The Vine: March 9, 2007
Hey, Sars,
I have an 11-year-old bookworm who is quiet at school, and who has been somewhat down lately, middle school is just not what he had hoped it would be. While at first he loved the frequent change of scenery involved in multiple classes, now he’s coming home looking like somebody stole his Roald Dahl collection. There are lots of deep sighs and very short crabby responses to my husband’s or my barrage of “What’s wrong, you can talk to us” type of lame attempts at drawing him out. When there is one of those opportunities when he feels like sharing something, it’s usually something like “[sigh…] I mean, what is the POINT of everything? I understand what they’re teaching us, it’s just all so meaningless.” Apparently he finishes his work early in class and just sits there waiting for the bell to ring for the next one, same song, second verse. It sounds like he’s more bored than anything and the thought of being bored like this “all day long every single day for ever and EVER” is what gets him down.I remember when I was in (what was then called) junior high, I always had a book handy to kill off the extra time in class. I wasn’t picky, I read a lot of bestsellers at the time (and also whatever was on my parents’ bookshelves). Our son does love to read but has already read a lot of the books directed at his age group, and with his tendency toward being somewhat mopey and dramatic, a lot of the “coming of age” material just gets him down or worked up (a la The Giver). Every time he takes a standardized test he shows his reading level at somewhere post high school, so I think he has a lot more choices for reading material than many might at his age.So the question is, what books might be appropriate for him to give him a lift and kill some time at school? To give you an idea of the type of children’s fiction that he has really enjoyed, he has read a lot of C.S. Lewis and some Tolkien, everything by Dahl, Sacher, Lemony Snicket and of course Rowling. We’re no help here, I read a lot of checkout-stand mysteries and my mom’s Erma Bombeck books, my husband’s only recommendation was Catcher in the Rye. Our son doesn’t necessarily want books directed toward the youth market, he wants a new challenge, but he probably doesn’t need anything too PG-13. Currently finding a hiding place for our copy of Jarhead and for anything by Tom Robbins
Dear Rob,
My parents had a similar problem with me at that age; I’d read everything aimed at my age cohort in the local public library, and the librarians weren’t keen on turning me loose in the adult section, so I started plowing through my parents’ college books, which…I was eleven. The level of the language wasn’t an issue, but to say that I really got was I was reading when it came to Hemingway is probably a stretch, which is the issue here, I think — the themes in adult fiction are just kind of over the head of the average middle-schooler.
So, I would suggest non-fiction for your son right now. It might seem counterintuitive, given that his tastes seem to run to fantasy, but I think it’s the best way to close the gap between his chronological age and his scholastic one. I really liked William Poundstone’s Big Secrets series at that age, and Poundstone has a couple other books in a similar vein, like The Ultimate, that are perfect for dipping in and out of during a school day.
He might also enjoy a collection of ghost stories, which tend to be more all-ages. And you could always ask a librarian to recommend some historical bios or memoirs that aren’t too juicy (or boring) for a youngun.
Readers, let’s find some reading material for the kid. No more than two books per post, please; you can also recommend periodicals.
Tags: Ask The Readers kids popcult
I second all the recommendations for Dark Is Rising, Terry Pratchett, Madelaine L’Engle, Ursula K. LeGuin, and Anne McCaffrey. The Hardy Boys might actually be a bit juvenile for him at this point, although working through the series would keep him occupied for a while.
I also recommend the magazine subscription idea. National Geographic, mentioned earlier, would be a great choice. If he’s of a scientific bent at all, good choices (in order of increasing complexity) are Popular Science, Discover, Scientific American, and Nature. Nature is almost certainly over his head at this point, but he could probably handle it in high school, after getting used to the others.
Try taking him to peruse the magazine rack at a local book store, then subscribe to whatever really grabs him.
I think that Lloyd Alexander, Susan Cooper, and L’Engle are all excellent suggestions.
As a voracious and precocious reader myself, I would also agree that letting him lose in the 19th and early 20th century might be your best bet. I struggled through Jane Eyre and some of Dickens in fourth grade and while I didn’t understand a lot of what was going on, I did enjoy them. If nothing else it might make his brain feel like it was working.
I’d also like to agree with whoever mentioned the possibility of sending him to a school with at least some options for gifted students. I went to a public program for gifted and talented students and, while I understand and to an extend agree with arguments against them, it made such a difference for me. Being surrounded by kids who were as smart or smarter than me pushed me a lot further than I would have pushed myself.
I highly recommend James Reston Jr.’s two wonderful Medieval history books: Warriors of God (Saladin and Richard I in the Third Crusade) and The Last Apocalypse (Europe at the year 1000).
