What to Do About Kids Not Wanting to Read?
 

It's a subject that comes up in almost any comic book discussion these days, because eventually we all know the future of the medium depends on new readers. Many of us have our own anecdotal experiences with youth not just being indifferent to reading, but actively resisting it. Video games are a major culprit, we're told, but I'm certain there's more to it.

So the question is, what can be done about it? It's not just that I want to have more readers around me I can share my enthusiasm with; I believe reading is still important and that kids can benefit from it. I've shared in the past my thoughts about how little things I got from reading multiple comic books helped me in school, from expanding my vocabulary to the ability of keeping up with multiple courses with complex material. I'm sure an argument could be made that following multiple TV shows leads to the same juggling skill, but I was a TV viewer in my youth, too, and I never got the feeling that required any real attention on my part.

Plus, reading those editor's notes and letters columns led me to pursue specific back issues. I know for a fact that came in handy in college as I began to really conduct research for my courses. Many of my classmates had to be told that any work cited in one source would be yet another place to look. I just did it, because it seemed so obvious to me to delve into the material and see where it suggested I go next.

In the past I've shared my anecdote about getting my nephew a couple of comics for Christmas one year and he made every excuse he could think of to avoid opening them. That was 2004 and he still hasn't looked at them. They were Christmas-themed issues from Justice League Adventures and Teen Titans Go!--the comics based specifically on the TV shows I know he watched and liked. It's not like I was dropping him into the sixth issue of a major crossover event. These were as much an open door as I could imagine, and he refused to walk through.

Re: What to Do About Kids Not Wanting to Read?
 

Tell him if he doesn't read them & tell you what the story is (for proof he read them), you won't buy him a Christmas gift this year and for next year either.

Also take away his video games. Then spoil the ending to any movie he wants to see. If he reads comic books, you'll stop.

Re: What to Do About Kids Not Wanting to Read?
 

Honestly, I think that this is a subject that's like trying to get the genie back in his bottle. With ALL of the media available to kids these days reading is a dying thing.

When I was growing up in Houston, we had maybe two or three hours of cartoons a day on two independent channels. That's it. Today kids have maybe a dozen channels dedicated to entertaining them 24/7 - including several cartoon-only ones. They have DVDs (my kids have at least 200) they can rewatch until you want to stab your eyes. They have the internet - not only on the home computer but even on smartphones if they're old enough. And of course they have video games. Most kids today don't just have one system either. They have multiple systems. Of course you don't need a book for a long trip because you can bring your hand held with you. And I haven't even mentioned iPods...

Books and comic books have way too much competition these days. I often think that if I were ever to have another kid (won't happen - I'm 41 and single) I would get rid of the television in the house. That would eliminate a lot of the noise. I wouldn't get my kid any sort of video game console and I would limit their internet usage. Of course I would be the mean, crazy parent, but just maybe my kid would have a genuine apprecaition for reading he or she would enjoy for the rest of their life.

Re: What to Do About Kids Not Wanting to Read?
 

I don't think it has to be that way, though. I mean, I grew up with cable TV, a VCR and a Nintendo, then Super NES. We watched more than our fair share of TV and movies, we took our Gameboys with us when we left the house--sometimes even if we were just going to dinner. We even played outside! I can't guess how often my brother and I played catch, or got together with neighbors to ride our bikes or play kickball in the street. I still made time for reading comics, and so did my friends--at least, the friends I eventually forged. Few of the neighbors I grew up with read comics unless they read mine. Their parents made no effort to encourage the habit and at least some of them I knew would have refused to buy comics for their kids, as a wasteful fad to be quickly outgrown.

Re: What to Do About Kids Not Wanting to Read?
 

Peer pressure is big. If their friends aren't reading, they probably won't either. A lot of elementary-age kids are reading Diary of a Wimpy Kid, which sort of qualifies. My daughters and nieces won't go for superheroes but I've had success with Peanuts, Nancy Drew GN, Richie Rich, Tintin, Archie, Donald Duck, Scooby-Doo, and some others. They resisted for a while but ended up finding some interesting subject matter. One kid likes the Geronimo Stilton books so I suggested the GS comics. I have the huge Calvin & Hobbes but want to dig up my paperbacks for readability.

