Reading material for 13yo boy.
caradove
My son, near 13yo, used to read tons! All Brian Jacques books, Harry Potter, Charlie bone etc.
Has not read any books for a year and a half except the new brian jacques book.
Well he heard so much how I enjoyed Outlander, Diana Gabaldons series, he picked it up and started.His Dad read them all, my sister is now devouring them too. I told him there are some sex scenes, pretty detailed, he seems not bothered. There is also some buggery late in the first book, and cruelty in a prison.
What are your thoughts on if there are times when books are not "age appropriate"? My mother was very concerned to know he is reading it. Comments like "If you give him an adult perspective....." "Taking away his innocence....." etc etc.
Not censoring his book choices is right, right?? How do I stay available for discussing th ebooks without bugging him about it, just leave the conversations up to him??
Any advice on answers to relatives?? He is protected in a way since they don't live close, but if he mentions things he reads/does, he picks up when there is disaproval, and less and less wants to talk to his Grandma.
Cara
Has not read any books for a year and a half except the new brian jacques book.
Well he heard so much how I enjoyed Outlander, Diana Gabaldons series, he picked it up and started.His Dad read them all, my sister is now devouring them too. I told him there are some sex scenes, pretty detailed, he seems not bothered. There is also some buggery late in the first book, and cruelty in a prison.
What are your thoughts on if there are times when books are not "age appropriate"? My mother was very concerned to know he is reading it. Comments like "If you give him an adult perspective....." "Taking away his innocence....." etc etc.
Not censoring his book choices is right, right?? How do I stay available for discussing th ebooks without bugging him about it, just leave the conversations up to him??
Any advice on answers to relatives?? He is protected in a way since they don't live close, but if he mentions things he reads/does, he picks up when there is disaproval, and less and less wants to talk to his Grandma.
Cara
Tamara Griesel
As a precocious reader, I thought I might have a few ideas abut this. I was able to manage adult level text at around my eighth birthday and rapidly exhausted the age appropriate material around me. I found my niche in science fiction, like many other early readers.
I do remember the first sexually explicit sequence I ran across in a book (a brief, and really rather tame sequence about two thirds of the way through Larry Niven's The Integral Trees. I was eleven.) and being utterly horrified at the prospect of my parents finding out I had read it. But then, I was always in search of something to feel ashamed of. Over time I found, like a lot of other people, I suspect, that I was able to use what I read, bring it into my view of who I did and did not want to be. I thought I'd share two experiences, both of which occurred when I was thirteen, and both of which showed negative things that happened because someone else tried to exercise control over my reading.
First, and I shudder to admit this, I had a bit of an obsession with Star Trek novels at that age. My dad clearly felt they were beneath me, so I hid them from him. One night, my mom found me reading one after a trip to the bookstore and I said something about not telling dad. Of course, she immediately told dad because she thought it was funny. Dad was mad at me for lying to him, or more probably because he hated the fact that I was terrified of him and didn't know how to fix it. (I was one of those kids who, if not told what to do, would spend a great deal of time and energy trying to figure out what other people wanted.) The result of all of this is that I became ashamed of reading in general, as if it were a bad habit that got in the way of what I ought to be doing.
Second, on the other end, I had an otherwise good eighth grade history/English teacher who was trying his best to provide some kind of enrichment for me. So he had me read and discuss, in close succession, Brave New World, The Jungle, 1984, All Quiet on the Western Front, and Elie Wiesel's Night. Now I was one of those excessively sensitive kids who fell apart watching Return of the Jedi and walked out of The Dark Crystal...and would never have questioned a teacher's authority. I don't know if there was any lasting psychic damage from all those downers in a row, but I do remember feeling a bit overwhelmed at the time.
Anyway, I'd just leave stuff around you think he might like and see what catches his eye.
Has he read Ender's Game?
Tamara
I do remember the first sexually explicit sequence I ran across in a book (a brief, and really rather tame sequence about two thirds of the way through Larry Niven's The Integral Trees. I was eleven.) and being utterly horrified at the prospect of my parents finding out I had read it. But then, I was always in search of something to feel ashamed of. Over time I found, like a lot of other people, I suspect, that I was able to use what I read, bring it into my view of who I did and did not want to be. I thought I'd share two experiences, both of which occurred when I was thirteen, and both of which showed negative things that happened because someone else tried to exercise control over my reading.
First, and I shudder to admit this, I had a bit of an obsession with Star Trek novels at that age. My dad clearly felt they were beneath me, so I hid them from him. One night, my mom found me reading one after a trip to the bookstore and I said something about not telling dad. Of course, she immediately told dad because she thought it was funny. Dad was mad at me for lying to him, or more probably because he hated the fact that I was terrified of him and didn't know how to fix it. (I was one of those kids who, if not told what to do, would spend a great deal of time and energy trying to figure out what other people wanted.) The result of all of this is that I became ashamed of reading in general, as if it were a bad habit that got in the way of what I ought to be doing.
Second, on the other end, I had an otherwise good eighth grade history/English teacher who was trying his best to provide some kind of enrichment for me. So he had me read and discuss, in close succession, Brave New World, The Jungle, 1984, All Quiet on the Western Front, and Elie Wiesel's Night. Now I was one of those excessively sensitive kids who fell apart watching Return of the Jedi and walked out of The Dark Crystal...and would never have questioned a teacher's authority. I don't know if there was any lasting psychic damage from all those downers in a row, but I do remember feeling a bit overwhelmed at the time.
Anyway, I'd just leave stuff around you think he might like and see what catches his eye.
Has he read Ender's Game?
Tamara
--- On Sat, 3/28/09, caradove <caradove@...> wrote:
From: caradove <caradove@...>
Subject: [unschoolingbasics] Reading material for 13yo boy.
To: [email protected]
Date: Saturday, March 28, 2009, 12:29 PM
My son, near 13yo, used to read tons! All Brian Jacques books, Harry Potter, Charlie bone etc.
Has not read any books for a year and a half except the new brian jacques book.
Well he heard so much how I enjoyed Outlander, Diana Gabaldons series, he picked it up and started.His Dad read them all, my sister is now devouring them too. I told him there are some sex scenes, pretty detailed, he seems not bothered. There is also some buggery late in the first book, and cruelty in a prison.
What are your thoughts on if there are times when books are not "age appropriate" ? My mother was very concerned to know he is reading it. Comments like "If you give him an adult perspective. ...." "Taking away his innocence... .." etc etc.
Not censoring his book choices is right, right?? How do I stay available for discussing th ebooks without bugging him about it, just leave the conversations up to him??
Any advice on answers to relatives?? He is protected in a way since they don't live close, but if he mentions things he reads/does, he picks up when there is disaproval, and less and less wants to talk to his Grandma.
Cara
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