Question about books that 11 year olds read

[lgliser]

One of my girls (11 years old) really dislikes "old timey" stories. I'm having her read The Secret Garden right now and she's muddling through, but doesn't enjoy it. She has specifically told me she likes more modern stories. She loved Wonder and she also liked Super Spy Girl (or something like that). 

 

I was wondering if it was more important to expose them to classics or foster a love of reading. What do you think?

[Julie Smith]

For the most part, I read out loud to my boys books I think they should know. 

I let them read books that they like. 

[nixpix5]

I too was an 11 yo that really disliked The Secret Garden so I feel her pain. I remember thinking it was the most boring book I had ever read. I read it years later and really enjoyed it. Not all books are going to land the same way for each person. At 11yo I much preferred Edward Eager books, Sweet Valley High and the Babysitters Club. Yet I became someone who loved classics and have read most of them. I learned that during my preteen years I was fascinated with relationship stories between friends, classmates, siblings, parents and kids and so forth. I needed books that spoke directly to me about feelings I was having during that time period. I wanted to see interactions dissected on the page in meaningful ways to me. Many kids are like that.

 

Has she read any classics that she has enjoyed? If there has been one or a few then maybe you can get a sense of the type of story she might be drawn to.

 

I think the value of a classic is timeless stories that are relatable, beautifully written and reveal something to us about ourselves, a time period, the human condition and what not. Those elements can be gleaned from a plethora of books. Maybe you can snuggle up and read the classic outloud or on audio book while letting her pleasure read other things for a while.

 

Has she read Harry Potter? While not everyone would put that on their classics list, I certainly do. :)

Edited December 5, 2017 by nixpix5

[OneStepAtATime]

Books you find valuable but she has less interest in do as read alouds together.  Make it collaborative.  If she still likes snuggles, make that snuggle time.

 

But let her choose books for pleasure reading (obviously keep them age/developmentally appropriate).

 

I always liked reading but my reading really took off at about 10/11 years old.  Why?  Because my mom gave me a lot of freedom to just pick my own books and read to my heart's content.  And so I did.  I read a lot.  I love books.  I am very grateful I was not micromanaged on the books I read for fun.  We read books together that Mom or Mom and I picked together but I was the one that picked my pleasure reading.  It inspired a tremendous love of reading that has lasted a lifetime.

[lgliser]

I love the advice to read aloud books like this. The kids do still like to snuggle so I think that will be really nice!

 

 

 

 I am very grateful I was not micromanaged on the books I read for fun.

 

I am looking at things like The Secret Garden as "assigned" reading, like I had to do in school! I do let them all pick out their own books to read for fun.

 

Am I worrying too much about what school looked like for me? I just remember being assigned certain books to read. Then we'd talk about it, do worksheets, write book reports, etc.... 

 

Is it important that a kid actually has to read certain books? Or, at least at this age, is it totally fine if we just do read alouds for classics and then they just read whatever for fun? That's what I think I'm hearing, right? 

 

Oh, and yes, she loved Harry Potter! I'd love any recommendations for quality "modern" books like that!

Edited December 5, 2017 by lgliser

[Tanaqui]

Love of reading, hands down.

 

Is she able to articulate *why* she doesn't like Secret Garden?

 

 

Is it important that a kid actually has to read certain books? Or, at least at this age, is it totally fine if we just do read alouds for classics and then they just read whatever for fun? That's what I think I'm hearing, right?

 

You know what? Even in the public school system, kids don't all read the same books together, in lockstep. One sixth grade class this year might do Holes, The Giver, A Wrinkle in Time, and Wonder. Another might do A Secret Garden, The One and Only Ivan, Bridge to Terebithia, and Harry Potter (by popular request). A third might do a buttload of worksheets and otherwise work from a basal textbook.

 

The advantage of having only one child is that if a book doesn't work for your kid, for whatever reason, you can pick another one. There are squintillions of really good books out there for middle grade students! Nobody is gonna read 'em all.

 

Oh, and yes, she loved Harry Potter! I'd love any recommendations for quality "modern" books like that!

