Comments on: Make my kids read your favorites!

By: Summer reading!

Summer reading! — Mon, 24 May 2010 23:45:58 +0000

[...] when I asked you for summer reading list suggestions? I finished the list a long time ago, of course, but it’s finally on our website. (That link [...]

By: Casey

Casey — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 16:22:51 +0000

I recall thoroughly enjoying the Issac Asimov short story anthology “Robot Dreams” around that time. Had they been available, I also would have probably enjoyed Neil Gaiman’s short stories around that age as well.

I’ll second redbeard’s earlier comment about short stories not being as intimidating as full novels. I think short stories offer a nice stepping stone to more mature works by providing increased depth in “bite-sized” pieces. They also often hint at deeper themes not explicitly mentioned due to their shortness, and this can be motivating when readers realize more is going on beneath the surface. If they are anything like I was, this curiosity may encourage intrepid young adult readers to stretch themselves with longer works. (*Then again, my appreciation of the short story’s form was firmly cemented by a great high school teacher, so I may be biased.*)

I recall wanting to stretch myself with something more challenging, and reading both Orwell’s 1984 and Huxley’s Brave New World around that time, and being thoroughly bewildered. They stuck with me, and I came to understand them later, but the more important lessons were that 1. there was “somewhere to go from here” and 2. knowledge that I wasn’t quite ready for them yet. (I promptly redirected to more accessible material.) While I would not recommend those works, discovering that personal boundary was invaluable as I defined my self identity, so I wholeheartedly recommend a couple challenging works be on your list, perhaps with cautionary notes indicating them as “stretch books.”

By: Greg

Greg — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 04:44:33 +0000

No, I think there was just one who was clairvoyant :-)

But then again, I was also reading Terry Brooks novels at the time, so who am I to judge anything?

By: Brian

Brian — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 04:38:13 +0000

Point taken. But compared to all the Terry Brooks novels I was reading at the time, I’d say no. The rabbits weren’t casting spells, right?

By: Greg

Greg — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 03:06:57 +0000

Really, Brian, you don’t consider talking rabbits to be “fantasy-related”?

By: Arun

Arun — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 23:25:07 +0000

It’s more of a boy-centric series of books, but I love the Great Brain series, by J.D. Fitzgerald.

By: Mary

Mary — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 22:57:05 +0000

I loved Ender’s Game and the Alanna series in middle school. Also, I think my first brush with Jane Austen may have been in middle school. More recently (and in the historical fiction world) I though Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson was amazing.

By: Brian

Brian — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 22:55:21 +0000

Third vote for Watership Down. It was the first example I could think of that wasn’t fantasy or sci-fi related.

P.S. What happened to your full RSS feed?

By: redbeard

redbeard — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 17:50:20 +0000

Short stories by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. His short stories are beautiful, and not as intimidating as his novels. Also, Like Water for Chocolate might be a fun one around then.

By: Serin

Serin — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 14:59:35 +0000

I second The Westing Game, The Face on the Milk Carton, and the Tripod trilogy, though some of those might have been 5th grade for me. Really really second Watership Down – I had great conversations with my Jr High librarian about that book.

I also really loved Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NYMH and Gary Paulson’s Hatchet, but again I think those were a little younger than 11.

I was on a horror streak in Jr High and read Stephen King and Ann Rice. Not sure you should necessarily recommend either. Louis Duncan had a couple of YA thrillers that I and my friends read around that age – scary enough to be exciting, YA enough not to have to read them behind our parents’ backs. Oh! Down a Dark Hall especially – it’s about an evil and mysterious boarding school, and I don’t remember the book well, aside from that I loved it.