Books suggestion for 8 year old son

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BucksBornNBred
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Joined: Thu Aug 13, 2015 4:01 pm

Re: Books suggestion for 8 year old son

Post by BucksBornNBred »

yoyo123 wrote:All good suggestions, but let him read what he wants too. By all means, suggest books he might like, but a love of reading is the main thing. Libraries are amazing.
+1 for letting them choose their books.

DS went from Beast Quest to Alex Rider (despite my concerns they were aimed at an older audience). DS is a "gamer" :roll: which ended with him wanting to read the Halo books - I wasn't sure of the quality of writing when I ordered them but they seemed ok and he enjoyed them because they explained a whole new backstory to the game, taking him away from the screen and into books so it was a win win situation :D Now we are into memoirs from the World Wars as that is his interest, so I would advise to go with the flow - any book is a good book.
mad?
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Re: Books suggestion for 8 year old son

Post by mad? »

BucksBornNBred wrote:+1 for letting them choose their books.

DS went from Beast Quest to Alex Rider (despite my concerns they were aimed at an older audience). DS is a "gamer" :roll: which ended with him wanting to read the Halo books - I wasn't sure of the quality of writing when I ordered them but they seemed ok and he enjoyed them because they explained a whole new backstory to the game, taking him away from the screen and into books so it was a win win situation :D Now we are into memoirs from the World Wars as that is his interest, so I would advise to go with the flow - any book is a good book.
+2 even if at times you fear the choices are too simple, a love for reading will stand them in good stead. Reading for pleasure is a life long gift they will carry with them to the grave and if it starts with comics or gaming books so what?
mad?
ToadMum
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Re: Books suggestion for 8 year old son

Post by ToadMum »

DS2 in my memory went straight from Lemony Snicket to The Hunger Games, but since the former was year 2 and the latter near the end of year 4 (all three in the space of 8 days, delayed due to having to wait for the third one to be delivered), there must have been something in between :lol: .

At about the age of 8, DS1 went from devouring everything you've never wanted to know about dinosaurs to Muddle Earth and thence to all things Terry Pratchett.

DD never was a great reader-for-pleasure, but is now doing English Lit A level and will probably be predicted an A, so it hasn't exactly held her back.

We did insist that she (and her brothers) did her 'school' reading, though, pointing out that the only way to get away from the ghastly Magic Key books was to read all the ones she was given and become a Free Reader and the quickest way to get there was to read them as quickly as possible. I can't remember ever insisting that any of them read any particular book (or, within reason, stopped them from doing so) outside of school. Rather defeats the object if you want them to want to read.
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.Groucho Marx
BucksBornNBred
Posts: 1031
Joined: Thu Aug 13, 2015 4:01 pm

Re: Books suggestion for 8 year old son

Post by BucksBornNBred »

mad? wrote:...even if at times you fear the choices are too simple, a love for reading will stand them in good stead. Reading for pleasure is a life long gift they will carry with them to the grave and if it starts with comics or gaming books so what?
I agree. Alongside my complete works of Shakespeare, Dickens and Austen are the complete works of Schulz :lol: I adored Charlie Brown and read him all through my teens and beyond (school had a way of putting me off the classics). It didn't harm me - I learnt the subtilty of humour and it meant I was always reading.

I still occasionally reach for a Snoopy book when I am too tired to actually read a "proper" book.
BucksBornNBred
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Re: Books suggestion for 8 year old son

Post by BucksBornNBred »

Slightly older audience, but Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was a great hit with DS in Yr6/7 (along with Ben Elton but that has a few expletives in it from memory).

We also encouraged DS to read the "right" books to complete Primary school objectives, but at Secondary we haven't. There is an accelerated reader scheme which is a fantastic idea but wasn't working for our DS as he couldn't find many books he was interested in and taking the test made them even less interesting to him. Reading independently has not hindered his progress as he reads for pleasure not plaudits. That is possibly off topic so apologies if not appropriate.
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