[reaganaut1]

There is no reason some fiction should not feature lousy parents -- they do exist. But the predominance of incompetent parents fits in with the liberal distrust of families, especially the married, two-parent traditional family and the belief that caring for and educating children is primarily the job of the state.

I generally don't trust recently-published "young adult" literature, although some of it may be good. I'd rather my children read classic literature that has stood the test of time. If homeschooling Freepers have reading lists to post, I'm interested.

[cookiedough]

Here’s a link to the 1,000 Good Books List. It is not an exhaustive list.

http://www.classical-homeschooling.org/celoop/1000.html

[Tribune7]

There is no reason some fiction should not feature lousy parents -- they do exist.

And since the hippies are now parents and grandparents maybe they exist in far greater numbers than they did in the 50s.

That surgeon and that mom following the ballplayer sound like they are just following "free to be you and me" principles.

[kimmie7]

Here is a site that has several lists. I have found it to be very helpful. You’ll be able to see where to find the other lists, this link is to the 3rd and 4th grade books.

http://sbees.blogspot.com/2008/03/third-and-fourth-grade-homeschool-book.html

[9YearLurker]

I never really understood ‘young adult’ literature. I think it’s a rising genre because they muck up the teaching of reading now and we’ve got generations of teens who are poor readers. Just average kids who are taught correctly should be reading at a regular adult level by junior high—and then who wants to read watered-down pap?

[Polybius]

But the predominance of incompetent parents fits in with the liberal distrust of families, especially the married, two-parent traditional family and the belief that caring for and educating children is primarily the job of the state.

I disagree with your interpretation.

All of the dysfunctional family situations described in the body of your post are OUTSIDE of the traditional family norm.

The traditional family norm has parents who provide for their children financially but do not sacrifice their kids for the sake of an even greater amount of money. The traditional family norm has a mother (or nowadays even a father) that is cooking the family dinner and not traveling around with her boyfriend. The traditional family norm has parents who eat the family dinner with their kids and are not so wrapped up in their jobs that they do not even notice that their kids are not eating at all.

If anything, the examples you gave in the body of your post are a longing for the days when Ward and June Cleaver were seen as the middle class American norm.

Face it. America is filled with bad parents and "parents" have absolutely nothing to do with "Family". Even the cockroach that you sprayed Raid on last week has "parents".

The examples you cite are a longing for "Family". .... The way most middle class "Families" used to be.

I watched a lot of Leave it to Beaver re-runs in the 1960's and I never heard the lines:

"Well, Beaver, I know it's true you haven't seen your mother for months because she is travelling around with her boyfriend, but that does not mean that June is a bad mother."

or

"Ward! I need to leave. Grand Rounds start in 30 minutes. Could you look at the Beaver before you leave for work? He may have lost 20 pounds since the last time I ever noticed him."

[NativeNewYorker]

Useless parents are a justification for kids orienting themselves along the lines dictated by the public schools and the mass media. Gee...who benefits from that?

[Toki]

I didn’t touch YA books unless I had too with a ten foot pole (We had these points we had to earn for reading books and taking tests and so I’m sure I read some). I couldn’t stand them. Books like Andersonville and Dune series were my playground in middle school and High School.