Book suggestions please
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I agree with you Katel, at my DD's school they study Warhorse in year 8.
They have been mentioned before on this thread, but my son ( just 8 ) is totally hooked on the Beast Quest series. All pocket money goes on new copies and he constantly has one to hand. He has always been a reluctant writer but it has inspired him to write his own adventure story! Yippee!
They have been mentioned before on this thread, but my son ( just 8 ) is totally hooked on the Beast Quest series. All pocket money goes on new copies and he constantly has one to hand. He has always been a reluctant writer but it has inspired him to write his own adventure story! Yippee!
I beg to differ . It depends on the emotional development of the child.At eight or so most parents will still be reading to their children and talking about what they are reading. A good book is a good book and even if some of it goes over their head a bright child will rise to the challenge .It is true that reading something is nearly always better than reading nothing but it is also true that boys often see reading as a passive activity more suited to girls . Books that make them work hard can sometimes shift them out of this way of thinking.
I agree that read aloud books being more challenging linguistically and emotionally than read to yourself books. But it is a mistake to 'overface" children with emotions that are way beyond them. And there are so many books that are good, challenging and age appropriate. Let them come to War Horse and Private Peaceful and their like when they are ready for them. And I don't mean when they are ready to read the words!
That's true katel and I agree with a lot of what you say but sometimes you can lead a horse to water (no pun intended about War Horse) and get him to drink as much of the water as he is able. Sometimes books with content that scares the adults because they can see the whole picture-all the far reaching pathos and tragedy -appears to a less experienced mind as adventure. I do loathe books that are 'issue ' based and gain credibility simply because they discuss problems. Don't get me started on Jacqueline Wilson and I do think that you can sell a great many more books to boys by tapping into what they like even though the content may appear at first sight to be dangerous. Boys are good and handling dangerous, they are risk takers and aventurers -if their Mums will let them!
One thing that hasn't been mentioned is talking books we do alot of holidays by car and have listened to some classic stories, one of the advantages is that we have enjoyed books that would be difficult for our children to read but are often therefore more interesting and advanced. Also with some books it has insipred a interest in some authors that has led to our children then reading other books by them. Eva ibbotson is a good example of this we listened to the star of kazan in the car which was great and now our daughter has read all her other books even though she didn't like them before. Our top favourites have been: adventures of huck finn, iron hand trilogy(charlie fletcher, which has led to 2 day trips to london tracking down the statues that come to life in the books), kensuki's kingdom (morpurgo), the book thief (marcus zusak)(which is quite depressing in places had our kids crying but is their all time favourite), railway children (nesbit) and when thay were younger the hobbit and the narnia's.
2 books that are well written and really loved by my son are the siege of swayne castle (by sherrif , i think only availabe second hand but a brilliant david and goliath type siege story) and white fang (jack london)
2 books that are well written and really loved by my son are the siege of swayne castle (by sherrif , i think only availabe second hand but a brilliant david and goliath type siege story) and white fang (jack london)
Of course! How could I have forgotten. Martin Jarvis reading Just William
was a real joy on long car journeys and we had a much loved tape of Rik Mayal (?) performing modernised Grimm's fairy tales which were listened to until they expired. We tried to replace them but they seem to have been discontinued . My son loved them as they were so ridiculous .
We also had Greek Myths read by Andrew Sachs which is entirely brilliant. My eldest daughter is taking Greek as an extra and she tells me she knows far more about Greek mythology than anyone else in the class simply from listening to those tapes.
was a real joy on long car journeys and we had a much loved tape of Rik Mayal (?) performing modernised Grimm's fairy tales which were listened to until they expired. We tried to replace them but they seem to have been discontinued . My son loved them as they were so ridiculous .
We also had Greek Myths read by Andrew Sachs which is entirely brilliant. My eldest daughter is taking Greek as an extra and she tells me she knows far more about Greek mythology than anyone else in the class simply from listening to those tapes.
