Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion "stuck" in a book series

DD9 has gone through the Harry Potter books at least a dozen times. She also went through a Rainbow Fairies obsession and one other series that I can't remember at the moment.

DD11 hasn't read a book at her level in years, mostly because those books just aren't as interesting to her. She enjoys young adult books like Percy Jackson or the Ranger's Apprentice (so do I, for that matter), even though they are well below her reading level. We've also focused on the love of reading rather than on making sure she reads challenging material.

LOL--yes, when she sets her mind on something, you'd better get out of the way.

Thanks, this is helpful. I guess I want to be reassured that to some extent this is normal and to be expected. I know there is going to be an interest level plateau.

DS does this endless repetition thing too. (He likes the Seeker series, but actually it's not one that's gone on the endless repetition list.) Like others, I mostly don't worry about it (but I can see that I might if he were not being challenged at school). I do strew books I think he might like, and have been known to do things like including something new as one of a small number of books he's taking on a trip away, when I know he's going to be more open to it because he's going at some point to have just read everything else he has with him. The other thing that got him into new things was family reading aloud: we read The Lord of the Rings aloud, and started on The Silmarillion (only started, because then there was a train journey in which he grabbed it off us and read the rest of it himself) so now those are the current main read and reread books. If there's something you like enough to read it aloud that you think she'd like and that would be up a level, you might try that.

I haven't read the Seeker series that DS likes myself, so I don't know whether any of these are similar, but things he's enjoyed lately, in case any of these seem likely, include:
- Cressida Cowell's dragon series (new one just out: they get older through the series, as it were)
- Harry Potter of course
- Diana Wynne Jones' Chrestomanci series
- the Percy Jackson books
- Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons series
- Agatha Christie's Poirot stories
- Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, etc.

She won't listen to books read aloud--"Too slow!" (I feel the same way myself, actually.) She'll make an exception for book on tape in the car, though...but I don't know that something at a "bump up" level for her could really work for DS4.

I think she would like Tolkien, and is probably ready for at least the Hobbit. (One issue is the lack of significant female characters--she is VERY attuned to that. She won't read Harry Potter for this reason, among others. "It's all about a boy!") I can't decide if I should take her to the movie when it comes out or not.

Cressida Crowell and Diana Wynne Jones--how are they for female characters? Is it knights and dragons? (She's not into that.)

You are not alone with the Warriors series. Apparently, I'll have two warrior cats in my household for Halloween this year.

I've been doing a lot of internet searching for "If you liked the Warrior Series". Here are some of the suggestions:

http://www.downersgrovelibrary.org/kids/books/booklists/erin_hunter.php

http://www.librarypoint.org/bm_the_warriors

http://read.poudrelibraries.org/kids/z155.html

What does she like about the books? Is it that they are about animals? Other worlds? Female protagonists? That might help guide what other books you can suggest.

Ummm... my DD was completely obsessed by those darned books from the time she was six until...



well, it peaked at 7-9yo.

She *would* read other stuff, but I'm guessing that she has re-read each and every one of those Warriors books (well, the extant ones at the time, anyway) at least seven to ten times.

I felt exactly the same way that you do about them, fwiw. Oddly, somehow, it bothered me less when she turned that "collector" mentality toward Nancy Drew... which is just as formulaic and production oriented.

Yes, this too shall pass. She has had no real interest in them for about two years at this point. It was a very long five years, though.

DD's draw from the books was that it was: a) about CATS (she loves cats), b) high fantasy but realistic, c) female-oriented but without being girly/princessy or "sporty" d) immersive, like an RPG world, and e) action-driven but with a LOT of social complexity to accompany that action.

In short, it was like James Bond but for 7-12yo girls.

Our answer to this was to provide a LOT of afterschooling in literature selections. At least that way this wasn't all she was reading, even if it was a huge component of her self-selected literature at the time.

It doesn't seem to have harmed her any, if that helps. LOL.

I can answer better for Cressida Cowell. There are three main characters (Hiccup, Fishlegs and Camicaze) of whom one (Camicaze) is female (and a real character). The main villain is female; most, but not all, of the minor characters are male. Stereotypes are often defied. Definitely no knights. It's a fictionalised Viking archipelago in which dragons live with humans as hunting and riding dragons - something of a nod to Anne Maccaffery's Pern, perhaps, but with a very different tone. Without giving too much away, the relationship between humans and dragons is what drives the story arc. I think the author's heart is in the right place when it comes to gender (we went to a book festival event she did, and I'm going on that as well as on the books I suppose), *but* she quite explicitly set out to write the books that her little brother would have liked to read, she says. So, dunno. Give DD one and see what she thinks, maybe.

Wynne Jones: I know much less, because although I've skimmed a couple I haven't read with so much attention. My impression is that they might actually be more problematic; they have an old-fashioned feel. Wikipedia page here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrestomanci

ColinsMum: If by "the Seeker series" you mean The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind, just be aware that it's a not-at-all-veiled political commentary, in a very hit-you-over-the-head-with-it kind of way. My DW quit reading it when it got too preachy. Okay, communism = bad, McCarthy was right, we get it, now please get on with the story.

I was sad to see the TV version go away so quickly.

Oooh, thanks! She has read some of those--Swordbird, Silverwing, Cats of Roxville Station--but there are plenty we don't know.