Reading Recommendations from a Disgruntled 14 Year old Boy

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Recently I sat down with my son and we talked about his reading habits. He has really started picking some books that are way below his reading level. Next year he will be a high school student and for whatever the reason, this fact has just registered with me. Here are a few things that I learned from this discussion.

When he was younger, he enjoyed reading more because of the illustrations. This was a huge winning factor in a book for him, even to this day. Nothing completes a story better than great pictures that complement the book he is reading.

It is hard to believe that it was that long ago, when he was that small child sitting on my lap, enjoying such authors as Maurice Sendak, Jez Alborough and Watty Piper. I still can hear the words of the great classics that we read together and envision the pictures also. My son reminded me of his favorite read aloud books and here are just a few he recommends:

• The Little Engine that Could by Watty Piper
• Where is my Teddy Bear? By Jez Alborough
• Love You Forever by Robert Munsch
• Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
• I Just Forgot by Mercer Mayer

I believe the next stage was where he lost his love of reading.

It was harder for him to comprehend the stories that lacked those pictures he loved so much. When it came to his reading level, he was dead on. It was the comprehension that he had problems with when reading. He would start a book and by the time he was on the second page, he lost interest. This is where we had to come up with books that were on subjects he loved and also encourage him to try new subjects also. When we talked about this time in his life, he disliked reading so much, he had a hard time figuring out what kind of books he read back then. So, this list is from what I remember him reading from about first  to third grade:

• Captain Underpants Series by Dave Pilkey
• Dinosaurs Before Dark ( and other Magic Tree House Series Books) by Mary Pope Osborne
• The Big Book of Dinosaurs: A First Book for Young Children by DK Pubishing

When Fourth Grade rolled around, he says he was really excited about some of the reading he did. That was the year he discovered the many categories of science. He loved to read on inventors and their inventions, fiction that was based on where we lived and history. We lived in the Grand Staircase in Utah. This was a great place for nature walks that was often rewarded by a petroglyphs or possibly a animal sighting. He wanted to know what people and animals lived there then and in the past. The years of fourth and fifth grade book recommendations from him where huge! I asked him to narrow them down to five and he obliged me with a little bit of disappointment. Here is his list:

• National Geographic Mystery Books by Gloria Skurzynski and Alane Ferguson
• Eyewitness Books by DK Publishing
• Artemis Fowl by Eion Colfer
• The Giver by Mark Lowry
• Books that gave information on native animals of the area, plants or birds

Now we come up to the age that he becomes the disgruntled teenager. It is not just because he dislikes reading many books. It has to do with the quality of the book. I would like to think this is because he is maturing. He reminds me that he always had the Bible in his reading logs for school or free reading. He just does not want any book that goes against what he believes. And he knows as he gets older that he must expand his reading list to things that may not interest him. So he is picky about what he read and very disappointed in the content. Here are a few books he would recommend:

• The Lab by Jack Heath
• Narnia Series by C. S. Lewis
• Passages Series by Paul McCusker
• Ancient Times by Susan Bauer
• Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne

As mentioned above, we realized that high school would be here sooner than we thought. He showed his concern over not meeting expectations on several subject with reading being on the top of the list. I reminded him that his free reading has always been different than his assigned reading. After all, free reading is what we had been discussing the whole time. Then, I started rattling off the other books he had read, the ones I assigned to him for schooling. What was his reaction?  He had a huge smile and both of us realized that he had been reading books that were over his level.

He still is not a happy camper with reading and would like to offer the following advice:

“Talk to your teenage son about his reading. Be patient with your boys and work with them to help figure out a series or subject that may interest him. Having free reads they will enjoy will help them with the books they must read for assignments. Help pick out books that will inspire them to better themselves and make a difference in this world. And lastly, if they don’t understand the story help them re-read the book or material again. I know I did not like this step, but it has made me a better reader.”

Amy Fleeker is a part of a great family that includes a husband of 12 years, 3 children, a dog and a cat. Her homeschooling style is eclectic with a emphasis on classical teaching. When with her family, you can find her watching movies, playing board games, and living life with a great sense of humor and knowing that God is all around. In her spare time she enjoys scrapbooking, tatting, crocheting and doing a little family history. You can visit Amy at her blog, Counting Change Again, or at the HOTM forum, where she is the Lead Moderator.