Book recommendations for 13-yo HS freshman (male)?

Parent Cafe
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<p>I read America by E.R. Frank when I was a freshman in high school. It was without a doubt a life-changing book. It’s “fiction” but based on many real-life foster kids and their stories. [America:</a> E. R. Frank: 9780689857720: Amazon.com: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/America-E-R-Frank/dp/0689857721]America:”>http://www.amazon.com/America-E-R-Frank/dp/0689857721)</p>

<p>I highly, highly recommend it.</p>

<p>Warning: it is gritty and deals with some very tough issues. But nothing that I think a high school freshmen can’t cope with in literature.</p>

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<p>I second Shadow Divers - Robert Kurson. </p>

<p>I’m sitting under my husband’s copy as I type. ;)</p>

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<p>So many great recommendations! I particularly second the suggestion of Feed. I recommended it to my D at about that age. She doesn’t love to read fiction, but she enjoyed that.</p>

<p>S’s summer reading book before sophomore year was The Book Thief. He liked it.</p>

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<p>Truancy by Isamu ***ui. He was 15 when he wrote this book. Our DS said it was one of the best books he has ever read. He read it when he was in 8th grade. There is some “language” in the book he said though.</p>

<p>OOPS, the first 3 letters in that name are not acceptable here :D. It is F U K U I</p>

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<p>Mark Salzman’s “Lost in Place”. My son read this one several times.<br>
[Lost</a> In Place: Growing Up Absurd in Suburbia by Mark Salzman - Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs, Lists](<a href=“Loading interface...”>Lost In Place: Growing Up Absurd in Suburbia by Mark Salzman | Goodreads)</p>

<p>Gregory H. Williams’ “Life on the Color Line”. Terrific book. [Life</a> on the Color Line: The True Story of a White Boy Who Discovered He Was Black by Gregory Howard Williams - Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs, Lists](<a href=“Loading interface...”>Life on the Color Line: The True Story of a White Boy Who Discovered He Was Black by Gregory Howard Williams | Goodreads)</p>

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<p>That reason’s very recent. The closed-minded English teachers I encountered back when I was in high school in the '90s were mainly against it because they had a bias against Sci-Fi or anything not of the “acceptable” English literary canon(i.e. Chaucer, Shakespeare, Henry James, Hawthorne, Williams, etc)*.</p>

<ul>
<li>Incidentally, I enjoyed Shakespeare plays from 7th grade’s Romeo & Juliet and Midsummer’s Night Dream. However, I hated Henry James’ “The Turn of the Screw” in HS Sophomore English.</li>
</ul>

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<p>Loved Shadow Divers and Ender’s Game!!! </p>

<p>At my son’s school, they read Into the Wild. Lots of significant discussion on the line between following your dreams, and foolishness.</p>

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<p>Thanks, everyone. We went to the library and got Flight of Passage and 1984. S2 plans to read them both. I’ve printed out this list to use as a resource. I’d like to keep him reading all year, not just when he is assigned a book.</p>

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<p>@cobrat: The Turn of the Screw scared the @$#$% out of me!!! I never could read it more than halfway through. I tried it as a 13 year old and it haunted me for years. Tried it again as an adult and still had to read the cliff notes version!!!</p>

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<p>Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye. Wright’s Black Boy. Fitzgerald’s Great Gasby. Steinbeck’s The Pearl.</p>

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<p>It wasn’t fear that caused me to hate that book. </p>

<p>Instead, it was from utter mind-numbing confusion and the feeling the book was turning a large painful screw in my head. Having to read that book in HS sophomore English as a 14 year old was like being forced by the teacher to repeatedly slam my head against concrete walls.</p>

<p>Reading Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Shakespeare, and Beowulf were child’s play in comparison…</p>

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<p>Bambi.</p>

<p>No, seriously. Bambi: A Life in the Woods, by Felix Salten. It has philosophy, it has themes about life, death, theology, alienation, and it also has adventure. The tone is more serious than the Disney movie.</p>

<p>In addition, the author was a Jew living in Austria shortly before WWII, and that clearly effected the themes he chose. (In fact, I believe the book was banned by Hitler.)</p>

<p>I found an excerpt of the “Leaf Passage” of the book on Youtube:</p>

<p>[Winter-Why</a> Must We Fall- Felix Salten - YouTube](<a href=“- YouTube”>- YouTube)</p>

<p>I also found an interesting (and rather amusing) comparison of the storyline of the Disney movie vs the book. (I love the Disney version too, but the book is “deeper”.)</p>

<p><a href=“http://dettoldisney.■■■■■■■■■■■■■/2011/12/04/bambi-vs-bambi-a-life-in-the-woods/[/url]”>http://dettoldisney.■■■■■■■■■■■■■/2011/12/04/bambi-vs-bambi-a-life-in-the-woods/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>At 13 DS started exploring genre writings. Heinlein was a good intro to sci fi, LOR trilogy for fantasy, as well as Vonnegut and Pratchett for fantastic characters.</p>

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<p>I loved Enchantress from the Stars too! Now I know why I love this forum because I haven’t thought of that book in years.</p>

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<p>The Knife of Never Letting Go has one of the best first pages I’ve ever read.

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<p>Not to take us off track, but… many years ago I was trying to remember the name of “Enchantress from the Stars”, and posted on an online website asking for help. Someone supplied me with the book name and reminded me that it was by Sylvia Engdahl. A couple of hours later I got an email from Sylvia Engdahl herself! Someone told her I was looking for her book. :smiley: It was pretty exciting (to me). I think it might have been my first “Isn’t the internet GREAT?” moment.</p>

<p>Sorry, back to our regularly scheduled discussion.</p>

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<p>My son same age who is also a reluctant reader loved the Maze Runner trilogy by James Dashner (stayed up all night reading!!) and Incarceron (Catherine Fisher).</p>

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<p>This is a great book that was on our high school reading list: Code Talker by Joseph Bruchac brings to life for young adults the stories of some of the unsung heroes of World War II–the young Navajo men who were a crucial part of the American effort in sending and receiving messages that used their native language.</p>

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<p>“The Giver” by Lois Lowry and “The Dark is Rising” by Susan Cooper.</p>

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<p>My kids both read “The Giver” in early middle-school, so I would suggest aiming higher.</p>

<p>If they read “Code Talker”, they should probably rent the movie “Windtalkers” afterwards.</p>