the_rck | (no subject)

I'm looking for book recommendations for Delia. I'm making up her Christmas wishlist now, and I'd like to put a few books on it.

She loves the Harry Potter books and will read them voluntarily. So far, they're the only books that have gotten her that excited. Other books, she'll read a chapter of and give up. She's rejected the Oz books and the Chronicles of Narnia. She liked Charlie and the Chocolate Factory when we read it to her (she even read ahead) but didn't like Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator. She likes Beverly Cleary and Judy Blume (the younger books) when we read the books to her but won't read them herself unless assigned them for school.

She doesn't deal well with books that have parents dying or appearing to die on screen. We couldn't read her The Secret Garden because of that (we haven't tried skipping the first chapter).

Delia seems to like the idea of reading better than actually reading. She checks out a lot of books from the library that she simply doesn't touch. She reads well but not fast.

Anyway, books like the Harry Potter books seem to be the way to go. What's out there to coax a reluctant reader?

Threaded | Flat

Hmmm...maybe she might like Eragon? Or Percy Jackson and The Olympians series (The Lightning Thief is book one). There is always The Princess Bride, A Wrinkle in Time, or any of the Susan Cooper books, like The Dark is Rising.

Or what about Roald Dahl - James and the Giant Peach or Matilda.

I can also recommend: So You Want to Be a Wizard by Diane Duane and The Magickers by Emily Drake or the Septimus Heap novels (book one is called Magyk) by Angie Sage.

Good luck!

Possibly the Artemis Fowl books. They may be a bit too violent; people do get hurt badly in some battles against trolls and whatnot, though never for very long before they're healed. They're briskly paced and fun without being too demanding on the attention span. Perhaps some books by Zilpha Keatley Snyder, too, which have a bit of the same feel as Blume but with less overt social morals. She might like Pratchett's Tiffany Aching books, which are specifically YA, though they sometimes deal with some fairly dark themes. You'll probably want to read those first yourself to check.

I would highly recommend the Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede (here's a link to book one). It basically starts out with a princess who doesn't want to do "proper princess" things...she's engaged to be married to someone she hates, so she runs away to be a dragon's princess. After all, it's "proper", so her parents can't complain. But she gets to do what she wants. There's also fun fantasy stuff thrown in there. They are my go-to books if I'm feeling sick. The later books in the series follow the same world/characters but have a different main point of view.

Hope that helps!

P.S. Also, no parent death!

Do they need to be novels? The Lad is very enamoured of the -Ology books. They lure the reluctant reader in with lots of bits and pieces (envelopes to open, fold-out bits, embedded dragon skin, and so on), but there is a fair bit of reading there that they can pick up bit by bit as well. Wizardology and Dragonology would be the obvious place to start, but there are plenty of others.

Also, you could try the How To Train Your Dragon series. Fast paced and plenty of illustrations.

Do you know what it is about the Harry Potter series that she particularly likes? The wizarding, the boarding school setting, something else?

Wife says, "The Lives of Christopher Chant and Witch Week by Diana Wynne Jones." (Some of the kids in the latter are orphans, like Harry, but no depictions of parents dying.)

One of my favorite authors was and still is Tamora Pierce (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamora_Pierce). You might want to read over the first book of the Immortals series first as the main character's mom dies and you find this out by the main character talking about it (but you find out later she's now technically a goddess so not really dead). But I don't remember it being at all graphic. It's been a while though.

She writes very strong main female characters, which is a refreshing change from most popular books.

Edited 2011-11-26 00:35 (UTC)

Ummm. Crud. I really want to recommend Diane Duane's Young Wizards series...but partway through it, a parent does indeed die (and her wizard child tries to save her through magic and fails), so I think that would be a good series to avoid, unfortunately. And it's relevant and has repercussions in later books, so skipping that book altogether might not work either.

Alas, other than that and Tamora Pierce, I'm not sure what to recommend - and some of Tamora Pierce's subject matter is a bit grown-up at times (YA of the 10-12 level, I'd think.) Although the Circle of Magic books aren't, all four kids have been dumped on the temple, and one is orphaned - and while it's not on-screen, there's a flashback to it.

How about Patricia Wrede's Enchanted Forest Chronicles? If she enjoys fairy tales and strong heroines, those should be about her speed, and there is no parental death to deal with.

Kiki Strike: Inside the Shadow City, by Kirsten Miller, doesn't have magic in it, but it does have a wonderful, engrossing subplot about the abandoned subway tunnels beneath Manhattan, and a whole slew of strong girl characters, no parental deaths. (The threat is more along the lines of international espionage.)

I also enjoyed Anne Allison's Gilda Joyce series, except that, oh rats, dead father. However, the death has happened prior to the books, and... yeah, no. Strike that.

Definitely seconding/thirding the Tamora Pierce recommendation...

I'd also try some graphic novels. I really like Owly, although she might find that too "babyish". I also really like Kazu Kibushi's Copper, which is the story of a boy and his dog, wandering through amazing landscapes (no scariness with death, or other serious stuff, etc. etc.) She might also enjoy the Amelia Rules! series by Jimmy Gownley, which is mostly silly kids' stuff. The only serious issues it deals with (a parent deployed in war) are in a separate issue, so I think you could hold off on that and still succeed with the other titles.

... yeah, I should have been a librarian. ;)

Have you tried Terry Pratchett's kids books? The Tiffany Aching series (The Wee Free Men & sequels) is particularly good and he writes in a very engaging style. Good female role model too!

Would the Prydain series by Lloyd Alexander be too scary? I loved them to bits, but I do remember being scared by the (old, Dell Yearling) covers at the time. I didn't like sleeping in the same room as them unless they were shelved properly, because as we all know, covers can't come alive if they are sandwiched between other books.

The Allie Finkel series by Meg Cabot is charming, and sort of "next up from Junie B Jones."

Two more recent books--Kat, Incorrigible by Stephanie Burgis is fun, and so is The Magic Thief by Sarah Prineas.

When one of my kids was a reluctant reader, it didn't matter what books I brought him. If a book came from Mom, it was by definition boring.

Things that help:
1) Books that come from friends who love them. Especially if the friend talks enthusiastically to him about what he or she likes about that book.
2) Graphic novels and other books that look visually enticing.
3) Reading books out loud to him at our family's nightly read-aloud time.