Summer reads for the young
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- July
- 5
Many kids are waiting for release of the seventh and final Harry Potter book on July 21, but the boy-wizard saga isn’t for all young readers. J.K. Rowling packs hundreds of pages between the covers of her books, a length that not every kid can handle.
Last summer my youngest son, then 11, discovered Avi, a Brooklyn native who has written dozens of books. His books are a less intimidating length, but at least as rich in imagination and insight.
The first we read together was The Fighting Ground, a Newberry Medal winner about a 13-year-old boy eager to battle the British in the American Revolution. The book covers the day he gets his chance and how he is changed by the experience. The paperback is 157 pages and might provide a good way for your kids to get inside the Independence Day holiday just passed.
Next was The Good Dog, a book we enjoyed even more. It’s a tale seen through the eyes of McKinley, a malamute and good dog, living in the mountains of Colorado, who must resolve the conflict between his loyalty to the human family he lives with and his desire to live wild in nature. McKinley and his fellow canines know a lot more about humans than their keepers know about them. The dogs refer to the people they live with as “their humans� and children as “human pups.� Newspapers are “staring papers� and televisions are “glow boxes.� Once finished with this 243-page paperback, your child might not look at his or her pet dog in quite the same way again.
We are nearly finished with a third Avi book, The Man Who was Poe, a fictional acount of a 12-year-old boy’s encounter with the famed author as the youngster tries to solve the mysterious disappearance of his mother and sister. The book is rich in detail about life in a mid-19th Century seaport, Providence, R.I. My son ranks this 200-page book highly, though I don’t think it’s quite up with “The Fighting Groundâ€? or “The Good Dog.â€?
Please tell us about your favorite books for middle school kids.
This entry was posted
on Thursday, July 5th, 2007 at 10:17 am by Len Maniace.
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Not sure how middle school they are. But because I grew up going through 8 years of Parochial school being told what I couldnt read. I read them on my own.
A Catcher in the Rye being one of them. I read many books like that because I wasnt allowed to have them in school.
Of Mice and Men etc.. along with SCi Fi books as well.
I had my eldest read it before he went to middle school. my second son is headed off this year. I think i will have him read it too.
Talk about coming of age and teenaged angst. ;-]
My new website features the Open Books event in Westchester, celebrating the art of children’s books. Check it out, along with other information about real estate and living in northern Westchester: www.northernwestchesterhome.blogspot.com
I’ve introduced my 8-year-old to the Hardy Boys. He can’t get enough of them now. Sometimes the old standbys are the best!
My 13-year-old, who will begin 8th grade in the fall and loves sports, is very taken with anything by Walter Dean Myers. “Slam” which is about a young basketball player is one of his favorites. This summer, though, we’re planning to get him to read a few timeless classics and I’m hoping Salinger’s “A Catcher in the Rye” is one of those, along with “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe and “Manchild in the Promised Land” by Claude Brown.