Are there any Stephen King books fairly appropriate for a 12 year old boy?

[KidsHappen]

The Dead Zone has the pervy child killer.

 

Thanks for mentioning. I didn't remember that.

[Rosie_0801]

He could try Abhorsen, by Garth Nix. It has a bit of nudity and the start of a relationship, but I don't think there's anything a 12 year old shouldn't read. I'm less choosey than some, though. There's two others in the series.

 

Rosie

[unsinkable]

Not only that... but the protagonist is a woman who's handcuffed to the bed after her husband dies during a sex game. I read it in college and found it disturbing.

 

I read The Stand in high school and enjoyed it (although it's still creepy).

 

On Writing would be generally safe (apart from language) :D

 

Me, too. The worst part about it was: (written in white/spoiler) the part where the evil thing/person was in the room with her one night while she was still handcuffed to the bed

[Melinda in VT]

He could try Abhorsen, by Garth Nix. It has a bit of nudity and the start of a relationship, but I don't think there's anything a 12 year old shouldn't read. I'm less choosey than some, though. There's two others in the series.

 

Rosie

 

I just read the first in the Abhorsen trilogy last month and I think it's fine for 12. It's more fantasy than thriller.

[LidiyaDawn]

Y'know what I find funny? That there are so many people saying that they'd never let their young teens read these books - and in the next breath saying that THEY read them at that same age. :laugh:

 

I can't answer from the 12 year old son angle, as our ds12 has special needs and isn't capable of reading or understanding SK's books. I'd let dd14 read some of them if she wanted, but 12 and 14 are quite different.

[RhondaM.]

We did The Talisman as a read aloud. That way I could skip curse words and bad scenes ...or at least reword things a little. We enjoyed it.

 

RhondaM.

[unsinkable]

I don't see anything "funny" about parents discerning what is best for their children in light of what the parents' childhood experiences were.

 

I think that is wise.

[Wheres Toto]

A LOT of SK's books have a least a brief instance of something inappropriate - even The Long Walk had one of the boys running out of the race to fondle one of the girls in the spectators. That and the killing of the boys who slow down too much are very graphic.

 

Pet Semetary still bothers me but pretty much only one scene - the one where the little boy runs out into the road. It just is too believable - that could really happen.

 

Has your son read Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury?

[LidiyaDawn]

Y'know what I find funny? That there are so many people saying that they'd never let their young teens read these books - and in the next breath saying that THEY read them at that same age. :laugh:

 

I can't answer from the 12 year old son angle, as our ds12 has special needs and isn't capable of reading or understanding SK's books. I'd let dd14 read some of them if she wanted, but 12 and 14 are quite different.

 

I don't see anything "funny" about parents discerning what is best for their children in light of what the parents' childhood experiences were.

 

I think that is wise.

 

Were you responding to what I said? (it looks like that might be the case)

 

It was just a light-hearted remark given that there were so many replies that said pretty much that.

 

Y'know.. "do as i say, not as i did" :p

[Parrothead]

What about Insomnia? I don't remember anything too terribly bad in that one.

[Mrs Mungo]

Were you responding to what I said? (it looks like that might be the case)

 

It was just a light-hearted remark given that there were so many replies that said pretty much that.

 

Y'know.. "do as i say, not as i did" :p

 

But, I think that's the voice of experience talking. If I can keep someone (especially my kids) from making the same mistake I did, that's good. Why make everyone learn everything the hard way?

 

I read a lot of his books as a teenager (not at 12), they are extremely creepy and some of it is just *wrong*. Like I said, there are lots of really great authors out there writing stuff that is kid/young adult appropriate. Better to stick with those at 12 in my opinion.

[LidiyaDawn]

Were you responding to what I said? (it looks like that might be the case)

 

It was just a light-hearted remark given that there were so many replies that said pretty much that.

 

Y'know.. "do as i say, not as i did" :p

 

But, I think that's the voice of experience talking. If I can keep someone (especially my kids) from making the same mistake I did, that's good. Why make everyone learn everything the hard way?

 

I read a lot of his books as a teenager (not at 12), they are extremely creepy and some of it is just *wrong*. Like I said, there are lots of really great authors out there writing stuff that is kid/young adult appropriate. Better to stick with those at 12 in my opinion.

 

Well sure ~ I never said it was a bad thing to use your own experience in guiding your kids… heck, I hitch-hiked across Canada at 15 - think I'd let dd14 pull that stunt next year? :tongue_smilie:

 

It just made me laugh that's all... kinda like these things: (this one is making the rounds on facebook)

 

My curfew was street lights. My mom didn't call my cell, she yelled my name. I played outside, not online. If I didn't eat what my mom cooked, then I didn't eat. Sanitizer didn't exist but you COULD get your mouth washed out with soap. I rode a bike without a helmet. Getting dirty was okay. And...neighbors cared as much as your parents did. Re-post if you drank water from a water hose & still survived!! :w00t:

[elizabeth]

Not "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption" (it's a short story). There's a prison "e-p.a*r" scene in that (I reversed the letters and added some symbols).

