I also like books that make me think. The subtitle of Honey for a Teen's Heart is: "Using Books to Communicate with Teens" and Hunt offers hundreds of suggestions for family read-alouds that will open up the floor for discussion of crucial subjects. Some of her choices are more gritty than I like, but probably necessary because of the sordid world we live in. Each recommendation is followed by several paragraphs of explanation about its theme or its author's world view. Very helpful!
The book is divided into sections by genre/subject. (Mostly fiction titles since stories offer wonderful fodder for discussion.) A small percentage of the books fall into the "twaddle" category, but every parent has to make book choices based on their child's interests and reading level. There are dozens of tried and true classics listed, but many more modern and new (to me) books.
Since I abhor most of the rubbish that has been written for children in the last 60 years, I'm thankful for someone like Gladys Hunt who has sifted through the chaff and brought out the wheat. I can hardly get wait to get back to the U.S. to look up some of these titles. (two months from now!)
I look forward to sharing my thoughts about these books in the near future.
Note: There is a small issue with the Kindle formatting which sometimes puts information from the sidebar into the middle of the text.
1 comment:
I have Honey for a Child's Heart and like it, but honestly, I feel like I'm familiar enough with children's lit to make my own selections. However, wading back into the world of YA is VERY daunting for me. I mean, I DO read YA stuff, but mostly I avoid the most shocking and even the stuff I read I have a hard time imagining passing off to my own children. I find as my eldest approaches the teenage years, I almost dread it. I think I need to check this one out!
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