The Child Reading Dilemma Thread

[Duke]

I read Animal Farm when I was about 4 and liked it a lot. It set the stage for my current view of the world. I didn't read 1984 until like 2006, but that might be another good one for a kid if they're more mature than their age would indicate.

[MoBetta]

I was reading Stephen King at the age of eight. I turned out fine (I think). In general I watched and read whatever I wanted as a kid, and instead of making me crave more violence it eventually made me crave less. I watched a boatload of Friday The 13th like horror movies as a kid and now that I'm older I sort of grew out of it, although I do like violent films when done well (ie: Dawn of the Dead remake). For the most part I now look for more substance in my movies and books. With good parenting it really doesn't matter, in my opinion. I don't think what they watch matters as much as HOW MUCH they watch.

[Yeti]

The Three Investigators books are awesome.

[robracing]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Give them some Tolkein...

[/ QUOTE ]

This was a joke, right?

For the love of God, don't inflict that pompous self-indulgent nonsense upon your kids, unless you want them to swear-off books for life, and devote the rest of their childhood years to the PS3/Wii!

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, please don't encourage them to read some of the best literature of the last century, that would be a shame. Get them used to twitching their thumbs instead of reading.

Oh, has anyone mentioned The Great Brain books?

[/ QUOTE ]

Now we are talking!

The Great Brain books are magnificent children's stories!

Isn't personal choice and diversity an amazing thing?

I hated my way through LOTR a few years ago, having felt obliged to give it another chance by all the hype surrounding the movie release.

Sitting here early on a Sunday morning trying to self-analyse why I might hate it so much, it occurs to me that I detest fantasy and pomposity, and have very little time for poetry, so perhaps it isn't really that surprising!

I do realise that I am flying in the face of popular opinion by hating Tolkein, but I don't usually let that stop me!

[NozeCandy]

I think either the Communist Manifesto or Mein Kampf would be a perfectly appropriate place to start your young ones literary careers. Either that or the Bible, they all preach the same thing.

[Velocity]

i can't believe i forgot "a wrinkle in time" by madeline l'engle and "the giver" by Lois Lowry. These 2 books should be mandatory reading for all kids. Interesting stories with a good message, and good writing on top of it.

[IronFly]

Every year the Newberry Medal is awarded to the best children's book. A quick glance at the list revealed:

The Giver
Bridge to Terabithia
Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
The Black Cauldron
A Wrinkle in Time
My Side of the Mountain

and many other books I enjoyed as a child, and were also mentioned in this thread.

http://www.ala.org/ala/alsc/awardsschola...ewberymedal.htm

[Matt Flynn]

Howard,

My older boy (9) loves Mark Twain. Huckleberry Finn and the Adventures of Tom Sawyer remain classic.

Matt

[Mrs. Utah]

So many great choices given so far.
My kids are 8 and 10 and developed their reading skills very differently but now both are avid readers.

My 8 year old loves Mary Pope Osborne's books.

My 10 year old is in a book club that meets twice a month-they have been reading Judy Blume, Beverly Cleary and Sharon Creech.

They also read a number of books in Spanish. Thank you Spanish immersion schooling.

I do agree with Octopi and include non fiction. I let them choose what interests them, my youngest loves animals so she enjoys animal reference books and my older one loves science and has been reading weather books since she was 5.
She is also a huge reader of Wikipedia. I like to peek and see what she is doing online and found her reading about Abraham Lincoln.


I will also add that as silly as it seems both my kids like Mad Libs and it helped them to understand the use of nouns, verbs, etc.

[Lazy Meatball]

Okay so it's a comic book, but it was the most popular series in 5th grade.

Roald Dahl, C. S. Lewis, Shel Silverstein, Judy Blume, and when a bit older Michael Crichton.