S/O: What lit for 7th and 8th grade to prepare for high school level reading

[Chrysalis Academy]

Let's make a good reading list for 7th and 8th graders!  I know we've discussed in the past the good books to read aloud with younger children to prepare them for reading the classics, but let's really focus on independent reading for 7th and 8th graders here.  In another thread, Farrar mentioned Twain, Poe and London, as well as short stories.  What are other great books for 7th and 8th graders, challenging yet not overwhelming, thought provoking things but not so gritty and violent and/or sexual.  I know everybody's bar for that is different, but I'm thinking for example that I'd save something like Night by Eli Weisel, with depictions of violent death and inhumanity, or The Kite Runner (rape scenes) for an older kid.

 

 

[Haiku]

To Kill a Mockingbird (best book ever)

[chiguirre]

I like Lightning Lit's 7th and 8th grade selections:

 

For 7th: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, All Creatures Great and Small, The Story of My Life (Helen Keller), and Stories and Poems for Extremely Intelligent Children.

 

For 8th:

Treasure Island, A Day of Pleasure, A Christmas Carol, The Hobbit, My Family and Other Animals, To Kill a Mockingbird

 

I haven't used their materials, but I've liked the writing assignments Landry Academy uses with the readings. They're challenging but not overwhelming and they build nicely in complexity.

[happypamama]

This is on DD's list for 7th and 8th.  A lot of it is coordinated with her history program.  History also recommended Island of the Blue Dolphins and Kidnapped, both of which we skipped.  We listened to IotBD a while ago, and the part about the brother was so sad to her (being the motherly big sister to four little brothers -- hit too close to home) that she did not want to read it again, so we didn't.  She probably would have read Kidnapped, but she'd spent several weeks slogging through Oliver Twist for history, so I opted to let her skip Kidnapped in favor of something more to her preferred genre (a couple of Madeleine L'Engle's Austin books series).  She's read Little Women and Anne of Green Gables, and she read Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court and Hitchhiker's Guide last year, plus the whole Wrinkle in Time quintet.  So she's read some Dickens, and she's read some Twain so far already.

 

I need to decide on a couple of Shakespeare plays too.  And some Sherlock Holmes.

 

Keys to the Chronicles (allegory and allusions in Narnia), plus Of Other Worlds, plus the whole Narnia series as a reread

The American Revolution, Bliven -- history

Johnny Tremain -- history

Carry On, Mr. Bowditch -- history

The Captain's Dog -- history

The Sign of the Beaver -- history

Around the World in Eighty Days -- history

Things Fall Apart -- history

Call of the Wild

Summer of the Swans

either The Story of My life OR The Miracle Worker

All Creatures Great and Small

My Side of the Mountain

The Scarlet Pimpernel

War of the Worlds

The Purloined Letter -- I wanted to introduce her to some Poe, and I thought maybe that wouldn't be too creepy, although I don't remember.

The Ransom of Red Chief

The Gift of the Magi

A Christmas Carol

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

The Jungle Book -- history

The Red Baron -- history

Tom Sawyer -- history

Red Badge of Courage -- history

Animal Farm -- history

Diary of Anne Frank (maybe; I never read it, and she can be sensitive to anything with children suffering, so we might have to skip that one if it gets to be too upsetting for her)

To Kill a Mockingbird -- history

Chinese Cinderella -- history

No Promises in the Wind -- history

Number the Stars -- history

The Winged Watchman -- history

 

The Giver is NOT on my required, or even suggested, list.  I remember reading Mockingbird, Animal Farm, Tom Sawyer, and some of the short stories in 7th-8th grade and am looking forward to rereading them with her.  We also read The Hobbit in 8th, but she's well familiar with it and has read Fellowship of the Ring, so we'll probably wait for more of those until whenever we're ready to do the Tolkien study, maybe as a family like we're doing Narnia this year.  I'd probably have her read The Necklace, but I have bad memories of reading it; we read it in 10th grade and used it over and over and over that year, until I was thoroughly sick of it.  Every time the book introduced a new literary analysis element, it used The Necklace as an example.  

[mom31257]

I'm planning literature and historical fiction to go along with our history studies. Ds will also be using MP Poetry and Short Stories: American Literature as well as Figuratively Speaking. These aren't set in stone, and I hope to add to the lists.

 

Historical Fiction:

 

7^th: Adam of the Road, Adventures of Robin Hood, Morning Star of the Reformation,

8^th: Johnny Tremain, Amos Fortune Free Man, Across Five Aprils

 

 

Literature:

7^th: The Giver, The Hobbit, The Outsiders, The White Mountains,

8^th: Hunger Games, Fahrenheit 451, Treasure Island

[Critterfixer]

What themes would you like her to think on and work through at her age? What problems would she be dealing in life that would be echoed in fiction and non-fiction?

I'm genuinely curious, because I just recently got out my Twenty Master Plots and how to build them and divided them into the years that I want to cover them in. And we won't be doing all twenty, since there is at least one, and possibly two that I think are better left alone until college.

In those plots are inherent themes, and I plan on covering them with literature as we discuss them.

 

ETA: Non fiction too! Because there are so many people in history who have great plots to their life stories.

[Lori D.]

Like Chiguirre, I found it helpful to look at what was in the reading list of middle school Lit. programs (ex: Lightning Lit 7 & 8), "boxed" curricula (ex: Sonlight), or syllabi from typical middle school classes (online searches).

