My kids are teens. I’m actually a bonus mom and didn’t come into their life until late. Their dad and I have learned that in the entirety of their public school education they haven’t been made to read a single book. Not one. Now we always had them reading on their own, but we would like to read together as a family once a week. We want them to improve their listening capacity as well as attention and literature exposure
What’s something teens would enjoy? Something gripping, but still great literature. I have my own list but am curious what you would pick or what books as a teen really floored you.
by CuteNoot8
5 Comments
Lord of the Rings or Chronicles of Narnia
Although some of these are intended for a younger audience, I still enjoy them as an adult!
*The Cay* by Theodore Taylor
*Swiss Family Robinson* by Johann David Wyss
*My Side of the Mountain* by Jean Craighead George
*Treasure Island* by Robert Louis Stevenson
*Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH* by Robert C. O’Brien
*From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler* by E. L. Konigsburg
*The Westing Game* by Ellen Raskin
*The Pearl* by John Steinbeck
*Island of the Blue Dolphins* by Scott O’Dell
*The Phantom Tollbooth* by Norton Juster
I bet your bonus children will enjoy the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. They will be hooked immediately. It is a really well done series from start to finish, is thought provoking, and you will get lost in the story- it’s an all around winner. I also recommend the Audible version. It’s phenomenal! Definitely check it out. *There is cursing, but I think it adds to the story. But I’m also not offended by cursing in the least. Added since you are asking the question about teenagers.
Your first book should be The Cat in the Hat, by Dr. Seuss. He was a poet, and it is literature.
You didn’t ask, but I wouldn’t restrict your offerings to literature. I would give your teenagers a sense of what’s out there, what’s available — there is so much more to reading than so called literature, and so much of what I personally have learned has NOT come from what others might have called literature — there is great value in more popular work.
I think The Curse of Chalion, by Lois McMaster Bujold, would be a great one. Lord of the Flies is great. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn will be hard to understand, for them (and maybe for you — I know I myself was mystified for a LONG time afterwards) — but it’s good to have had the experience. And like Lord of the Flies, it poses to some extent as a children’s book.
Well, probably you all will read two and a half books and move on to something else lol! Who knows…
The Man Who Planted Trees by Jean Giono. It’s a short story that you’ll read in 15 minutes, but it’ll stay with you forever.