Re: What to Do About Kids Not Wanting to Read?
 

I can only share my experience, but my love of comics and my love of reading came from my mom, who was both an avid reader and comic collector. I also grew up for a long time with no cable, only an antenna, and obviously no all-day cartoon channels or dvrs or internet. As such, Saturday mornings (and maybe weekday mornings and afternoons) were cartoon time, but other than that I played with toys and read. I actually learned a lot of vocabulary from reading comics.

Now you can watch tv or surf the internet at all times of the day. I see this with my young daughter, who always wants to watch TV or watch something on the iPad. Even getting her to interact with one of the many apps is a challenge, because if she picks it up, she'd rather watch Tangled. It's just easier to do. Luckily, she loves reading (well, listening to mom and dad read), and we do that every night, and also shut off the tv (when it's off, she's perfectly fine doing other things). Really, children's books are like comics taken a panel at a time, and I hope to foster a love of reading and maybe, if I'm lucky and the wife doesn't object, a love of comics. I already have some Yo Gabba Gabba comics waiting in the wings.

Now this is for someone who loves comics, and knows how much they cost. I can't imagine anyone who already has a stigma against comics introducing them to a kid, at least without sticker shock and a general confusion over what to get. There are definitely kids fare out there... for instance, I've heard the Young Justice book actually fills in some plot that the cartoons don't cover. Unfortunately, most cartoons are fire and forget these days, and move onto the next thing, so maybe the reason he wasn't interested in those was because Teen Titans and JL were older?

I do think a love of reading needs to be fostered, which means dedicated time to reading, as old-school as that sounds. Not everyone is going to love to read, I understand that, but sometimes it's just that they haven't found the right material.

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I've said many times in the past that The Batman Adventures is one of the best Batman comics I ever read (it was the tie-in to Batman: The Animated Series). Those kinds of comics aren't necessarily the shameless cash grab I think a lot of readers think they'll be.

As for my nephew, recall that I gave him those comics in 2004. Justice League and Teen Titans were hot at the time and he was really into them. It just did not translate into a willingness to even open the cover of either issue.

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A big problem is the lack of availability of comics. You can't buy comics unless you go to a specialty store. I first started reading comics when I was 8 years old in 1987. I remember seeing comics at pretty much every store ranging from Wal-mart to grocery stores to drug stores. I first discovered comics at the grocery store while my mother was getting the groceries. My town didn't get its first comic specialty store until 1991. Its safe to say that I most likely would never have gotten into comics if I hadn't discovered them at the grocery store. The comic spinner racks need to come back so that comics will be more accessible to kids.

Another problem is the price tag. $3-$4 for a comic is not kid-friendly whatsoever. I could buy a dozen comics with my allowance back in the 80s. Today kids can only buy three or four comics with their allowance.

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I completely agree with you. Although I'm at least nine years older than you, I remember picking up a Spider-Man comic at a 7-Eleven every now and then. On long trips, I would pick up a few. Never for more than 50 cents. I know I wouldn't drop $4 on a comic for my son, when I can get him an entire book for a couple of bucks more.

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My 7 year old son read 3 of the big legion of super-heroes compilations in the past two weeks, and a world's finest compilation before that. We have always made reading regular books every night a priority though, and strictly limit their video games and television. He is currently reading the Encyclopedia Brown series.

Re: What to Do About Kids Not Wanting to Read?
 

If I'm remembering correctly, you're in your middle to late 20s. I've come to realize that there is a SERIOUS disconnect between your age group (24 to 30ish) and younger people. I think it's caused by the internet, but I'm not sure. Perhaps it's cell phones. But the way that younger people use technology is way different than people even just a few years older. You can imagine that you had all these diversions (and obviously you had more than I did), but think about how young people use things like Facebook now a days. I know that my own kids are on it all freakin' day. Same with texting. I'm sure there are people your age who are the same, but they didn't grow up with Facebook and texting being the "norm." Heck even using the DVR today makes watching television ridiculously easy. Sure people used VCRs to take shows, but it was one or two at a time, and it wasn't something you saw kids do. Today, my son can easily manipulate my DVR to his heart's content. Times they are a changing....