 

Some very general ideas for "early classics":

- Little Women (Alcott)

- Sherlock Holmes short stories (Doyle)

- Murder on the Orient Express; And then There Were None (Christie)

- I Heard the Owl Call My Name (Craven)

- Animal Farm (Orwell)

- Something Wicked This Way Comes (Bradbury)

- The Sword in the Stone (White)

- The Lord of the Rings (Tolkien)

- The Time Machine, War of the Worlds (Wells)

- Ivanhoe (Scott)

- The Good Earth (Buck)

- Gulliver's Travels (Swift)

- Rip Van Winkle (Irving)

- Robinson Crusoe (Defoe)

- The Jungle Book (Kipling)

 

One thing I like about looking at the booklists from "boxed" curricula, or the syllabi from typical middle school classes, is that they are still using a lot of middle school level reading books but that are works with just a bit of meat for discussion. These work really well as "stepping stone" works as you move towards the classics, but also as practice in discussion. There are a few at late elementary reading level that are worth reading/discussing in middle school because there is some real depth there. I thinking of works like:

 

late elementary

- City of Ember; People of Spark (du Prau)

- Bull Run (Fleischman)

- A Wrinkle in Time (L'Engle)

- Sounder (Armstrong)

 

late elementary/early middle school

- Tuck Everlasting (Babbitt)

- Below the Root (Snyder)

- The Snow Queen (Anderson)

 

middle school

- Maniac Magee (Spinnelli)

- The Day They Came to Arrest the Book (Hentoff)

- The Bridge to Terebithia (Paterson)

- The Bronze Bow (Speare)

- The Great and Terrible Quest (Lovett)

- The Little Prince (de St. Exupery)

- The Dark is Rising (Cooper)

- Walk Two Moons (Creech)

- The Bread Winner (Ellis)

- Farewell to Manzanar (Houston)

 

late middle school/high school

- I Am David (Holm)

- The Samurai's Tale (Haugaard)

- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Smith)

- The Outsiders (Hinton)

- The Chosen (Potok)

- A Separate Peace (Knowles)

- Wizard of Earthsea (Le Guin)

- Ender's Game (Card)

 

 

Another idea might be to read books similar to classics you plan to read in high school, but are at a young adult reading level (again, the "stepping stone") idea.

 

- Out of the Dust (Hesse) --> The Grapes of Wrath (Steinbeck)

- Devil's Arthimetic (Yolen), The Book Thief (Zusak) --> Night (Wiesel)

- The Giver (Lowry) --> 1984 (Orwell)

- Watership Down (Adams) --> epics; esp. The Aeneid (Virgil)

- Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (Taylor) --> Black Like Me, The Invisible Man (Ellison), Their Eyes Were Watching God (Huston)

 

 

Also agreeing with Critterfixer -- knowing what kinds of themes, historical events, and ideas you want to start wrestling with helps you come up with a booklist with both "stepping stone" works and "early classics". And again agreeing with Critterfixer -- don't forget non-fiction! :) Of course, I'm completely drawing a blank for some reason, but things like:

 

- Story of My Life (Keller)

- Kon Tiki (Heyersdahl)

- The Road From Home ( ) -- not for the sensitive middle schooler!

- The Endless Steppe (Hautzig) -- not for the sensitive middle schooler!

- The Year of Impossible Goodbyes (Choi) 

- The Boys' War (Murphy)

- The Colditz Story (Reid)

- books by Albert Marrin

 

And, you'd need to sort through these threads (not all are at middle school level), but some super ideas here:

- Creating a High School Non-Fiction Reading List

- In Search of Non-Fiction That Reads Like Fiction for Year 4 of History Rotation, Modern Times

- Not to be Missed Non-Fiction?

- abbeyej's post (#6): Non-fiction reading recommendations for middle school needed

[Kfamily]

The list I created for my daughters for Years 7 and 8, part of our upper years, is designed to continue a foundation which was set in the early years (1-6). This same general list is part of the curriculum I've shared but is meant to be flexible. My own two daughters will have/did have slightly different lists for Years 7 and 8 vs. the lists for the curriculum. I think striking balance in the style of works, complexity of the works, the number of works and how to handle the works (output) is one of the most important components for literature for this level and varies from student to student.
 
Here is the combined list for Years 6-8 from my blog:
 
Years 6-8 Combined

Poetry:
Poetry for Young People: Robert Frost edited by Gary D. Schmidt
Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti ( the edition illustrated by Arthur Rackham would be nice)
Poetry for Young People: Rudyard Kipling edited by Gillooly and Sharpe
Poetry aligned with Anne of Green Gables
Lady of the Lake by Sir Walter Scott
Evangeline by Henry W. Longfellow
The Courtship of Miles Standish by Henry W. Longfellow
The Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Year 8 Poetry aligned with History: Select Minor Poems by Milton, Donne, Raleigh, Petrarch and Shakespeare's Sonnets

Tales and Mythology:
The Sampo by James Baldwin
The Story of Siegfried by James Baldwin
Myths of the World by Padraic Colum
The Trojan War by Oliva Coolidge

The Wanderings of Odysseus by Rosemary Sutcliff
Bulfinch's Mythology by Thomas Bulfinch
Stories From Dante by Mary Macgregor
Aeneid for Boys and Girls by Alfred Church or In Search of a Homeland: The Story of the Aeneid by Penelope Lively



Shakespeare and Drama:
Tales From Shakespeare by C. & M. Lamb
A Midsummer Night's Dream William Shakespeare
Henry V by William Shakespeare
Everyman: A Morality Play



Author Study:
Mark Twain and the River by Sterling North
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Portrait of an American Humanist by Edward Wagenknecht
J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biography by Humphrey Carpenter
Charles Dickens and the Street Children of London by Andrea Warren


