What got your 8th grader back into reading?
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Anonymous
I agree. It’s a hobby for adults. My extended family has a mix of readers vs non readers. The biggest readers are females in my family. The internet has decreased the amount of book readers because of the endless articles and news and entertainment. |
Anonymous
Schools everywhere are reading books, maybe just not area area. But even so they only get through three or four novels a grade at the most. |
Anonymous
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My DD loves to read, and here are her favorites (non fantasy or sci-fi)
1. Better Than The Movies (realistic fiction, romance) 2. Lessons in Chemistry (Historical, girl-power) 3. A Good Girls Guide to Murder (Murder mystery, teenage fun, some romance) 4. One Of Us Is Lying (Popular murder mystery, a bit of romance) |
Anonymous
Not true -- today that is much less common than in the past. Many schools across the US no longer read any whole books. Instead they only read short extracts. There is an entire thread on this change in one of the Education fora here on DCUM. |
Anonymous
| My hs senior has never been a big novel reader yet he has an excellent vocabulary and writes really well. He does read blogs on topics that interest him and maintains his own blog. He received a perfect score on the verbal portion of the PSAT and a 770 on the SAT. |
Anonymous
| Reading about female characters, like the First Ladies for example. A lot of fiction for teens isn’t relatable for a non not nerdy typical teen, which is why they turn to social media |
Anonymous
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My teen also disliked the heavy dystopia and isn't into science fiction.
She loved the Jenny Han books, as well as the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants books. Then she segued into Taylor Jenkins Reid when she got a little older. |
Anonymous
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Would she let you read to her? I read to my 8th grade daughter while she “does her skincare routine”. This gets her excited enough about the book that she will read some of the book without me on the nights I’m not available. This also allows her to ask me questions about some of the vocabulary.
She also asks me questions about vocabulary from TV shows. Just last night she came and asked me what “conundrum” meant and was excited that she had basically already figured it out from context clues. I confirmed what she thought. She was watching Gilmore Girls. My kid likes murder mysteries. We read Murder on the Orient Express. And now we are reading a very light book from the Vacation Mysteries Series. I am comfortable letting her read anything other than perhaps some sort of hard core pornographic thing (which is not something she ever has wanted to read). I am fine reading a book to her with curse words and that is clear unmarried people are having sex. I am fine with LGBTQ content. Reading this stuff to her allows me to also interject with some of my own values. We can both generally align on when a character is making a very bad choice. It allows us to talk about stuff without it being personal to her. |
Anonymous
| It’s ok to require an 8th grader to read 30-45 min per day. Just do it |
Anonymous
| Kids stop reading for pleasure when they get phones. |
Anonymous
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My 9th grader is a very, very strong student but has always refused reading for pleasure. I am a lifelong voracious reader and this has always bothered me, more than it probably should.
Then last summer, she became obsessed with Harry Potter and read the entire series at a stunning pace. 6 months later and she's back to only reading what's required for school. Shrug! |
Anonymous
+1 to One of Us Is Lying - one of those books that hooks you right away and is a quick read |
Anonymous
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Try Magazines. Try books that became movies. Challenge her to read the same book as you then ya’ll can discuss.
Book Recs: One of Us is Lying Legendborn The Selection Twilight Akata Warrior The Inheritance Games |
Anonymous
DP - I also have a kid who also stopped reading books for pleasure in middle school. He did quite well on the ACT. He's just graduated college and working. It's one of my hobbies but not his. And that's okay |
Anonymous
| Mine never stopped but Stephen king keeps him reading. There’s a near endless supply |