Re: What to Do About Kids Not Wanting to Read?
 

I'll be 33 three months from today, actually, but I take your point. I think the point of divergence took place before the proliferation of the Internet and cell phones, though of course I'm reliant exclusively on anecdotal experience.

Back in the early 90s, our grandfather would pick up my brother and me every other Saturday while our mom worked at the shop she ran with our grandmother. He'd take us to the local comic shop and turn me loose with $20 (my brother, five years younger, just pocketed his cash). My brother wouldn't even come into the shop on most occasions, but he would watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with me and we had all kinds of comic-based toys we played with. Dude wouldn't read.

Our younger cousin would be around a lot around that time, and he was about four or five at the peak of that era. He loved Batman in the way that only the very young do. I tried to get him to look at the comics I had, knowing he couldn't read them but hoping that the exposure would get him interested. He never did, of course. By the time our other cousin was born, I was off being a teenager and I wasn't really around her much until the last few years. She won't read any medium unless she has to.

Their Internet usage is both typical and atypical of their peers. My elder cousin killed his MySpace account back when MySpace was still being used and he never got a Facebook page. My younger cousin uses Facebook often, particularly from her phone, but she does it while doing other things so it doesn't singularly monopolize her time. She loves Twilight and has the movies memorized. Her stepmother bought her the deluxe box set of the books in hardback. Three years later, she still hasn't even looked inside one of the books. So even when she's not checking in on Facebook, she won't bother to read something directly connected with something she loves.

So, while I readily concede cell phones and the Internet are additional competitors for kids' attention today, I still think the disconnect and resistance to reading is a bigger issue than just "there are cooler things to do." Again, though, all I have to go on is my own anecdotal experience. I do know that whenever I discuss this with enough people, I keep hearing variations of it. The people in my circles read, but they can't get their younger family members to take up the habit. Heathens!

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Yeah, I am only 32 years old and at times I feel like an old geezer who is baffled by all the fancy dancy technology. Ipad, iphone, ipod, ithis, ithat, whatever. I just don't get why young people think they need all this stuff. A basic cell phone is enough for me. I don't need it to connect to the internet or take pictures. I have never texted in my life. I have only been on Facebook and MySpace a bare handful of times.

I just recently visited my old college campus a few weeks ago. Practically all the kids were talking on cell phones as they walked to their classes. I graduated in 2002, so it wasn't even that long ago, and nobody had cell phones on campus then. Now it seems like every kid has one.

Re: What to Do About Kids Not Wanting to Read?
 

I'm the opposite. That friend I've mentioned in another thread who travels to several conventions a year collecting sketches does archaeological work and is across the country frequently. We stay in touch primarily through texting. It's just the most convenient way of communicating for us. I use Facebook and Twitter to network with other people with Crohn's disease; they're my support system for that part of my life because there are no in-person support groups in my area. I tweet like a mothersmurfer, and on those unlikely occasions I manage to get out of the house and I see something peculiar, I like sharing photos online; like the preying mantis who stared me down inside the stall of a rest stop bathroom. Was it important? Of course not. But then, the majority of what we share in verbal communication in person is typically unimportant, too.

I also maintain a blog that primarily functions as a repository for my anecdotes and memories, as well as reflections on current events and of course the obligatory movie/book/music reviews. I view it as an archive of what I have to share, so that when I'm gone there's a record of these things. It bugs me to hear family members disagree about how they recall an anecdote, so I figured this at least alleviates the question of how I remember things. I could just keep a journal, of course, but a blog is much more easily navigated and searched. Plus, I can order a book collecting blog posts, which I intend to do in the next several months.

I'm probably more active online than my 16 year old cousin, or my 16 year old nephew, really. They hit Facebook frequently, but not much else. I, on the other hand, frequent this forum, Twitter, blogs (my own and others), Flickchart and I follow links to other stuff from those sources to all kinds of online content. I share a lot of this stuff, whenever I find it interesting. My cousin and nephew do none of those things, or anything comparable.

