Whenever someone comments on another person’s reading material by lamenting that he only reads such-and-such (comic books, in this parent’s case) and does not read the stuff *I* think he should be reading, the hair on the back of my neck rises. Yes, it might be nice if she read some things of which we can all approve, but this nixes one of the chief aspects of reading that we are all trying to foster: choice. If the reader who reads only comics chooses to do so, it is because s/he has found a form of expression that works for her.
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Dorothy Broderick said it best: The message we so often send is “Read! For God sakes, Read! Oh, but don’t read that!”
I often wonder is why adults have so much trouble giving kid readers–and especially teen readers–the same right adults have: to read the books they enjoy, for no other reason than that they enjoy them.