Readicide is the killing children’s
desire to read. I think this is a huge problem in today’s schools. Between the
way that teachers choose to teach books and the amount of literary fiction
students are expected to read, it’s no wonder kids are falling out of love with
reading.
In my experience, teachers go a
little overboard when teaching classic books such as: Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Hamlet, The Great Gatsby, etc. With the
massive amounts of notes, study guides, and quizzes there isn’t much time for
me (or any other students) to appreciate the book itself. When teachers stand
in front of the room and talk at students about what the author ‘truly meant’
when he/she said this it makes the book boring and hard to think about. All the
fun and enjoyment is taken out of reading the book. Finding a meaning in a book
that relates to the reader is what reading should be about. Not what the school
thinks students should get out of it. Literary fiction is great to teach in
schools, but not when it’s forced onto students and symbols and themes are
shoved down their throats.
Literary fiction should not be
removed from school’s curriculum completely. It does have some good issues that
people still deal with today. Also, people need to read these to see our
history and how themes still apply to this day and age. However, too much of
these classics can be extremely boring and suffocating to students today. Schools
need to find that balance between literary fiction and genre fiction. Genre
fiction is in no way less ‘worthy’ to read in school than literary fiction. It’s
has great themes that would go along well with the curriculum. Gene fiction is
also a lot more fun and interesting for students to read. This will help with
the problem of Readicide, making reading in school more enjoyable. If you look
at The Hunger Games, students can
learn about a dystopian society and government takeovers in a futuristic,
engaging way.
Critics shouldn’t sneer at genre
fiction because that’s what people are reading today. It’s what is popular
among children, teens and young adults. It’s what’s selling and being turned
into million dollar movies. It’s what’s making its way on the bestsellers list.
Kim Wright says, “Publishers, always the last to recognize a literary trend,
are pursuing top genre writers who, for the first time, have not only bigger
paychecks but genuine clout,” (Wright). Literary fiction will always be the
classics that everyone should at least know about, but genre fiction is what
everyone is reading now. The best way to keep kids reading is to incorporate
genre fiction into school and get rid of some of the literary fiction that is
causing Readicide.
My Name is Rapunzel by K.C. Hilton
Rainbow
Rowell is fairly new to the writing scene, her first book, Attachments, published in 2011. On top of that, Eleanor & Park was her first young adult
book to be published. Keeping this in mind, while reading Eleanor & Park I have to say, it was a very solid book. Rowell
takes two outcast teenagers and turns them into an epic romance story. Usually,
in the romance genre, the popular kid falls in love with the unpopular kid. It’s
so refreshing to see that Eleanor and Park come from the same world. When
Eleanor first moves in, she immediately has a target on her back. No one will
let Eleanor sit with them on the bus and she starts to panic. In a moment of
kindness, Park tells her sit down with him. After a rocky start, the two become
friends and slowly, more than friends. They may have different family lives
but, at school, Park is the quiet Asian kid and Eleanor is the weird red-head
that wears funny clothes. Neither fit in but that’s why they go so well
together. 
Hollow
City, the second installment in the Miss
Peregrine’s Peculiar Children series was released in early 2014. Author
Ransom Riggs is best known for this hit series and is planning to publish third
book. Hollow City picks up exactly
where the first book ended. The Peculiar children are on a mission to save Miss
Peregrine, who is trapped in her bird form.
This book is very powerfully written. Riggs does a good job not
depending on the old photographs he uses to set up characters and settings.
Each character was well developed in the story. Jacob experiences a lot of
growth throughout this book. This makes the book more captivating to read. At
the beginning of the book, Jacob is unsure, lost and feels like an outcast. As
his powers grow and sharpen, he also grows and becomes more confident. During
one scene, Jacob is able to locate a hollow miles away and get his friends to
safety. Jacob learns that he does fit in with the Peculiar children even if the
come from different centuries. Riggs ability to show character development is
marvelous and it captures every reader who picks up Hollow City.
Watership
Down, by Richard Adams, was published in 1972. Adams also wrote Shardik, The Girl in a Swing, and Bureaucats. Watership Down, Adams’ first
novel, follows the adventures of a group of rabbits that escape the destruction
of their warren. The group, led by a sensible rabbit named Hazel, faces many
struggles of the wild as they try to find a new place to call home. The genre
of this book is fantasy. This isn’t some book where rabbits hop around and
graze lettuce all day, it’s an intense and intelligent book and not just anyone
should read it. It’s for young adults who are ready to dive into world of how
the society of rabbits really works: deception, cunning, tyrannical, cruel,
smart, and thrilling. One of the things that instantly made this book
astounding was the strong characters. The reader is expected to keep up with
many different rabbits and if it weren’t for Adams’ canny descriptions the
reader would be lost and irritated. Each rabbit is unique in his/her own way,
conveying a very specific skill or personality trait making them likeable and
memorable. In the opening it is said Fiver can sense the future, this leads to
the escape of the Sandleford Warren before its demise. Not a lot of author’s
could pull this off, but Adams does it well. 