And yet, I still manage to make time for reading comic books because I enjoy them.

Re: What to Do About Kids Not Wanting to Read?
 

It seems sad, but you really have to force kids to read and not continually watch tv or surf the internet, and hope that they find a subject that peaks their interest. At least IMHO. Like I said, not every kid is going to like to read, but back in the day if my parents allowed me to watch tv all day (and if cartoons were on all day like they are now) or play video games, that's probably all I'd have done outside of stuff directly related to school. And I remember the atari would only come out once in a while, and even then I could only play it an hour or so... by the time the NES rolled around, I already loved to read.

Of course, I have multiple books on my ipad, and I haven't read through a complete one yet... the only time I read books was on a plane ride, the rest of the time I'd rather play games or read comics. There's something to be said for having a dedicated device like a Kindle where all you can do is read and not get distracted by the other features.

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There is just too much entertainment competition for kids' dollars now for comics to ever be as widely read as they were decades ago. Most of us here probably grew up without access to 100s of cable channels, dozens which exclusively cater to kids today. Kids still read, but mostly in the form of Twitter posts and inane Facebook posts. Story is a less essential element of modern kids' lives, as their dominant entertainment medium, videogames, focuses almost exclusively on visual design and social interaction.

The characters will live on in other mediums. Animated superhero cartoons are more popular than ever and show no signs of slowing down.

Re: What to Do About Kids Not Wanting to Read?
 

My parents forced us to read. We were allowed one hour of primetime TV a week, and one hour of Saturday morning cartoons. We weren't allowed comic books. So we read books. I was reading New York Times Bestsellers by the time I was eleven.

Granted, this was back when there was no cable TV or home computers. But I see parents today who strictly ration the time their young children can play handheld games or visit online sites. I think that if a child spends 60 hours a week looking at a screen, be it computer, television, or game, then he will have no interest in reading by the time he's eleven.

And I don't think that there is anything that you can do for him at that point.

Post-literate generation?
 

As an adult I find myself reading books less and comics scarcely ever.

As a child, teen and tween I was a voracious reader of books, adding comics to the menu from the age of about ten until my early twenties. Thereafter I picked up the odd monthly title for a few more years and continued to read a goodly number of books.

Nowadays, with internet and television and free newspapers/magazines on my journeys to/from work, books are having to compete for time. And, in contrast with a decade or two ago, I hardly ever read at night.

We've all seen the example of J K Rowling's popularity, so it certainly is possible to inspire children to read, but, as others have already noted, kids have even greater competition with all the technology around to divert their attention. Instead of it being "the done thing", there almost has to be a special reason i.e. a "craze" or media happening such as the Potter books. A few years ago, in Britain, Anthony Horowicz's Alex Rider stories were cited as encouraging a large number of boys into reading for pleasure for the first time.

My sister's kids buck the trend, carrying on the family "bookworm" tradition and, even in their teens, are still able to make time for reading. I believe that my nephews are both mild comic fans and I've just bought one of them a couple of graphic novels that I thought he might like, post-Potter: The Unwritten Vols 1-2. Last year I hoped to pique the interest of his younger brother with Bryan Talbot's Grandville. As yet I've had no feedback regarding this or the book I (for some reason ;) ) bought to accompany it...

Perhaps Kindle-type devices will bring some of them back into the [reading] fold...

Re: What to Do About Kids Not Wanting to Read?
 

I was not forced to read, my mom taught me to read, so I would stop interrupting her while she was reading her book, to read to me. I saw both of my parents reading and that made me want to read, so I think a lot a lot of it has to do with the parents reading to their children and instill that in them.

I was allowed to read almost anything I wanted to when I was a kid, because my mom felt that if I did not understand it, I would put it down, and she would read my comic books when I finished. My mom also took my to the library every two weeks, and we had the bookmobile come to my school.

I still love to read and try to find time everyday to read.

