Older Kids Media Suggestions?

[mcppalmbeach]

Ok, that is a weird title…but here goes. I have a 12 and 15yo. I have mostly lost them to the digital verse. I really cannot force them to read a book. This summer I am going to suggest a family book club. I may even end up reading it aloud to them because then I would know it will happen. Any title suggestions for me? It doesn’t need to be anything super thoughtful or meaningful…though it can be. Not too terribly long so I can actually get through it. Also would welcome tv or movie suggestions for that age. We really are going a mile a minute this school year and I want to slow down and share something with them outside our norm.

[InBetweenDays]

Looking at our kids' prior books, a couple recommendations:
Wonder, R.J. Palacio
Born A Crime, Trevor Noah (they have one that is adapted for young readers)
The Hate You Give, Angie Thomas
Refugee, Alan Gratz
The House in the Cerulean Sea, T.J. Klune

[expectantsteelerfan]

I still read out loud with my 14 year old ds, because I was worried he wasn't reading enough or for enjoyment and I thought if we read together he'd enjoy it. We usually only read 1 chapter a night, and I tend to pick books that are below his 'age/reading' levels, although if he wants to pick something on or above level I'll go with that too.

Some we've enjoyed this year were Echo Mountain, Sweep, Slacker (he likes Gordon Korman in general, I'm not as much a fan), Lightlark (he read the 2nd on his own), and The Graveyard Book. I'm also glad that I did NOT read The Fourth Wing with him but allowed him to read it on his own at the same time I was reading it, because there was a lot of sex in it. I don't mind knowing he's reading that (I was def. reading worse at his age), but it would have been awkward to read out loud and prob. would have ruined a book we both ended up liking.

I try to read out loud with DD too, but she likes very different books (so she doesn't just listen when I read to ds), and she does read on her own more, so I don't make it as much a priority, so it takes us a lot longer to get through books.

[expectantsteelerfan]

May 1, 2024 14:37:58 GMT -5 InBetweenDays said:

Looking at our kids' prior books, a couple recommendations:
Wonder, R.J. Palacio
Born A Crime, Trevor Noah (they have one that is adapted for young readers)
The Hate You Give, Angie Thomas
Refugee, Alan Gratz
The House in the Cerulean Sea, T.J. Klune

From this list, I'll 2nd Wonder, The Hate You Give, and The House in the Cerulean Sea for sure!  I tend to pick books I haven't read or ds hasn't read yet, and we'd both read Wonder and I'd read the other 2, but those are all good.  I read Born a Crime, and I know my ds would need an adapted version but I'm not familiar with that one so can't speak to it.  We also read Refugee and other Alan Gratz books this year and I like them, but they aren't ds's favorites.  

[abs]

DD doesn’t read much anymore either. Makes me sad but I get it. She’s busy and does so much reading for school that reading for fun isn’t appealing anymore. At night she wants to listen to music, a sleep podcast, or watch a tv show. I’ve stopped fighting that.

That said she picked out two books to read this summer—Legend and Throne of Glass. She typically will read more in the summer and book club style works great. I’ve read both of these but will re-read so we can discuss!

Doing book and then movie is fun, too. We did Hunger Games series either last summer or summer before. It’s her all time favorite.

Agree with PP on The Hate U Give. My DD would probably find it too serious though. Like me she is all about escape when reading,

[dochas]

We're reading Unbroken:an Olympian's Journey.. by Laura Hillenbrand for our family's book club. It's a YA or easier to read version of the book. We're all loving it. We've also done The One and Only Ivan and The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. My son's 13.

For shows we're hate watching Tracker and having a good time! Irish and British shows have tons of cursing so you might not want to watch these, but we rewatched Derry Girls and Ted Lasso with out son and he loved them.

[luckystar2]

I think the best way to get kids into reading is figuring out what genre they like. So I’d really try to delve into that and go from there. Some of the suggestions would just not be anything my dd wants to read.

Dd really likes Hunger Games. She is super slow to read but she did like it and wanted to read it when she had free time in the summer. She really liked Harry Potter as well but hasn’t finished the series yet.

[bbdoll]

My son had to read Percy Jackson for school, and he struggles to stay on task, so I read it with him.  It was really good.  I wasn't expecting to like it like I did.  There's a whole series of them.

[ellipses84]

We like to read the book and then watch the movie. There’s lots of series like this, the movie at the end is a little reward and my kids tend to like the books because they give a lot more detail. We can have book club-ish discussions about the differences. Think Harry Potter, Hunger Games, etc. My almost teen likes sports stories too and those tend to be PG or PG-13 in movies.

[ellipses84]

Also, to encourage reading, look into your library options. I have cards at our city and county library, which both have apps for digital and audio books. On our city library app, DS will go out a bunch of books on hold, they get transferred to our neighborhood library and I can pick them up in 10 minutes. It helps that he can get the newest books from the authors he likes and chances are he’ll read some of the books if he has a huge stack by his bed. Cutting off screen time in bedrooms, at a certain time before bedtime or a certain day or the week won’t be a popular rule or change but it can help teach healthy habits.

