to read books with a story."

Here is my soapbox: If you want a reader, you should probably provide books that the reader likes to read or else they won't be a reader anymore.  That seems so simple, right?  How can I convince my fellow adults of this?

Should I share stories about the time when I read countless books of Garfield comics and then colored in the ones I especially liked?  Or maybe I should share how I read nothing but The Babysitters Club books when I discovered their existence?  Or maybe how I graduated from that series to Sweet Valley High books?  None of these books would be considered particularly great children's literature, but I was allowed to read them.  My mother probably sighed as I picked the next one off the shelf, gleeful that a number I hadn't read yet was waiting for me.

Still, I continued to read.  And that was the point.  To want me to be excited enough to want to hole up in my room with a book.  Early on it was with Ramona and Beezus, then Kristy and Claudia and Mary Ann and Stacey, and then it was Elizabeth and Jessica.  If you are in your thirties and read a lot as a young girl, these names probably mean something to you.  Perhaps the most important part of this story is that I am still a reader.  Clearly.  And my interest in books has expanded past the walls of Sweet Valley High, but it might not have had I not been able to choose my own direction as a child.  And this is what I want to tell these parents.  Guide them towards books and then let them roam.  You never know what you're helping to encourage.


Disclaimer: Obviously there are underlying reasons these questions could be presented to me.  Is the child reading below their grade level?  Are they refusing to read books assigned in school because its not the type of books they want to read?  None of the customers I encounter add these explanations into the mix, so I assume that is not the case.  Once you work in retail, you are no longer shocked by the overshare from the customers.