Both are extremely accessible. Reston covers material that has been ruined by onerous and droning professors by writing with a style that delves deep into the source material without watering it down.
A middle schooler with a high reading ability and an interest in Tolkien et al. would (presumably) enjoy engaging accounts of historical knights, kings, battles, and the aftereffects.
Wow, everybody has such great suggestions. Susan Cooper, Madeleine L’Engle, Anne McCaffrey and Ursula K. LeGuin are big favorites of mine, too. I really liked Dickens when I was 11 or 12, especially David Copperfield and Great Expectations. I also thought Stephen King was a kick in the pants. Salem’s Lot made my hair stand on end.
Going for suggestions I didn’t see:
1) John Wyndham – “The Chrysalids” or “Day of the Triffids”.
2) Tad Williams’ “Tailchasers’ Song” is similar to “Watership Down” (I recommend it as well), but with the focal species of cats.
These are potentially moody in places, so definitely have a glance through them first.
If you go Azimov, he has some often overlooked short stories (Black Widowers Club) that center on solving puzzles (setup – meeting of a number of people who try to solve a problem presented to them by the guest of honour).
This reminds me a bit of myself, but not being interested in most YA fiction, and never enjoying sci fi, I pretty much stopped reading books for several years at about this age. What I did read was, uh, Mad Magazines. Not everyone’s cup of tea, and they certainly stopped being funny around the mid-teens, but I loved reading them over and over again, and even reading them back now, the level of satire is actually quite sophisticated. Even if puerile humour isn’t your kid’s thing, magazines can be a great way to pass time in that “too old for kids’ books, too young for adult novels” age.
For a book suggestion, one series I did read at about age 12/13/14 was the “Tomorrow” series by John Marsden. They’re an Australian series, but Wikipedia says Scholastic is publishing them in the US. The essential plot is a group of teenage friends who go hiking in the bush and come back to find the country has been invaded. It’s uh, not as dumb as it sounds. There are some adult themes, I suppose, but it’s not explicit, and as I said, I read the first one at maybe 12, and I was fine with the discussion of sex. Marsden has written a whole whack of great kids/teen books, though some do tend to bit “coming of age”-y. You can see a list at – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Marsden_%28writer%29
Lots of good suggestions from lots of clever folks. My $.02: I came to Ursula LeGuin later in life (late 30s) and think she’s FAB. Ditto Neil Gaiman. At that age, I was hooked first on Cooper’s “the dark is rising” series, and also, Stephen King. I’m not a fan of the horror movie genre, but I think his books are a great read (much to the consternation of my English teacher parents). They are accessable language wise, and that is such a great age to be creeped out at. I also recommend in a couple years, John Iriving. I know both of these authors have largely “adult themes” but I think it’s a good way for kids to be exposed to them, IN FICTION. Same for Kurt Vonnegut.
While you’re following some of the excellent reading choices listed here, I think you should also talk to the school. Talk to your sons’ teachers and see if they can’t give him more work or harder assignments. This way he can be doing extra math and history work, getting a well-rounded education instead of being so heavily focused on reading and probably getting in trouble for not paying attention in class. Believe me, I’ve been there and the few teachers who understood that I was just bored with the coursework and gave me extra projects had a lot less trouble with me in class.
Since I haven’t seen anyone else mention these, I would recommend Richard Peck’s YA novels, specifically Ghosts I Have Been (my personal favorite) or The Ghost Belonged To Me (which might appeal more, since the protagonist is a young boy). These are (mostly) light, funny books concerning the hijinks of kids living in a small town at the turn of the century; they both also feature, if you can’t tell from the titles, plotlines revolving around ghost stories.
If you’re going to start him on Gaiman, I’d actually suggest trying Coraline first–Stardust might be fine as well (I remember there being at least one sex scene, but I don’t believe it was explicit), but even as an adult I found the violence in Neverwhere rather horrifying. And American Gods is right out–definitely not for kids.
A thousand times yes to Pinkwater, Wodehouse, and The Chronicles of Chrestomanci.
I really liked mercedes lackey at that age. Not fantasy but I also read all my Dad’s old biggles books by W.E. Johns the later ones got repetative and had bits of racism but the whole flying theme may appeal.
I strongly agree with all the recommendations above. Both Sci-Fi and non-fiction have so much to offer and have a lot of PG-13 options.
I also think Rob should encourage him to take what he likes and expand on it – really study and explore a genre or theme. Peter and the Starcatchers by Ridley Pearson and Dave Barry is a great (and hilarious!) book – and I heartily recommend it – but Rob Jr. will get so much more out of it if he also reads Barre’s Peter Pan around the same time. And Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, too.
