Keeping Boys Reading

Recommendations, discussions, and odes to your favorites
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jenniferjbennett
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Re: Keeping Boys Reading

Post by jenniferjbennett » January 6th, 2010, 6:34 pm

We read a great one over the holiday! http://www.jenniferjbennett.com/2010/01 ... arian.html Alcatraz Versus The Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson! Great book and I can't wait to share the rest of the series with the kids at my school as well as my own.
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Susan Quinn
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Re: Keeping Boys Reading

Post by Susan Quinn » January 6th, 2010, 6:54 pm

Thanks for the great tip - I'm going to add it to the ever-growing-list.

p.s. you are NOT the evil librarian. We had one of those, and I'm pretty sure you're not her (besides, librarians are my favorite people).
Susan Kaye Quinn (young adult and middle grade author)
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jenniferjbennett
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Re: Keeping Boys Reading

Post by jenniferjbennett » January 6th, 2010, 8:40 pm

Susan you're right. I'm quite the opposite. But you'll find that if you read the book, that librarians control the world and all it's information. So in that respect, it might be interesting to be an "Evil Librarian". Seriously I'm going to get new glasses and I promised my daughter I would get horn-rimmed so I could look like one from the book. Funny how our family works...books are everything.
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Crystal
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Re: Keeping Boys Reading

Post by Crystal » January 12th, 2010, 4:44 pm

My son found another book he seems stoked about. The Brixton Brothers. All it took was an endorsement from Jeff Kinney (Diary of a Wimpy Kid) on the cover and he said it had to be a good book. lol.
Working my very first attempt at a mystery novel. 1st draft

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Re: Keeping Boys Reading

Post by Sheila Grau » January 15th, 2010, 4:35 pm

I love these lists, I have 3 boys and am always on the lookout for a good read. Here are a few that have been hits with them, off the top of my head:

Alabama Moon, by Watt Key
The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer (and her Norse trilogy as well)
The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner (and the sequels)
Gideon The Cutpurse by Linda Buckley-Archer (I think it was renamed the Time Travelers here. Also a trilogy)
Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud

For the younger set, and wonderful if you like Monty Python-type humor:
The Giggler Treatment - by Roddy Doyle
You're a Bad Man Mr. Gum - by Andy Stanton (series)

And even though they are pink, my boys love Babymouse.

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Susan Quinn
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Re: Keeping Boys Reading

Post by Susan Quinn » January 15th, 2010, 5:00 pm

I LOVE Monty Python, so we'll definitely be checking those out! OK, I need to go update my list this weekend . . . should have it up by Monday.
Susan Kaye Quinn (young adult and middle grade author)
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dolly_angel
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Re: Keeping Boys Reading

Post by dolly_angel » January 15th, 2010, 6:03 pm

My son loved the wizard of earthsea book and the ones that followed. That book alone struck a real chord with him and encouraged me to read. Then for some years he lapsed into playstation as a rebellion then at about 15 he began to return to books. He told me that I was so into books it put him off however now at 18 he reads quite a lot.

I found that having the classics around and saying nothing was most effective.

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Susan Quinn
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Re: Keeping Boys Reading

Post by Susan Quinn » January 15th, 2010, 6:15 pm

I like the idea of planting the classics as bait! :)

It reminds me of when my boys were younger and they each had a "book box". I would periodically tuck different books in there without telling them, and it kept them coming back often enough just to check out what was "new".

It's that darn curiosity thing . . .
Susan Kaye Quinn (young adult and middle grade author)
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Fallen
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Re: Keeping Boys Reading

Post by Fallen » January 17th, 2010, 4:11 pm

Well, I have a four-year old boy and seventeen-yera old one. I can honestly say my four-year old's read more books than my teenager.

The school my youngest attends, they've signed up for E.R.R., (Early Reading Research). Kids are given a library of different books and they get to 'read it' whether they can read the words or not. The book gets read to them by the parents and the kids get to help out if they want, but they're not pressed into it. E.R.R. covers a range of genres, including the lasetst trends(Star Wars etc). It's supposed to get the kids back into enjoying a book for the storyies sake. It's certainly working with my youngest; i think since the start of fulltime school (6 mths ago) he's 'read' over 50 books, and he's loved it almost as much as we've loved reading to him. You can see the difference in his make-believe play and how he plays with intonation change like he's heard his parents do.

But where this has got my son's interest, it's lost my daughter's. E.R.R. has replaced THRASS, and my daughter being more logic, she loved the technicalities behind coding and decoding. Who'd be a teacher, eh? What works for one never works for another...

