If your kids keep asking for every thing they see at every store, and you’re tired of telling them no most of the time, take them to the library and say YES YES YES YOU CAN HAVE EVERYTHING YOU WANT!!!
This is the one area where my mom really did great. Every week she'd rent 3-5 new books from the sci-fi section, I literally read 6 floor to ceiling shelves of books between 4-9th grade. I literally read or discarded every commonly released sci-fi book up to that point... It might've ruined my eyes, but it opened my mind
(not like she was a bad mom, she had lots of love but terrible advice...)
I worked at a library in college. It was amazing. Truly one of my favorite jobs I've had. Libraries are legitimately one of the best things about modern society. Go support your local library folks!!
Libraries are amazing! They have books, ebook, movies, magazines, study rooms, computers with internet!. Some have makers spaces. There could be a 3d-printer to use, sewing machines, other tools and items. And then there's the classes and events the library holds. A reading club, craft activities, kids groups, read-alouds, theme nights. And more! Libraries can connect you to services and legal help. They are there to give you information.
Libraries are just a physical format of Google. They lead you to the information and things you need if you just ask :)
I remembered more. Some library cards can be used as logins for different online tools that would otherwise cost money.
The teen room at my wife's library has a PS4 and an XBox (not sure which one) for teens to play as long as they want. The TV it's on is huge. The game library isn't massive, but it's respectable.
I heard all the hype, so I read it. I now don't understand the hype. It has three main elements:
Dragons
Magic School
Romance/light erotica
It doesn't do any of those things particularly well. There's nothing interesting or particularly original about the dragons or magic school stories. The plot is full of ham-fisted exposition (the protagonist "reciting facts about the world to deal with stress"? Really?) and the characters are two dimensional and boring as well. The romance is super cringe:
spoiler
the unpopular girl falls for the school's "bad boy". In a 'shocking twist', he falls for her too. The romance is completely shallow and goes from "I'm attracted to you but we can't be together" to "we're soul bonded and will be together forever" in the span of a few in-story days. Literally one short chapter. Again, super cringe and hardly believable, even considering these students are supposed to be late teens to early twenties yet actually act like 15 year olds. Yes, the least believable part in a book about magical, flying reptiles is the shitty romance.
Plus this really short video nails the entire book and not in a flattering way. It may not be the worst book I've ever read, but it's amongst the top ten.