"I believe that manga can be as meaningful as traditional books, so it's not a question of content; it's the fact that training your imagination and your attention span is still best done with traditional prose."
To say nothing of the fact that manga are read backwards which could confuse young children.

Can't help but agree. If I had kids, I definitely would not start them on comics of any kind. Sure, they're reading, but that's like saying giving preteen girls Twilight is a good idea because it gets them reading. To be honest, I don't think I'd appreciate comics/manga as much as I do now if it weren't for my love of literature.

I shudder to think what would have become of my intellect if I had picked up the habit of reading manga instead of Enid Blyton as a child.

After all, I am surrounded by quite a few who grew up on manga and not books. It isn't pretty.

*phew* So glad no one is jumping down my throat for being an 'enemy of manga.'

I want my future kids reading the classics by the age of 7- if I could do it, you can do it, little runts! Hehe...my future kids might hate me....

Wow, you people really don't like the thought of kids reading manga. :p

When I was in elementary school I had to take extra clases, because I wasn't able to read very well. Started reading comics and making my own (They have been burned for everyone's sake.); it helped peek my interest. By 7th grade I had an above college reading level.
Take this in mind, in 5th and 6th grade I was reading Interview with a Vampire,IT andShogun. That may not be impressive to some of you, but my school was pretty happy. :p

I do agree with this, a little:
"...it's the fact that training your imagination and your attention span is still best done with traditional prose."
But what peeks a kids interest is what ever peeks their interest. Making them read Books (with a capital B) isn't going to make them like Manga more. If they like Manga they'll enjoy reading it more than being forced read traditional Books. They'll like reading either in their own mix of time. rable rable ramle.... Sorry is this doesn't sound coherent, I just woke up. I'll be back when I've taken a shower and I have food in my tummy.

I'm intending to let the kids read manga and comics and stuff on the weekends. The weeks are for them edjuh-ma-kaytshunn books.

What's wrong with a kid reading a manga ? Now days kids are cleverer than the elders and reading is a good habit . Manga is like picture book plus dialogues and i find it pretty helpful to imagine the storyline , or rather it give me a better way to think . Compare to books that are full of lines and words simply bored me unless i got captured at the first 2 pages with enough excitement to carry me on . Oh I see that book : Maximum Ride b4 by James Patterson and I think it's suits teenagers bcoz it's like a slice of life and how we teenagers are thinking now days .
Sure enough I probably will start letting my kids read picture books and if they have a grasp of English and perhaps moving on to manga . :)

Wow, people around Japanator are quite smart, who would guess that!

*I'm kidding!*

I can't read a book to save my life, and I do have a short attention issue.

Also, I watch much more animes than read manga.

Yeah, my head is a mess.

@ChubbyHuggs. It isn't that I don't like the idea of kids reading manga, I don't like the idea of kids reading more manga than books. Unless that child is picking up Death Note, which is essentially a novel with pictures, he or she will probably lose out on the wealth of pictures that can be painted with words.

The Planet of Apes is an example of a book which easily does something that cannot be done easily in manga. I won't spoil it here, but you will know if you have read the book.

It is intriguing that Lewis Carroll wrote Alice in Wonderland because he wanted children to read about something extraordinary with Mad Hatters and talking rabbits, and describing the fall of Alice down the rabbit hole.

Yes, you can draw that picture in your mind with manga, but if you try it out for yourself, you will realise how much more thrilling it is to paint your own picture of that world instead of absorbing that that is drawn. Plus, children may acquire the vocabulary and use of words that is at once simple and effective.

@NightyNight. I wouldn't go so far as to claim children are cleverer than their elders yet. But I would comment on your comment that it is with not a pinch of irony that I confess, I learnt Japanese to read Gunslinger Girl in its original form.

@ChubbyHugs: Yeah, every kid is different, and if kids aren't responding to traditional books, it's far better to have them read something that piques their interest, as opposed to something they just won't read. I think though that people are making the mistake of assuming that kids won't have the patience to become readers before they've made a decent attempt to get them acclimated. I didn't start reading books because my parents forced me, but because they seemed to assume that I would be capable of doing it, so I tried it. I think people aren't giving kids enough credit, oftentimes.

Also, I agree with Rewarp that it's not a question of kids never reading manga- it's just that they shouldn't be reading manga in the place of books. Also, if ideally children have gotten used to the idea of reading prose at a young age, by the whole tween/teen era they should be able to read pretty much whatever they want.


@NightyNight:"Compare to books that are full of lines and words simply bored me unless i got captured at the first 2 pages with enough excitement to carry me on"

This is the whole 'training your attention span' idea that I was talking about. Please don't think I'm belittling your opinion, but my point is that there are things to be gained from the lines-and-words approach, and if you don't investigate it for more than two pages because it bores you too much, you miss things. It's fine to conclude that something is boring, but you can only rightly do that if you're sure you've understood it first.

My brother reads manga rather than reading books, and after a few years of trying to read boring school books decided he hated reading and refuses to read anything. Doesn't matter if it's a great classic or some boring book report book, he treats them all the same, and it's a shame. If he had been pushed to find books he enjoyed, maybe some older science fiction or alternate history stuff, he might really have gotten into it.

The only time he'll read something traditional is if there's a manga/anime adaptation. RomeoxJuliet is the only kind of Shakespeare he'll experience, unless you count that Macbeth manga that had laser swords and they rode dragons in space.

It wasn't very good.

I read manga over books typically but that is just because they tend to be at a pace I enjoy. I read "All Men Are Brothers" every now and then, I read Shakespeare (his comedies are MUCH more entertaining than his tragedies, seriously), and other long things at times, but I just couldn't get into Jane Eyre (like I care if I spelled it correctly), I skipped a lot of Lord of the Rings, and sometimes large parts of other books.

I prefer things to be happening, and as a consequence I don't like long descriptions of things or those blasted Poems in LotR, I don't know a thing about Tom Bombadil because screw em, stop singing, I want to read a book not a damn poem.

If I want to read a Poem I'll read something like the Illiad, Gilgimesh or something along that line. A nice meaty poem that has stuff happen.

Tis why I also enjoy the Unlimited Blade Works over Heaven's Feel in Fate/Stay Night. Shut up Kotomine, just be quiet.

However, there are a lot of good books that not all schools/children get exposed to that are just as fast paced as or at least as moving as a Manga might be. Ender's Game being a prime example. It is considered an early teen book, but since it tends to be in a traditional paperback format in the Sci-Fi section people don't know that. You can give that to an adult and it won't feel childish in the least, but there it is in Teen. As Lunacy said there are Alternate History books that are also very engrossing. If you want more of a Romance, or Fairy Tale style there is Stardust by Gaiman that is also in the teen section, but is also in the regular fantasy area also.

I find that it is not that Children don't want to read, it's that they don't want to read boring stuff. You just have to find what is not boring. As a start, anyone that likes to read say Naruto/Bleach or something along that line should try Ender's Game if they want to try a normal book.

*hugs Rangoric*

Oh, and uh...I hug everybody else too. Sort of. Maybe.