 

Oh, man. Okay, before we get started: Is there anything you do NOT want her reading, or that SHE does not want to read about? What other books has she enjoyed in the past 12 months or so? What books do you generally think of as "good books", if this is more or less assigned reading?

 

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

Similar to Harry Potter:  Gregor the Overlander series.  

 

We do a lot of older books by audio book with great success.  We listen during lunch.  

[fralala]

FWIW, I remember clearly, clearly, and with great fondness the books my fifth grade teacher read aloud to us after lunch.

 

I don't remember reading The Secret Garden (until I was an adult). I remember having it read to me, before we all went to see the musical. Wonderful memory. I loved reading it to my kids as an adult. It begs to be read aloud. The dialogue is so true it begs for accents!

 

I like trying different things-- like reading side by side with mugs of hot cocoa and having my daughter read just one person's dialogue, or having her read aloud to me every other page, or asking her to help me record a challenging book as an audiobook for her younger siblings. I think it's totally normal to prefer books with modern, familiar language, but I also think it can be a fun exercise to ask, "What is strange or difficult about this particular passage? How would we say this nowadays?"

 

I guess what I ultimately would ask is what you want your child to get from reading this book, and how she can best get that in the home environment-- a lot of us feel we didn't get a whole lot from assigned reading in school, especially when the book was assigned before we were ready to truly appreciate its beauty. At home, for example, I find doing book club or writing Amazon reviews together is a lot more fun than book reports, and has a more productive effect.

 

 

[Mergath]

Ugh, I wish we could eliminate the word "classics" from our collective vocabularies. There is at least as much literary value in a book like "Wonder" as there is in something like "The Secret Garden." A lot of classics aren't any better than modern juvenile literature; they just use older language and, imo, a lot of run-on sentences that are hard to follow. But people will maintain to the death that old = better because it's harder to untangle the sentence structure even if a book has no other redeeming qualities.  

 

Exposing your child to every old book on the planet isn't going to do a bit of good if she comes out the other end with a deep-seated hatred of reading. And there are so many fantastic modern novels that there's really no reason to assign old books that she hates just because. 

 

http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia

[Ravin]

I would go with high quality books that spark interest for assigned reading. My DD (who has some struggles in this area) is reading Coraline. It would be a great choice for most 11 year olds. We listen to some older books, or watch movie versions of classics. For instance, we listened to Anne of Green Gables, and that sparked DD's interest enough that she read it on her own. If it hadn't, that would have been the end of it.

[OneStepAtATime]

I love the advice to read aloud books like this. The kids do still like to snuggle so I think that will be really nice!

 

 

I am looking at things like The Secret Garden as "assigned" reading, like I had to do in school! I do let them all pick out their own books to read for fun.

 

Am I worrying too much about what school looked like for me? I just remember being assigned certain books to read. Then we'd talk about it, do worksheets, write book reports, etc.... 

 

Is it important that a kid actually has to read certain books? Or, at least at this age, is it totally fine if we just do read alouds for classics and then they just read whatever for fun? That's what I think I'm hearing, right? 

 

Oh, and yes, she loved Harry Potter! I'd love any recommendations for quality "modern" books like that!

Yeah I understand.  Totally.  I had assigned readings in school, too.  Only a few of those actually were useful to me, IMHO.  I actually retained better and gained something from it when I was in High School and college more than at the Middle School level but there is nothing wrong with assigning reading, IMHO.  And having those assigned readings got me out of my comfort zone and reading a wider range of material. 

 

I just think that as homeschoolers the best part is being able to find books out there that expand a child's horizons while also speaking to them.  If a book is a total dud, maybe shelve it for a year or two and return to it when they are older.  Or maybe have her watch the movie then read the book and do a compare and contrast (in a fun way). In the meantime, there are so.many.great.books. out there.  I honestly do not believe that people are irreparably harmed or will suffer in life if they are not exposed to a ton of "classics", anyway.  There are a lot of wonderful books out there.  Some are classics and many are not.  If a single specific fiction book is not working, and your child gave it a good try (didn't quit in paragraph 1) then just move it into read aloud status or shelve it for another time.  Find another book.

 

FWIW, DD loves The Secret Garden but she did better after we watched the movie and she had gained some maturity (14 instead of 12 when I had first planned to read it).

[SKL]

At this age, we do audiobooks or read-alouds for the ones I want my kids to read but they don't want to read.

[Jess4879]

Ugh, I wish we could eliminate the word "classics" from our collective vocabularies. There is at least as much literary value in a book like "Wonder" as there is in something like "The Secret Garden." A lot of classics aren't any better than modern juvenile literature; they just use older language and, imo, a lot of run-on sentences that are hard to follow. But people will maintain to the death that old = better because it's harder to untangle the sentence structure even if a book has no other redeeming qualities.  

 

Exposing your child to every old book on the planet isn't going to do a bit of good if she comes out the other end with a deep-seated hatred of reading. And there are so many fantastic modern novels that there's really no reason to assign old books that she hates just because. 

 

http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia

 

:iagree:   

[lgliser]

I am SO GLAD I posted this! Thank you all so much! My kids will be thrilled too  :lol:

 

 

 

Is she able to articulate *why* she doesn't like Secret Garden?

She just said she doesn't like the oldness and the language is hard. She said that she liked that Wonder talked about things she new about, like Mine Craft!

 

 

 

Oh, man. Okay, before we get started: Is there anything you do NOT want her reading, or that SHE does not want to read about? What other books has she enjoyed in the past 12 months or so? What books do you generally think of as "good books", if this is more or less assigned reading?

I can't think of anything I don't want her reading. She loves Diary of a Wimpy Kid. She did not love A Wrinkle in Time. She enjoyed The Giver. Harry Potter. She kind of likes scary books.

[deerforest]

Ugh, I wish we could eliminate the word "classics" from our collective vocabularies. There is at least as much literary value in a book like "Wonder" as there is in something like "The Secret Garden." A lot of classics aren't any better than modern juvenile literature; they just use older language and, imo, a lot of run-on sentences that are hard to follow. But people will maintain to the death that old = better because it's harder to untangle the sentence structure even if a book has no other redeeming qualities.  

 

Exposing your child to every old book on the planet isn't going to do a bit of good if she comes out the other end with a deep-seated hatred of reading. And there are so many fantastic modern novels that there's really no reason to assign old books that she hates just because. 

 

http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia

 

Agreed! Plus, I'd actually like to make sure she's reading books from a much broader multicultural perspective. 

[Kiara.I]

I am SO GLAD I posted this! Thank you all so much! My kids will be thrilled too [emoji38]

 

She just said she doesn't like the oldness and the language is hard. She said that she liked that Wonder talked about things she new about, like Mine Craft!

 

I can't think of anything I don't want her reading. She loves Diary of a Wimpy Kid. She did not love A Wrinkle in Time. She enjoyed The Giver. Harry Potter. She kind of likes scary books.

Had she read "old" books before?

I mean, I really love some of the older classics, but reading them is a skill beyond just reading, because of sentence structure, word choice, and cultural references. Sometimes working on that skill is worthwhile.

 

By all means do more modern books too, but maybe try assigning some older books, to build up that skill. Perhaps do them as read-alouds or audio books for a while. Or try doing some of George MacDonald's short stories.

 

Sent from my ONEPLUS A5000 using Tapatalk

[Miss Tick]

I'm with her. Even reading it out loud as an adult I found The Secret Garden painful. There is a lot of good stuff out there, though! I'm enjoying this thread for the reassurance that we don't have to restrict ourselves to all "classics".

 

We enjoyed the audio version of Robin Hood, if you have any traveling time coming up.

[Tanaqui]

I am SO GLAD I posted this! Thank you all so much! My kids will be thrilled too  :lol:

 

She just said she doesn't like the oldness and the language is hard. She said that she liked that Wonder talked about things she knew about, like MineCraft!

 

I can't think of anything I don't want her reading. She loves Diary of a Wimpy Kid. She did not love A Wrinkle in Time. She enjoyed The Giver. Harry Potter. She kind of likes scary books.

 

Okay!

 

Let's try these on for size. Not all of these are of equal "quality". I tried for a mix of realistic fiction (Wimpy Kid, Wonder) and SF/F (Harry Potter), but I don't know if I got the mix just right. For whatever reason, most of the realistic fiction seems to skew slightly younger on this list.

 

Last Kids on Earth (illustrated like Wimpy Kid)

 

Wonderstruck

 

Nimona

 

The Jumbies (a bit scary, but not much)

 

Stef Soto, Taco Queen (a bit light, but worth it)

 

How Lamar's Bad Prank Won a Bubba-Sized Trophy (some focus on crushes and dating, and honestly, I felt that the brother's subplot was resolved too easily at the end)

 

Amelia Rules!

 

Hello, Universe (a bit serious, not so much exciting)

 

Allie, First at Last

 

Kiki Strike

 

Princeless (my kids fight me for these)

 

Savvy

 

The Truth About Twinkie Pie

 

Mission Mumbai

 

Salvage (off-screen sex, the main character believes she suffers a miscarriage at one point. It's not clear whether or not she even had intercourse, though - she's pretty sheltered)

 

Seaglass Summer

 

Tin Star

 

Mars Evacuees

 

Bliss bakery series

 

The Path of Names

 

Akata Witch

 

The Conch Bearer (first book starts off slow)

 

Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer (OMG I LOVE THIS BOOK)

 

Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities (a bit light)

 

House of the Scorpion

 

Stranger (sorta post post apocalyptic)

 

Un Lun Dun

 

Zahrah the Windseeker

 

Shadowshaper

 

The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm

 

Ambassador

 

On a Clear Day

 

Misadventures of the Family Fletcher (a great book of the "family" genre - if she likes it, might try The Exiles or The Penderwicks or The Saturdays or Ballet Shoes)

 

Pickle

 

Breadcrumbs (very dreamy and serious)

 

ORVIS

 

Drama

 

The Epic Crush of Genie Lo

 

My Basmati Bat Mitzvah

 

 

 

 

Is she okay with historical fiction (or anyway, books set in the past) written with more modern language and no dialect? If so, I might also suggest:

 

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate

The King of Mulberry Street

Celeste's Harlem Renaissance

Flygirl

One Crazy Summer

Year of the Dog

Dust Girl

Cuckoo Song

It Ain't Awful, Falafel

Echo

The Birchbark House

Leviathan

Nine Pound Hammer

Hammer of Witches

All-of-a-Kind Family

The House With a Clock in its Walls

The Mighty Miss Malone

The War That Saved My Life

Time Traveling With a Hamster

Smile

[mamaraby]

Here, books become a read aloud or audiobook if it’s a text complexity issue. As she gains more confidence and exposure, she might find she enjoys it more and may actually seek the book out to read on her own. Or not, but you still got exposure. I mean, maybe you still really want them to be exposed to the book and the language and the story. Well, who said the only way to do that was by reading it one’s self? Or that this semester is for modern books? Or that this season is for modern books? Or that you can’t watch the movie first? Or that it ever has to look like what school looks/looked like? Your end goal is love of reading, I’m assuming? If that’s the case, I don’t think I’d be looking for what the schools do as a way of accomplishing that.

 

I wish you could see the look of horror my college educated, graduate school attending husband gave me a couple of years into our marriage. We had cancelled cable and he wanted to know what we were going to *do* instead of watch TV. My answer was “read books.†It seemed logical to me, but he couldn’t have imagined anything more horrific. Who reads for fun?!? As an aside, how did I marry someone who didn’t? :p

 

That one could maybe enjoy reading never meshed with his experience. Books are boring he said. Reading is dull. Well, maybe those books you’ve read are genuinely boring and dull. Maybe you just haven’t found your book yet? ;) We went to the library and browsed the stacks. He found his books. Voilá, there you go, I “raised†my first reader.

