Summer Reading Poll

[reddixie]

Ok so summer is well underway and I take my dd to the Library to get new books. She just finished 2 Janette Oke books and 1 Nancy Drew Book. Well I decide that I want her to read some more productive books. You know like The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, Swiss Family Robinson, The Call of the Wild, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Anne of Green Gables, Little Women, Deenie, The Scarlett Pimpernel, and such. So I ask the librarian what books are on the School Summer Reading List for eighth graders. She points me in the Right direction. Boy was I shocked. Our list is Harry Potter, Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Murder on the Orient Express, Artemis Fowl, Boxcar Kids, Goosebumps, Magic Treehouse. The last 3 are not jokes. WTH. There was no real classics anywhere. The high school list wasn't any better. They didn't have any Dickens, Hemigway, Faulkner, Melville, Steinbeck or such. So my poll ask which do you think is better summer reading for kids Classics, Modern Books, Fluff i.e. MHO Nancy Drew, or No reading at all. Debate or discuss. All opinions are welcome. BTW I did get her the Adventures of Robin Hood.

 

[jonestavern]

We are very lucky that DS17 has always been an eager reader.
He likes history, humour & sci-fi or wizard stuff. He has several books going at a time, but we do try to direct his reading, also.
He is reading a book on medieval weaponry, NH's Favorite Son by Peter A Wallner, & has just finished The Peloponnesian Wars by Donald Kagan.

Jean

 

[Nanoer]

try the outsiders it's a pretty good book

harry potter is gonna be a classic for sure..

don't know if you let them read adult books yet i do even though i'm 13

i recommend angels and demons by dan brown it's the prequel to the da vinci code it's all about anti matter and has the best combination of history and sci-fi combined ever!

 

[Ub_Iwerks]

I'd say modern books, of the choices given. I'm guessing that the school is going to teach the classics during the school year. Some of the classics that you listed might be difficult for the average 8th grader to get through on their own, and except for Twain they would be boring. There are so many great books for teens that have been written in the last 30 years. I agree that the Outsiders is a fun read and that Harry Potter will surely become a classic. Of the books on the school's list, I recommend Murder on the Orient Express. If your DD likes it, she might want to read other Agatha Christi books. I read many of them at that age.

Some more recent authors that I recommend are Lois Lowry, Chris Crutcher, and Carol Plum-Ucci.

 

[aprilgail2]

I say whatever she wants to read that makes her happy...let her pick what she wants to read so that she will enjoy reading and it won't be some horrible task for her like having her read McBeth or the like...

 

[newholidayx2]

DS14 started reading the first book of RA Salvatore's Hunters Blade trilogy. He has asked for the other two.
For summer reading he has a choice. He's asked me to bring home Dune from the library.

 

[Pixiedust34]

A mix of all of the above is fine. During the school year, most kids have to read what is required at school. Summer is a good time to catch up on the fluff they like, while fitting in a few classic books now and then. Newbery books are a nice way to fit in good books for pre-tweens and up.

FWIW, my ds is reading through Encyclopedia Browns for fun, and dd is reading through Nancy Drew Diaries. We are listening to Johnny Tremain on tape (a nice alternative to reading) during an upcoming car ride.

Edited to add this link:

http://www.ala.org/ala/alsc/awardss...s/newberymedal/newberyhonors/newberymedal.htm

for a list of Newbery books. Many classics might be a little difficult for younger readers to grasp, so this list is a good springboard to the classics.

I'm not sure on what to comment about your school's reading list. On one hand, I think that the school is trying to reach out to a video game generation and is striving to pick books they think will appeal to kids. My dh teaches middle school, and sadly has seen a decline in reading skills in his students, which is probably why books such as the Magic Treehouse series is included. On the other hand, more classics could be woven into that list without much difficulty. I'd like to see a mix of modern, fluff, and classic.

 

[Tazicket]

I say whatever she wants to read that makes her happy...let her pick what she wants to read so that she will enjoy reading and it won't be some horrible task for her like having her read McBeth or the like...

I totally agree. I'm an avid reader, but I've had trouble really getting in to and enjoying a lot of the classics (I get bored). If my parents had forced them on me when I was younger, I might have given up reading just to get away from them.

 

[golfgal]

Let them read what they want to read. If you force them to read things that don't interest them, they won't read them or they will learn to hate reading. DS13 is reading the Star Wars books, the series that come after all the movies. He read the Dan Brown books this past spring. He LOVED Angels and Demons and Da Vinci Code, Deception Point and Digital Fortress were ok.

 

[NMAmy]

I've always let dd read what she wants to read. But, I make sure that at home, we have all the classics available. Buy paperback copies of the books you've mentioned and put them on her bookshelf. You might find her, in the midst of summer boredom, picking them up and being intrigued. Your list did crack me up that Deenie was included with The Scarlet Pimpernel and Little Women! A classic is in the eye of the beholder.

