hsmom3tn Posted June 10, 2009 Share Posted June 10, 2009 My 11 yo son does not like to read. He has been able to read since 4yo and reads well, but asking him to read something is like asking him to stick a needle in his eye. I think his reluctance might be because I pushed him too hard when he was younger about learning to read. He's my first child, my first homeschooling experience, and I made a lot of mistakes. Anyway, when I force him to read, I have at least let him choose what he wants to read. I told myself, anything was fine as long as he was reading something. For several years now he has only been reading easy, silly chapter books (like My Weird School, Goosebumps, etc.) I know that these are beneath his reading level (which is average, about 5-6), but I haven't wanted any further struggle so I let it go. I also have two daughters that are 9. We do science and history together. For science we use Apologia, and for history we have used SOTW, plus other living books for both. Since these involve mostly my reading aloud to them, they have not been assigned any "required reading" for school, other than the occasional biography. OK, sorry to ramble on, but I wanted to give some background before getting to the question. We are going to try Sonlight this year. I want to do American history and since I will have two 4th graders and a 6th grader, we are starting with Core 3+4 condensed. I know that we have some excellent selections ahead of us to read for SL, but since my son is going from silly, easy books to the books in Sonlight, I'm thinking he needs some sort of "transition" books to read this summer. Does that make sense? What can I get for him to read right now that is more age-appropriate, and a bit more serious, but not quite as deep as the Sonlight books? What will hold his attention, but challenge him a bit at the same time? Thanks in advance for any suggestions, Angie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abbeyej Posted June 10, 2009 Share Posted June 10, 2009 Has he read the Alex Rider books by Anthony Horowitz, beginning with Stormbreaker? (There are also some comic book editions, maybe based on the movie that came out a couple of years ago? I don't mean those, just the original novels.) These are fast-paced and exciting, sort of a pre-teen (/young teen) James Bond with spying and cool gadgets and adventure. Another exciting series for that age is the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan, beginning with Lightning Thief. Percy is a contemporary 11yo (to 16 by the end of the series) who discovers that the Greek gods are alive and well and living at Olympus -- right above the Empire State Building. Lots of adventure, lots and lots of references to Greek mythology and monsters... These are certainly age-appropriate, but they're also boy-oriented adventure and require a bit more time and focus than the other books you mentioned... And, of course, there's Harry Potter, if you allow those in your home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kate in Arabia Posted June 10, 2009 Share Posted June 10, 2009 My ds 11 also had trouble transitioning from Encyclopedia Brown type books to longer, meatier works. Honestly, it was trial and error for us. I got an array of books on different subjects and it just took time to find ones that held his interest. Some that worked for him: Samurai Mysteries http://www.amazon.com/Samurai-Never-Fears-Death-Mysteries/dp/0399246096 Pirates of the Carribean: Jack Sparrow http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=jack+sparrow Redwall series http://www.amazon.com/Redwall-Book-1-Brian-Jacques/dp/0142302376/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1244669249&sr=1-1 I also wouldn't discount non-fiction; I don't have any suggestions in this area, but you could keep all possibilities open, you just don't know what might click, kwim? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsmom3tn Posted June 10, 2009 Author Share Posted June 10, 2009 Oh, I had forgotten about the Percy Jacksons! Thanks for reminding me. I've never heard of the Alex Rider books but I will look for them. Harry Potter would be fine, but the size of those books is intimidating to him and he has not wanted to touch them. Hopefully he will eventually. I would like to read them, too, and it would be nice to be able to discuss them with him. Thanks :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathy in MD Posted June 10, 2009 Share Posted June 10, 2009 At that age my ds fell in love with The Sea of Trolls by Farmer. It was a bit above his reading level because of past LD's and long, but he stuck with it. There's now a sequel out as well. I've found that collections of short essays and stories also help make the transition to more indepth books. If your ds likes history, the Learning Through History magazine is a good bridge to longer, more indepth, non-fiction books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsmom3tn Posted June 10, 2009 Author Share Posted June 10, 2009 Samurai Mysteries http://www.amazon.com/Samurai-Never-Fears-Death-Mysteries/dp/0399246096 Pirates of the Carribean: Jack Sparrow http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=jack+sparrow Redwall series http://www.amazon.com/Redwall-Book-1-Brian-Jacques/dp/0142302376/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1244669249&sr=1-1 I also wouldn't discount non-fiction; I don't have any suggestions in this area, but you could keep all possibilities open, you just don't know what might click, kwim? The Samurai Mysteries look good. He loves POTC, but I've never seen any books other than the movie tie-ins. Redwall is another one I had forgotten about. Those are all great suggestions, too. As far as non-fiction, he likes to read those Usborne books for learning foreign languages. He's determined to teach himself Spanish and German, lol. He's also developing an interest in WWII, and I think that actually came from a video game that he plays. