Using Young Adult Book Reviews

By Rosella Campbell


When children are young stories are very important. Parents reading to them at night are an important part of their childhood and help fire up the imagination. The problem is that as children grow up reading is seen as less and less as something they want to do for fun. One way to help them find titles that they will enjoy is to look for young adult book reviews.

The term young adult refers to books that are specifically geared towards readers who are too old for titles written for children and yet are probably a bit too young to read literature aimed at adults. It can be difficult because some readers can be hesitant about being labelled or reject things that are supposedly made for them.

What is true is that a lot of the time stories are geared toward their audience. Therefore they often deal with the issues that the reader might be experiencing. This in turn means they are more likely to read the story as they are more likely to engage with the characters on an emotional level.

However this does not necessarily mean that a YA story has to be realistic. Indeed a lot of the most successful titles have been based in the supernatural, fantasy or science fiction genres. Furthermore many of the stories have often had appeal for adults with many stories providing a good balance of well crafted story with elements of humour and satire.

Another issue is that a lot of the most successful YA titles have been aimed at girls. This is often because there is less of an issue with girls reading that there is for boys. Finding a title that they can engage with is not always easy and for a parent getting boys in their teenage years to read can often be a challenge.

This is why reviews are useful. The type of review you need will depend on the information you want. For example there are plenty of websites that can tell you about the content of a story and whether or not that particular type of story is suitable for your children to read.

However it is also worth encouraging your children to look at reviews from their own peer group. As well as helping them find titles they will want to read it also helps to normalise reading as an activity. Over time they will then be more likely to seek out books for themselves and find the titles that they personally enjoy rather than feeling they have to read because they have been told to.

The reason that young adult books are so important is because they help to maintain a love for reading. The problem is if they get out of the habit then they may not return. This is why the right reviews can help you ensure that your children associate with reading as something they can do for themselves and not just something that has to be done in the classroom.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment