Alicia64 Posted July 28, 2016 Share Posted July 28, 2016 I'm having a hard time finding books for my soon-to-be 8th grade boys. Young adult books are maybe too advanced and younger chapter books are too young. My boys are 13. Over the last year, we've read aloud: Maniac Magee The War that Saved my LifeThe Dust Bowl Hero on a bicycle Bud Not Buddy The Mighty Miss Malone When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit The Art of Keeping Cool A Boy at War Tom Sawyer Huckleberry Finn I'd love to hear recommendations for books you really loved versus "just okay" books. I'm open to classics and currents. Thank you!!! Alley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LauraBeth475 Posted July 28, 2016 Share Posted July 28, 2016 We're enjoying John Christopher's Tripod trilogy over here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LindaOz Posted July 28, 2016 Share Posted July 28, 2016 (edited) Ranger's Apprentice series by John Flanagan. Even my dh enjoys these when we read them aloud 😉 Edited July 28, 2016 by LindaOz 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ethel Mertz Posted July 28, 2016 Share Posted July 28, 2016 We've read aloud (last year for 7th): James Baldwin's Fifty Famous Stories Retold as well as his Thirty More Famous Stories Retold; Darwin's What Darwin Saw: Based on Charles Darwin's Recollections of his Voyage Around the World in the Ship Beagle; Lives of Extraordinary Women: Rulers and Rebels; excerpts from 101 Changemakers; The Wild Muir: Twenty-Two of John Muir's Greatest Adventures; and A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. This year's 8th grade read alouds: The World of Augustus Caesar; The Forest Unseen: A Year's Watch in Nature by David George Haskell; and I'm not sure what else. We generally do read alouds during lunch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alicia64 Posted July 28, 2016 Author Share Posted July 28, 2016 This is a fantastic list!! I've ordered everything! I hope more people will share great book titles! Alley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mc26 Posted July 28, 2016 Share Posted July 28, 2016 The Wednesday Wars and Okay for Now, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind and Bomb were recent hits here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
busymama7 Posted July 28, 2016 Share Posted July 28, 2016 Carry on, Mr Bowditch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alicia64 Posted July 28, 2016 Author Share Posted July 28, 2016 The Wednesday Wars and Okay for Now, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind and Bomb were recent hits here. These are great suggestions: thank you!! Bomb was a HUGE hit over here! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alicia64 Posted July 28, 2016 Author Share Posted July 28, 2016 Carry on, Mr Bowditch Somebody please teach me how to "multi quote!!" LOVE Carry on, Mr. Bowditch. Read it twice over here! Alley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjeepa Posted July 28, 2016 Share Posted July 28, 2016 I second the recommendation for Wednesday Wars - so good! How about The Lord of the Rings? Also, The Squire's Tales series? My son loved them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ethel Mertz Posted July 28, 2016 Share Posted July 28, 2016 Somebody please teach me how to "multi quote!!" LOVE Carry on, Mr. Bowditch. Read it twice over here! Alley Just click the "multiquote" button. You can't go wrong because, otherwise, I would have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wintermom Posted July 28, 2016 Share Posted July 28, 2016 I'm currently reading Kim by Rudyard Kipling, and it's very good. It's set in India late 1800s, and has some interesting cultural detail, but the best part is the boy, Kim, gets involved in some espionage, is the disciple of a Tibetan lama for a while, attends a couple different boarding schools, and has lots of other adventures. I think 13 year old boys would enjoy it, but you may want to find an audio recording as there are a lot of foreign words I'd have no idea how to pronounce, and you wouldn't want this to spoil the flow of the story for you and the boys. Jungle Book by Kipling is also good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted July 28, 2016 Share Posted July 28, 2016 (edited) Since you've read Huckleberry Finn, you all might enjoy The Day They Came to Arrest the Book -- we got a load of great discussion with that one. :) Another vote for Lord of the Rings trilogy. For non-fiction, we did Kon Tiki (Heyersdahl) and Escape From Colditz (Reid) at about that age. All Creatures Great and Small was quite fun at that age. Harry Potter, Artemis Fowle, and Percy Jackson series -- we had fun doing these as a read alouds, even though DSs were perfectly capable of reading them on their own, or had already read them solo. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and sequel of Restaurant at the End of the Universe -- DSs loved those. (Note: there are just a few brief crudities/s*xual references.) Again, these were very readable on their own, but enjoyed altogether as a family. Similar in light, slightly irreverent tone, and in humor, but nothing PG-13 is Terry Prachett's Bromeliad Trilogy: Truckers, Diggers, and Wings. What about some Sherlock Holmes short stories, or Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express or Then There Were None? Edited July 28, 2016 by Lori D. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.