Literature:
The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
Treasure Island by Robert L. Stevenson
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
Captains Courageous by Rudyard Kipling
The Neverending Story by Michael Ende
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
The Hobbit by J. R. R . Tolkien
Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery
The Story of King Arthur and His Knights by Howard Pyle
Scottish Chiefs by Jane Porter
Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott +Rebecca and Rowena by Thackeray
The Last Unicorn by Peter Beagle
The Utopia by Sir Thomas More
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
Bonnie Dundee by Rosemary Sutcliff
Watership Down by Richard Adams
Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien


Short Stories:
A Book of Short Stories Selected and Edited by Stuart P. Sherman with selections from Poe, Hawthorne, Irving, Hardy, O Henry, Kipling, etc.
The Best American Tales Chosen by Trent and Henneman

Add the following three selections from the latter book to the former book:

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving
The Great Stone Face by Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Man without a Country by Edward Everett Hale


Essays:
The Essays of Francis Bacon (selections)


Humanities Additions for Years 7-8:
The Iliad (Homer) translated by Richard Lattimore (+Great Course by Elizabeth Vandiver)
The Odyssey (Homer) translated by Robert Fitzgerald (+Great Course by Elizabeth Vandiver)
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl and Sir Orfeo by J. R. R. Tolkien
Beowulf by Seamus Heaney or Burton Raffel
Canterbury Tales Retold by Geraldine McCaughrean


Corresponding Literature with History for Year 6:
Young-Fu of the Upper Yangtze by Elizabeth Foreman Lewis
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor
War Horse by Michael Morpurgo
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
Only a Dog: A Story of the Great War by Bertha Whitridge Smith
 

 

This list compiles all of the readings from the main lists for each year, but I do have long additional reading lists for each year too.

[Clear Creek]

Here is what we have planned for 7th grade (we may or may not get to all of them):

 

- As You Like It and Midsummer Night's Dream

- A Study in Scarlet and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

- Animal Farm

- Out of the Silent Planet (the full trilogy)

- Huckleberry Finn

- The Day They Came to Arrest the Book

- Fahrenheit 451

- Smith of Wootton Major & Farmer Giles of Ham

- The Prince and the Pauper

- The Iliad and the Odyssey

 

[Farrar]

I think reading from the greatest short stories ever is one of the best ways to prepare. Obviously some stories are too complex for 7th/8th graders in terms of theme, but most aren't. I think at that age kids can read Hawthorne, Poe, Sherwood Anderson... even some European literature like Guy de Maupassant or Gogol. 

 

I think in terms of books, there are a few that are really great for middle school like Tom Sawyer or To Kill a Mockingbird (I think Lori D's list above for classics is good - not enough people read I Heard the Owl Call My Name! - though I would say A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is also a classic - and a good middle school classic pick). But I also think it's fine to read the really recent YA literature... books like Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry or The Book Thief are great middle school reads. I think it should be a mix. A slightly easier, more recent book alternated with something more difficult.

[Farrar]

Also, you can never read everything, so I tend to think of any literature program as slots to fill to make it well-rounded. Something recent, something older, something funny, something dark, something from different genres, something American, something British, something in translation or focused on a different part of the world, etc.

[Lori D.]

Also, you can never read everything, so I tend to think of any literature program as slots to fill to make it well-rounded. Something recent, something older, something funny, something dark, something from different genres, something American, something British, something in translation or focused on a different part of the world, etc.

 

That's what I, too, tried to shoot for throughout all the grades. And then, as a specific interest arose for one of the DSs, then to pursue that as a special unit or study, somewhat like 8FilltheHeart (although, NO way we ever were able to approach the level of depth and study that 8's family does  :)).

[redsquirrel]

I have found the lists in TWTM logic section to be very useful. That is where I go first to compile my reading lists.

[kiwik]

Do you let them veto books? I am fairly prolific reader who can manage most things but call of the wild I hated so much I didn't read the last third and just guessed that bit of the test. David Copperfield could use an editor (but if it was one of the serials that makes sense). I did finally get through little women but I have no desire to read Ann of Green Gables.

[MamaSprout]

I like the Reading Challenge List 7-8.

 

This is sort of my "dump sheet" for 5-8 books. It's a little rough: 5-8 Lit (should be editable). This is a "pick from the list" kind of thing, although I will assign books that fit our historical period.

 

I put together a "gab sheet" to talk/ write about lit. I still kind've long for check the box program.

 

I actually came over to the logic board this morning to complain whine ask if my dream program existed. We're working through Figuratively Speaking and have read How to Read Literature Like a Professor for Kids, so we really don't need the dots connected, and comprehension questions aren't really necessary. I could've written my own program in time I've spent looking for an existing one.

[Chrysalis Academy]

Do you let them veto books? I am fairly prolific reader who can manage most things but call of the wild I hated so much I didn't read the last third and just guessed that bit of the test. David Copperfield could use an editor (but if it was one of the serials that makes sense). I did finally get through little women but I have no desire to read Ann of Green Gables.

 

I totally let her veto books, but I do ask her to pick something of equal or greater challenge.  Meaning, I'm fine with her not reading a specific book, but it's not ok to *just* read brain candy, KWIM?  

 

The Veto can come after trying the book and not getting into it, or it can come based on topic, from her or from me.  I refuse to read books where animals suffer - I read way too many of them when I was this age, and at this point in my life just can't handle them at all. So while she knows she can read them on her own if she wants, there will be no Jack London, Old Yeller, Where The Red Fern Grows, The Yearling, or anything else like that discussed in our house!!  

[Pen]

Most all of what I would suggest have already been mentioned. One I don't see that my ds has liked and is very different (both in content, and style as a graphic novel) from anything else I see above is American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang. It won an ALA Printz award for YA Lit.

 

 

Maybe in your brain candy category, but ds has also been enjoying Anthony Horowitz's Gatekeepers series [adventure-fantasy dystopias], and Kersten Hamilton's series that starts with Tyger, Tyger (which led to the Blake poem, though in general I'd save Blake for high school) [irish myth based fantasy].

