Out of the Silent Planet by Lewis....

[ThelmaLou]

Should most 8th graders be capable of understanding this book without any help? My son is having great difficulty. I remember reading it in 9th grade at a private Christian school, and I remember not liking the trilogy as a whole. I haven't had time to read it again recently, so I bought a study guide online at bookrags. I'm having him read the chapter summary and synopsis along with the actual chapters in the book. The summaries and synopsis (what's the plural of that anyway?) seem to clarify things for him enough that he can answer the questions for his co-op class. Are we taking the easy way out? He is still reading the book itself. I just don't have time to walk him through it, so I resorted to the online notes.

[KristenS]

I only read the series as an adult, but I would not have considered them as children's reading. I thought they were adult books, particularly the last one (since a primary focus is the marriage relationship between Jane and Mark, or whatever their names were).

 

I could see an older teen, maybe.

 

Guess I need to go reread 'em!

[RegularMom]

I agree. He may want to try them again when he's a little older. Is the class he's taking reading the entire trilogy? Can he read something else instead for this class?

 

I found the books intriguing and, in many ways, really beautiful. But I'm glad I read them as an adult. I didn't find them to be easy reading.

 

PS: I think the plural for synopsis is "synopses". I think.

 

HTH

[readwithem]

I wouldn't have a problem using the online notes (or any other study aid) in addition to reading the actual book, not in lieu of reading it.

 

And yes, the plural is synopses :) Don't discredit yourself so much :)

 

I just read the trilogy for the first time (and I'm 50) and I had a hard time with it. Sometime I hope to go back and re-read them more carefully - but this time was a first pass, let me get through these books type of reading :) But I have to say I'm not much of a fantasy fan.

[Carol in Cal.]

The third one, OTOH, is superb. It's funny, too, that they are so different from each other. You don't get the feeling that they are one book, as books of a trilogy often seem.

 

Has your DS read any science fiction? If not, I would encourage you to have him read some first--maybe short stories by Arthur Clarke, or some of the children's fiction by Robert Heinlein--to get accustomed to finding his way around in that genre. Sci Fi takes a different type of thinking than other fiction does. Maybe he just needs a bit of practice.

[laughing lioness]

These 3 books are on my list of all time favs. We've read them outloud to our kids, but spent lots of time discussing. (actually I don't think we read the last outloud). There's a lot packed in there. I'd take time with it or put it aside until he's older.

[Matryoshka]

I read the whole trilogy sometime in high school - somewhere between 14-16 yo, I'd guess.

 

I absolutely loved the first one, liked the second one, and slogged through the third one - I was left with "huh?" after that one.

 

My impressions might well be different as an adult, but that's what my teen self thought...

[ThelmaLou]

You've all made me feel much better. Better about letting him use the notes (so I don't have to slog through OSP myself) and better about the fact that the material itself is not a walk in the park. I *should* revisit these books myself, but I'm not a science fiction fan and neither is my son. This is the only one of the trilogy that his class is reading, then it's on to other types of literature. Thanks for the input, everyone!