The same pairing can be made with Eragon by Christopher Paolini and Tolkein’s The Lord of the Rings. Eragon is a fun story to read, but it owes everything to Tolkien (which Paolini freely admits). Fantasy and Sci-Fi storytelling has a deep history and reading is so much richer when you understand that and know the canon of the genre. If this kid’s reading level is high he should be able to make those connections, which will help make him both a better reader AND a more critical thinker. Not to mention turn him into the best kind of book nerd. :-)
I remember reading so many of these suggestions as a kid. Also if he wants to try something a bit different I seem to remember reading James Hewitt’s vet stories when my parents despaired of me picking up Ben Elton. He wrote a serious amount of material which was later made into the All Creatures Great and Small series on BBC, I found them really funny as I recall.
I feel as though I know you people! I think I’ve read everything you’ve mentioned!
I’d also like to suggest C.J.Cherryh. She’s sci-fi, (more fi than sci,) and her stories are chock-full of aliens & adventure, and she’s wickedly prolific.
I too was an advanced bookworm in school, with very similiar reading interests to this woman’s son. I’d like to recommend “The Belgariad” series by David Eddings and the “Sword of Shannara” series by Terry Brooks. They’re both fantasy series, very age appropriate. The “Sword of Shannara” series in particular was a nice transition for me from young adult series to more mature fantasy series later on.
The number of book recs makes me happy. I love people who love books.
I’d recommend
-Rosemary Sutcliff, for solidly researched, exciting historical fiction with sympathetic protagonists.
-I really loved Gerald Durrell’s memoirs of his childhood in Corfu (his other books are good, too). Fabulous for kids who love science and/or animals, and *funny.*
While I was reading the mother’s letter my brain was saying “Pratchett Pratchett Pratchett Tell Her PRATCHETT” but since there are so many other fans here, I’ll say the Dragon of the Lost Sea series, by Laurence Yep. A wonderful boy-becomes-hero series that gives an introduction to Asian mythology.
To tie things back to my beloved Mr. Pratchett, he wrote a great book with Neil Gaiman, called Good Omens. It’s about what might happen if the Antichrist were switched at birth, so you now it’s good.
Try the Midnighters trilogy by Scott Westerfeld or the Shamer’s series by Lene Kaaberbol.
Congratulations and sympathy to all parents of gifted children, particularly those at the age when the first stirrings of puberty are adding to the mix.
I agree that the most urgent need, by far, is to get this boy’s teachers on side so that he can be given schoolwork more suited to his ability. Approaching the teaching staff at a school, especially a very large school, can be an intimidating prospect. Look for a teacher or librarian or other staff member with whom your child has some rapport, and try to arrange a discussion with him/her. A good school should welcome this sort of overture.
My own schooldays are far behind me, and I imagine that things are very different now. But I remember that we used to have textbooks with way more material in them than could possibly be covered in class time. For me it was a kick to read ALL the short stories in the literature reader, not just those that were assigned in class. Like Hermione Granger, I was simply weird that way.
The foregoing recommendations are excellent. So too is the suggestion not to limit your boy to any one genre, but to allow him the widest possible variety of reading material. A truly omnivorous reader won’t care whether it’s fiction, nonfiction, quarto, tabloid, battered mass-market paperback or scholarly biography, so long as the supply doesn’t run out!
Yes, to everyone who said _Three Musketeers_ and _The Count of Monte Cristo_. I read Three Musketeers at that age and just loved it. I also remember doing pretty well with Ursula Le Guin’s _Earthsea_ books, and all of Robin McKinley’s fantasy is really good for adults and kids alike. Start with _The Outlaws of Sherwood_ if he wants a male main character, or with _The Blue Sword_ if he doesn’t care, and avoid _Deerskin_ and her Beauty and the Beast stuff altogether.
Oh, and for a thematic rec, I really loved _Libby on Wednesday_ by Zilpha Keatley Snyder at that age… it’s not advanced in and of itself but it’s about a girl who finds all her middle school classes too easy, and can’t fit in socially.
I am a twelve year old girl who also is an avid reader. I particularly like fantasy books. My favorite series right now is “The Wheel of Time” by Robert Jordan. Both boys and girls are likely to enjoy it. However, if you are looking for a short book, “The Wheel of Time” series isn’t it. This series had twelve books in it, each about 600-1,000 pages long! I also love “The Mists of Avalon”, which is about 1,000 pages, but some would consider it a bit racy.