It started with a tweet.
Last night I tweeted Judy Blume asking a question I had wondered about for years. I could have just re-read the book to find out, but instead I got a reply from the author herself! I asked if she had updated Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret to make it more relevant to the preteens/young women of today. She replied that yes she had and linked me to a blog post she had recently written about that very topic.
About 2 hours after that, I found a girl whose grade 5 after school program I ran when I was 20 (I am OLD) on twitter. After afew tweets back and forth she asked if I read them Gordon Korman’s I Want To Go Home. She vividly remembered that.
I couldn’t recall but I likely did. I have always thought of reading as an essential skill. It opens the door to the world.
Cam is my reader.
Cuyler can read, but it’s not something he chooses to do. I can’t tell you how relieved I am that he can.
I believe Eva will be a reader. I actually believe she will be reading early readers by the end of the school year.
Back to Cam – he has read the entire And Then It Happened… series (within a week)
All of the 39 Clues.
All of the Big Nate.
Cuyler can read, but it’s not something he chooses to do. I can’t tell you how relieved I am that he can.
I believe Eva will be a reader. I actually believe she will be reading early readers by the end of the school year.
Back to Cam – he has read the entire And Then It Happened… series (within a week)
All of the 39 Clues.
All of the Big Nate.
A few years ago I saw Freckle Juice at our local children’s bookstore and I had to get it for him. I remember reading it as a little girl – a little girl who hated her freckles. Cam’s face is like mine – all freckles. I loved being able to share a part of my childhood with him. 
I also bought him all of the Fudge books. I loved those books.
I loved all of the Ramona Quimby books. Blubber.
Good lord – what would we have done without Judy Blume an Beverly Cleary???
Good lord – what would we have done without Judy Blume an Beverly Cleary???
I also read The Babysitters Club.
The Choose Your Own Adventures…
I had 2 older sisters who had an entire bookshelf of Sweet Valley High books, but I was able to start off with the Sweet Valley Twins. 
By then I graduated to VC Andrews’ Flowers In The Attic series as a young teen
…not sure that was appropriate reading material for me at that age, but I read the whole series on that crazy Dollanganger family.
It got me thinking about how I used my imagination through reading. Getting lost in a story. My imagination on fire with the characters, their voices, their environment.
Admittedly I haven’t read any of the books that he has read – the new books. But I’d love for him to read (and enjoy) books from a simpler time. Whenmaxi pads came with a belt the internet didn’t exist. When technology didn’t run our lives.
Admittedly I haven’t read any of the books that he has read – the new books. But I’d love for him to read (and enjoy) books from a simpler time. When
I want to continue to share pieces of my childhood with him through books but am not sure what he’d enjoy. The books I read were somewhat geared to girls. So my question is what chapter books from the “good ‘ol days” might a 10/11 year old boy enjoy?
Any suggestions?
Any suggestions?
I was one of those girls with a whole bookshelf dedicated to Sweet Valley High… I wonder if they were less or more damaging then the plot lines of the Twilight series.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane… I actually squeeled when I saw the pic of the cover of my treasured tween series 🙂
Oh, I loved all the Judy Bloom books so had when I was young… and the Sweet VAlley High series too – yes. I bought them all, and sucked them all in, often in one sitting. Wow, I miss having that kind of time to read books – that’s how I love to do it: without stopping, if I don’t have to!!
Sorry, no good ideas about what a 10 year old boy might like… Cayla had some good ideas!
Loved Cayla’s picks. What about the classics, Huckleberry Finn, Robinson Caruso…
The reason its hard for us girls to think of books we read that boys would like, is that there aren’t really. Boys and girls reading preferences are very different: girls like to have character and setting development before the actions starts whereas for most boys, if there isn’t action within the first chapter, they lose interest. Choose the books that are action packed right from the start.
Also, boys like books that have multiple entry points to keep things exciting, like graphic novels and Guiness Book of World Records –there are pictures, charts, different fonts, etc.. to keep things exciting for them.
Try these:
1. Choose-your-own adventure. Its as big as a chapter book, but you can (interactively) read a whole story in one sitting.
2. Hugo Cabret. My son’s all-time favorite book; its the perfect combination of pictures and words.
3. The Bone Books (a series of graphic novels)
4. Narnia Series
5. Hatchet. It is an action-packed book about the boy in the wilderness that takes place in Canad (yay!)
6. Gordon Korman’s Bruno and Boots series (my favorites!)
Hope that helps! And remember, its ok if they don’t love reading novels. Whether its picture books (my grade 7 boys LOVE them), information books (like the Guinness books), magazine (Sports Illustrated for kids), all that matters is that they are reading.
I read Anne of Green Gables with my son and all of the Booky books. Great coming of age stories and not scary unlike a lot of the books now (the boy has baaaad dreams)! We are now reading The Help together. He is 12 so does a lot of reading on his own but I love the dialogue and hearing his reflections on the characters and the stories.
Love your book choices!
From the good old days?
Gordon Korman, whose Bruno & Boots series were out in the 80s and just keeps writing more.
Gary Paulsen, whose Hatchet books are considered classics.
S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders and Rumble Fish.
Jerry Spinelli’s Maniac McGee won the Newbery long ago, and he has strong boy appeal, with interesting characters and often a sports angle. (Crash is awesome, though newer.)
Lloyd Alexander for fantasy, classic stuff. (And of course, SERIOUS classics like The Hobbit & Chronicles of Narnia or big again with the movies out.)
i would be mortified if my kids read flowers in the attic! only because i, too, read them too young!
there is a boys series of books revolving around sports that my babysitter really enjoyed when he was younger…i’ll try to remember the titles and repost…
Has Cam read the Percy Jackson and the Olympian series of books by Rick Riordan or the Cherub series by Robert Muchamore. My boys (aged 10 and 12) get lost in these books and absolutely escape into a world of Greek mythology or modern day espionage. Neither series is from the “good old days”, but I have a feeling that if they’d been around then, I’d have devoured them in the same way my boys did.