Garga Posted November 6, 2018 Share Posted November 6, 2018 (edited) My 8th grader won’t read books on his own. He’ll only read the ones I assign. It takes him about a month to read a book and he grouses about it, even though he also claims to like the books. (Sigh...kids.) It’s November. We have about 6 more months of schooling. He’s in the middle of a book now, so I can give him about 5 more books to read and then we’re done with 8th grade. Currently, he is reading books written for children. Once we hit 9th grade, we’ll read books written for adults (the normal high school classics like To Kill a Mockingbird, etc.) If you were me and you had only 5 more children's books to share with your son, which 5 would you choose? Your list will probably include some that we have already read, but will probably also include ones we haven’t...and those are the ones I’m looking for. ? And if you want to say why you think those are good to read, please do so! Edited November 6, 2018 by Garga 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted November 6, 2018 Share Posted November 6, 2018 (edited) On 11/6/2018 at 12:33 PM, Garga said: My 8th grader won’t read books on his own. He’ll only read the ones I assign. It takes him about a month to read a book and he grouses about it, even though he also claims to like the books. (Sigh...kids.) Neither DS here was big on reading as a "free choice activity" -- some kids just aren't "into" reading. So I totally get your frustration about trying to get books into your DS. Don't know if this would work for you and DS, but we did most of our Literature aloud together, all the way through high school. We did it "popcorn" or "buddy reading" style -- "you read a page, I read a page" -- and at 8th grade, we'd read for about 30 min/day. That kept interest high, and we could discuss as we went. We have great memories of shared books by having done it this way. I did have DSs do solo reading, too. They would select from a book basket, about one every 4-6 weeks, and I would schedule time for them to read. These selections were either good books that I felt they should be exposed to, or were in support of our History or other school work. On 11/6/2018 at 12:33 PM, Garga said: ...Once we hit 9th grade, we’ll read books written for adults (the normal high school classics like To Kill a Mockingbird, etc.) BTW: Don't feel like you have to do a hard flipping of the switch from all younger books to all adult books at 9th grade! It's perfectly fine to do a mix of discussion-able YA titles along with more more traditional classics to start off with -- and even all the way through high school, as long as the student is getting a lot out of it, and you are covering some traditional high school Lit. titles. On 11/6/2018 at 12:33 PM, Garga said: ...If you were me and you had only 5 more children's books to share with your son, which 5 would you choose? ... The titles I would suggest would really depend on what goal(s) you want to accomplish in the last part of 8th grade. A few possible goals and matching book lists, just off the top of my head... Exposure to classic/popular kids and YA lit. titles you want him to be familiar with: - Chronicles of Narnia (Lewis) -- or -- Chronicles of Prydain (Alexander) -- or -- Redwall (Jacques) - Harry Potter (Rawling) - The Hunger Games (Collins) - The Graveyard Book (Gaiman) -- or other by him - Holes (Sachar) Do books that help with a slow ramping up/prep for traditional high school works: - The Outsiders (Hinton) - The Hobbit (Tolkien) - The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Twain) - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Carroll) - The Book Thief (Zusak) Share some of your own favorites from childhood/middle school: - Knight's Castle (Eager) - My Side of the Mountain (George) - The Great and Terrible Quest (Lovett) - Anne of Green Gables (Montgomery) - Watership Down (Adams) Cover 5 different genres: - The Westing Game (Raskin) -- or -- One of Us is Lying (McManus) -- mystery - True Grit (Portis) -- western - The Cay (Taylor) -- or -- Island of the Blue Dolphins (O'Dell) -- survival/adventure - A Wizard of Earthsea (Le Guin) -- or -- The Thief (Turner) -- fantasy - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Adams) -- sci-fi and humor Do discussion-able books: - The Giver (Lowry) - Tuck Everlasting (Babbit) - A Wrinkle in Time (L'Engle) -- or -- Below the Root (Snyder) - The Wednesday Wars (Schmidt) -- or -- Maniac Magee (Spinelli) - a number of quality short stories Exposure to other perspectives through YA books: - Wonder (Palacio) - The Hate U Give (Thomas) -- or -- All American Boys (Kiely & Reynolds) - The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (Alexie) -- or -- American-Born Chinese (Yang - graphic novel) - The Breadwinner (Ellis) - A Long Walk to Water (Park) Inspiring non-fiction/autobiographies: - The Hiding Place (ten Boom) - Do Hard Things (Harris) - Soul Surfer (Hamilton) - I am Malala, Young Reader's Edition (Yousafzai & McCormick) - The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, Young Reader's Edition (Kamkwamba & Mealer) Edited May 30, 2019 by Lori D. 15 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amateur Actress Posted November 6, 2018 Share Posted November 6, 2018 What she said ^^^ But also, the book my 3 oldest loved most was "Carry On, Mr. Bowditch" by Jean Lee Latham. