5 Ways to Use Your Kids' Reading List

Every summer millions of perfectly reasonable teenagers are caught in a tragic avalanche of disappointed hopes and downtrodden dreams. It only makes matters worse that their know it all parents were aware there was not even a slim chance that they would get a call back from the Hannah Montana/Jonas Brothers’ tour coordinator accepting their sincere offer to aid in the concert planning as needed throughout the summer months ahead. The lack of anticipated concert action is only slightly more annoying than the fact that those same parents are now tiptoeing around and whispering in obscure dialects of Pig Latin (as if it’s indecipherable) as they discuss how they should approach said teenager about the fact that they’re wasting their summer months; how they should go out, play and enjoy like a good child. To state the problem as clearly as possible, every summer the lines of communication between teen and parent definitely go down.


You could spend the summer chasing the Hannah Montana concert tour and attending show after show to attempt to jolt your teen from their self imposed coma, but your work would definitely suffer and you’d need to keep your job in order to pay for all those tickets (they don’t come cheap). You could revert to written communication in order to try to squeeze more than one word answers out of your teenager, but similar cases haven’t had fabulous results. Teens are quite adept at “one word” writing; probably even more so than “one word” speech. You could attempt to only talk about things that interest your teen enough to stimulate voluntary eye contact, but you can imagine the stifling limitations that could entail. 

At this point you’ve got to do something drastic. No, that doesn’t mean boarding school. You need to steal your teen’s reading list. Stealing isn’t usually the best idea and I don’t condone it in general, but there are at least five very good reasons to make an exception in this particular instance!

1.          If you’ve got your teen’s reading list, you’ve got a ticket straight into the workings of their quickly spinning little minds. Use their reading preferences to get to know them. What books are they reading? What have they read before? Are there books they are “waiting” for that are soon to be released? Peruse their book shelf. You’ve got a road map right in front of you telling you where they’ve been and where they’re going next. Have you read all the books your teen has read? Don’t answer out loud; I wouldn’t want to get upset. If the lines of communication are down and you haven’t read the books your teen has spent their time reading then you’re not even trying!

2.          If you’ve got your teen’s reading list, you know what they like. Now you can provide your teen with similar books that include topics that you want them to know about; things you see as vitally important to their growth and mental development. YA books are a tremendous help when introducing tough topics that you want your teen to be aware of before they are confronted with the situations in their own lives. YA Books can give them the virtual experience that will aid them in making good split second decisions to those big questions that crop up unexpectedly during the teen years; the type of decisions that could affect them for years to come. It offers a very personal, but safe outlet as they confront the issue in fiction and relate to the character as they work through the mental arguments and come to a conclusion. They will be much better equipped to deal with controversial issues in their own life if they’ve read it, imagined it, felt it and seen it through the words of a good book.

3.          If you’ve got your teen’s reading list, you can read along with your teen. While they are confronting all those issues that are difficult for many parents to bring up and possibly even more difficult for many teens to listen to with an open mind you’ll be right there for discussion purposes. There’s no better way to keep the lines of communication open! YA Literature is known for presenting difficult issues and teens are known for surprising the adults in their lives by being able to deal with them in a mature manner and often having opinions on controversial issues. The best way to start the “talking” would be to ask your local YA librarian which books would aid you in presenting the topics you’d like to have out in the open. But here are a few suggestions to get you started. Speak offers teens the chance to discuss rape and its aftermath as well as issues of loyalty. Meeting Lizzy presents teen dating violence, dysfunctional families and stereotypes. Lord of the Flies is still a wonderful way to begin a discussion of mob mentality and the breakdown of society in crisis. You get the point. And you’ll discover that it’s not difficult to find a YA book that presents any topic of choice; your options are widely varied. Let the discussions begin!

4.          If you’ve got your teen’s reading list, you’ll be better prepared for the next suggestion: make a deal with your teen. Let the negotiations swing back and forth widely and incorporate a few of their suggestions, but make sure in the end that you come to an agreement that includes creating a summer reading list for the two of you (or for the “group” if you’re including the whole family). Make sure that you keep up with the reading (and depending upon how comfortable you are with your teens’ ability to handle difficult topics you might want to make sure you’re always a chapter or two ahead of them in their reading). Agree to a celebratory activity to serve as a reward for completing the reading list together. If all goes well, you’ve just created countless opportunities to have meaningful conversation flow freely between you and your teen, read some really great books, kept your teen entertained, and scheduled some quality one on one time with someone who normally might not be so excited to have a date with the old fogey in their life.

5.          If you’ve got your teen’s reading list, you’ve got an “in” to their group. Now don’t revert back to high school and attempt to steal their friends or get “inside info” behind their back from their “ex” best friend or anything. What you wanted was to build the lines of communication and if you’ve got a social butterfly on your hands it will aid your cause to include their friends! Encourage them to create a book club or reading group. (You don’t have to call it that if you’re afraid they’ll turn away from those terms; just call it a party with reading stipulations). Allow the kids to gather at your house once a month and provide them with food. Spend ten to twenty minutes getting discussions going about what you found interesting in the book. The kids might be sluggish in their responses at first, but if you’ve picked some good YA lit to read and talk about, they will quickly have something to say. As soon as the discussion gets moving you can step out and let them discuss things with their peers (or you can stay and involve yourself as the moral compass depending upon the situation and the topics at hand).

When creating a teen reading list there’s one factor that has to be taken into account or you just won’t get the full YA experience: you have to include the wide variety popular literature offers to teens. It’s out there for a reason. It’s out there because teens are used to a lot of stimulation. No matter how much we say we should all slow down and focus on one thing at a time how often do we actually do that? When you’re at the gym are you just jogging on the treadmill? Or are you jogging on the treadmill and listening to headphones? Or are you jogging on the treadmill, listening to headphones, and reading the captions on the TV mounted to the ceiling? Or are you jogging on the treadmill, listening to headphones, reading the captions on the TV, and waving at friends and acquaintances as they arrive/exit? And as the “newer version”, your teen is even more accustomed to intensive stimulation hitting them from all sides all at once.

So make sure you offer a wide variety in any Young Adult Literature reading list you create. For example, pick a book that falls into each of the following categories: new release, short story collection, YA book often taught in classrooms, a pre-1960 YA book, an adult book often taught in high school classrooms, a sports or adventure/survival book, an award winning book, a realistic problem novel, a romance book, a mystery, horror or suspense book, a fantasy book, and a graphic novel. This is a partial list, but it serves as a good example of where you can go with the reading list. Step out of the comfort zone a little bit; that’s the point. You want to come across new ideas, new situations, new issues, etc. so you can discuss them!

Reading is widely accepted as one of the best methods to encourage original thought. And original thought is the basis upon which all great communication is built. So get some moving in your teen’s head this summer by getting some good, interesting and desirable literature under their noses that they won’t be able to stop thinking and talking about!