The "non-reader" has left the building! Now what?

[swimmermom3]

Over the last couple of years, I have written at different times about my youngest son as being the "non-reader in a house full of books." Shelf upon shelf of Newberry award-winning books from the older kids have gone unread by the youngest, with only A Wrinkle in Time and Alexander's The Iron Ring receiving any level of approval. DS is happy if I read to him and does have a couple of shelves of favorites that include Greek and Roman mythology, Alice in Wonderland, and authors, Coolidge and Haugaard among others. Classic retellings from Seamus Heaney, Rosemary Sutcliff and Geraldine McCaughrean also make the grade.

 

At the beginning of eighth grade this year, he was actually proud to write a poem that mentioned his dusty shelves of unread books.:tongue_smilie: In 7th grade, I had to buy a second core's worth of books to satisfy his older brother's reading appetite while he was working through Sonlight.

 

So...the night before school started, my dd gave ds The Hunger Games to read. A day later he picked up Fahrenheit 451 of his own free will and read it!:001_huh: Since then, he has added 1984, Animal Farm, and is currently reading Ciardi's translation for The Inferno, which he requested and cannot put down.

 

Now what? What else should I be suggesting for him? I am currently reading Dava Sobel's Longitude out loud to him. His tastes are so eclectic that I don't have clue as to what will work and what won't work. This year, I am letting him pick his own reading.

[TechWife]

This year, I am letting him pick his own reading.

 

I think this sounds like the perfect plan. Since you have a house full of books, he'll likely be able to find reading material!

 

If he wants some recommendations, have him search amazon for a book he has read & liked and then look at the "Amazon recommends" section or "books others who bought this purchased" sections that come up.

[Corraleno]

I think this sounds like the perfect plan. Since you have a house full of books, he'll likely be able to find reading material!

 

If he wants some recommendations, have him search amazon for a book he has read & liked and then look at the "Amazon recommends" section or "books others who bought this purchased" sections that come up.

 

:iagree:

The absolute best decision I ever made in our homeschool was not to assign reading to DS, but just let him discover and explore on his own. I also did what TechWife recommends with Amazon — when DS found a book or series he liked, I'd search Amazon for similar books, or other books by the same author, and make a list of things he could look for at the library.

 

He's gone from being an extremely reluctant reader to a voracious reader who's rarely without a book, and usually has a stack lined up waiting in the wings. He's recently read the Prydain Chronicles and the Earthsea Trilogy, and he's currently into Tolkein — which is something of a miracle for a seriously dyslexic 7th grade boy who could hardly be bothered to skim a Magic Treehouse book three years ago.

 

So I will happily celebrate with you the Dude's initiation into the wonderful world of reading for pleasure; may he "lose" many wonderful hours in those magical worlds!

:party:

 

Jackie

[medawyn]

I've had a lot of success with that age (boys in particular!) with Ender's Game and sequels by Orson Scott Card. I usually recommend starting with Ender's Game and then reading the companion novel Ender's Shadow; I've had boys read all 9 of the books in a matter of months who were "nonreaders" before.

[swimmermom3]

Jackie! This has been so exciting and I am sure you fell the same way for your son. I didn't realize that Dude was listening in to all the discussions I was having the older kids. His first few book choices were recommendations from his older brother. I nearly drove off the road when he wanted to discuss 1984 all the way home from sailing. What is disconcerting is that I feel like we skipped over the middle ground. He went from reading almost nothing on his own to picking up Catch 22, which he did decide he was not quite ready for. On the other hand, we read the opening paragraphs for Moby Dick recently while listening to a TC lecture and now he would like to try that. He remembers bits and pieces about the book from MCT's Paragraph Town and also just listened to an interview with author, Nathanial Philbrick on NPR about his new book on Melville. I am thinking we might try to find a great audio version.

 

I like TechWife's idea for letting ds check out similar books on Amazon.