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted November 6, 2018 Share Posted November 6, 2018 (edited) 3 hours ago, Garga said: 56 minutes ago, Amateur Actress said: ...the book my 3 oldest loved most was "Carry On, Mr. Bowditch" by Jean Lee Latham. "Sailing by ash breeze" -- after doing Mr. Bowditch as a read-aloud back in late elementary grades, that was a saying from the book that we used all through middle and high school! (:D ("Ash breeze" means when you're out on the ocean in your sailing ship and the wind dies, you have to break out the oars made of wood from the ash tree, and it is by your hard work and the sweat of your brow that you move forward. Great real-life lesson in perseverance and "grit"! (:D ) Edited November 6, 2018 by Lori D. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alisoncooks Posted November 7, 2018 Share Posted November 7, 2018 My 7th grader has declared Holes to be her new favorite book (it was assigned). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted November 7, 2018 Share Posted November 7, 2018 You've just described my ds. Me at the final 8th grade "school conference" we had: "Is there some topic you'd like to do next year for literature in high school? We could do a theme, you could dive into something specific, we could do a specific time period or a place... Him: Whatever. Me: But don't you want to give input? Him: No. I like it when you pick books and make me read them. Me: Do you want to have things around a theme or... Him: No, no. Just pick a selection of things. That'll be fine. Seriously, I crack up every time I think about this conversation. His favorites in 8th grade were Fahrenheit 451 and The Hate U Give. Before that, he really liked The Giver and Stargirl in 7th grade. Lori's lists are great. We read several of those over the years. 3 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted November 7, 2018 Share Posted November 7, 2018 (edited) On 11/7/2018 at 12:46 PM, Farrar said: You've just described my ds. Me at the final 8th grade "school conference" we had: "Is there some topic you'd like to do next year for literature in high school? We could do a theme, you could dive into something specific, we could do a specific time period or a place... Him: Whatever. Me: But don't you want to give input? Him: No. I like it when you pick books and make me read them. Me: Do you want to have things around a theme or... Him: No, no. Just pick a selection of things. That'll be fine. Seriously, I crack up every time I think about this conversation. Lol. That pretty much sums up the story of my life with DSs throughout all of our homeschooling. I tried so hard to create those cool courses based around student interest, like what 8FillTheHeart does. Only to discover: your student has to HAVE an interest in order to do that. (:D We did finally have one really super year in which, when given the choice of what history period to study, one DS actually expressed an interest for once -- 20th century. That coincided with simultaneous interests in sci-fi (a Lit. genre that heavily took off in the 20th century), and the topic of "worldview". That all meshed nicely for us to create our own Lit. course that was our most successful course for all of high school: "Worldviews In Classic Sci-Fi Literature". Great fun! PS -- LOVE the concept of having an annual school conference! ? Edited November 25, 2018 by Lori D. 4 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garga Posted November 7, 2018 Author Share Posted November 7, 2018 37 minutes ago, Farrar said: You've just described my ds. Me at the final 8th grade "school conference" we had: "Is there some topic you'd like to do next year for literature in high school? We could do a theme, you could dive into something specific, we could do a specific time period or a place... Him: Whatever. Me: But don't you want to give input? Him: No. I like it when you pick books and make me read them. Me: Do you want to have things around a theme or... Him: No, no. Just pick a selection of things. That'll be fine. Seriously, I crack up every time I think about this conversation. His favorites in 8th grade were Fahrenheit 451 and The Hate U Give. Before that, he really liked The Giver and Stargirl in 7th grade. Lori's lists are great. We read several of those over the years. 