September 13, 2012

• Big Girl Books

  Death, divorce, drugs, and drama.

  I have been reading through lists of “best young adult fiction,” and these are the most common topics in the books. Our soon to be 11 year old daughter loves to read, and she reads FAST. She and I have come to the realization that she has read pretty much all the books she’s interested in from the juvenile section in our public library. This has become more obvious over the last few weeks, as I have gone to the library to get her stacks of books and had to return half of what I’ve found because she’s already read them.

  We have extremely similar taste in books, so she is very open to me choosing books for her. At this age, it’s a good thing she feels this way, because once you venture into the young adult section, clearly things get a little more depressing and sometimes a little bit sexy, too. Whoa – hold up there. Not yet. At her age, girls are at all different phases of maturity and interest in boys. She is very mature, but very uninterested in boys (thankfully)! I suppose it’s because she’s so mature that the 5th grade boys do not appeal to her.  

  I have chosen a few books that involve girls having crushes, etc., and she reads some of them – but she seems to not love those story lines yet. Actually, maybe she never will. I am not into romance in my novels. Or sadomasochistic stuff, as I believe I am the only woman on my street who didn’t read “50 Shades of Grey,” and have no interest in doing so.

  In order to help me keep track of our daughter’s books, I set up an account for her on Goodreads. I use a similar service (Shelfari) for myself, because I have a hard enough time remembering what I’ve read myself – let alone what she has read. I chose a different service to keep them separate and hopefully not confuse myself further.

  I know many of you have daughters about the same age or older….any recommendations would be appreciated. Much like for me, the “Hunger Games” trilogy was outside the range of her normal reading — but she liked those books. She usually prefers books about self discovery or family relationships, and books that are realistic. Although, she did love the Harry Potter and Lightning Thief series and “Hugo” and well, she just loves books. As long as they’re not too science fictiony or fantastical.

  Both of our kids are good readers, and have been reading above grade level for a long time. It’s interesting – when a girl wants to read above grade level, you have to be careful about all these sexed up and depressing topics. With boys, though, the risk is more in the area of frightening them with gore or ghosts or such. I have yet to have him bring me a harder book he wants to read that I take issue with, but it happens all the time with the dreamy girly books. Go figure.

   

  • 4:14 pm
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