I’m needing some suggestions for books for my 13-year-old son. He’s gone through Harry Potter, The Chronicles of Narnia, and now all of Tolkien. He really needs to get out of the fantasy genre and I’m not exactly willing to trust his English teacher on choices. I’ve found some of her suggestions contain language and situations that I don’t approve. I’m sure there must be other parents out there with the same problem.
My son is an advanced reader, but not an enthusiastic one. I did have him read Night by Elie Wiesel and he was quite moved by it. Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated.
Julie got lots of good comments on her post, lots of good suggestions. And I said there that I thought the mom was right to question some of the choices that the schoolteacher might send home. A lot of young adult fiction is heavily concentrated around the themes of teen romance, sex, and youthful rebellion, perhaps because the writers or the publishers think those are the only subjects teens are interested in reading about. I’m not saying that authors shouldn’t deal with those and other sensitive themes in their young adult novels, but you know your child better than anyone. And you should know what he or she is ready to read in terms of “adult” content and what your family can tolerate or approve of in terms of worldview.
I also suggested that the mom in the email consider some nonfiction, a few good books about a subject her son is already interested in, anything from cars to sports to electronics to music. The nonfiction would “balance out” all the fantasy, and guys actually tend to like nonfiction. Lady teachers and moms, on the other hand, tend to think it doesn’t count as real reading if it’s nonfiction or if it’s a magazine. So, here are a few nonfiction and fiction suggestions for a thirteen year old boy. Links are to reviews here at Semicolon.
Fiction:
The Declaration by Gemma Malley. Dystopian sci-fi.
The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart. Mystery/adventure.
Isle of Swords by Thomas Wayne Batson. Pirate adventure.
Cracker: The Best Dog in Vietnam by Cynthia Kadohata. If he likes dog stories that include war also . . .
Code Talker by Joseph Bruchac. Navajo code talkers (radio operators) during WW II.
Code Orange by Caroline Cooney. Excellent adventure about a boy who almost inadvertently starts a smallpox epidemic in NYC.
Heat by Mike Lupica. Baseball fiction.
Leepike Ridge by N.D. Wilson. Action adventure in the tradition of Tom Sawyer.
Nonfiction: This list is a little tricky because as I indicated, it all depends on what the boy’s interests are. But here are a few possibilities.
Long Way Gone by Ismael Beah. A boy soldier in Sierra Leone. It’s violent and disturbing, but if he read and appreciated Night . . .
The New Way Things Work by David Macaulay. For the mechanically minded.
More suggestions from my readers for a 14 year old male friend of mine.
Any more ideas?