 

"The Long Walk" is a probably 12 year old acceptable short story - it's largely psychological, but it is about boys about that age, so it could go either way.

 

I don't remember if there's sex in Firestarter. I kind of like King's stories that involve a good government conspiracy. Salem's Lot is about vampires, Pet Sematary deals with pets (and then later a young boy) coming back to life (so sort of zombies, but not exactly).

 

Gerald's Game is about an abusive husband, so I'd skip that one initially.

 

IT deals with children being killed (and then children killing the evil clown, who isn't like "John Wayne Gacy" - guy dressed up as a clown, but the clown is supernatural), so that could go either way. Someone else described it thusly

 

 

 

"Stand By Me" (the movie) is based on King's novella "The Body" - another story that has teenagers as the protagonists. That's part of the Different Seasons collection that also includes "Shawshank" described above and "Apt Pupil" which is about a teen who sort of befriends a Nazi in hiding and then starts killing people himself. So, while that one story ("The Body") might be okay, the rest of the book probably isn't.

 

For what it's worth, you can find pretty detailed descriptions of most of King's books on Wikipedia. You could check individual books and short stories there and see what you find acceptable. I've been reading his stuff since I was a young teen, and I am still a functional member of society.

 

A similar author is Robert McCammon. His older stuff is very King-like. His most recent books are set in the US at the time of the Revolution and feature a serial killer being tracked by a law clerk.

 

If you decide to let your child read The Stand by King (post-apocalyptic), you could make it a literary lesson by comparing it to McCammon's Swan Song. DH is a big McCammon fan. He's also mentally healthy :)

 

Swan Song is amazing!! Finally in print again. I adore McCammon.

[DoppeltGemoppelt]

I remember reading Stephen King at 12. I got hooked on him for a short time because of a short story collection by him that was in the young adult section. I couldn't remember the name, but after googling I believe it was Skeleton Crew?

 

I can't vouch for it, since I don't remember the stories very clearly. There is a study guide here

 

http://www.penguin.com/static/pdf/teachersguides/kinghorror.pdf

[DoppeltGemoppelt]

Oops, old post :-)

[Vida Winter]

oops old post. Deleting.

 

[kiwik]

I just read something that old and didn't notice! Wonder if he has read SK yet though.

[Donna]

I read all the Steven King books I could get my hands on when I was 12…of course, very few of them had the same kind of content as Doctor Sleep has in the very first chapter. I will not allow dd to read that one for a long while.

[Χά�ων]

I read pet cemetery when I was that age without issue. 

[Sarah CB]

hmmm, I'm thinking back... I've been reading SK for a loooong time. I'd probably start him with The Talisman or Eyes of the Dragon; those are books about boys. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is good, no sex or gore there. The ones you mentioned are disturbing (gore, some sex), but you know what your son can handle. I think I started reading SK with Salem's Lot but I was 15 or so, and then I just went through them at a clip. He's gotten a lot nastier with time, imo.

 

I disagree that he's gotten a lot nastier with time.  I read a ton of Stephen King when I was a teen and then took a very long break from him because I no longer enjoyed the horror.  However, I've found his last few books thought provoking - the emphasis seems to moved away from shock and horror.  I loved his book on JFK, Under the Dome, and the latest short story collection.  I can't remember whether there was a lot that I wouldn't want a young teen reading in those books (so I'm not recommending them to the OP), but the novels certainly were not what I'd consider full of disturbing content.  

 

I would recommend Dean Koontz - he writes in a similar vein to Stephen King, but I really think he's a Christian.  There is so much about the power of good that comes across in his books and I don't think there is a lot (or any?) of disturbing sexual content or horrible gore.

[Walking-Iris]

I read a lot of this stuff in late middle school into high school. Anne Rice, Stephen King, Clive Barker, a few Dean Koontz. Now there's absolutely nothing wrong with me....I didn't grow up to be subversive in any way. So I seriously doubt anything terrible morally would happen to the teen who read stuff like this. 

 

And frankly, I've reread some of these books since being that young and I feel that quite a few of them aren't worth the paper they're printed on tbh. 

 

I wouldn't really care if my older child found them and read them. (Say at a library) But they also aren't books that I would keep around as an option. I wouldn't go out of my way to introduce him to these books.

 

Neil Gaiman is a better bet for children.

 

ETA: I feel The Stand is an awesome book. I could leave the other SK books. And I feel that Clive Barker's Great and Secret Show (and others in that series such as Imagica) are very beautiful, and imaginative, if just a tad creepy. But definitely for the older teen.

[Luanne]

I'm curious why you would even want to introduce an author like Stephen King to a 12 year old.  There are tons of good books out there that are appropriate for a 12 year old to read... Stephen King is not one of them.

[KarenC]

I think all of his books have a lot of profanity.  But, I would look at Misery, Cujo, Under The Dome, and The Green Mile.