A bookseller meeting this morning reminded me of the ways I convince the super over-achieving parents & grandparents at the store that they should let their kids read what they want, even if it's all graphic novels, or exclusively fantasy, or whatever thing they don't find worthy

I tell them that their children are learning the skill of choosing books for themselves. They are learning how to pick a book for their own pleasure and not because they have been assigned it. It may seem like an obvious thing, but this is NOT an easy skill for many people...

The number of folks I meet who are graduating college and come to the store with NO IDEA how to find a book to read for themselves is astounding. They have always read the books assigned to them and the books they were "supposed" to read. Without anyone in charge, they're lost...

All those surveys you read about adults who haven't read a book in years, those surveys are full of people who never learned as a child how to choose a book for pleasure, how to read a book for pleasure...

It intersects with the over-the-top nostalgia people feel for the Scholastic Book Fair. Yes, the joy there was books, yes, it was the flyer, but it was also the INDEPENDENCE, the CHOICE, the non-requiredness of the whole thing. The Scholastic Book Fair was freedom...

The Scholastic Book Fair was a celebration of reading for pleasure... that's the nostalgia you feel... So I come back to two main thoughts....

1. Let your kids choose to read any damn thing they want. The goal is not to get facts in their head, or good test scores, or a gold star on some checklist. The goal is to raise a human being who is a Reader. An adult reader with the skill set to read for pleasure & choose.

2. If you are one of the people with Scholastic Book Fair nostalgia? My people, for adults... EVERY DAY IS SCHOLASTIC BOOK FAIR DAY. You always get to choose. Get vaccinated. Put on your mask. Go to a bookstore. Choose whatever damn thing makes you happy. The end.