Anonymous wrote:My 8th grader stopped reading books about a year ago - much to our frustration. Still has a solid A in ELA but reading for pleasure is an essential life skill I think. Any suggestions for books that got your kid back into reading?

She's not into sci-fi/dystopia which seems to be a lot of YA fiction.

Anonymous wrote:I think you are wrong that reading for pleasure is essential--most people don't.

DH and I both read for pleasure, and we read constantly to our kids and always had tons of reading material around. Both kids learned to read relatively easily and were always above grade level. But I have one DS who reads constantly for pleasure, and one DS who did as a young kid but then stopped in middle school and never really started again.

But here's the thing: They're both interesting people who pay attention to current events; both did well in high school and college; both went to good colleges, with the non-pleasure-reading one going to the higher-ranked school; both now out in the world and working good jobs. DS2 reads a lot on-line (newspaper, etc), but never any fiction (that I'm aware of).

For a kid your DD's age, my question is: what is she doing when she could be reading? If the answer is that she is on her phone, etc., then I would put limits on that. You can't make her read in her free time, but you can make it so that she isn't using all her free time looking at her phone.

Anonymous wrote:I buy my kid with dyslexia a small junk food treat if he reads 15 minutes a night every night for a week (in additiontolisteningtoaudio books). Just a thought.

Anonymous wrote:I think you are wrong that reading for pleasure is essential--most people don't.

DH and I both read for pleasure, and we read constantly to our kids and always had tons of reading material around. Both kids learned to read relatively easily and were always above grade level. But I have one DS who reads constantly for pleasure, and one DS who did as a young kid but then stopped in middle school and never really started again.

But here's the thing: They're both interesting people who pay attention to current events; both did well in high school and college; both went to good colleges, with the non-pleasure-reading one going to the higher-ranked school; both now out in the world and working good jobs. DS2 reads a lot on-line (newspaper, etc), but never any fiction (that I'm aware of).

For a kid your DD's age, my question is: what is she doing when she could be reading? If the answer is that she is on her phone, etc., then I would put limits on that. You can't make her read in her free time, but you can make it so that she isn't using all her free time looking at her phone.

Anonymous wrote:If you have any remaining guardrails on what would be appropriate for her to read, perhaps take them off. And then take her to the library and let her pick out whatever. At this age I was reading pretty adult material and that subject matter is what kept me reading, along with the sense that I was getting away with something I would not have been allowed to see if it were in movie form. You may not want your kid reading whatever equivalent to VC Andrews is out there these days but it's certainly a hook.