(1/?) I don’t know who needs to hear this, but let kids read what they want.
(Obviously I don’t mean books that are harmful.)
I’m not unique in saying this. But I do have a delightful personal anecdote/nice reminder for us oldass curmudgeons.

(2/?) Because it bears repeating:
(A) Reading is good.
(B) Books are good, even if they’re not all Your Personal Preference kind of books.
(C) It’s nice to to take a book rec from a kid once in a while. Sometimes kids know stuff. Sometimes grownups are boring & wrong.

(3/?) Side note: Audiobooks are books. There are different ways to experience a story. Please stop shaming children for how they read.

(4/?) Back to anecdote: My 12yo son’s favorite book of 2020 so far is Minecraft: The End by @catvalente. Specifically, he said “top 5 of all time, maybe top 3, #1 right now.” He’s read the book & the audiobook multiple times. And recommended it to me with HIS WHOLE HEART.

(5/?) But like, Minecraft just isn’t my thing. And that’s fine. Minecraft IS the 12yo’s thing. That is also fine. He has stacks of Minecraft books, a few audiobooks. I just didn’t have any interest in stories about (I assumed) blocks & creepers & whatever.
Reader, I misjudged.

(6/?) I went with the audiobook so I could multitask. Figured I wouldn’t be into it enough to just Sit There with it. So I listened while driving, cleaning, etc.

(7/?) Another side note: The audiobook narrator is a wizard. I kept forgetting it was the same person speaking as all the characters.

(8/?) A few chapters in, I realized I was enjoying it. By the halfway point, 12yo & I were having the best conversations about it. My enthusiasm was genuine, & he was DYING to talk about what was coming next but mustered the inner fortitude to avoid spoilers. He was so excited.

(9/?) It was like a pee pee dance... but for a book. Like if he had to hold in the story secrets much longer he’d burst. The happy agony of anticipation on his face—it was the best. He’d say things like “Don’t you just love the poems? Have you been PAYING ATTENTION to the poems?”

(10/?) This Minecraft book became part of our home vernacular. We talked like Grumpo. We quoted Grumpo. “I HATE you. I want to BITE you. You should let me BITE YOU.” We projected Grumpo’s personality onto our elderly chihuahua mutt Cookie (honestly, it wasn’t much of a stretch).

(11/?) We turned normal things into Grumpo-speak: “Take your SHOWER. You are STINKY. You should do your LAUNDRY. If you don’t, I will BITE you. You are Terrible. Your dirty laundry is Terrible. BURN IT ALL. Socks. First.”

(12/?) I genuinely laughed out loud listening to this book. And cried. TWICE. Max was in the car with me when I listened to the final chapters. And when [redacted] happened & I realized [redacted], he said my jaw dropped & my face was “half happy half surprise.”

(13/?) Since then, we’ve talked about his fav parts, the spoilers he resisted, the “surprising yet inevitable” ending. (And he thinks it’s utter bullshit there’s no sequel.) He said he rereads & re-listens to it because he catches new details & “clues” each time.

(14/?) I enjoyed the hell out of the Minecraft book. The 12yo was right. And I never would’ve picked it up if he hadn’t prodded me.
Of course, a book’s merit can be that it’s enjoyable. That’s enough. But y’all. He STUDIES this book. He’s basically teaching himself story craft.

(15/?) He can tell you why the beginning hooks & why the end satisfies. He talks about foreshadowing & how to “trick” a reader “but in a good way.” He talks himself through character arcs, try-fail cycles, raising questions/making promises to readers & answering/fulfilling them.

(16/?) He just doesn’t know there are names for these things. I guess I just wanted to share because the world is burning & this was a nice thing that happened despite the world burning. Everything is Terrible. I HATE it. I want to BITE it. BURN IT ALL.

(17/?) But the book I underestimated is not Terrible. My son’s giddy enthusiasm is not Terrible. I could stand to remind myself once in a while that not everything is Terrible.

(18/18) And yeah, my original point: just let the kiddos read the dang books they want to read.