[MamaSprout]

I totally let her veto books, but I do ask her to pick something of equal or greater challenge.  Meaning, I'm fine with her not reading a specific book, but it's not ok to *just* read brain candy, KWIM?  

 

 

We have a 50 page rule at our house (10 pages for short stories). If it's not working by then, I'll discuss veto.

[MamaSprout]

Most all of what I would suggest have already been mentioned. One I don't see that my ds has liked and is very different (both in content, and style as a graphic novel) from anything else I see above is American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang. It won an ALA Printz award for YA Lit.

 

 

Thanks- always on the look out for quality YA lit by modern authors.

[Pen]

We have a 50 page rule at our house (10 pages for short stories). If it's not working by then, I'll discuss veto.

 

 

For now I am doing it a different way -- I get and strew or suggest books I think would be both beneficial and liked (or find them at library). If ds gets into them, fine, if not, fine. There are so many wonderful books one cannot read them all anyway. I use things he likes to move to others that might fit...   For example, back when he was reading Percy Jackson he also read children's versions of Iliad and Odyssey. After a dystopia like Gatekeepers, I may suggest Animal Farm. While liking modern adventure books, it may be time for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. 

 

Some things he did not care for when younger, like Jack London, he likes now, and I think if I'd pushed for 50 pages younger it would have been detrimental because he has a better sense of his own level and readiness both in terms of difficulty of the writing and also in whether he is ready to deal with the animal violence or that sort of thing.

 

I am the one with veto power, especially for anything considered young adult or adult if I think something is too ______ whatever I think it may need to be vetoed for. Books that would be considered for children, I pretty much leave up to his own total discretion.

[EndOfOrdinary]

I am a bit of a book list fan, though I do not plan more than a year ahead with actual literature.  I find my son's interests change too much.  I have to wiggle my lists around so that they can have the right style of hook.  So I do not have all of middle school.  Here are a few we have on the list of novels this year that I have not seen listed above (sorry if any are repeated and I missed them).

 

Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Old Man and the Sea by Hemmingway

Ishmael by Daniel Quinn

Into the Wild by Jon Kraukaer

Of Mice and Men by Steinbeck

Martian Chronicles by Bradbury

Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott (some cussing)

Entire Giver Series (not just The Giver)

Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane (mind violence due to war, but graphic)

 

The last one that I am really finding invaluable is to have not necessarily read the entire Bible, but to have a very strong plot understanding of the top 100 Bible stories.  Something like this list.  We are not a religious family, but the number of times my Catholic school upbringing has given me a significantly larger understanding of a book is quite numerable.  I find it even more when set up next to Dh (he had a traumatizing religious experience so has completely shied away from such things).  Having this knowledge before high school reading can actually really help with finding undertones, seeing allusions, or foreshadowing. 

 

In example (SPOILER ALERT): In LotR, they go into the Mines of Moriah where Gandalf sacrifices himself for the others.  Gandalf however, does not actually die (though you think he does).  Mount Moriah is where Isaac was to be sacrificed by Abraham, but in the end is saved.  There are quite a few Biblical bits here and there throughout various works, that though they are not centrally important, do add quite a bit to the experience.

 

Another Example: It is also amazing just how many historical myths and documents really look VERY similar to biblical ones.  The life of Sargon II is almost identical to that of Moses.  The Codes of Hammurabi bear striking resemblance to the Ten Commandments.  As do the Seven Virtues and the 42 Admonishments of Ma'at.  The book of the dead's Osiris and Isis is incredibly like the Resurrection of Jesus.  Gilgamesh is also amazingly like Genesis.  The Odu Ifa of the Yoruba people is similar down to the way it labels things in Chapter and Verse.  These are the ones we are looking at in Ancients (because we never stop doing ancients), but I have a similar list for each of the historical periods.

 

[happypamama]

Veto works both ways here, to a degree. As I mentioned, I let DD veto Kidnapped, but I made her read Oliver Twist. She doesn't get to veto every single thing that she finds a little uninteresting, because there just aren't that many books out there about sci fi girls, rock music, or cats! I veto, for school purposes, anything too much "brain candy," although she can read that in her spare time, and I did veto Hunger Games because it just wasn't a subject I really found edifying. She didn't get to veto Johnny Tremain because she vetoed Kidnapped, but she will get to veto Anne Frank if she wants. Part of it depends: is it needed for her history program? Then the chance to veto is much slimmer. Otherwise, I give her a list of a few and let her choose.

[MamaSprout]

Some things he did not care for when younger, like Jack London, he likes now, and I think if I'd pushed for 50 pages younger it would have been detrimental because he has a better sense of his own level and readiness both in terms of difficulty of the writing and also in whether he is ready to deal with the animal violence or that sort of thing.

 

I am the one with veto power, especially for anything considered young adult or adult if I think something is too ______ whatever I think it may need to be vetoed for. Books that would be considered for children, I pretty much leave up to his own total discretion.

50 pages is not a big deal at our house. My dd is a book gobbler.YMMV

[Pen]

50 pages is not a big deal at our house. My dd is a book gobbler.YMMV

 

My mileage does vary, but to explain it for others who may be reading and interested,  I don't think it varies for the reason you seem to indicate.

 

It also may depend on how good you are at matching book and child in the first place, that makes insisting on 50 pages quite reasonable for your dc.  

 

It isn't that 50 pages would be too much in and of itself, clearly ds has happily gone through all the Harry Potters, and many other series like that reading thousands of pages. But 50 pages at wrong level, or with something that seems too disturbing is too much. As soon as it is determined whether by me or by ds that it is too hard or too disturbing or too "mature" or ____  it is time to stop that book, and maybe return to it at a later age/stage... or maybe not.

