Brain Candy

Some of you may have heard that Veritas Press is doing a summer reading contest. Since they announced this the phones and email have been going like crazy. Everyone wants to know what is quality "fun" reading. So, that has been the topic of conversation around here. Some of you may be surprised at mine and my husbands thoughts on this. First let me say two things. 1. I am not speaking on moral content here. That goes without saying. Parents must approve of what their children are reading. 2. I do believe quality must be presented often to our children. If they are not trained to love quality then it will be almost impossible to get them to find pleasure in the finer things in life. They will also develop the easy way out mentality. You know what I mean. The read any book just to say you read a book mentality. But, I do believe there is a place for mindless brain candy. My son would have never developed a love for reading if he had been made to struggle through everything he read. My daughter loves getting lost in the land of make believe. She is often getting injured because she cannot put the book down long enough to watch where she is walking. I am in a period if my life where if I thought everything I read had to be meaty, I probably would not ever read anything. I am too tired right now. Of course, there is junk that I hope never crosses my children's path, but as long as we are exposing them to quality on a regular basis, is it really the end of the world if they read brain candy every once in a while?