Comment by Izkata | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Izkata | Hacker News Reader

> Yet I can’t help but be worried that the kinds of books that changed my life between ages 8 and 12 are falling by the wayside. Is there room for the thoughtful, serious, beautiful young-person’s novel in 2024? Can you publish Bridge to Terabithia in the age of Captain Underpants?

...Uh, come the 90s, Bridge to Terabithia was a required reading book that I don't think anyone my age cared about. The popular series I remember were, in no particular order: Animorphs, Goosebumps, Nancy Drew, Harry Potter, and Redwall.

I think it's much simpler, adults don't know what kids are interested in. For example, just before that age I was interested in animals and the solar system. Read anything I could find on them, and had no interest in anything being pushed by school or parents. At age 9, I just happened to see Animorphs #11 The Forgotten in the impulse-buy section of our local drugstore and begged my parents for it - for anyone unaware, the Animorphs covers showed kids turning into animals, which was how it drew my attention. That set me onto sci-fi in general, then fantasy - and I've kept reading since.

> in the age of Captain Underpants

Captain Underpants is at least 20 years old now. Becoming a piece of classic American fiction in it's own right.

> ...Uh, come the 90s, Bridge to Terabithia was a required reading book that I don't think anyone my age cared about

> I think it's much simpler, adults don't know what kids are interested in

Pretty much everyone I know (including myself) who read a lot as a kid but doesn't read much anymore identifies being forced to read things in school as the reason they don't. Being forced to read stuff we didn't find interesting isn't the whole issue though because I think there are things I might have actually enjoyed reading in another context. In my experience, the larger issue is what happened in the classroom alongside the reading. Most if not all teachers I had would give quizzes designed to ensure we kept up with the reading that essentially would pick out tiny random details from the assigned chapters ask us about them, and that took the focus away from actually absorbing the higher-level themes and insights that I'd normally make when reading on my own. Even worse, when discussing things afterwards in the classroom, there was usually a certain analysis or viewpoint that was deemed "correct" that we were supposed to figure out and be able to reproduce when we were tested on the entirety of the book after we finished it. Making me read a book to memorize random details and _not_ have any thoughts of my own on what things meant because I would just get told what to think later ruined any enjoyment I used to have of reading; they might as well have just given me a page of bullet points to memorize than give me an entire book full of pages and pages of stuff to distract from what they actually were trying to make me learn.

It's probably a mistake to think kids need new books to be published. The classics are classic for a reason. There are many childhoods worth of incredible books already available. I'm not weeping for struggling authors. If they write something incredible it will be noticed, if they don't then just like you said Bridge to Terabithia, Nancy Drew, Redwall, HP, The Hardy Boys, Chronicles of Narnia, Eragon, etc, etc, etc. still exist.

> Uh, come the 90s, Bridge to Terabithia was a required reading book that I don't think anyone my age cared about.

Exactly. It's a book adults think kids should read (because literature or whatever), not a book that kids actually care a rip about reading.

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