How this happened. by Susanna Bartee
April 11, 2009
My husband, Shane, and I were delighted when our oldest child, Abigail, began to read at an early age. It was easy enough to keep up with her while she was still in the Eric Carle, Dr. Seuss, and Pony Pals stage. But it wasn't long until she was devouring chapter books at a rate much faster than we could read. (Not to mention that we soon had her younger siblings Hannah and Hank toddling around).
By the time siblings Lucy and Samuel arrived, I did not have time to read much besides the weekend paper. It bothered me that I could see my older kids spend hours immersed in a world created by an author I did not know. We talked about their books, but I still wished I could know more without having to read each book myself.
I began looking for a resource that would preview books just like several sites out there do for movies and music. (My favorites are pluggedinonline.com and commonsensemedia.org.) I found plenty of reviews and recommended reading lists, but nothing that actually told me what was behind the cover of those books through which my kids were racing. I felt it wasn't enough to go on a reviewer's opinion or what other kids were reading.
There were two memorable times Abigail brought home a book and I felt compelled enough to read it myself before handing it over to her. The first was Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone when she was in fifth grade. The second was Twilight when she was in eighth. Since witches and vampires are just not my thing, I expected to hate both books. Instead I was surprised to find myself deciding to let her read them (more on that in the next blog) and enjoying the conversations we had about their plots and characters.
Which got me to thinking again about a site like this. Now Abigail is a sophomore and helps me preview some of the books here. My big kids still love to read (I have Hank to thank for bringing Diary of a Wimpy Kid into the house!) and the little ones are just learning. So we have years ahead of us to try and keep up. My hope is that MoreThanItsCover helps you too.
We work hard to keep opinions off of the preview pages. The goal is simply to let you know what awaits in the pages. Hopefully you know your own child enough to make the right decision about what books he or she is ready to tackle. And maybe which ones are not worth it at all.
But if you want to know my opinion...here it is. There is a precarious balance between protecting my kids and preparing them for the world. But if I must choose between over-protection and over-exposure...well, that's an easy one. They have a long time to be adults. Childhood is already too short.