 

It has been difficult to let go of my expectations of what I would like him to read or that I have to shake up my lit program to make sure he has some context as well as the genre information to go with his choices. Dante would have been far down my list of recommendations for him and I am so grateful to the members who confirmed the choice of Ciardi as translator.

[memphispeg]

Love "Enders Game" and, hey, how about Isaac Asimov's foundation trilogy? They are long and meaty and may show their age a bit. Also there are his "Robot" books. All of these ask the big questions like "what is a society"? What is "intelligence"? What is "human". Guys my age read them when they were your son's age. It gave inspiration to a whole generation of tech nerds!

[Karen in CO]

His tastes are so eclectic that I don't have clue as to what will work and what won't work. This year, I am letting him pick his own reading.

 

Please let him choose his own reading. Let his older siblings freely recommend books for him and let him freely read.

 

My ds has strongly suggested to me that I do the same for his sisters. He even HATED Tolkien when we read it in high school, but when he picked it up on his own in college, he loved it. I was convinced that a good reading list would make him into a stronger reader. It didn't. He was already a strong reader and rejected books that were imposed on him. Access to books and people that love books seems to work better for some kids than a booklist.

 

Nurture that new love of books with books and discussions. Please.

 

Also, keep up the shared reading since you both enjoy it, and seek his input for books to share. Welcome him and his developing tastes into the world of the bibliophiles.

Edited October 20, 2011 by Karen in CO

[MBM]

Your son's reluctance to read and choice of books sounds eerily like my youngest, who is now in high school. Here are some of the books that have resonated with him. (Yours might have already read some of these, but I'll throw them out there anyway.)

 

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. My son's absolute favorite. Always on his nightstand.

The Merlin series by T.A. Barron. Supposedly better than Harry Potter and not as long.

The Trumpeter of Krakow. Sounds boring, but ds really liked it.

The Wheel on the School

The Phantom Tollbooth

The Dot and Line (also by Juster, very short, quirky)

Flatland. Satire about Victorian times presented as a math tale; not just for kids who like math.

Of Mice and Men

Lord of the Flies

To Kill a Mockingbird

Feed by M.T. Anderson. Homeschooled girl featured in it; does have cuss words.

Just about anything by Mark Twain

We liked this version of Moby Dick for kids: 978-0-7636-3018-8

The Giver, Gathering Blue, The Messenger

 

Ursula LeGuin's short story "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas," but some kids could find it too disturbing. I like to buy anthologies of short stories so ds can sample a variety of authors, which (I hope) will lead him to read more.

 

 

Nowadays his favorite author is Kurt Vonnegut.

 

HTH.

ETA: At home my son peruses and chooses what books he wants to read, but I try to keep a supply that I think might interest him lying around. He goes to a high school and gets plenty of assigned reading there.

Edited October 20, 2011 by MBM
more info

[Guest]

I was convinced that a good reading list would make him into a stronger reader. It didn't. He was already a strong reader and rejected books that were imposed on him. Access to books and people that love books seems to work better for some kids than a booklist.

 

Nurture that new love of books with books and discussions. Please.

 

Also, keep up the shared reading since you both enjoy it, and seek his imput for books to share. Welcome him and his developing tastes into the world of the bibliophiles.

 

This is beautifully said!

 

One of the most wonderful things in the past couple of years in our homeschool is that dd recommends books to me as fast and furiously as I to her, and as fast as I can read them. Having kids recommend a book to you is a great way to have them orally summarize major themes, talk about character interactions, or the book's structure as selling points to mom; this is exactly what dd does for me. It also gives otherwise resistant kids a strong sense of their own tastes and preferences in literature: allows them to formulate literary identities, so to speak. Some kids (and we know who they are) will pick up far more difficult books to wrestle with if the book is not imposed but is explored by choice.

 

(There's no need to confine this to just "literature," either. Dd, the most artful resistor of required non-fiction reading the world has ever known, was given total freedom this year and has gotten me reading science books by Ian Stewart (a British mathematician and scientist). "I don't always understand it all," she says; "but it's REALLY interesting.")