 

Examples of  books that got dropped very early on recently were Hunchback of Notre Dame (in translation), declared too hard, and I did not see any point in trying to read something that is too hard, because nothing much would be gained from it. (Of note, my ds is dyslexic and we deal with work at the edges of reading levels in history reading and science reading where going slow makes a lot of sense, not in fiction reading where it interferes with the flow of a work.)  And while White Fang has been loved recently, Call of the Wild was dropped due to too much brutal treatment of the dogs...I saw no point in going through 50 pages, or even a single page beyond a scene that seemed "too much" of something that felt too brutal. (Rose would not have this in first place by not having Jack London as part of homeschooling.)  Monster was not quite yet approachable either, due to themes. 

 

 

 

 

[Pen]

Maybe this should be a spin off thread, but how do you all define "brain candy" for books at this level?

[MamaSprout]

My mileage does vary, but to explain it for others who may be reading and interested, I don't think it varies for the reason you seem to indicate.

 

It also may depend on how good you are at matching book and child in the first place, that makes insisting on 50 pages quite reasonable for your dc.

 

It isn't that 50 pages would be too much in and of itself, clearly ds has happily gone through all the Harry Potters, and many other series like that reading thousands of pages. But 50 pages at wrong level, or with something that seems too disturbing is too much. As soon as it is determined whether by me or by ds that it is too hard or too disturbing or too "mature" or ____ it is time to stop that book, and maybe return to it at a later age/stage... or maybe not.

 

Examples of books that got dropped very early on recently were Hunchback of Notre Dame (in translation), declared too hard, and I did not see any point in trying to read something that is too hard, because nothing much would be gained from it. (Of note, my ds is dyslexic and we deal with work at the edges of reading levels in history reading and science reading where going slow makes a lot of sense, not in fiction reading where it interferes with the flow of a work.) And while White Fang has been loved recently, Call of the Wild was dropped due to too much brutal treatment of the dogs...I saw no point in going through 50 pages, or even a single page beyond a scene that seemed "too much" of something that felt too brutal. (Rose would not have this in first place by not having Jack London as part of homeschooling.) Monster was not quite yet approachable either, due to themes.

I guess I should mention I rarely assign books I have not read myself. Some books (Swiss Family Robinson, Doctor Dolittle, Mary Poppins) I have tracked down specific editions or even an abridged version (SWR).

 

If there is a question about a book we read the first fifty pages together or check out an audio book. My dd is a fast reader, but reluctant to try out new authors/ genres ect. "Only" being required to read 50 pages to her seems fair. I've never had her drop a book- put it down and come back to it after a month, yes.

 

I was not reluctant to post my 50 page idea here b/c op is asking about 7-8th grade. Would not suggest is for grammar stage.

 

ETA: You make a good point about a book potentially being too hard. I know and use Lexile levels for books. She can and does read above and below level on things she wants to read, but I don't assign things really far out of range. You can check the level on books at:

Lexile  and Book Wizard

[Critterfixer]

 

Maybe this should be a spin off thread, but how do you all define "brain candy" for books at this level?

 

I don't think it is that off topic at all. My brother and I got into a discussion of this the other day, and I've got my own particular use for "brain candy" or books that might well be defined as "twaddle". 

My brother made the point when some of his friends were discussing the lit lists they were using in their classes to discuss certain themes. This would be for high-school. They were complaining how the children were not really picking up the themes, and my brother asked if they had ever taken those thematic elements and found them in modern fiction written at a lower level than what they were requiring. They looked at him like he was nuts. He asked if they had ever read the books that their students were reading in their spare time, or fiction that was enjoyed by that age group. The answer was no. His point, and I think it is a good one, particularly for those of us who are having to learn how to discuss literature with our kids, was that themes in particular are more accessible (and more black and white) in fiction written for mass consumption. His point to the teachers was that if they wanted to do Dystopia at a high level, they might do worse than asking the children if they had ever read, seen or had any experience with The Hunger Games, and pointing out the parallels. 

 

I've recently come to deeply appreciate fiction with flaws in the writing that are pretty evident. I use them in writing. Characters that are underdeveloped can be singled out from the book and discussed. Plot lines that don't come to satisfactory conclusions can be talked about, and used in discussion of why that plot just didn't seem to end properly. And because fiction at a lower level (read twaddle) often has very straightforward plotting, it's a good place to find the themes that the book discusses. It can be done with relative ease, and it's good practice for tackling bigger things. It's also a good way to teach the editing process in a respectful, uplifting way, more than simply saying parts of the story were good and others not so good. It might be one place I do depart from the idea of always holding up the best examples of writing as the ideal. I think there is a lot to be said for some down to earth, less than perfect spotted cattle when it comes to both understanding higher literature and improving writing.

 

There were some great ideas in a thread that Ruth in NZ contributed to, and one of those ideas was presenting books in the order of easy, medium difficulty and hard. I think that is probably what I want to do, and not to just treat the "easy" books as pre-requisites, but as teaching tools. It's easy to just rush through and say "lets get through this so we can do x" instead of really being in the moment with what we are teaching right now. Sure, we all want to get out on the great ocean of ideas, but paddling around in the pond is where we learn to swim.

 

Just my two cents.

