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This is joyfulnoise but I can't remember my password! Anyway Ive been taking my school age kids to the library once a week to choose library books to read at my house. However, I have one 9 year old who can't find a single book that I find appropriate for him to read at my house. I realize that I am more conservative with what I allow my kids to read than some parents, but I've made a conscious effort to loosen the reins where he is concerned but we still can't find a compromise. He chooses books like the Walking Dead, Naruto (which I found sketches of scantily clad women sitting in a circle with men drooling over them in the book), & any graphic novels he can find that have bloody pictures or violence. I've suggested the Bad Guys series, Captain Underpants, DogMan, & the like. But they don't hold his interest. He is looking for the thrill of a violent encounter which I'm just not ok with. How would you handle this? I seriously dread taking him at this point b/c it's just going to be me saying no to everything he picks up the whole time we're there.
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I sent you a password reminder to your morethanaconqueror22 email address. Let me know if you received it. -
Yes I got it! Thank you Michael!Comment
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You may have better luck with Scholastic books club than going to a store, in person.
It helped me a lot with our boys at that age. :
: https://shop.scholastic.com/parent-e...ages-9-12.html
Last edited by Cat Herder; 02-22-2021, 09:11 AM.- Unless otherwise stated, all my posts are personal opinion and worth what you paid for them.
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book choices
Maybe steer that child to non-fiction books. I too would be nixing the violent book selections. I might challenge the child to find books that he could share with younger children. Let him choose appropriate books with guidance such as: "Find books that you could read to a younger child that wouldn't scare them."Comment
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Our library has a book suggestion quiz on there website. Could perhaps your library have something similar?
Or maybe just search for one on the web.Comment
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Have you tried pokemon books? those arnt too bad Or if you think he may enjoy reading something creepy but approprate, try looking up the x files. The junior series and youth series are both creepy, include a few deaths (but not described violently), usually a good mystery. These have no sex, low violence and are pretty good. I remember reading them at 7ish.Comment
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Is he too young for Harry Potter? Or too old for Encyclopedia Brown choose your own adventure type books? What about getting suggestions from his parents and tell them your dilemma? Or if you have contact with any teachers, maybe ask them?Comment
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The books you're suggesting as substitutes held my daughter's interest . . . at age 6. If the high stakes and complex social conflict of graphic novels are within his comprehension, he needs middle grade books.
You could tell him that pictures of violence are no good to keep in your house because the younger kids aren't ready to see them--play up that he's older and more mature--but that text-only books with violence are okay. That way, you're giving him two choices: Tame graphic novels, or advanced books without the graphics. You still have the control you need over the material that comes into your home and how it affects the other kids, but he gets some freedom and choice, too.
Here are some books for a middle grade reader who wants danger and occasionally death and just a touch of horror:
Coraline, Neil Gaiman
A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula LeGuin
Redwall, Brian Jacques
The Dark is Rising, Susan Cooper
The Book of Three, Lloyd Alexander
Holes, Louis Sachar
Island of the Aunts or Dial-a-Ghost or Which Witch? or The Secret of Platform 13 . . . any of Eva Ibbotson's books, which are precursors to Harry Potter and just barely bloodthirsty enough to satisfy a child while still being wholesome and ultimately cuddly
The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm, Nancy Farmer
The Blue Sword, Robin McKinley
If he likes fantasy generally, Spindle's End is McKinley's best book, Sleeping Beauty told from the perspective of the fairy who, in a panic, kidnaps the newly-cursed princess from her own christening and takes off into the woods to save her
And in that vein of retold fairy tales, Fairest by Gail Carson Levine, a retelling of Snow White as an unattractive foundling trying to navigate the court of the cruel queen
Spinning Silver, Naomi Novik
The Bad Beginning, Lemony Snicket
The Wee Free Men, Terry Pratchett
If you think an intriguing story that involves quite a bit of blood and deadly danger could entice him into a thick novel, my all-time favorite is Richard Adams' Watership Down, which I first read at age 8--my first grown-up book. It's--bear with me here--an epic quest involving bunnies fleeing the gruesome destruction of their warren, on their way to a prophesied home, which they reach after many disasters only to realize that they forgot to bring any girl bunnies so now they're going to have to go to war with the evil fascist bunnies in the warren down the hill and carry their women off as (voluntary) spoil.
Find his sweet spot of interest and he'll put in the work for it. He might not be a big thick fantasy novel kid, but there's a lot of overlap between manga and traditional Western fantasy fans, so it's worth a shot, especially since you can give him a book with some blood and gore and it feels more like the Brothers Grimm than HBO, you know what I mean?Comment
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The manga series Bleach has violence toward exciting monsters, not hideous rotting human corpses, and no sexual content that I can remember. The middle grade horror novel series that begins with Cirque du Freak is only of passable quality but might be just what he's looking for in a book--an angsty runaway teen becomes a vampire on purpose, gets in way over his head with new friends and enemies, fights extra-super-mega-vampires, etc.Comment
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