[Mommyfaithe]

Jackie! This has been so exciting and I am sure you fell the same way for your son. I didn't realize that Dude was listening in to all the discussions I was having the older kids. His first few book choices were recommendations from his older brother. I nearly drove off the road when he wanted to discuss 1984 all the way home from sailing. What is disconcerting is that I feel like we skipped over the middle ground. He went from reading almost nothing on his own to picking up Catch 22, which he did decide he was not quite ready for. On the other hand, we read the opening paragraphs for Moby Dick recently while listening to a TC lecture and now he would like to try that. He remembers bits and pieces about the book from MCT's Paragraph Town and also just listened to an interview with author, Nathanial Philbrick on NPR about his new book on Melville. I am thinking we might try to find a great audio version.

 

I like TechWife's idea for letting ds check out similar books on Amazon.

 

It has been difficult to let go of my expectations of what I would like him to read or that I have to shake up my lit program to make sure he has some context as well as the genre information to go with his choices. Dante would have been far down my list of recommendations for him and I am so grateful to the members who confirmed the choice of Ciardi as translator.

 

This is exactly what dd 13 and dd 22 both did. I can recommend Rick Riodans books...highly. So much fun! Ender's Game was a blast. I read all 11 of them..and so did Ingrid, Yorrick and Carl...over a summer.

 

I can also suggest Ted Dekker's Circle trilogy which is actually 4 books...

Alas Babylon....

 

 

But be careful of This Perfect Day. I gave this one to Carl...after his older siblings raved about it.....and I remembered reading it in high school....so, there I am at a swim meet...rereading it because I noticed Carl giving me funny looks...yet, he stayed up all night reading....and I am getting redder and redder...hoping no one is reading over my shoulder. Oh my!!!! That book was filthy. A great read...but oy......and I am not extremely strict on what my kiddies read...thought I'd give you a heads up.

 

Enjoy your reader.....we are off to go buy Riordan's new book today...a treat for good work ....

 

Faithe

[Mommyfaithe]

Your son's reluctance to read and choice of books sounds eerily like my youngest, who is now in high school. Here are some of the books that have resonated with him. (Yours might have already read some of these, but I'll throw them out there anyway.)

 

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. My son's absolute favorite. Always on his nightstand.

The Merlin series by T.A. Barron. Supposedly better than Harry Potter and not as long.

The Trumpeter of Krakow. Sounds boring, but ds really liked it.

The Wheel on the School

The Phantom Tollbooth

The Dot and Line (also by Juster, very short, quirky)

Flatland. Satire about Victorian times presented as a math tale; not just for kids who like math.

Of Mice and Men

Lord of the Flies

To Kill a Mockingbird

Feed by M.T. Anderson. Homeschooled girl featured in it; does have cuss words.

Just about anything by Mark Twain

We liked this version of Moby Dick for kids: 978-0-7636-3018-8

The Giver, Gathering Blue, The Messenger

 

Ursula LeGuin's short story "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas," but some kids could find it too disturbing. I like to buy anthologies of short stories so ds can sample a variety of authors, which (I hope) will lead him to read more.

 

 

Nowadays his favorite author is Kurt Vonnegut.

 

HTH.

ETA: At home my son peruses and chooses what books he wants to read, but I try to keep a supply that I think might interest him lying around. He goes to a high school and gets plenty of assigned reading there.

 

Great list!! I loved most of these myself. Shared reading is what works well around here....books are for loving, talking about, discussing...or not if that is the case. Some books are too personal to talk about. It would be like sharing a confidence entrusted to you.

 

Faithe

 

Eta: I love Vonnegut.

[Guest]

Since some of Dude's reading has been in the direction of science fiction/fantasy, he might enjoy playing around with this flow-chart, based on the top 100 sci-fi/fantasy books as compiled by NPR readers:

 

http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2011/09/flowchart-for-navigating-nprs-top-100-sff-books/

 

Scroll down a bit to get to the interactive chart.

 

Many thanks to JennW for originally sharing this with me.

[Corraleno]

Since some of Dude's reading has been in the direction of science fiction/fantasy, he might enjoy playing around with this flow-chart, based on the top 100 sci-fi/fantasy books as compiled by NPR readers:

 

http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2011/09/flowchart-for-navigating-nprs-top-100-sff-books/

 

Scroll down a bit to get to the interactive chart.

 

Many thanks to JennW for originally sharing this with me.

 

:lol::lol::lol: That chart is AWESOME!

 

Jackie

[swimmermom3]

Please let him choose his own reading. Let his older siblings freely recommend books for him and let him freely read.

 

My ds has strongly suggested to me that I do the same for his sisters. He even HATED Tolkien when we read it in high school, but when he picked it up on his own in college, he loved it. I was convinced that a good reading list would make him into a stronger reader. It didn't. He was already a strong reader and rejected books that were imposed on him. Access to books and people that love books seems to work better for some kids than a booklist.

 

Nurture that new love of books with books and discussions. Please.

 

Also, keep up the shared reading since you both enjoy it, and seek his input for books to share. Welcome him and his developing tastes into the world of the bibliophiles.

 

Karen, thank you for this. I agree with KarenAnne that it is beautifully said and I can't tell you how much I needed to hear it. I value your input and feel a sense of relief in reading your words.

 

I am reading some of the professional works of English teacher, Nanci Atwell, who is a strong advocate for free reading choices. While she is a middle school teacher, she had a couple of suggestions for how she would teach high school English. My little brain keeps yelling, "Yes! Yes!" It was as though she had heard all the complaints my older kids had heaped upon their English classes. I have been dying to discuss some of those ideas but am keenly aware that on this board, most often, literary selection is so wed to the history cycle that free choice would almost feel heretical.

 

While I wasn't sure how to approach this topic of free reading choice, I did want to share that there is hope for those of you with non-readers.:D

 

KarenAnne, we have talked about this before. I sense that your method of "teaching" literature to your daughter developed not just because of her singular needs, but from some of your less-than-satisfactory experiences as an instructor in the college classroom. I kept thinking that to do something similar here with my son would require skills and experience that I do not have. Some days, it does, but other days I find myself growing right alongside my son. I am learning to be increasingly more flexible, even though we read Animal Farm now instead of later in the year with its appropriate unit in history. Nervous twitch. Sigh. :tongue_smilie:

 

Faithe, I had to laugh at your anecdote. I often find myself recommending books I read in college to my older kids, who then come back a few days later and tease me about my failing memory. Sometimes there are red faces on both sides, but oh well.:D

 

A huge "thank you" to all for your suggestions and help.:grouphug:

[Corraleno]

KarenAnne, we have talked about this before. I sense that your method of "teaching" literature to your daughter developed not just because of her singular needs, but from some of your less-than-satisfactory experiences as an instructor in the college classroom. I kept thinking that to do something similar here with my son would require skills and experience that I do not have. Some days, it does, but other days I find myself growing right alongside my son. I am learning to be increasingly more flexible, even though we read Animal Farm now instead of later in the year with its appropriate unit in history. Nervous twitch. Sigh. :tongue_smilie:

 

You don’t need "expertise"! If you can ask good questions, and you can listen to your child’s answers with genuine interest, and keep the discussion going, you will be amazed at the insights your kids will come up with on their own — with no “study guide,†no list of “comprehension questions,†no pre-prepared analysis. As a parent, you can give your kids something far more precious than “expertise,†something they will rarely if ever find in school or college: freedom to explore and think and bounce ideas off someone who actually cares what they think and is genuinely interested in their ideas.

