My oldest son, Nathan, finished The Magician’s Nephew a few weeks ago. I ordered The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for him and it arrived Monday. He’ll read it while he’s on Easter break.
When he finishes the Narnia series, I think we’ll start the Lemony Snicket books. I read The Bad Beginning. I didn’t care for it too much because it was so predictable but maybe Nathan will like it.
Nathan’s eight years old, by the way.
How 'bout your kids? Do you have any recommendations for an eight year old?
My son reads everything he can get his grubby little hands on-- and I mean EVERYTHING.
He’s rereading the Mossflower books which are good books for an eight year old, I think. I don’t think your son would be interested in anything else my son is reading right now, though.
My daughter just read Push-- not recommended for your boy at all.
Once we finish the fourth Harry Potter book, we’re starting on The Knight and the Squire (Terry Jones of Monty Python fame). Gabe also likes the Jedi Apprentice series, The Magic Treehouse series, and has started the Droon series. He also likes poetry, especially Shel Silverstein. We’ve also almost finished The Wind in the Willows.
Yes, that does mean we are reading more than one book at a time. Some nights we just read from one book, other nights, we read a bit from three books. His choice. He seems to keep the stories straight, I don’t know how.
He’s 5 1/2. I read to him (he is only up to reading early readers to himself so far, and he likes PLOT, which is somewhat lacking in books limited to 600 words…).
And yes, I know that Harry Potter isn’t intended for 5 year olds… But The Wizard of Oz books aren’t intended for 3 and 4 year olds, and that is what we were reading then. Natural progression. (the Terry Jones book is more for the 8-11 set, as the protagonists are 10 or 11 years old)
If you believe in pre-incarnation (that souls exist even before the baby is born) then they’re reading whatever is popular in whatever nether space they’re existing in.
Or, otoh, reincarnation, probably a newspaper or “how to play bridge/bingo really well” book.
I wouldn’t worry about that too much. When I was about 6, my dad read The Hobbit, The Fellowship of the Ring, and about half of The Two Towers to me; He did a kick-ass Gollum voice, too
Later, I went on to re-read all those by myself. My point is, kids should read (or have read to them) what they enjoy, not what is considered by society to be “appropriate” for their age.
Guess I’m a little gunshy on the topic (so far, I have not managed to mention the Harry Potter thing to anyone without them saying ‘REALLY? Isn’t he a bit young for that?’ in that ‘wow, are you a weirdo’ tone of voice. Barring family, of course, who know him.)
My 9 year old is another reading machine. He has read every Hardy Boys book in the library. He goes through one a day.
His punishment has sometimes been book restriction.
I don’t have kids, but if my parents were responding they would say Savannah Blues by Mary Kay Andrews. They know that because my mom read it and told me I definitely needed to. So I am.
I just finished It, The Body Project, Holes (a reread), and Huckleberry Finn, and am starting The Stand soon. Generally I read books so fast that Mom and Dad can’t keep track of what I’m reading, probably due to the fact that when I was younger Mom would go to the store weekly and buy 10 books at once to read to me, over and over and over.