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathy in MD Posted June 10, 2009 Share Posted June 10, 2009 Oh, I had forgotten about the Percy Jacksons! Thanks for reminding me. I've never heard of the Alex Rider books but I will look for them. Harry Potter would be fine, but the size of those books is intimidating to him and he has not wanted to touch them. Hopefully he will eventually. I would like to read them, too, and it would be nice to be able to discuss them with him. Thanks :) The 1st Harry Potter wasn't too long as I recall. OK, I checked, it's 300 pages, but still shorter than the others. Also my ds loved comedy or humor mixed with mystery. Some books he enjoyed were the Freddy the Pig series (light but written in 30's +/- so it's a bit more complex, Henry Winterfeld books (especially the Detectives in Togas ad Mystery of the Roman Ransom), & the Chet Gheko series (light 3rd-4th grade, but fun with horrible puns and lots of take-offs from earlier mysteries). You might also try A Long Way from Chicago by Peck. That was a favorite book on tape, but I could never get ds to read it or the other Peck books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa in FL Posted June 10, 2009 Share Posted June 10, 2009 My son started reading more by choice when we started getting him magazines. Now he always has a magazine in his hand (or so it seems). He also seems to enjoy more real fact books than stories. He has loved reading a couple of books we have about NASA. HTH Melissa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LibraryLover Posted June 10, 2009 Share Posted June 10, 2009 (edited) This might be Twaddle to some, but Holes was my ds' most fav book at that age. Most fave. I haven't seen the Artemis Fowl series mentioned, or The Supernaturals by Colfer. After the Percy Jackson books, or as you wait your turn in the library queue for The Last Olympians, the Cronus Chronicles might also be of interest. Edited June 10, 2009 by LibraryLover Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pbjmeyer Posted June 10, 2009 Share Posted June 10, 2009 Books his age group would be reading were just too long to hold his attention. When he was 9, he got hooked on "Geronimo Stilton" books. They are about a mouse named Geronimo Stilton who is a reporter. He had me buying them or getting them from the library constantly. He also enjoyed "Deltora Quest" books (d is for diamond, e - emerald, a - amethyst, t - topaz, etc) - and the quest is that the boy has to find all the gems and put them on the King's belt. It's a series, and each book is about 120 pages. These were purely for fun. I wanted him to really get into a story so that he HAD to have the next book. These worked for us. He is now moving on to "Warriors" books about a house cat and the 'clans' of wild cats out in the forest behind his house. Maybe these series will work for your son! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsmom3tn Posted June 11, 2009 Author Share Posted June 11, 2009 Thank you to all of you for all of the great suggestions. I'm ready for a trip to the library! :001_smile: Angie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKS Posted June 11, 2009 Share Posted June 11, 2009 Have you had a developmental vision exam? These are done by a developmental optometrist and look at things like tracking in addition to acuity. Anyway, the reason I ask is that many times kids who read well or early but then who end up disliking reading or don't progress as expected actually have vision problems that can be treated with vision therapy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsmom3tn Posted June 11, 2009 Author Share Posted June 11, 2009 Wow, I hadn't thought of that. I'll have to check into that, too. He never complains about his vision, but I guess it's possible that even he may not know something is wrong. He hasn't had any sort of eye exam in a really long time. Thank you. -Angie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herding Cats in NC Posted June 11, 2009 Share Posted June 11, 2009 Another exciting series for that age is the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan, beginning with Lightning Thief. Percy is a contemporary 11yo (to 16 by the end of the series) who discovers that the Greek gods are alive and well and living at Olympus -- right above the Empire State Building. Lots of adventure, lots and lots of references to Greek mythology and monsters... :iagree: Run, do not walk, to your local library or bookstore and pick up the Lightning Thief. My ds, now 11, has always enjoyed reading and would pretty much read anything I handed him. But this book was the first book that he read nonstop, finished in about a day, and begged me to take him to get the next book in the series. He did the same thing with the second & third books. His streak was broken when he had to wait for the remaining books to be released :tongue_smilie:. But the excitement he got from reading these books carried over to other books as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathy in MD Posted June 11, 2009 Share Posted June 11, 2009 Have you had a developmental vision exam? These are done by a developmental optometrist and look at things like tracking in addition to acuity. Anyway, the reason I ask is that many times kids who read well or early but then who end up disliking reading or don't progress as expected actually have vision problems that can be treated with vision therapy. Oooh! I should have thought of this, since this was one of my ds's LD's. But a normal eye exam won't pick up these subtle vision problems. You eed to see a dev. optometrist (some times called by other names). A few opthamolisgists have moved into this field, but they're typically reinventing the wheel, so I'd go with a dev. opt. Optometrists have been developing the field ad therapies for over 20 years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cougarmom4 Posted June 11, 2009 Share Posted June 11, 2009 39 Clues--this is a newer series of books that my dd10 and ds11 are really enjoying. The books aren't too big and are a very fun read! None of us can put them down once we start. My ds11 started getting into the Hardy Boys books awhile ago--that was nice because there are a ton of them! Another thought, perhaps using a book on CD while reading would be a good way to transition into longer books...my son first did this with Harry Potter a few years back. He really wanted to read it, but it was a bit too difficult for him to read independently...and he ended up really enjoying this. Of course, you could also read aloud & alternate pages between you. I'll second the suggestion to find a magazine about something he likes--Sports Illustrated for Kids, National Geographic for Kids, Highlights, Cricket--my kids *love* when 'their' magazine comes in the mail and spend the next few hours devouring it. Even acquiring past issues or checking them out from the library is fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirtroad Posted June 11, 2009 Share Posted June 11, 2009 Henty books? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lgm Posted June 11, 2009 Share Posted June 11, 2009 Wishbone http://www.listsofbests.com/list/39630 The Boys Against the Girls series by Phyllis Naylor http://www.kidsreads.com/series/series-naylor-titles.asp THe Great Brain series by John D. Fitzgerald http://www.myclearwater.com/cpl/kids/books/series-greatbrain.asp Homer Price by Robert McCloskey http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer_Price Henry Reed by Keith Robertson http://www.myclearwater.com/cpl/kids/books/series-henryreed.asp The Mouse and the Motorcycle series by Beverly Cleary The Tripod Trilogy (The White Mountains, The City of Gold & Lead, The Pool of Fire) by John Christopher Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket http://www.myclearwater.com/cpl/kids/books/series-lemonysnicket.asp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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