When dd was in 6th grade, her favorite book in the whole world was The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. She had found a version at the library that included pictures in the margin with snippets of info about Victorian life. She'd read a chapter or two, then it'd be time to return it because it was pretty difficult reading for her. She eventually finished it and was so proud of herself! I had to do some searching but found the same book online and bought her her own copy of it. It's kind of an odd choice for a 6th grader but, hey, if she wanted to read it, then I said go for it.

 

[Cindy B]

Boxcar for 8th grade? goosebumps? Thats insane!

To Kill a Mockingbird is good and interesting. Huck Finn is hard to read on its own because of the vernacular.

A Tree grows in Brooklyn is a very interesting book as well.

Modern classics are a great choice though. The "regular" classics will be read and discussed in school. And honestly the more modern books may give her some real connections to the outside world. Our district is really big about text to self, text to text (reminders of other books), and text to world connections. The students use these connections starting in kindergarten.

Milkweed is one of our districts middle school reading list. My son read that in 4th grade.

Jerry Spinelli has some pretty interesting books.

 

[taximomfor4]

I said "fluff." What I mean by "fluff" is anything the child desires to read (within reason, lol). My dad's masters degree is as a reading specialist of some sort. He said he'd give boys playboy or Sports Illustrated if it would get them to read.

WHAT someone is reading (especially in summer) is a lot less important than the fact that they ARE reading. It takes practice to read and comprehend well. Plus school will give them plenty of classics to read.

The reason Boxcar children, etc might have been on the list is for the kids who are at that level. My friend's library where she works puts books from 2-3 levels higher to 2-3 levels lower. So for 8th grade recommendations, you might see books from 5th-10th grade, for example.

 

[reddixie]

Ok one thing I need to clarify is that I am not making her read all of these books this summer. I let her pick out 2 other books one was Janette Oke the other I think is a romance novel. Please someone stab me with a fork. I have always despised romance novels. I feel at least she is reading. I am trying to get her to read something that will strengthen her skills. I found a great website that helps you understand the Scarlett Pimpernel (excellent book BTW) and has fun games to go along with the book. KWIM. I am not agaisnt fluff. I just think that the school should add something more to their list. Finally so that ya'll know our school didn't have the kids read one classic last year. As of know there isn't one on the list for next year either.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

My friend in college was an avid romance novel reader and had an impeccable vocabulary that she credited to romance novels (I guess they use big words to "sound" more grown up).

So don't necessarily knock the romance novels LOL.

I struggled with school reading--so I suppose if I could have gotten into reading those type of novels on my own I would have been better off. As an adult I still read a lot of Nancy Drew b/c it is easy and I could read it fast. I think I would have been a lot better off trying to enjoy the classics a bit more so that I didn't struggle with them as much during the year.

I don't have any LD's--just a general problem I have.

 

[Daxx]

Lord of the Flies -- if she likes to watch "Lost" or "Survivor", she'll love this one!

Or any of these:

Anne of Green Gables
To Kill A Mockingbird
Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (and the sequel)
The Coffin Quilt by Ann Rinaldi
The Giver by Lois Lowry
Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry (read The Giver first b/c this has a bit to do w/The Giver towards the end)

As long as she's reading, that's most important! Let her choose a "classic" she'll like ... and then a few not-so-classics!

 

[pearlieq]

I would tread very lightly on this one. The last thing you want to do is turn reading into a chore or worse, a power struggle. I think you should leave her alone to her recreational reading. Encourage her to broaden her horizons, but I would stop short of "assigning" her a book to read.

I guess I just don't see reading the "classics" as necessary to a complete education. First off, I think books are arbitrarily designated as "classics"--there is nothing inherently more meritorious about them than any other well-written book. Some may be a part of our cultural lexicon, but she will probably be exposed to a decent smattering in high school and college, and the rest she can either choose to read if she wants, or find something else that appeals to her interests.

I would hope the goal of a literature education would not be to simply tick books off a list, but to be able to comprehend and analyze what she's reading. She doesn't need to read Dickens, Hemmingway, and Faulkner to learn now to think!

 

[DVCLiz]

Please let her read what she wants. Don't bug her, don't nag her, don't make her read a "classic" just because you think she should have it checked off her list. I say this as a former Children's Librarian. Summer reading is about keeping reading skills and comprehension current, not about racking up plot summaries of the world's great literature.

Let her choose, keep her reading all the time. She'll have an amazing vocabulary by the time she's ready to take the SATs, she'll be a great writer because she'll have seen all sorts of printed material. Put a few of the girl classics in front of her if you want, but nobody ever really sat down eager to wade through The Swiss Family Robinson, I can guarantee you!! (OK, if your kid did, he/she is an exception!!!)

I saw more kids get turned off by reading because they had to read what they considered "boring" books. Just keep words moving in front of her eyes - if she gets to be an interested reader, she'll get to the other stuff on her own.