My Grandson is a charming sort. Tall, good looking kid, with a polite attitude; good nature, bright. He is not 9. He was over at my house the other day, and he was showing me some books he had picked up at the library that week.
Ahh, the library. I love libraries. I loved them since I was a kid and first obtained that spoked independence that comes with having a bicycle. Have bicycle, will travel. Have library card, will read. Growing up cash poor in Phoenix limited the things to do on hot summer days....but libraries were free and oh the places a good book and a descent imagination could take a boy! Frank Baum could take you to OZ, The Hardy Boys could engross you in a exciting mystery in Bayport. Or you could assist Encyclopedia Brown solving a crime from Idaville. Or how I envied and admired Horatio Hornblower navigating the warm waves of the South Atlantic and outsmarting the 'frogs'!
So, as my Grandson was showing the books, I was happy to see that he was enjoying the precious fruits of the library during his fall break as much as me or any of my brothers would have all those years ago. And I certainly don't want to stifle his growing love of books at this age.
But looking through the books, I was somewhat shocked to see the blatant commercialization of the reading materials he had chosen. Three of the books were Lego produced and were heavily laden with pages containing minimal text and Lego land configurations of Ninja and Star Wars themed story lines.
Two other of the books were based on the popular video game series Skylander. And the last book was a drawing book on how to draw Pokemon.
To be honest, as I paged through all 6 of the books, I could certainly see how each of them would appeal to an 8 year old boy. And I would be crazy to discourage any youth from reading of any kind.
Still, I can't mask the thoughts going through my head concerning the direction of literature in the future. Will the offerings of our libraries and bookstores become more and more commercial? Are we moving to more commercial forms of entertainment for our youth? Are we suppressing imagination and replacing it with blatant commercialism? More importantly, will the youth of today ever be able to get lost within their imagination under the spell of a talented author like I was all those years ago?
JK Rowling turned back the clock 17 years ago and returned the joys of literature to the youth of the world. I was amazed that literature was so alive and so thrilling to a new generation. I hope the joys of opening up the first chapter of a new world will continue to be experienced by youth for a long time to come.
Cheers, nca
