AlsoPaisleyCat on Nostr: nprofile1q…9kyj5 Prachett’s Truckers trilogy and other Discworld books are great ...
nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnddaehgu3wwp6kyqpquw8g8f3g29gw8uxfcj5863rnc783xyk0alqm9mcsx3leut98daus69kyj5 (nprofile…kyj5)
Prachett’s Truckers trilogy and other Discworld books are great for late elementary schoolers. Patricia Wrede’s Enchanted Forest Chronicles (Talking to Dragons etc.) were written for adults but we passed them on when our kids hit middle school. Patricia McKillip’s Riddle Master trilogy is a good one too.
The podcasts and videos seem to change rapidly in availability and quality. There was an excellent collection of curated ones when our kids were in middle school that have disappeared.
Not sure what you think of Steven and Lucy Hawking’s series that starts with George and the Secret Key to the Universe. Our kids loved these books and they prompted lots of interesting physics discussions.
Of the newer books, Dragon Pearl by Yoon Na Lee is a middle school novel that our kids liked. It incorporates Korean myths and benefits from the perspective of its trans author. (It has a sequel now.) Rick Riodan’s Greek myth based tales are popular and better than I had expected.
You know your kids best, but I see a lot of suggestions here that ours wouldn’t have been ready for until their late teens. We always preread (or reread) before passing books on and considered what conversations we needed to be ready for.
While Tolkien and older high fantasy was generally fine, a lot of middle school, teen and YA fantasy released in recent decades leans to grimdark and dystopian themes. These become all the more challenging when listening as audiobooks in a car when the parents may not be able to engage in a discussion about the content in the moment when needed.
Often the early entries in a series will be fine, but authors seem to pile on more traumatic incidents as the series go on to lead to a series finale. Or, they write with the expectation that the readers have matured by a couple of years between each release. I recall one series where the missing father was found only to be killed in front of the heroine, another where the missing father was the source of evil. In both cases, our kids finished the book series but never reread them.
Some newish YA books I find to be excellent, but our teens still wouldn’t be ready for some of their themes such the references to suicidal ideation, torture and sexual violence ‘Iron Widow’ by BC author Xiran Jay Zhao.
It really depends on your own kids’ comfort and readiness for more adult content and themes. Bright kids’ reading level and imaginations are often so much ahead of their social and emotional development; they are prone to vivid nightmares and have strong feelings about justice and fairness. We felt that in general the YA market didn’t serve our gifted kids well.
Prachett’s Truckers trilogy and other Discworld books are great for late elementary schoolers. Patricia Wrede’s Enchanted Forest Chronicles (Talking to Dragons etc.) were written for adults but we passed them on when our kids hit middle school. Patricia McKillip’s Riddle Master trilogy is a good one too.
The podcasts and videos seem to change rapidly in availability and quality. There was an excellent collection of curated ones when our kids were in middle school that have disappeared.
Not sure what you think of Steven and Lucy Hawking’s series that starts with George and the Secret Key to the Universe. Our kids loved these books and they prompted lots of interesting physics discussions.
Of the newer books, Dragon Pearl by Yoon Na Lee is a middle school novel that our kids liked. It incorporates Korean myths and benefits from the perspective of its trans author. (It has a sequel now.) Rick Riodan’s Greek myth based tales are popular and better than I had expected.
You know your kids best, but I see a lot of suggestions here that ours wouldn’t have been ready for until their late teens. We always preread (or reread) before passing books on and considered what conversations we needed to be ready for.
While Tolkien and older high fantasy was generally fine, a lot of middle school, teen and YA fantasy released in recent decades leans to grimdark and dystopian themes. These become all the more challenging when listening as audiobooks in a car when the parents may not be able to engage in a discussion about the content in the moment when needed.
Often the early entries in a series will be fine, but authors seem to pile on more traumatic incidents as the series go on to lead to a series finale. Or, they write with the expectation that the readers have matured by a couple of years between each release. I recall one series where the missing father was found only to be killed in front of the heroine, another where the missing father was the source of evil. In both cases, our kids finished the book series but never reread them.
Some newish YA books I find to be excellent, but our teens still wouldn’t be ready for some of their themes such the references to suicidal ideation, torture and sexual violence ‘Iron Widow’ by BC author Xiran Jay Zhao.
It really depends on your own kids’ comfort and readiness for more adult content and themes. Bright kids’ reading level and imaginations are often so much ahead of their social and emotional development; they are prone to vivid nightmares and have strong feelings about justice and fairness. We felt that in general the YA market didn’t serve our gifted kids well.