On Literature and Teaching

  Clarifying the debate: Children and Young Adult books, and the idea of ‘Literature teaching’ There’s a been something of a debate lately concerning the value of Children’s literature, and by extension, YAL (Young Adult lit.). You might have seen it coming by online, and in newspapers: something along the lines of ‘ Which books are good enough (‘rich’ enough) to be given to read to the youth? ’. Some have answered in a restrictive way, pointing out the value of ‘rich content’ books and how those can add value to the reading experience. Some, of course, advocate an ‘anything-goes’ attitude, where whichever book you get someone to read is a good thing: what matters is not really what they read, but the very fact that they read. Among those, it’s fair to say that sometimes their reaction seems informed by their own interests (see Sander Meij in the NRC, October 2024, who quotes his own books as being worthy of being read), or by a research project, or by a desire to be ecumenical,