[Chrysalis Academy]

Not off-topic at all.  I know everybody approaches the idea of brain candy/twaddle differently, and it's interesting to see how other people handle it.  My approach is completely determined by the kind of reader my child is.  She's a voracious reader - great - and she loves to re-read - also great, IMO.  But because she loves to read so much, and she chooses to read in her free time to relax/escape, and because so much of those books are fantasy/not so challenging in reading level and/or multiple re-reads, I feel that I do need to assign/suggest books that are more challenging.  I'm not worried about getting my kid to read or making her read for a certain amount of time/pages a day, I'm worried about getting her to stretch herself to read more challenging books, where by challenging I mean those with more interesting and varied vocabulary, longer & more complex sentences, and big ideas.  This is because I want her to be able to read anything - yeah, the classics - and to not be intimidated or find it too difficult.  Eventually.  I'm fine with something being too difficult now, but I want to understand why and then try to find something else to help create a bridge/scaffold to more advanced & complex books.

 

I see two kinds of "advanced" books that a middle schooler might not be ready for.  There are books with advanced and difficult themes, violence, brutality, sexuality - these are sometimes some of the easier to read books, from a Lexile point of view, but I'm in no hurry to have my child read them before she is ready.  So Night, Of Mice and Men, Beloved, 1984, Brave New World, things like that are things that I am happy to hold off on until she's older, more emotionally mature, more life experience.  We can still tackle deep and dark themes by reading Macbeth, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, etc.  

 

Then there are the advanced books that are difficult to read because of the language/vocab/syntax aspects, but the theme is fine.  These are the books that I am trying to encourage her to try.  Things like Dickens, The Three Musketeers, etc.  These may be hard to read, and she might or might not be ready to tackle them independently - if not, I want to do some scaffolding.

 

Some of the reading I consider scaffolding would be Agatha Christie, Sherlock Holmes, Robert Louis Stevenson, HG Wells - shorter books, some with great themes to discuss, some just to challenge syntax/vocab - are a great scaffold for my kid.

 

And brain-candy isn't an absolute label, either.  I actually think there are some incredibly interesting and worthwhile themes to discuss in the Harry Potter series, and I refer to it all the time when we're discussing other lit to create comparisons and hooks for her to understand a theme, term, etc that I'm trying to illustrate.  And the reading level is reasonable for a middle schooler.  But at this point, she's read the entire series so many times - more than 10 - that it is brain candy for her - it's escaping into a familiar and comfortable place where she feels at home.  Not stretched or challenged.  Which is fine for personal reading time, but that can't be it!  There needs to be a balance of the stretching, challenging kind of reading - "school" reading, and independent reading.

 

I don't limit independent reading selections by anything other  than topic, and it's not absolute - we'll discuss it, and I'll say why I think she isn't ready for something (like Hunger Games, when it first came out) and she'll usually decide she's not interested.  When she first mentioned HG - her older cousin was reading it - I told her I thought she was a little young for it, and told her why, and she said ok.  She hasn't asked about it again.  If she did, I'd probably let her read it at this point, and discuss it with her (although I don't really like the series myself).  She just got through reading The Outsiders, and was moved by it, found it beautiful and touching and sad, and immediately started reading it again.  That's great.  

 

Anyway, these are just a bunch of rambling pre-coffee thoughts. I'm sure I'll be more coherent later!  But definitely let's discuss this here!

[Farrar]

Maybe this should be a spin off thread, but how do you all define "brain candy" for books at this level?

 

I definite it the same way I do for any level... books that are much easier than the child's reading level and that typically do not contain rich, interesting, discussion worthy writing. I agree that brain candy books can have a lot of purpose still at this age. I think many 12 yos are still building fluency so reading easy stuff is still positively building their reading habit, even if they're capable of much harder stuff. My kids enjoy reading, but they are not voracious readers and I expect that I'll still feel they need to be reading junky stuff like Wimpy Kid to keep their enthusiasm going for books in a couple of years. Also, I agree that finding literary elements in the easy stuff is a good intro way to get into the habit.

[Chrysalis Academy]

I should say that I used the term "brain candy" as opposed to "twaddle" deliberately.  It seems to me that brain candy refers to the effect on the reader - does it go down easy without effort, vs. does it make you work, whereas twaddle is a value judgment about the book itself.  So for my dd, Harry Potter is brain candy, but I don't think it's twaddle.   Something well below her reading level *and* with no other outstanding virtues is what I'd consider twaddle, although I can see that there is a place for that for readers who need to develop fluency.  

[Chrysalis Academy]

So Shannon has now read The Outsiders twice in the last two days, and it's now on her top 5 favorite of all time list.  This is kind of a departure for her, but reflects maturing, I think.  What else would you guys recommend?  The Chocolate War and A Separate Peace are two I've heard mentioned alongside it, but I've not read either of those.  What do you think of them? What else might she like to read? She's kind of in a "give me something new" place right now, which I want to jump on! 

[Roadrunner]

I remember my love of Dumas, Dickens and Hugo at her age. I have read them all in Russian translation, so I am unsure how Dumas and Hugo read in English. I would start there.

[Pen]

So Shannon has now read The Outsiders twice in the last two days, and it's now on her top 5 favorite of all time list.  This is kind of a departure for her, but reflects maturing, I think.  What else would you guys recommend?  The Chocolate War and A Separate Peace are two I've heard mentioned alongside it, but I've not read either of those.  What do you think of them? What else might she like to read? She's kind of in a "give me something new" place right now, which I want to jump on! 

 

 

I've read The Chocolate War, but not A Separate Peace, so I cannot compare the two. I'd suggest looking at them at a library, or if you can get a "Look Inside" feature online and letting her have a say.  I'd also suggest considering Lord of the Flies if you are considering this sort of book.

 

 

What are her other top 5? and what got bumped off when Outsiders went on?

[momto2Cs]

I'm trying to expose my kids, especially my 8th grader at the moment, to a variety of styles, approaches, etc. So as a family, we're doing a Tolkien based lit study, bringing in books/stories that were an influence on his writings, as well as The Hobbit and LoTR themselves. Seperately, ds is really into dystopian literature, so he's read The Hunger Games trilogy, and is now working his way through The Maze Runner and its sequels. He also wants to tackle Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials this year, and to finish Lord of the Flies (he got distratcted by Maze Runner), and, at odd moments/his spare time he turns to The Hitchhiker's Guide "trilogy".

