Reading Between the Lines

Love of Books or Something Else?

By Kelly Burgess

Parents who beg, threaten and cajole their children to turn off the television, video game or computer and pick up a book may find this scenario a dream come true: teens who read too much. In some cases, these kids really do just like to read, but sometimes the teen who is always hiding behind a book may actually be hiding from a problem that he or she can't articulate.

Anne Reeves is the author of Adolescents Talk About Reading: Exploring Resistance to and Engagement With Text (International Reading Association, 2004). One of her case studies in the book is of a 17-year-old girl who voraciously consumes romances and mysteries. Reeves says that it became clear as she talked to the girl that she was using her reading as a kind of therapy. "In this particular case, the girl was looking for models of happy adult lives," says Reeves. "There are kids who persist in going into these alternate worlds for good reason, and in her case, when something bad happened in her life, she ran for her books."

Of course, just because your teen is reading a lot doesn't mean they're depressed or stressed. If they put the book down when they're supposed to be attending to other things, they probably just prefer reading to other leisure activities. If they read when they're supposed to be doing something else, says Dr. Elizabeth Berger, child psychiatrist and author of Raising Children With Character: Parents, Trust and the Development of Personal Integrity (Jason Aronson, 1999), then perhaps it's time to investigate the reasons why. She does warn, however, against automatically assuming that it's an emotional or psychological issue.

"There are an infinite variety of ways in which an ordinary activity can become a symptom, but there is sometimes a danger in getting too concrete about what constitutes a problem," she says. "I would warn parents against the loss of the big picture when wondering if a behavior is normal or not. Overall, if a child is succeeding in school, which is reflected by good grades, has at least one or two good friends and a generally positive attitude and outlook toward the future, I wouldn't be too worried about something like this."

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• Ready, Set, Read! Parents Play Key Role in Developing Solid Reading Skills
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