Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Need complex fiction suggestions for PG 7yo

Hi,

Dd 7 and I are really struggling to find books she enjoys at the moment. Nothing in junior fiction seems to be grabbing her, she's read most of the standard classics and I'm struggling to find YA fiction that is not about vampires etc and/or is not focused on romance/sex. Things are further complicated by the fact that dd, like me, is not great at the whole willing suspension of disbelief thing and so unless fantasy is great (she's a big fan of the Hobbit/LOTR, etc) she just switches off.

Reading is really her only area of self extension and she loves complex political/social and historical plot lines but trying to find them with age appropriate content is a challenge (we're ok with her reading texts with very low level sex, i.e. where sex is implied but not described - not because we're worried about her knowing about sex; she's well across the birds and the bees, but just from a life experience point of view - and a bit of romance is fine too, but too much bores her). A year ago her reading comprehension tested at a 10th grade level and she's come along leaps and bounds since then, so there's not much she can't read and understand.

As I type this it occurs to me that maybe there would be a greater range in adult fiction - Neither DH or I are fiction readers though, so I don't know what might be great. Any suggestions?

How about The Leviathan series by Scott Westerfeld? Steampunk genre, so a bit of suspension of belief, but very well written. It has a strong female lead and is a take on WWI events.

I just finished Splendors and Glooms, which might be right up her alley. It's set in Victorian England, about a girl who vanishes right after seeing a puppet theater at her birthday. It has magic/fantastic elements in it, but most of those are offstage, not the center of the novel. The novel itself revolves around Clara (the vanished girl), and the two poor children who work for the puppet theater. Definitely age-appropriate, definitely historical, and definitely complex use of language.

Another thing you might try is the bestsellers of 150+ years ago. You shouldn't have to worry about sex, although there may be romance, and the society can be complex and interesting, and of course totally believeable. I really enjoy Anthony Trollope - try Barchester Towers if she's not intimidated by big heavy books, or The Warden if she is.

Fantasy is a genre that lends itself to picking up tone, style, and world building and such from the first few pages. I'll suggest a few classic fantasy series that could stay for a long time if she enjoys them. But these are towads the adult side of young adult in terms of reading level.

These are both in fantasy humor:
Piers Anthony's Xanth series (first book - A Spell for Chameleon)
Terry Pratchett's Discworld series (first book - The Colour of Magic)

Not humor:
Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea books (first - A Wizard of Earthsea)
Phillip Pullman - Golden Compass

I just went to the schoolastic book wizard and typed in enders game, one of my favorite books I've ever read and I would recommend it to anybody. Then I pressed the book alike button. It came up with a list which included this that looked good to me : H.I.V.E. Higher Institute for Villianeous Education, and it included the handmaidens tale, which I haven't read but might be less interesting to a child because its a dystopian future about a couple's surrogate slave , from what I've heard. All that to say I would tell her to type the name of a book she likes into the bookwizard then look up interesting titles on amazon for a better description and to see reviews.

My daughter's favorite books from 5 on (still today) are all by Diana Wynne Jones. Fantasy, but exceptionally well-written. Themes are very psychological. No sex at all. Start with the Chrestomanci series, and take it from there.

I'm a big fan of The Sisters Grimm series and the central character sounds just like your DD - not great at suspending disbelief but then finds out that she is a descendent of The Brothers Grimm and she is plopped down in a modern American town that is populated by every conceivable fairy tale character through history. All of these characters have modern day versions of themselves (i.e Snow White is a school teacher, the three little pigs have taken on human form and are the town's police force, etc.) She and her sister face some major adventures and soon you find yourself suspending disbelief whether you want to or not and her cynicism completely matches that of the reader. If any of the characters catches her attention there are a million tangents to go on to follow up on their original story. (i.e. Puck is a central character. In one of the books Oberon and Titania were introduced as characters so that led us to A Midsummer Night's Dream.)

Other favorites for my DD8 who also has high level comprehension - The Harry Potter series, A Wrinkle in Time and The Westing Game. We also did several of the Anne of Green Gables books (Anne grows up, gets married and has babies but no sexual content) and a lot of classics. She loved Great Expectations and A Christmas Carol so we will probably do more Dickens. Some of the classics, i.e. Dr. Dolittle, have some racist material that caught us off guard so they are not necessarily as safe a bet as I had assumed.

Someone already beat me to Ender's Game, which will be a movie this November, so that's an extra inducement (my own DD8 likes to do things backwards, by watching the movies, then reading the books). I endorse Zen Scanner's Xanth selection was well... in fact, I just picked up the first three Xanth books for DD8.

I don't agree with the Discworld series for a kid that young, though. I think they're fantastic, but I think that too much of the humor would sail over the heads of 7yos, due to lack of exposure to social and scientific concepts. It's kinda like Monty Python... sure, the Silly Walks skit has humor that's immediately accessible to anyone, but there's a whole other level where they've pilloried government and bureaucracy that a 7yo just wouldn't get.

Other recommendations in the fantasy genre I'd make to a 7yo who is reading at the right level:

Belgariad/Mallorean series - David Eddings (first book - Pawn of Prophecy) - 10 books total
Riftwar Cycle - Raymond E. Feist (first book - Magician: Apprentice) - a crapload of books total

Oh, and DD has been obsessed with Harry Potter for 3 years now, and she's making us watch the movies again this week. So there's that.

Harry Potter lead us to other boarding school series (1940s/Enid Blyton types) - the language (being British) gave a lot of scope for discussion and while they're not heavy political stuff, they offered my kid (DD5) a chance to live vicariously through older girls. she hasn't had much patience for a lot of the more contemporary ones, but anything post-war and earlier has been a big hit!

Ahhhhh... That thread again

At that age I was reading everything mythology related. The gore content in the Illyad and Odyssey is fairly high but lack of life experience is actually protective (or it was for me -- YMMMV). After the Greek/Roman myths I walked my way through a whole series of collected tales for different countries/cultures the world over.



I disagree about that disagreement. First because there are several strands of books in that series, and some (the Tiffany Aching sub-series?) would be more age appropriate than others. Note that the oldest books (The Color of Magic and the next ones) are the weakest.

Second because one of the joys of my life is to pick up a book I read and loved as a child ten years later and discover a whole new layer of meaning and enjoyment within its pages. Much better than picking up a childhood favorite and discovering it is twaddle, or, worse, incredibly sexist/racist/whatever. And the best of books will keep giving as you re-read them every 10 years or so.

I concur with kcab on the big NO on The Handmaiden Tale, which is dystopian future set in a theocracy where the main protagonist is one of many slave women kept to be repeatedly raped by the master of the house and any resulting offspring taken away. Very adult themes, and I am not sure it can be read as an adventure of resistance and escape beyond the political message.

OTOH I find the *idea* behind The Hunger Games pretty horrifying and have avoided reading them for that reason, when I would probably have loved then at 10-12. Ditto Lowry's The Giving (cannot understand how this can be sold as youth literature, but maybe watching colicky infants euthanized is only horrifying to young/new parents? I read it at a time when my oldest was keeping me up all night...).

Lack of life experience can be protective at that age -- I found 1984 very boring when I read it as a pre-teen, I am sure the horror factor would be higher now.

+1 Diana Wynne Jones.

Fantasy with large scale realistic world building... You can scratch The Game of Thrones from your list . Has she read the YA classics? Tamora Pierce?