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Any good books with a 7th grade content level, but high school/college reading level? DD13 says she wants some harder books, but a good amount of the adult section books have bad themes and inappropriate language/situations. Shes really into classics, but also wants some nonfiction books and just normal novels. She just read the Hunchback of Notre Dame with minimal difficulty and really enjoyed it. (I believe her lexile was 1492, but that was at the beginning of the school year, so it might have improved) We are just trying to get a start on a summer reading list.

Has she read Jane Austen yet? Or -- this may be off the wall, but she might like dabbling in something like the Norton Anthology of English Lit. Little snippets from lots of authors, and she could go further with any of them that appealed to her. With anything pre-1960 or so, you shouldn't have to worry about language, though a lot of it might not be all that interesting to her yet.

NCMom had some great ideas! Mine are less classy, I'm afraid...

Hmmm--I wonder if she'd like the Jan Karon or Maeve Binchy books? Not great literature, but not bad either--they're adult books, but not adult books, if you see what I mean! (It has been years since I read any of them, but one of my dear friends is a very conservative pastor's wife, and she likes them, so I think my memory that they are quite innocent must be accurate.)

These are just silly, but fun: any of the PG Wodehouse books, any of the EF Benson "Lucia" books, Laurie King's Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series, John Mortimer's Rumpole books, the Josephine Tey mysteries--maybe something there? I was vacuuming up those sorts of books at that age (well, the Laurie King ones are too recent for that, but I read lots of British humour and hundreds and hundreds of mysteries in junior high)--but perhaps she'd rather have something a bit more serious.

Biographies, maybe? Have to be a bit careful with the subject, I suppose, but there ought to be some safe ones!

You might try looking at Judith Wynn Halsted's book "Some of My Best Friends are Books." It has a heavily annotated bibliography of books suited for gifted readers at various age levels, and you might be able to tell from the descriptions whether something is apt to suit her or not.

peace
minnie

How abt young adults books like :-

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
The Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan
The Giver by Lois Lowry

If she likes biography, try
Angela's Ashes: A Memoir + Teacher Man by Frank McCourt

Also HIGHLY recommend James Herriot, if she hasn't discovered his books already. The first is All Creatures Great and Small.

Oh, and from the Norton Anthology -- Jerome K. Jerome (Three Men in a Boat) and P.G. Wodehouse spring to mind. (Well, I'm not sure Wodehouse rates the Norton Anthology, but he is funny. lol)

And I second Agatha Christie!

Had a couple of other ideas overnight:

Stella Gibbons, Cold Comfort Farm
Flora Thompson, Lark Rise to Candleford

A Euro-based English reading list for 13 year olds?


Take a look at Madeleine L'Engle. Her "A Wrinkle in Time" is very good. Most of her other books are also good.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Wrinkle_in_Time

"The Scarlet Pimpernel" is another good book in the same milieu as Hugo's books.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scarlet_Pimpernel

I really liked Josephine Tey's "A Daughter of Time."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Daughter_of_Time

And this might be also good to finish the summer with. You might be able to find it running in a local stock production.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Man_for_All_Seasons

To Kill a Mockingbird
Jane Austen
Wuthering Heights
The Time Machine
I Robot
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Gulliver's Travels

Thanks, she has already read "The Percy Jackson and the Olympians", "The Giver", "I Robot" (it might have had a different name, but it was by Asimov), "Journey to the.....", a few of the Agatha Christie books, so she already enjoys those, and will next year read "The Scarlet Pimpernel" for school. I might have missed a few, but we'll add those to the list./

On the science fiction side, I would recommend looking at Connie Willis, CJ Cherryh's Cyteen series (three books, read them in order), Lois McMaster Bujold (in particular the Miles Vorkosigan series), and the Robert Heinlein juveniles (the adult-oriented ones are pretty racy, but he did write a number of books for younger readers).

Definitely the Madeleine L'Engle books recommended earlier! Also Scott O'Dell wrote quite a few in that line.

If she would be interested in any fantasy, Piers Anthony has a number of fantastic series. The Apprentice Adept series (7 books) is terrific, as is the Incarnations of Immortality (also 7 books). There is a very interesting and completely different type of series called Geodyssey (I think it's 5 books now) that I find fascinating and impossible to explain. And of course, for the punny at heart, there is always his Xanth series (too many to count). Along those lines, Robert Asprin has a punny light fantasy series called the Myth books--Mythconceptions, Mything Link, etc.

Hope that helps!

Hi Nautigal,
Welcome! I love the Cyteen series - but would NOT reccomend them for a twelve year old who is sensitive. (rape + drugs) Great Characters though and big ideas - so fun.