 

You can bet that experience has colored how I approach reading with my kids. I raise readers and lovers of books first and foremost. I find other ways to fill in other educational goals around that framework. No one ever said the only way to be familiar with the story of The Secret Garden was just by reading it themselves. And if they did, well bully for them. You do you.

[mamaraby]

Princeless (my kids fight me for these)

 

Savvy

 

Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer (OMG I LOVE THIS BOOK)

 

Misadventures of the Family Fletcher (a great book of the "family" genre - if she likes it, might try The Exiles or The Penderwicks or The Saturdays or Ballet Shoes)

 

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate

One Crazy Summer

Year of the Dog

The Birchbark House

The Mighty Miss Malone

Yes! To all of these. Unusual Chickens and Savvy especially. I read Unusual Chickens as a read aloud a few years ago and we *loved* it. Savvy is a series. We listened to the audiobook and my kids still talk about it.

[Tanaqui]

I love Unusual Chickens so much that I've given it to everybody in the approximate age range since it came out.

[SKL]

Books my kids' middle school book club has read and a few others we've enjoyed together.  Some are contemporary, some science fiction, some set in the past.

 

Audiobooks:

• Every Single Second (contemporary US)
• Cinder (science fiction, my kids REALLY liked this.)
• Number the Stars (WWII Denmark / re rescuing a Jewish family)
• When you Reach Me (contemporary / a twist of science fiction - helps to have read A Wrinkle In Time first, as that is important to the plot)
• Wonder (modern US)
• Save Me a Seat (modern US multicultural story)
• Bud Not Buddy (Depression era / African American boy - really a hit with my kids)
• The War that Saved my Life (WWII England)
• Wolf Hollow (old fashioned US but not sure exactly when)
• Pax (about a fox and a boy, not really a fave here)
• Masterminds (modern US - fiction / sci fi - another hit here)
• Holes (modern US)
• Harriet the Spy (fairly modern US / when we were kids)
• Goodbye Stranger (modern US)
• Walk Two Moons (modern US)
• Little Lord Fauntleroy
• Johnny Tremain

Read-alouds:

• Anne of Green Gables
• The Wheel on the School
• The Black Stallion
• Little Women

My reader is really enjoying the Wings of Fire series right now.  I haven't read any of them, so I'll take her word that they are good.  :)

[Tanaqui]

Cinder (science fiction, my kids REALLY liked this.)

 

I forgot about that one. Have you read her new book yet, Renegades? I like it a bit more.

 

Number the Stars (WWII Denmark / re rescuing a Jewish family)

 

It's the weirdest thing, but everything Lowry has written that's well-regarded, I think somebody else did it better. The Green-Sky Trilogy is better than The Giver, and Hitler's Canary is better than Number the Stars.

 

Save Me a Seat (modern US multicultural story)

 

Love this one.

 

Bud Not Buddy (Depression era / African American boy - really a hit with my kids)

 

If you liked this, you should read the companion novel, The Mighty Miss Malone.

 

The War that Saved my Life (WWII England)

 

The sequel is out now!

 

Pax (about a fox and a boy, not really a fave here)

 

This is the sort of book that grownups and award committees like a lot, and kids rarely do.

 

Harriet the Spy (fairly modern US / when we were kids)

 

Not when I was a kid! That book was published in the 1960s. (Interestingly, not a few readers have drawn a parallel between the book and the author's LGBT identity. Huh, I never had my kids read it, but I should and discuss that facet.)

 

[lgliser]

 

 

Let's try these on for size. Not all of these are of equal "quality". I tried for a mix of realistic fiction (Wimpy Kid, Wonder) and SF/F (Harry Potter), but I don't know if I got the mix just right. For whatever reason, most of the realistic fiction seems to skew slightly younger on this list.

Thanks so much for taking the time to make a list!

 

The only ones on there that she's read are All of a Kind Family (she did like that one) and we listened to Echo. She wasn't crazy about it but my other kids liked it.

 

We will check the others out right away and she'll be thrilled when I tell her she can stop reading Secret Garden LOL!!

