I'm looking over...

[pyat]

My lawn has been replaced with clover. Perhaps I'm a bad homeowner, but I prefer it to grass.


Father's Day breakfast this morning, at Cora's Restaurant in Ancaster.

We went to the bigboxbookstore after, and took turns shopping and watching the girls. While searching for a replacement copy of Orwell's Keep the Aspidistra Flying (mine was eaten by a dog), a mother and her teenage daughter and a store employee wandered into the O's. The daughter, who was about 14 and looked very spunky, was looking for George Orwell books. The employee handed her Animal Farm.

"I've read that one already," she said. He found Nineteen Eighty-Four. "That's the only other one we have," he said. I noted that there was a copy of Burmese Days on the next shelf, and moved on. The store employee then spotted a collection of all Orwell's novels, and the girl said she wanted that, or Ninteen Eighty-Four.

"Nooooo, I don't think you'd like it," said the mother.
"I liked Animal Farm," said the girl.
"No, I mean you'd find the ideas too complicated," her mother replied.
"I've tackled some pretty complicated books," said the girl.
"No, I don't mean hard words. I mean the political ideas are too complicated. It's from another era, really," said the mother.

I did really want to say something like, "Hey, I read Nineteen Eighty-Four when I was eleven, and understood enough of it to make it worthwhile. And who are you to disapprove of someone trying to read something complicated, or outdated?"

But I didn't, and instead went to look for some G.K. Chesterton books they didn't have in stock.

Comments

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

I'm not a big fan of parents telling kids they can't handle the big ideas of a book. If they can't handle it, it will go over their heads and censorship is unnecessary; but if they can handle it, they've enriched their minds to handle that much more later, and to be able to talk intelligently with other well-read people.

I high school kid going out of her way to find a non-chick-lit book that most kids her age are groaning about having to read at school is something to be celebrated, not quashed.

[anidada.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but the parent is more likely to have an idea of what their kid can handle. As I said, if she really wants to read it, she'll get hold of it eventually. :)

[pyat.livejournal.com]

And telling her it's too hard for her is a good way to make sure that she will!

"No, dear, this candy is far too chocolately for you..."

[anidada.livejournal.com]

Astonishing how well that works.