I volunteer at my local library, and I've seen this happening a lot. A kid picks a book, and the parents find a reason to give it a fault. Either it has too many pictures, or no pictures at all, or it's "not your thing", or it's too long or too short. It's even worse when they say it mockingly.
From time to time I try to intervene and say something in the lines of "hey, I happened to have read this book with my little sister, and I found it really good" to try to convince the parents to let the kid read the book, but I don't do that too often because no one likes strangers bringing in their unsolicited opinions.
I started reading when I was 11, and it was the diary of a wimpy kid. I was going grocery shopping with my family and instead of going to the toys aisle with my sisters as usual I decided to take a look at the books (even though I had no interest in books at all). I happened to find the book cover interesting and was immediately hooked in in the first sentences. It was funny and easy to read. Five years later I was reading the picture of dorian gray in english even though it was my third language.
Everytime we see a kid with a book, we should let them know they're doing good. I would say there are exceptions, but those refer just to objectively bad books. Outside of that, there aren't many bad books, especially for kids. Let them read what they find curious, let them find joy in it and let their interest grow. I'm not saying parents shouldn't do anything, but at this age it's important to let kids have fun with such a healthy hobby.
by [deleted]