 

I also work poetry into our reading on a regular basis, just choosing a different poet each month so my kids can see different styles, and I would like us to read a play together before the end of the year. We occasionally use a book on literary elements as fodder for discussion, but more often I simply bring literary terms into what we are reading at the moment. I'd really like to share To Kill a Mockingbird with the kids too, but might tackle that next summer since we are already up to our eyes in books to read this year!

 

With dd, it is a different matter. She's dyslexic and only now beginning to enjoy reading (she's in 6th grade and will be 12 in March). I still read out loud a lot, hence the family lit studies, and will continue this with her while she works on building her fluency and reading enjoyment levels. My only goals for her right now are to expose her to different books and forms of literature, and to get her happily reading well by high school.

[Chrysalis Academy]

 

What are her other top 5? and what got bumped off when Outsiders went on?

 

Let's see:

The Outsiders

Percy Jackson series

Harry Potter series

When You Reach Me - Rebecca Stead

Birthday series - Wendy Mass

 

Tuck Everlasting got kicked off the list for the Outsiders.  But she says it's impossible to choose just five!

[Pen]

I've read The Chocolate War, but not A Separate Peace, so I cannot compare the two. I'd suggest looking at them at a library, or if you can get a "Look Inside" feature online and letting her have a say.  I'd also suggest considering Lord of the Flies if you are considering this sort of book.

 

 

What are her other top 5? and what got bumped off when Outsiders went on?

 

 

Incidentally, I also did not read Outsiders and so don't know how it reads to a 12 y/o in terms of violence and so on. I do know it has a lot of characters die. I read The Choc. War when  I was at an all girls Catholic school and found the situation of the boy's school in the book all too similar to what I was experiencing. I recall liking i at the time, but am not so sure as an adult that it was positive for me to have read it. It is actually not a book that I would particularly be encouraging my ds to read, ever, and certainly not this young (though I would also not stop him from reading it if he found it on his own and wanted to).  I guess I feel about the same way about it as Hunger Games--I would not veto it at this point if he really wanted it, but I also would not bring it home and strew it hoping he would find it. At a much higher level as to literary merit, I might also say the same of Lolita--though the content issues are different.

[Chrysalis Academy]

Thanks, Pen.  It's hard to have the time to pre-read every single thing, isn't it?

[Pen]

My Name is Not Easy is one I am considering strewing, also Inside Out and Back Again. Already have done that with The Book Thief, Wonder, Okay for Now, Monster, abridged version of The Canterbury Tales, Gullivers Travels.

 

Have heard good things about  Marcelo in the Real World,

 

and ones maybe more suited to girls: Bloody Jack Adventures (series), The Queen of Water,

  The Disreputable History of Frankie  Landau- â€Banks

 

some other titles may follow.

[Chrysalis Academy]

Wonder is the only one of those Shannon has read.  She loved it.  Thanks for the list!

[Lilaclady]

Some of the books that we are reading in middle school for school are

Oliver Twist

The giver

Animal farm

Witch of blackbird farm

City of ember

Tom Sawyer

To kill a mockingbird

Where the red fern grows

 

Others we have on the list include

Huck Finn

Sherlock Holmes

A shakespeare comedy

Roll of thunder

 

Some she has read independently- no discussions include

Wonder, bridge to terebitha, view from Saturday, the rest of the giver series etc

[OneStepAtATime]

Along with many of the books listed above (but some have probably already been mentioned and I missed it) 

 

Alas, Babylon

Hatchet

Dear Mr. Henshaw

The Secret Garden

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

Journey to the Center of the Earth

The Catcher in the Rye

The Doomsday Book

Code Talker

Andrew Lang's Fairy Book Series (but buy the original individual color book printings with the illustrations, not the single volume with the tree frog on the front - Crimson is a good one)

 

I thought this article was interesting...

http://www.better-ed.org/blog/middle-school-reading-lists-100-years-ago-vs-today

[Pen]

Wonder is the only one of those Shannon has read.  She loved it.  Thanks for the list!

 

 

I think ds would like it, but he is totally caught up in Divergent (which I did not pre-read and hope is okay) now.

 

 

It seems to be hard to go from the action packed books like Harry Potter series etc. to a book like Wonder.

[Chrysalis Academy]

I think ds would like it, but he is totally caught up in Divergent (which I did not pre-read and hope is okay) now.

 

 

It seems to be hard to go from the action packed books like Harry Potter series etc. to a book like Wonder.

 

She definitely seems to go in spurts of reading similar genres.  She was on a huge fantasy jag for awhile, but now has shifted to mysteries.  Which is fine by me - she can read some Agatha Christie, Sherlock Homes, Poe and Georgette Heyer and secretly be improving her vocabulary!  

 

I got A Separate Peace off the library book rack today, so I'll preread it.  I'm going to re-read Lord of the Flies before I decide whether to give it to her.  That was one disturbing book, I remember.

[RootAnn]

I remember my love of Dumas, Dickens and Hugo at her age. I have read them all in Russian translation, so I am unsure how Dumas and Hugo read in English. I would start there.

 

While my dd#1 read a Dumas novel this year for school, she was adamant that it wasn't kid-friendly. (She isn't comfy with the *ex mentions/innuendo.) I also assigned her a Hornblower novel and I forgot about some of the *ex mentions. Luckily, she thought it was boring and I let her stop reading at the fifth chapter. Funny thing was, she thought it looked a lot more interesting once I picked it up & re-devoured it ... and then her dad picked it up & also swallowed it whole. I sent it back to the library before she could get to the marital infidelity parts that I'd completely forgotten about!