 

DS and I have had some truly wonderful discussions about literature and history simply by following up on his comments and questions. He recently tired of one series because he said the plot had gotten so predictable he knew in advance what would happen and how every one would react, so I asked him what he thought makes a book predictable, and how other books, the ones that kept him “hooked†right to the end, had avoided that problem? That led to a really interesting discussion about characterization, and how much more enjoyable books are when the characters seem real and complex and don’t always react in predictable ways, and that led to a discussion about how some plots seem to be driven by the characters themselves, whereas in other books you can tell that the author outlined the plot and then “just made the characters act it out like puppets instead of real people making choices.†I don’t think I would have ever gotten that kind of insight from him by assigning a book he wasn’t interested in and and having him answer an “essay prompt†about characterization.

 

The idea of formal “narrations†totally turned him off to reading, and yet he will follow me around the house summarizing the latest events in the book he’s reading — including why he thinks a character acted a certain way, what he thinks might happen next, etc. He will bookmark paragraphs and dialog that he finds particularly interesting or effective or funny and read them aloud to me, and then we can talk about how well that sentence paints a picture of the setting, or how the sounds of the words create an eery feeling, or how the dialog tells you something really interesting or surprising about the character. And then we can play with it — let’s replace all the adjectives with really cliche descriptions. Let’s change the metaphors into similes — what happens? How can we change the dialog to make the character sound sarcastic instead of hurt, or vice versa. Etc.

 

But none of this is “school work†of course, it’s just casual conversation at the breakfast table. ;)

 

Jackie

[Corraleno]

I have been dying to discuss some of those ideas but am keenly aware that on this board, most often, literary selection is so wed to the history cycle that free choice would almost feel heretical.

 

Well, here's some advice from a few people who seemed to know what they were doing:

 

Do not train children to learn by force and harshness, but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may better discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each. Plato

 

Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work. Aristotle

 

Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing of what it takes in. Leonardo da Vinci

 

A man ought to read just as inclination leads him, for what he reads as a task will do him little good. Samuel Johnson

 

It is in fact nothing short of a miracle that modern methods of instruction have not yet strangled the holy curiosity of enquiry, for this delicate little plant, aside from stimulation, stands mostly in need of freedom. Albert Einstein

 

:001_smile:

Jackie

[memphispeg]

That chart is more than awesome - we just had a blast!!! Does npr have them for other types of lit?

[Guest]

You don’t need "expertise"! If you can ask good questions, and you can listen to your child’s answers with genuine interest, and keep the discussion going, you will be amazed at the insights your kids will come up with on their own — with no “study guide,†no list of “comprehension questions,†no pre-prepared analysis. As a parent, you can give your kids something far more precious than “expertise,†something they will rarely if ever find in school or college: freedom to explore and think and bounce ideas off someone who actually cares what they think and is genuinely interested in their ideas.

 

This is exactly true. Dd has uncannily chosen as her favorite genres the only two genres I have almost always found unreadable and incomprehensible: sci-fi/fantasy and drama. I'm not kidding or exaggerating -- I really don't get them.

 

But this past year I had an enormous revelation. We had seen a Neil Simon play in the theater and while we both liked it, we couldn't figure out a way to have a discussion about why we liked it; we didn't know what to hook onto, how to talk about it. Then a couple of months later we saw Death of a Salesman. Dd commented that both these plays dealt with roughly the same time period in American history, both focused on the disintegration of the family, and both ended with a single person left isolated in the family house.

 

Well, that started us off. We just started wondering aloud together: did the way the family dispersed have anything to with the comic tone of Simon's play vs. the tragic one of the Miller play? What economic factors affected each family differently? Similarly? What options for different ways of life were open to people from each play, and why did they take them or not? Were women similarly restricted or not? What did the plays have to say about the role of a mother in this time period? What factors seem to have played the biggest role in tipping the Miller play into tragedy, whereas Simon could still play around with comedy in the midst of despair and destruction?

 

It was one of the most fabulous discussions dd and I have ever had about any work of literature, period. It wouldn't have come about if I hadn't been clueless about the plays, or if I had tried to take over and make it into a lesson imbued with historical research and literary analysis. It was my very unknowingness that made it such a wonderful space of unrestricted questioning and conversation with no pre-set agenda. None of it involved any research or lecturing. It was a mutual bouncing around of ideas. And anyone can indeed do this.

 

Similarly, dd this summer read through the unabridged Don Quixote, which I am forced to admit I have never managed despite three tries. I didn't lecture her, I didn't write up a historical lecture, I didn't make her write a paper. She thought it was hilarious, so she followed me around the house commenting on it, and she would bring up lots of references to Don Quixote in the weeks and months that followed -- which suggested the quite natural question, why does this particular character, this particular story, have such cultural reverberations? This is not something I "taught" her, but something we will continue to discuss and explore for months, possibly years. It's open-ended. It has no single answer.

 

Likewise, dd has now compiled close to 100 pages of her favorite literary quotes, nearly all from books I haven't read. She reads them to me, we discuss their phrasing, rhythm, the things they have in common that makes them very reflective of dd's tastes and sense of language. This is not something I have had formal training in or have done myself, ESPECIALLY with the kinds of writing dd picks out. I knew dd loved quoting things and making lists, so I bought her a special notebook and suggested she have a special place to keep her favorites. She took off and I have had no part in it except as sounding board and audience.

 

My academic background has indeed given me what I need to teach formal lectures and to tutor explicitly like Ester Maria does. But I consciously and deliberately do NOT do this with dd, for a huge number of reasons. This includes the fact that I rarely draw on my own knowledge because what dd loves is so different from what I like and know; and because she learns in ways not best fostered by me telling her what she would far rather discover for herself in her own good time.

 

In other words, Lisa, I think you vastly overestimate the role of specialist knowledge in what I do. I don't have a magic key. When dd was very small someone once harangued me about how parents were not qualified to homeschool; when they found out I had a PhD in literature they said, "Oh, that's all right then, you know how to teach her to read." Well, no, in fact I didn't. And in fact I never taught her; dd learned on her own. I did read to her, play letter games, answer all her questions, buy books and audiobooks, take her to signings by kids' book authors, and all manner of other things. But she taught herself because I didn't know how to teach her in the way she learned (that is, NOT phonetically); and I know now that she continues to teach herself, I am her companion and co-explorer, her sometimes tutor and her constant audience, rather than someone standing up in front of her handing out knowledge.

 

Developing literary understanding does take time, it does take thought, it does take a lot of listening and questioning. Fortunately, reading, talking about reading, listening to author readings and interviews, going to related lectures and exhibits, following book reviews, are things that absolutely anybody can do.

 

It does NOT take advanced degrees, it doesn't take staying up all night poring over contextual material and thematic analyses, it doesn't take formal written exercises. And it's incredibly, dramatically, mind-bogglingly rewarding for both you and your child.

[Guest]

Well, here's some advice from a few people who seemed to know what they were doing:

 

Do not train children to learn by force and harshness, but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may better discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each. Plato

 

Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work. Aristotle

 

Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing of what it takes in. Leonardo da Vinci

 

A man ought to read just as inclination leads him, for what he reads as a task will do him little good. Samuel Johnson

 

It is in fact nothing short of a miracle that modern methods of instruction have not yet strangled the holy curiosity of enquiry, for this delicate little plant, aside from stimulation, stands mostly in need of freedom. Albert Einstein

 

:001_smile:

Jackie

 

How many of these people do you think were VSLs? :lol::lol::lol:

 

I've long had a sneaking suspicion that Sam Johnson was an Aspie; he had lots of OCD tendencies like picking up orange peel on the streets and making collections, or having to touch every post on a certain street; he was pretty clueless about his appearance, more than once setting his wig on fire from reading too close to the candle, oblivious; he was very rule-conscious and logical; he had clear executive function problems when you read about the chaotic process of the making of the Dictionary... on and on. There's lots more.