Hi Bassetlover,
I like Jane Yolen- lots but not all are ok for kids.

We found The Chronicles of Chrestomanci, by Diana Wynne Jones
Charmed Life / The Lives of Christopher Chant
The Magicians of Caprona / Witch Week

through the movie 'Howl's moving Castle' which is based on Diana Wynne Jones's book.

Last summer we all read and enjoyed Orson Scott Card's Enders series(es)
Yummy. Some violence, though.

Tamora Pierce is a favorite.

I'm not personally a fan, but lots of kids like Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern - and it's a series.

I love the Oz series, even though it won't be a challenge.



You could try Hoagies Gifted for more ideas:
http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/hot_topics.htm

http://www.amazon.com/Hoagies-Book-List-Gifted-Girls/lm/9691A06HA6TO

"Speak" by L. Anderson
Sherman Alexie books
Garth Nix "Sabriel", "Lireal" & "Abhorsen" trilogy
Chronicles of Oz (The Takers, etc.)

At school mine read (I only remember some):
Anne Frank - 7th
The Giver - 7th
The Good Earth - 8th
To Kill a Mockingbird - 8th
Animal Farm - 9th

If your daughter is really advanced, start reading from the AP English book list--there are so many. I'll try to find a link

Oooh, I had forgotten Ender's Game and the rest!

I guess I had also forgotten the inappropriate bits of Cyteen, sorry! Depends on the sensitivities of the child in question, and the parents...I wouldn't think twice about it when my kids get to that age, most likely, but I wouldn't keep them from the better Heinlein either!

Grinity, I agree about Anne McCaffrey--I've never gotten into anything of hers, for some reason.

I also forgot to mention another series by Robert Asprin that would be good--the Phule books. Phule's Company, A Phule and his Money, etc.

How about Gone With the Wind? I had probably read that a few times at that age. And if she might like mysteries, you could try the Mrs. Pollifax books by Dorothy Gilman--they are great "girl-inspiration" in a completely non-preachy way, about a little old lady who goes to work for the CIA as a spy.

I'm sorry, don't get me started on books...it's quite hazardous!

I was speaking with our high school English teacher yesterday and she said that she had to discontinue teaching British lit and Shakespeare. The students just cannot get it at all. They cannot read the language - too difficult.

She said that learning to read this type of lit starts early and to read to our daughter (above her level) so that she can hear it. We have done some of this, but I have been lax lately. This really scared me that our culture is going to only modern books.

I cannot even believe this. Is this shocking to others or just me??

Yes, shocking Chris.

Some that my daughter�s freshman class has read this year;

The Prince and the Pauper

Jane Eyre

A Separate Peace

DS has recommended these to friends this year.

The Hunger Games

Evil Genius and Genius Squad

Shocking, sad, infuriating...YES!

Mostly it just makes me want to go curl up in a ball and cry!

Sure, Shakespeare and others take time, but to have it gone from literature. It is frightening. The students just will not do it.

I bought a set of books a long time ago when my daughter was little called The Harvard Classics. My daughter was not interested in reading them, but my son really liked listening to me read Aesop's Fables when he was three or four years old. When he was five or six and had to do a character study for some characters in Hamlet for his musical theater class and he did not have a problem with the vocabulary, but he started talking like a Shakespearean actor and would remain "in character" through the gymnastics class he was in at the time. I think it was one of the reasons the new teacher gymnastics teacher seemed to be annoyed by him. The old teacher acted like she thought it was cute and went along with it.

My daughter�s class is currently reading Romeo and Juliet which is still pretty standard 8th-10th grade material, along with Hamlet, I think.

She "fell in love" (I put her phrases in quotes) with Shakespeare after reading "A Midsummer's Night Dream". Strange, though, because I don't think she has read any more Shakespeare since then.

Then the students should fail. What are they planning to do when the students discover that they can get things removed from the curriculum by refusing to do them? Oh, wait--"business as usual" for the schools, the reason they are so increasingly dismal.

In my experience as a former teacher and a student for many (MANY!) years, usually if students won't do something, it's because the teacher isn't loving the material and sharing that love with the students. If the teacher hates Shakespearean language, the students will, too.

That's also usually why material gets removed from the curriculum. Students don't have that kind of power. But teachers might!

All the more reason for it just to make me sad.

I had another idea, Bassetlover--do you know the Persephone Press? It's a reprint house in London, specializing in inter-war books by, about, or for women--and there are some absolute gems on their list. Why not have her take a gander at their catalogue and see if anything grabs her?

www.persephonebooks.co.uk

peace
minnie