 

[Tanaqui]

LOL, I love making booklists. Love it. Thankfully, I've done it so much that I can just search my bitly for most links.

[OneStepAtATime]

On a side note, one of my favorite books at that age was Spaceling by Doris Piserchia.  It is a bit obscure and may not even be in print anymore but I loved it.  The title is garbage, though.  It has absolutely NOTHING to do with the story (about a 12 year old girl who can use rings that only a few can see to hop to different dimensions).  It has pets and friendships and a girl saving people, etc.  It was funny and scary and sad and intriguing and I loved it.

 

Also, since she sort of likes scary things, these Alfred Hitchcock stories might be fun...IIRC they used older language and word choices but weren't as hard to tackle as books like Sherlock Holmes and The Secret Garden so it might help her stretch out into older text without being overwhelming.  

https://www.amazon.com/Alfred-Hitchcocks-Ghostly-Gallery-Stories/dp/0394812263/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1512507866&sr=1-7&keywords=alfred+hitchcock

 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0394812425/ref=sxbs_sxwds-stvp_3?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=3341940462&pd_rd_wg=k0J2O&pf_rd_r=GM905D5KH5WKPY2DXZHN&pf_rd_s=desktop-sx-bottom-slot&pf_rd_t=301&pd_rd_i=0394812425&pd_rd_w=cmmLm&pf_rd_i=alfred+hitchcock&pd_rd_r=4f506e46-f4d9-47b0-9ba7-ceb0b70875d3&ie=UTF8&qid=1512507957&sr=3

[Ausmumof3]

My strategy with my kids is to let them choose what they want to read for themselves but try to get the books I want them to have read on audio for the car. This seems to work.

[Targhee]

I think classics as a read aloud are an effective exposure to classic lit in the early years, and books of choice for personal reading. We don't require certain books or do lit studies until they are 12 or 13, and then I try to start with something I'm certain they will love.

 

One thing I did do is put coupons in the back of some classic books. TIf they wanted the coupon they had to read and answer questions from me. You could put whatever you want as a coupon but we did credits towards their library fines (😳 At one point theee kids had a total of over $50 in library fines so they were anxious to get those paid off).

[Hobbes]

I get a lot of the classics that I think will appeal to my girls as audio books. They listen during our afternoon quiet time or in the car. A good narrator can add so much interest to a book and the girls enjoy colouring or playing Lego while they listen. I find it's easier to get them engaged in the story that way at this age than assigning a book they are skeptical about.

 

ETA: Has she read Ella Enchanted? It's wonderful. :)

Edited December 6, 2017 by indigoellen@gmail.com

[SKL]

Books my kids' middle school book club has read and a few others we've enjoyed together.  Some are contemporary, some science fiction, some set in the past.

 

Audiobooks:

• Every Single Second (contemporary US)
• Cinder (science fiction, my kids REALLY liked this.)
• Number the Stars (WWII Denmark / re rescuing a Jewish family)
• When you Reach Me (contemporary / a twist of science fiction - helps to have read A Wrinkle In Time first, as that is important to the plot)
• Wonder (modern US)
• Save Me a Seat (modern US multicultural story)
• Bud Not Buddy (Depression era / African American boy - really a hit with my kids)
• The War that Saved my Life (WWII England)
• Wolf Hollow (old fashioned US but not sure exactly when)
• Pax (about a fox and a boy, not really a fave here)
• Masterminds (modern US - fiction / sci fi - another hit here)
• Holes (modern US)
• Harriet the Spy (fairly modern US / when we were kids)
• Goodbye Stranger (modern US)
• Walk Two Moons (modern US)
• Little Lord Fauntleroy
• Johnny Tremain

Read-alouds:

• Anne of Green Gables
• The Wheel on the School
• The Black Stallion
• Little Women

My reader is really enjoying the Wings of Fire series right now.  I haven't read any of them, so I'll take her word that they are good.  :)

 

Some more middle school books I forgot yesterday:

• The Westing Game (more or less modern US)
• Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library (modern US)
• The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E Frankwiler (modern US)
• Out of the Dust (dust bowl US - not a fave)