 

We pretty much know that Leonardo and Einstein were VSL.

 

That leaves the classicists...

[Colleen in NS]

So...the night before school started, my dd gave ds The Hunger Games to read. A day later he picked up Fahrenheit 451 of his own free will and read it!:001_huh: Since then, he has added 1984, Animal Farm, and is currently reading Ciardi's translation for The Inferno, which he requested and cannot put down.

 

:party::party:

 

Now what? What else should I be suggesting for him? I am currently reading Dava Sobel's Longitude out loud to him. His tastes are so eclectic that I don't have clue as to what will work and what won't work. This year, I am letting him pick his own reading.

 

How about letting him browse various shelves at the library? Tell him to pull out titles that catch his interest, and read the front jackets to see if the material inside would appeal? I have a friend who does this one shelf at a time. She combs through each title on the shelf, picking out ones she wants to read.

 

I have been dying to discuss some of those ideas but am keenly aware that on this board, most often, literary selection is so wed to the history cycle that free choice would almost feel heretical.

 

I'd love to read any discussion you'd open up about those ideas (but I always like your discussions in general). I plan to flexibly (as in, there is a lot of choice in historical lit. lists, and I won't have my kids analyze every one they read for history) wed literature to the history cycle for high school for the sake of convenience/orderliness in studying history. But because I want to keep my kids reading in addition to their required studies, I also let them have lots of free choice (even now. even when they were younger.).

[Guest]

That chart is more than awesome - we just had a blast!!! Does npr have them for other types of lit?

 

Isn't it a wonderful plaything? Sadly, as far as I can tell, there isn't anything like it anywhere else. The readerly world is crying out for more literary flowcharts! Imagine the possibilities!

[TechWife]

Oohh, squeal!!

[Tress]

Jackie and Karen-Ann, thank you for sharing how you do this.

I'm quietly :bigear:, so that someday I might be able to do this.

 

BTW, that flowchart is awesome!

[PenKase]

(There's no need to confine this to just "literature," either. Dd, the most artful resistor of required non-fiction reading the world has ever known, was given total freedom this year and has gotten me reading science books by Ian Stewart (a British mathematician and scientist). "I don't always understand it all," she says; "but it's REALLY interesting.")

 

:lol::lol::lol: I thought I had the only one of these. This gives me hope!!

 

This thread is brilliant. Definitely one for the teacher's binder. Thanks gurus!

[Ester Maria]

[...] Ester Maria [...]

:seeya:

 

In a moment of complete confusion and distraction I found myself here again, how endearing to see myself mentioned, LOL.

 

Lisa, in my limited experience, Ciardi is by far the most enjoyable Dante in English. I am afraid I do not hold him to be the best overall compromise (in terms of tempering poetic freedom with being faithful to the text), but his version is the one I would suggest to somebody who is discovering the joys of reading, so your son is on a good way. I hope he enjoys it.

[Jane in NC]

:seeya:

 

In a moment of complete confusion and distraction I found myself here again, how endearing to see myself mentioned, LOL.

 

Lisa, in my limited experience, Ciardi is by far the most enjoyable Dante in English. I am afraid I do not hold him to be the best overall compromise (in terms of tempering poetic freedom with being faithful to the text), but his version is the one I would suggest to somebody who is discovering the joys of reading, so your son is on a good way. I hope he enjoys it.

 

How lovely to "see" you again! You were recently mentioned on the General Board where you are also missed.

 

link

[Amy in TX]

How lovely to "see" you again!

 

:iagree:

 

Here only because of confusion and distraction? Heaven forbid! :P

Edited October 25, 2011 by Amy in TX

[Kareni]

 

http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2011/09/flowchart-for-navigating-nprs-top-100-sff-books/

 

Many thanks to JennW for originally sharing this with me.

 

 

Thanks for sharing this link; I finally had a chance to take a good look at it and enjoyed it very much.

 

Regards,

Kareni