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I definitely think having parents who read and more importantly, who read TO their kids makes a big difference. My parents did it with me and my wife's with her, and we are both big readers. And we've tried to pass that on to our son, who is only 3, but loves to be read to and is already trying to read himself. Hopefully that will continue as he gets older. I'd love to pass on my comics and GN's to him someday. :)

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It's an interesting point about having been read to as children. My mom taught me to read, and to write. In fact, I remember her baiting me into writing by coaxing me to use the back of the package of my He-Man toys to write up a list of the ones I wanted. I had to get the spelling right or the request wasn't valid. (I was sure, of course, it was but I couldn't take the chance!). By the time my brother came along, my parents were divorced and there was a lot less time for her to put into that kind of stuff with him. I'm a reader; he's not.

I think one of the problems is that kids who grow up only reading as much as they have to read for school not only convince themselves they dislike reading, but I think they realize how bad they are at it. It's easier to avoid confronting their reading comprehension problems by not reading than it is to read enough to get better at it. By this theory, then, part of the problem is that the "reading isn't just for nerds, you might like it" approach doesn't specifically call them out and challenge them. They continue to sidestep the problem because no one else makes them own up to the fact it is a problem.

Any thoughts about this?

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Some people just aren't readers. My grandfather (who was a professor of Economics at UCLA) used to tell me how he and his brother were polar opposites. My grandfather, Jack, was a total egghead and always had his head buried in a book. His brother, Paul, was a sports fanatic and was always rough housing. He used to joke that his mother had a mantra: "Jack, put down that book and pick up a football. Paul, put down that football and pick up a book."

Of course, I think that someone who's not necessarily inclined to read can learn the joys of reading, and a lot of that has to do with how their parents present books to them. My father also taught me how to read and write, doing so before the schools had a chance to. He would read to me at night. And not just "Goodnight Moon," but novels. Not all of them were good but it made me learn the value of storytelling and I couldn't wait till I could read those books all by myself. It was especially good to have him read novels to me because he could define words I didn't understand. I certainly plan on doing the same when I have kids.

I also saw my dad reading all the time. Whether it was a newspaper or a book or a magazine, I always imagine my dad reading when I conjure an image of him in my head.

The other thing he would do that encouraged me to read was I would ask if he would take me to a toy store, and he'd say, "No, but we can go to the comic shop." The comic shop had action figures, and I could gawk at them and then buy the comics that had those characters on the covers. And quickly I learned to enjoy comics more than the toys.

Now that I think about it, my parents really made sure I was reading a lot. I wasn't allowed to have video games, and instead they'd give me books they thought I would enjoy. I remember I wasn't allowed to see Jurassic Park until I had read the book first. And more things like that. Frankly, I can't imagine what my life would have been like without the wide variety of books I read.

Re: What to Do About Kids Not Wanting to Read?
 

Someone didn't read the OP... :lol:

Re: What to Do About Kids Not Wanting to Read?
 

I skimmed it. :mad:

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i was a big reader growing up. my parents never read but always provided me with books and comics to encourage me. to the point she started reading and read her first book at age 50 and reads daily. i have a couple grade school teachers to thank by having us read stuff kids enjoy and can explore our imaginations.

my youngest niece never read and would watch tv for the sake of watching tv. i tried a few things to get her to read and nothing worked until i got her into superhero movies...after she dried the well of those she started looking thru my old comic collection. a couple years back i read thru the potter books. i would read one and watch the movie with her and with me talking to her about the differences and how much better the books were she eventually broke down and read them all.

that lead to reading and watching lotr, star wars, and other scifi fantasy stuff. She really enjoys the aspect of discussing movies and books with me. in two years she went from staring at the blank screen of "go out and play day" waiting for something to air and playing mindless aps on her ipad. to discussing the latest episode of lost we watched and reading for fun when there is perfectly good tv to be watched.,

now to get back on topic to comics I blame the price...as many stated for my weekly allowance of 5$ i could buy a week supply of comics, garbage pail kid/monster league packs, and the most ridiculous slammer i could find to take out my classmates in a heated game of pogs. now that same 5$ buys a 20 page comic book where atleast a third seems to be advertisements.