2 minutes ago, Lori D. said: ? Lol. That pretty much sums up the story of my life with DSs throughout all of our homeschooling. I tried so hard to create those cool courses based around student interest, like what 8FillTheHeart does. Only to discover: your student has to HAVE an interest in order to do that. (:D We did finally have one really super year in which, when given the choice of what history period to study, DS#1 was interested in 20th century. That coincided with simultaneous interests in sci-fi (a Lit. genre that heavily took off in the 20th century), and the topic of "worldview". That all meshed nicely for us to create our own Lit. course that was our most successful course for all of high school: "Worldviews In Classic Sci-Fi Literature". Great fun! PS -- LOVE the concept of having an annual school conference! ? Yup! The above is my life with my guys. ? Lori, you suggested The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy for my 8th grader. Turns out that is the exact book my 11th grader is reading right now—like literally as I type this it’s reading time and he’s reading Hitchhikers at this very moment. My family has a long love of that book and he’s seen both of the Hitchhiker movies and listened to a few radio broadcasts of it, but he hadn’t read it yet. I kept waiting for him to read it on his own time and of his own volition, but that wasn’t happening. I’m just trying to squeeze in some good books that I think they’ll enjoy before they’re off on their own. They likely won’t read these things when they are grown, and that’s ok. But for now, I do enjoy sharing the stories I’ve loved with them. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momto6inIN Posted November 7, 2018 Share Posted November 7, 2018 If they really wanted just a list to check off and had no preferences ... The Yearling, The Giver, The Outsiders, Tom Sawyer, The Hobbit 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerryAtHope Posted November 7, 2018 Share Posted November 7, 2018 23 hours ago, Lori D. said: BTW: Don't feel like you have to do a hard flipping of the switch from all younger books to all adult books at 9th grade! It's perfectly fine to do a mix of discussion-able YA titles along with more more traditional classics to start off with -- and even all the way through high school, as long as the student is getting a lot out of it, and you are covering some traditional high school Lit. titles. ? Yes! Many that are on your list are actually ones we mixed in throughout highschool! 1 hour ago, Lori D. said: I tried so hard to create those cool courses based around student interest, like what 8FillTheHeart does. Only to discover: your student has to HAVE an interest in order to do that. (:D We did finally have one really super year in which, when given the choice of what history period to study, one DS actually expressed an interest for once -- 20th century. That coincided with simultaneous interests in sci-fi (a Lit. genre that heavily took off in the 20th century), and the topic of "worldview". That all meshed nicely for us to create our own Lit. course that was our most successful course for all of high school: "Worldviews In Classic Sci-Fi Literature". Great fun! PS -- LOVE the concept of having an annual school conference! ? YES! LOL, the great myth of homeschooling, LOL, that in high school they'll have these interests you can pursue and you'll be doing all this tailoring! My friend and I bemoan the lack of fruition of this aspect for our kids! That said--we were able to do SOME tailoring, but nothing like what I anticipated or hoped (or felt was portrayed to me....) School conferences with the kids were so beneficial here though! Even when they didn't have a strong interest, it helped us connect goals and desires and direction (hey, if they like what mom chooses, that's direction, LOL!) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happypamama Posted November 7, 2018 Share Posted November 7, 2018 (edited) He’s always welcome to ask my son what books he has liked, but I know he liked the My Side of the Mountain series. He is reading Kidnapped right now and liking it. He has liked pretty much everything I’ve assigned him. I can send you his lists if you’d like. Edited November 7, 2018 by happypamama 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
umsami Posted November 7, 2018 Share Posted November 7, 2018 My reluctant 8th grader loved the Alex Rider series. Not necessarily great books, but he loved them. "Hatchet", "My Side of the Mountain", "Holes", and "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" were well liked. We are reading "The Hobbit" right now. I'm using the Build Your Library study with it, and it's going well. He doesn't love it (as I hoped), but doesn't hate it either. He's enjoyed making the character sketches for his field journal. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momto6inIN Posted November 8, 2018 Share Posted November 8, 2018 On 11/6/2018 at 5:02 PM, Lori D. said: BTW: Don't feel like you have to do a hard flipping of the switch from all younger books to all adult books at 9th grade! It's perfectly fine to do a mix of discussion-able YA titles along with more more traditional classics to start off with -- and even all the way through high school, as long as the student is getting a lot out of it, and you are covering some traditional high school Lit. titles. ? 