Enough with the goddamn vampires. I'm tired of the diaries. And if I see one more remake of "Mean Girls" I'm going to puke.
My daughter is nine. She's also the number one reader in her school. And every week, without fail, we go to the library.
Honestly, the pickings are getting a little slim for her. She CAN read the older books, and often does. But once again, she's nine. And every time she wants to head on over to the young adult section for a "cool" book, I cringe.
(Rant on the flip)
Now, I am not wearing rose colored glasses here. I remember exactly what I was into at that age. I was reading "Choose Your Own Adventure" books, and William Sleator novels. But dammit, the plots in those didn't involve "Showing the whole school who's the REAL princess" or some other value calculated for maximum consumer appeal.
I got bored with young adult fiction FAST as a kid, but for the most part, the fiction that I read whet my appetite for bigger and better books. Now, well, it's just ugly to me.
Maybe it's because she's a girl, and I'm a single father, but honestly, I can't get behind these heroines. I can't get behind a character that exists solely to garner popularity. I can't get behind a character that is devoid of personality to make her "appeal" whatever the hell that word is supposed to mean now. And I'm tired, tired, TIRED of Cinderella being retold. Again.
So I'm trying, but honestly, when children's literature from over one HUNDRED years ago has more active and interesting female characters, that's a sign that something is a tad wrong. Yes, I'm talking about the Oz books. I admit that L. Frank Baum did screw me up a bit in my sexuality growing up due to one of his books which became my absolute favorite...
Yes, I know. 90% of everything is crap. The problem is that when you have a kid who reads EVERYTHING, well, you've got a lot of crap you have to weed out. A lot of black/pink covered crap.