Children and Reading

A reviewer and I were talking about school imposed reading. Adults will remember those high school days when you were handed a book and told READ IT. This was followed by essays, tests, and lengthy discussions about symbolism, themes, metaphors, etc. I hated being told what to read. Shakespeare--I had no use for him and his speech that always ended with -eth. What he did sayeth never meanteth much to me.

In high school, there are a few books I did keep. To Kill A Mockingbird. I loved that story, just as much as I love the movie with Gregory Peck. George Stewart's Earth Abides - can you imagine being one of a handful of survivors to a major plague? I never minded reading Judith Guest's Ordinary People either.

Romeo & Juliet, I've never understood why we had to read it in both Freshman and Junior year. Worse, my grades on the tests given after reading the book never improved! Same goes for MacBeth or Hamlet.

John Steinbeck, I have all of his books and love reading them from time to time. But George Orwell's 1984 - no thanks.

With this my son is starting his 7th grade year. They have to finish 25 books in order to pass the class in June. To my amazement, I actually heard his teacher announce that they get to pick the books they read. She'll do some anthologies with them, but all of their other reading is on their own. Textbooks, magazine subscriptions (a full year of magazines counts as one book)- they all count as reading. It's ABOUT TIME. My son has two magazines that he will not let me miss - Consumer Reports and X-Box Magazine. He does read and reread these magazines all the time. I can't imagine any teacher saying a magazine counts, but I'm glad someone finally acknowledges it!

So far, my son is almost finished the first book in Phillip Pullman's trilogy. (Can't think of the name - but Golden Compass is one of the books - possibly the first, possibly not). He tends to be drawn to sci-fi/fantasy type books. He's working on The Hobbit in another class.

A question arose though - what books would you recommend to fussy readers?

Here are the answers I've come up with:

Romance -

Try Lavyrle Spencer. Her books are gentle enough to be teen friendly, the historical detail won't overwhelm a young woman, but the romances are incredible. Lavyrle is the writer who introduced me to romance.

General Fiction:

I'm hooked on authors like Steinbeck and Salinger. Not everyone agrees though.

Sci-Fi/Fantasy-

C.S. Lewis hands down. George Stewart of course. Stephen King (though he can be horror too). My son will add Eoin Colfer, and JK Rowling to this list.

Lois Duncan, Judy Blume and Ann Rinaldi are winners for the middle school ages in my mind. Lemony Snicket books are another big hit in my house.