He really likes Stuart Gibbs books.

[ellipses84]

Also, to encourage reading, look into your library options. I have cards at our city and county library, which both have apps for digital and audio books. On our city library app, DS will go out a bunch of books on hold, they get transferred to our neighborhood library and I can pick them up in 10 minutes. It helps that he can get the newest books from the authors he likes and chances are he’ll read some of the books if he has a huge stack by his bed. Cutting off screen time in bedrooms, at a certain time before bedtime or a certain day or the week won’t be a popular rule or change but it can help teach healthy habits.

He really likes Stuart Gibbs books.

[ellipses84]

Also, to encourage reading, look into your library options. I have cards at our city and county library, which both have apps for digital and audio books. On our city library app, DS will go out a bunch of books on hold, they get transferred to our neighborhood library and I can pick them up in 10 minutes. It helps that he can get the newest books from the authors he likes and chances are he’ll read some of the books if he has a huge stack by his bed. Cutting off screen time in bedrooms, at a certain time before bedtime or a certain day or the week won’t be a popular rule or change but it can help teach healthy habits.

He really likes Stuart Gibbs books.

[quesyrah]

May 1, 2024 14:52:06 GMT -5 luckystar2 said:

I think the best way to get kids into reading is figuring out what genre they like. So I’d really try to delve into that and go from there. Some of the suggestions would just not be anything my dd wants to read.

Dd really likes Hunger Games. She is super slow to read but she did like it and wanted to read it when she had free time in the summer. She really liked Harry Potter as well but hasn’t finished the series yet.

Totally agree. Help them find out what they are interested in and go from there.

If they say they’re not interested in reading, have them try audio books. Not everyone is a reader and that’s okay. Especially if they have to read a lot for school.

[thebreakfastclub]

I don't enjoy reading for pleasure. If they don't either, why does it have to be a book club. Sounds like a big fight waiting to happen.

[scm1011]

I agree with The Hate U Give and The House on the Cerulean Sea. I listened to the audio of the latter and it was really engaging, maybe that's an option if they truly hate to read?

[tennisgal]

My 12yo boy resists reading but we usually have him do 15 min before bed, then we read a chapter or 2 from another book. He has liked all the who are/what are/where are book series (like these ( www.bookelicious.com/book/55030/what-are-the-paralympic-games/ )

I tried to get him into the Choose your own adventure books, because I remember loving those, but he wasn't interested. There were a few in the Hatchet series that kept his interest. We have been reading the Hardy boys series to him as well.

[DotAndBuzz]

So my kids used to love reading. Then they sort of lost interest when the digital stuff picked up, the younger one in particular. The older one loves all things fantasy, just finds other ways to wind down at night instead of reading. But the younger one really struggled to find books she liked, because all the books (including some of the ones I see here....sorry!), are what she calls "teacher books." Books with some sort of moral dilemma/lesson/character growth. At age 12, she did NOT want to read "teacher books," much less discuss them with me.

Took her some time, but she eventually found that she liked mystery/thriller and honestly kind of "junky" books. Not high/award winning literature. And honestly that's ok, she can read the "quality" books when they're assigned for school. I just want her to read *something* for enjoyment.
She currently likes the Shadow School series, and James Patterson's Maximum Ride series.

Maybe he's interested in learning more about a favorite sports player/musician (so biography), history of something he's interested in as a hobby, or just in general (ancient Egypt, space, geology...)? kids books about that stuff tend to be lighter and quick reads, so it's less of a feeling of commitment/forcing yourself through the book.

[picksthemusic]

If you're into nostalgia, Karate Kid trilogy and the Netflix series Cobra Kai have been good for us. DD has a HUGE crush on young Ralph Macchio, so she is devouring it. LOL Cobra Kai has lots of swearing and sort of crass humor and sexy stuff, so if you don't mind those things, it's good and they do have an anti-bullying message and standing up for what you believe in. There is also a LOT of physical violence/fighting stuff.

DD read Walk Two Moons (she's 12/6th grade) at school and it really made an impact on her. So much so that she got DH and I copies for Christmas (one for each of us, aww), and we read them. It's a great story, highly recommended.

I also let DD know that she can read whatever she wants. She did a book review/report on Twilight and she was so irritated with Bella that she didn't want to continue the series. LOL

I think Beautiful Creatures is a good trilogy (there is a movie of the first book, but it's not great), I really enjoyed the books, and they're YA.

I think once DS (9 - almost 10) is older, we will start getting him into Neil Gaiman. If you haven't read it, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is a great short story, probably okay for older teens. I loved it.

[Roc A Bee]

Not the question but I worried about SD who hated reading. She has got into poetry and self-help books. Turns out she just hates fiction. She now reads books quickly that she picks out and enjoys. She’s 17 so most topics are fine.