14 hours ago, MerryAtHope said: Yes! Many that are on your list are actually ones we mixed in throughout highschool! I agree! My oldest wrote his best essay *ever* on the Hunger Games trilogy - as a senior. He wove in comparisons to Ancient Rome and our current US culture and did a very in depth analysis. Even though the reading/lexile level is relatively low, some of the complex themes in these YA books are really better suited to a more mature student's perspective than a middle schooler's anyway. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fawnmoscato Posted November 9, 2018 Share Posted November 9, 2018 Roots. It's high on my list for anyone to read, but young high schoolers particularly. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acresoft Posted November 10, 2018 Share Posted November 10, 2018 The Swiss Family Robinson is a nice book. The Sower Series from Mott Media is another option. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nixpix5 Posted November 10, 2018 Share Posted November 10, 2018 With my boys at that age they didn't love and embrace the classics that I adored. My 7th/8th graders really enjoyed these ones: City of Embers The Uglies series Unwind Cirque De Freak series Speak Harry Potter Eragon The Giver Those were some of their absolute favorites at that age. I would throw in Hunger Games, Divergent, Mortal Instruments etc as ones I think my boys would have enjoyed had they been around at that point. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JaLeSherman Posted November 11, 2018 Share Posted November 11, 2018 Two I'd like to add, that's more of a deep thinker than a challenge reading is "Maniac MaGee", "Bud, not Buddy" definitely come to the top of my mind. They have deep thought provoking things happen to the main characters that it gets you wondering.The other three everyone else hit. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nixpix5 Posted November 11, 2018 Share Posted November 11, 2018 4 hours ago, HeighHo said: Mine could not finish The Giver, Hunger Games or the Uglies as eighth graders. Man's inhumanity to Man was at the forefront at that age and these three books just reinforced that. That's really interesting but a great reminder how differently children develop and process information. Sensitivity to that is so important. My boys were history/science/political science fans so they found these types of book immensely fascinating with respect to "could this happen?" "Are we pointing ourselves in a direction where this could be close to reality?" and so forth. It generated alot of interesting discussions in our house. I read every book my kids do which also helps so I can process and discuss these topics further. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmrich Posted November 11, 2018 Share Posted November 11, 2018 I also like for my kids (both my own and my students) to have read Greek mythology, Norse mythology, lots of the Bible, and fairy tales since these are referenced so much in other reading material. I also love folk tales from around the world. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RootAnn Posted November 11, 2018 Share Posted November 11, 2018 We're definitely later on the spectrum for some of the books on Lori's suggestion list. I have a sophomore in high school that I wouldn't give the Book Thief to. I have a senior who loves dystopian lit, but she's not read the Hunger Games or Divergent. (I don't think the second and third book of the Divergent series is worth wasting time on, personally. Back when HG was popular, I determined she wasn't old enough yet to read them. By the time she was old/mature enough, she wasn't interested in reading 'popular' dystopian books.) My girls are all readers, but there are some books I wouldn't give them in 8th grade that others here would hand to a younger child. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted November 11, 2018 Share Posted November 11, 2018 (edited) On 11/11/2018 at 3:03 PM, RootAnn said: We're definitely later on the spectrum for some of the books on Lori's suggestion list. I have a sophomore in high school that I wouldn't give the Book Thief to. I have a senior who loves dystopian lit, but she's not read the Hunger Games or Divergent. (I don't think the second and third book of the Divergent series is worth wasting time on, personally. Back when HG was popular, I determined she wasn't old enough yet to read them. By the time she was old/mature enough, she wasn't interested in reading 'popular' dystopian books.) My girls are all readers, but there are some books I wouldn't give them in 8th grade that others here would hand to a younger child. I know -- it's tough to know *what* to suggest without more specifics about the student. I shot for listing a wide range -- late elementary, middle school, early high school. Students are so VERY different; for example, I did two sections of a grade 7-8 Lit & Comp class last year; one section gobbled up The Cay (heavy accent) and Call of the Wild (older vocabulary/sentence structure) -- the other section with students of the identical age/grade struggled with those same books. I've also seen some people on these boards list those titles for grade 5 -- and we were on the other end, doing Call of the Wild in grades 10/11 as part of our American lit. So there you go. LOL. And, I saved the dystopias, even The Giver, for high school, when DSs were more mature and had the tools for coping with and discussing these tougher topics. On the other hand, my grade 8/9 Lit j& Comp class last year *loved* the The Giver -- and were beyond The Hobbit... So you just have to gauge for each student individually, as best you can. On 11/11/2018 at 2:52 PM, lmrich said: I also like for my kids (both my own and my students) to have read Greek mythology, Norse mythology, lots of the Bible, and fairy tales since these are referenced so much in other reading material. I also love folk tales from around the world. Yes! And along those lines, + OP's statement of planning on doing traditional classics in high school, here are some past threads that might be of interest: "Which 20 books to help prepare for reading the Great Books?""Getting a teen to read/understand thicker books""Where do you start w/ h.s. boy who has never read classic lit?" Edited May 7, 2019 by Lori D. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted November 13, 2018 Share Posted November 13, 2018 I know that kids are individual and have all kinds of levels of sensitivity... but I do get a bit worried about the number of people who talk about how a student in middle school isn't ready for a book with a dark theme. Every book (except maybe Tom Sawyer) on Lori's list was written explicitly for tweens or young teens. You have to do what's right for your kids individually, absolutely. But literature helps kids understand and cope with dark topics. And kids should be learning about some sensitive issues in middle school. I guess, it's not okay for a book to cause undue upset... but it's okay if a book is upsetting. Books should be upsetting sometimes. Again, I don't believe in a canon of stuff kids must read. And kids are individual. Some of them are on a gentler, slower path with hard topics. Or, it sounds like some of the kids being discussed were good with some sort of difficult topics and not others - and that's great. Know thyself and your own personal boundaries by having met these sorts of topics. That's great, actually. But I keep thinking about a conversation I had with a professor friend where young adults in her college classes don't *believe* her about the realities of slavery or the Holocaust or some other of humanity's darkest episodes of history... because they've literally never been exposed to the darkest parts. So they get to college and argue that their professors are lying to them because they don't think the world can really be that bad. Which, wow. Education failed those kids. And the best, gentlest way to introduce them to those things would have been literature, I think. And there's nothing more gentle to learn with than a book about a dark topic that's meant for a child. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scienceandstuff Posted November 25, 2018 Share Posted November 25, 2018 I devoured Cynthia Voight's and Christ Crutcher's novels around 8th and 9th grade, and remember a lot of other kids liking them. Voight's Jackaroo, The Runner and A Solitary Blue might be good choices if he prefers a male protagonist. Tree by Leaf is another good one. She writes a lot of her novels in series, but I never found that it was important to read them in order. Crutcher's novels are a little more controversial with some people, and perhaps not easy for a teenage boy to discuss with his mom, but Crutcher's portrayal of the inner-life of teenage guys makes them worth recommending. S.E. Hinton's "That was then, This is now" is, to my mind, much better than the Outsiders. I think Hinton's best book is Rumble Fish, and it is a good book to introduce kids to the idea of imagery being used to convey plot and character, but it is darker and more dystopian than most of her other books. In another vein, I would say T.H. White "Once and Future King", for many reasons. It's witty and entertaining. Its an approachable King Arthur legend, and its a good introduction to the idea of a tragic hero. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ByGrace3 Posted November 27, 2018 Share Posted November 27, 2018 These are some great suggestions, thanks! We are in the same situation. My 8th grader doesn't read much on her own, but will gobble up anything I give her, and even express enjoyment in some. We took some risks this year with themes, but I have been really please with the direction things have gone. She kind of freaked in the beginning of The Book Thief with the stealing of soul talk, but she pushed through and is really enjoying it-- she is almost done. Marking some of these to add to our need to read list! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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