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Susan Quinn
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Re: Keeping Boys Reading

Post by Susan Quinn » February 10th, 2010, 10:47 am

Thank you to everyone who has provided recommendations on this thread! I've collected them all up, plus recommendations from other commenters on my blog, and compiled a list of Suggested Reads for Middle Graders. It is sorted by reading level and gives age appropriate ratings, when available. So, if you're looking for another great book to keep your child (boy or girl) reading, check it out!
Susan Kaye Quinn (young adult and middle grade author)
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Nick
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Re: Keeping Boys Reading

Post by Nick » February 10th, 2010, 2:51 pm

A lot of what I read as a kid is gone, so I'll do my best to remember those (and not using the proper titles of some of them, because it will make the list unnecessarily long), but looking around my room, when I was younger (talking 3rd grade through 8th grade only), I read:

All of ACD's Sherlock Holmes stories
A lot of comic books, particularly Spider-Man and Captain America (actually, I still do that)
All of Tolkien's works (bar the Children of Hurin, which was only released a year or two ago)
Frank Herbert's Dune
The first three books of Garth Nix's "The Seventh Tower" series (still haven't read the second half)
A lot of shonen and seinen manga
Eragon
Doctor Who tie-in novels
Harry Potter
A lot of Stephen King
Star Wars tie-in novels
The Redemption of Althalus
Star Trek tie-ins
Leslie Charteris' Saint books
Dan Brown
Michael Crichton
Dragonlance
Narnia
Two R.A. Salvatore novels from two different trilogies involving Drizzt Do'Urden

And that's all the big stuff I can remember without going into specific titles. Don't know if any of that helps any but figured I'd put my various tastes from over the years up there as some sort of recommendation. There is one more series I used to LOVE as a kid that I can't remember the name of, but I have a friend who does. Sadly he isn't online at the moment, but next time I speak to him I'll coax it out of him.

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Susan Quinn
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Re: Keeping Boys Reading

Post by Susan Quinn » February 10th, 2010, 2:58 pm

Wow, Nick, thanks for the awesome list! My niece is huge into manga, and one of these days I'm going to have to dive in and figure out what that's all about.

And it's interesting to see some "adult" books on your list. With our (recent) focus on YA, I think we forget that a lot of teens skip right over that and go for the adult books (which sometimes are a lot cleaner than the kid's books. Go figure).

Thanks again!
Susan Kaye Quinn (young adult and middle grade author)
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Nick
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Re: Keeping Boys Reading

Post by Nick » February 10th, 2010, 3:10 pm

When it comes to manga be careful. Cultural differences result in some differing content. Generally official publications censor things, but, for example, the F word and other "harsh" swear words tend to crop up a decent number of times in shonen. Shonen is also chalk-full of fanservice. And of course be careful of the categories. Shonen is geared towards boys aged 9-17. Shoujo is the female equivalent. Seinen is geared towards men aged 18-30. Josei is the female equivalent. I find seinen has the best storytelling (you cannot tear me away from Vagabond), but there is some very good shonen out there (like FMA or the incredibly genius Death Note), though shonen is mostly either guilty pleasure series for me (like One Piece) or downright golden comedy (like Sgt Frog). Shojo is mostly your rather gag-inducing stereotypical romances, but that's speaking as someone not in the target audience for gender and age, and someone who doesn't like it when romance is the primary driving force of a story. That said, there are some shojo series I love. Never read Josei (so far as I am aware) or Kodomo (geared towards small children).

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aspiring_x
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Re: Keeping Boys Reading

Post by aspiring_x » February 10th, 2010, 3:21 pm

My seven year old (he reads at a fourth grade level) absolutely loves the Secrets of Droon series. Other favorites are the Encyclopedia Brown books and Nathan Abercrombie Accidental Zombie by David Lubar.
Oh yeah, the Goosebumps books are favorites, too.

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Susan Quinn
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Re: Keeping Boys Reading

Post by Susan Quinn » February 10th, 2010, 3:23 pm

An awesome manga tutorial! My niece's birthday is coming up, and now that Twilight is so last year (according to her), maybe I'll surprise her with my impressive (thanks to you) manga knowledge! The closest I've come to any Japanese imports are Pokemon and Bakugan, and the associated books, TV shows and cards. The Japanese have a certain quirky silliness to their kidlit (and just in general) that I love, so maybe....

Thanks!
Susan Kaye Quinn (young adult and middle grade author)
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