Drama Llama Posted August 11, 2021 Share Posted August 11, 2021 (edited) . . . Edited October 27, 2021 by BaseballandHockey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TravelingChris Posted August 11, 2021 Share Posted August 11, 2021 Sorry, never read those Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa in Australia Posted August 11, 2021 Share Posted August 11, 2021 Never read any of those but I have a recommendation. The Midshipman Quinn series by Showell Styles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drama Llama Posted August 11, 2021 Author Share Posted August 11, 2021 (edited) . . . Edited October 27, 2021 by BaseballandHockey 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wishes Posted August 11, 2021 Share Posted August 11, 2021 Orphan Island has a female author and protagonist. There are no adults and a mysterious boat takes the kids away when they are thirteen and leaves a young one. I don’t think there’s anything triggering. The girl bucks the system and stays on the island when the boat comes to get her. It’s a metaphor for adulthood. The ending is ambiguous which could be frustrating for some. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drama Llama Posted August 11, 2021 Author Share Posted August 11, 2021 (edited) . . . Edited October 27, 2021 by BaseballandHockey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted August 11, 2021 Share Posted August 11, 2021 The only one I remember reading with my girls was Wolf Hollow. (We did the audiobook.) We all felt it was overrated. IIRC it involves a child bully having an accident that leads to suffering and dying that is not quick. I would not choose it, especially given what your kids have recently gone through. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drama Llama Posted August 11, 2021 Author Share Posted August 11, 2021 (edited) . . . Edited October 27, 2021 by BaseballandHockey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Insertcreativenamehere Posted August 11, 2021 Share Posted August 11, 2021 A Night Divided is good, but deals with family being separated in Cold War-era Berlin. I don't know if that would be a trigger for your boys or not. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drama Llama Posted August 11, 2021 Author Share Posted August 11, 2021 (edited) . . . Edited October 27, 2021 by BaseballandHockey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murphy101 Posted August 11, 2021 Share Posted August 11, 2021 Is it just me or do that seem to make booklist for middle and high school specifically geared towards inculcating hopelessness and defeatism? I’m not help in your selection though. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted August 11, 2021 Share Posted August 11, 2021 I've read several of them. They're all totally and completely age appropriate. But also, none of the ones I know on that list are exactly light middle school reading. I especially adored Revolution of the ones I've read. I think Deborah Wiles is dramatically underappreciated. But the mother has passed away in that book (before the book takes place, but still). I genuinely don't think there's a book on that list that doesn't have at least one triggering thing. I might do A Night Divided. Spoilers, but they do get reunited by the end of the story. It feels pretty dire, but there's a happy ending and it definitely feels very historical. Here is a thing that happened in the 1960's during the Cold War and is unlikely to happen exactly the same way again. The theme of walls is definitely very... current in some ways. But I think you could read it as grounded in a particular time. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drama Llama Posted August 11, 2021 Author Share Posted August 11, 2021 (edited) . . . Edited October 27, 2021 by BaseballandHockey 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drama Llama Posted August 11, 2021 Author Share Posted August 11, 2021 (edited) . . . Edited October 27, 2021 by BaseballandHockey 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted August 11, 2021 Share Posted August 11, 2021 Then you might enjoy Revolution. It's about a white girl growing up in Civil Rights era south. Her family is hesitantly progressive. There's some family drama with a new stepmother. She has to sort of wake up to what's wrong around her. It's filled with lots of "documentary" bits - quotes and images from the time period that intersperse the pages. But really, A Night Divided is an excellent book. As for the list as a whole and whether it's a good one... Overall, I do feel this is a list of books that are about overcoming adversity. Is it the gentlest books that I might choose for kids who have recently had their own severe adversity? Probably not. But is it a list of books I'd choose for most American kids? Sure. It's a good list. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drama Llama Posted August 11, 2021 Author Share Posted August 11, 2021 (edited) . . . Edited October 27, 2021 by BaseballandHockey 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vonfirmath Posted August 11, 2021 Share Posted August 11, 2021 The only one we've read of those is A Night Divided. It shows up in the Scholastic Book Fairs here quite a bit and my son read it in 4th grade. I don't think he chose to read it again. But it was interesting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drama Llama Posted August 11, 2021 Author Share Posted August 11, 2021 (edited) . . . Edited October 27, 2021 by BaseballandHockey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vonfirmath Posted August 11, 2021 Share Posted August 11, 2021 4 minutes ago, BaseballandHockey said: Quoting also to clarify, when I said there were books I didn't think were developmentally appropriate for my 11 year old, first of all, it's my 14 year old's summer reading assignment, so that's not really a criticism of the list, but I also already took those books off. I didn't mean that the books I listed were too old. But the list had Code Name: Verity and Salt to the Sea, both of which might be great for a rising 8th grader who wasn't recently traumatized, but didn't seem right for my particular 8th grader to read with his little brother. I listened to Code Name Verity on the AUdioSync several years ago and really enjoyed it. But they gear their choices for teenagers, yes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted August 11, 2021 Share Posted August 11, 2021 2 hours ago, Murphy101 said: Is it just me or do that seem to make booklist for middle and high school specifically geared towards inculcating hopelessness and defeatism? I’m not help in your selection though. I think you may be on to something! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanaqui Posted August 11, 2021 Share Posted August 11, 2021 I think that it's true that many booklists for this age group are a bit grim, very Death March Through Literature, but this idea that it "inculcates hopelessness and defeatism" is bizarre unless you think the only way to be hopeful and non-defeatist is to hide your head and pretend bad things don't happen or that they haven't happened in the past. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kanin Posted August 11, 2021 Share Posted August 11, 2021 A Night Divided is awesome. Very suspenseful but not too scary. I heard a teacher read it out loud when I was an ed tech, and the kids were sucked in. I still think about it here and there, years later. Great for anchoring a period of time in the mental timeline. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terabith Posted August 11, 2021 Share Posted August 11, 2021 I'm going to have to request some of these to read from the library myself. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drama Llama Posted August 11, 2021 Author Share Posted August 11, 2021 (edited) . . . Edited October 27, 2021 by BaseballandHockey 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alisoncooks Posted August 11, 2021 Share Posted August 11, 2021 6 minutes ago, BaseballandHockey said: I really want to read that book. It sounds fascinating and amazing. If it was just my 14 year old and me, and we weren't trying to get a kid with an anxiety diagnosis ready for return to school, I'd totally have chosen it. But we'll read it some other year. Code Name Verity is a good book but definitely an...emotional book. I enjoyed A Night Divided. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiwik Posted August 13, 2021 Share Posted August 13, 2021 I have only heard of A Night Divided and that only a few weeks ago. DS14 who attends high school seems to get a solid diet of dystopian novels and movies for class. Unfortunately he doesn't like dystopian. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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