[Roadrunner]

While my dd#1 read a Dumas novel this year for school, she was adamant that it wasn't kid-friendly. (She isn't comfy with the *ex mentions/innuendo.) !

Ah, it's been a while. I was about to hand over the Three Musketeers to my 4th grader. Now I am wondering how explicit is it. I can't remember anything too scandalous, but it's been over 20 years!

[Chrysalis Academy]

Oh, I'm pretty sure there is some racy stuff in 3 Musk! But it will probably go right over the head of a 4th grader.  That's the beauty of "explicit" in old novels - it's mostly implied.  There are all kinds of lewd references in Shakespeare - the porter scene in Macbeth is an extended riff on how drunk guys can't get it up - but luckily it mostly goes right over their heads at this age!

 

It's funny, I am re-reading Ecotopia, I was thinking of having Shannon read it this spring when we are doing our Ecology unit.  I had totally forgotten about all the explorations of open sexuality with a powerful woman it details!  It was the 70s after all . . . not that there is anything wrong with it, I actually think it is pretty healthy and empowering, and I'd rather have her read that than watch almost anything on cable TV . . . but it's more that she finds all that stuff very ew, gross at this point and won't get the point at all of the differences between Ecotopian society and American society . . . again, I think it's a book she'll get a lot more of in a few years.  This seems to be the story of my life right now! I keep picking things and reading them and thinking, well, she could read that now, but she'll get way more out of it in a few years . . . and she has read almost everything (great stuff!) people have listed in this thread for 7th-8th graders.  So I guess I'm back to looking kind of old-fashioned adult books (as opposed to modern YA lit) that will stretch her with the vocab and language, but not contain too adult/disturbing of themes.  

 

Clearly, she should be reading Dickens!!!  What else?

[Roadrunner]

Jack London, Jules Verne, Stevenson, Defoe, Fenimore Cooper.

 

You can clearly see i have boys. :) I am thinking.....

[Lori D.]

[whispering] I have to confess that I found A Separate Peace to be dull and uneventful, reading it as an adult. But there are several other books very similar to it that I also found to be dull... so I think it is just me. ;)

 

 

So Shannon has now read The Outsiders twice in the last two days, and it's now on her top 5 favorite of all time list.  This is kind of a departure for her, but reflects maturing, I think.  What else would you guys recommend?  The Chocolate War and A Separate Peace are two I've heard mentioned alongside it, but I've not read either of those.  What do you think of them? What else might she like to read? She's kind of in a "give me something new" place right now, which I want to jump on! 

 

YA works a bit like The Outsiders

- Walk Two Moons (Creech)

- I Am David (Holm)

- Bridge to Terebithia (Paterson)

- Maniac Magee (Spinnelli)

- House of Stairs (Sleator) -- dystopia

- Flowers for Algernon (Keyes) -- the short story version

 

general YA ideas

- The Pushcart War (Merrill) -- lighter/humorous, with a point

- The Day They Came to Arrest the Book (Hentoff) -- great discussion on censorship

- The Wednesday Wars (Schmidt) -- lighter/humorous; Shakespeare appreciation

- The Rumpelstiltskin Problem (Velde) -- light/humorous

- Howl's Moving Castle (Jones)

- Jennifer Hecate Macbeth William McKinley and Me Elizabeth (Konigsburg)

- books by Zilpha Keatley Snyder (for some guidance of which works to consider first, I'd suggest: The Velvet Room, The Egypt Game, The Greensky trilogy, The Changeling)

- The Cay (Theodore Taylor)

- Island of the Blue Dolphins (O'Dell)

- Sing Down the Moon (O'Dell)

- Turn Homeward, Hannalee (Beatty)

- Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry; Let the Circle Be Unbroken (Mildred Taylor)

- Two Are Better Than One (Brink) -- sweet, old-fashioned friendship (reminds me of Anne of Green Gables)

 

general ideas for gentle "classics"

- A Heard the Owl Call My Name (Craven)

- Catcher in the Rye (Salinger)

- To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee)

- The Chosen (Potok)

- All Creatures Great and Small (Herriot)

- My Family and Other Animals (Durrell)

- The Thirteen Clocks; The Wonderful O (Thurber) -- humorous; word-fun

- Christy (Marshall)

- Anne of Green Gables, and sequels (Montgomery)

[Chrysalis Academy]

I always love your lists, Lori D.  Shannon has read and enjoyed most of these.  I just got My Family and Other Animals from the library, I think she'd really enjoy that book! But so far it sits on the stack untouched . . .   I just went back to your mystery list to get some new mysteries for her to try out.  I really want her to read The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, I thought it was right up her alley.

 

I'm reading A Separate Peace right now and I love it so far - I love how these characters are written. I love how it catches that moment where you aren't a child anymore, but you haven't fully entered into adult responsibilities, and the magic of that moment, highlighted in this case by the war and the knowledge that in two years these boys will find themselves on the battlefields.  

 

But, again, I think much of this will be over Shannon's head! Being 12, and not 16, and having so little experience of having to jockey for position and navigate relationships in an adult-free peer group.  My problem continues to be that I want reading that challenges her without overwhelming, either with content or with reading level.

 

 

[Chrysalis Academy]

I just ordered the new RFWP set of Dickens novellas - that sounds like a perfect intro to Dickens!  Short, seasonal, happy themes . . . I think that might be just what the Dr. ordered.

 

Meanwhile, as we pack for our Thanksgiving trip, Shannon is walking around saying, "I have nothing to read" while totally ignoring the carefully chosen stack of things I've been strewing/suggesting for the past week!!   :cursing:  :banghead:  :banghead: