<p>My 11-y old read his older brother’s copy of Lord of the Flies the day it was brought home from school (took older son a month to read - he did not like it at all). He’s also read Farenheit 451. He read To Kill a Mockingbird after seeing a stage production of the novel. He loved Ender’s Game and has read a slew of Orson Scott Card books. He’s recently discovered Tom Holt, who he thinks is hilarious and keeps trying to get me to read. He also enjoys a lot of the Newbery books (The Tale of Despereaux, Bud, Not Buddy, The View from Saturday, The Giver (read 2 or 3 times), Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry). Series he likes: The Hungry City Chronicles, Perry Jackson and the Olympians, Warriors</p>
<p>But then he might go and reread all his old Geronimo Stilton books and Calvin & Hobbes</p>
<p>thank you for all the lovely posts, you are beautiful and wise…</p>
<p>My S doesn’t like to analyze literature but this is the main focus part of his reading assignment which often need to read between lines and reflections can only be well written if one get into the literature. My S always rush in reading and cannot get details of the story. Any help in this aspect?</p>
<p>Well, we all have different talents and skills. When I have the job (which I do) of teaching interpretation in a basic intro. to lit. class I start with fairy tales, even Disney cartoons if I need to. We analyze the obvious symbols in them, and the students begin to get the idea.</p>
<p>But you can’t make someone like what they don’t or be interested i what bores them or seems irrelevant. Sometimes kids get B’s because they just don’t think the way a certain discipline requires. Could be math, a science, a language, history or even English.</p>
<p>Or one can work with symbols of movies like Lord of the Rings or Star Wars (my son’s favorite.)</p>
<p>It’s possible to develop this skill, but it’s difficult to inculcate the interest and desire to develop it.</p>
<p>Recycle, Why do you think that analytical skills can only be accomplished by reading literature instead of contemporary books? Just because a book is old doesn’t mean that the author was a better writer or that a contemporary author isn’t also writing something that will be considered a “classic” in fifty years. My kids are all good readers (middle son is an English major) and fairly good writers but do not enjoy reading what’s considered literature and frankly, neither do I. That doesn’t mean that we can’t analyze books.</p>
<p>I think mythmom is right about how one obtains that skill, and it doesn’t have to be painful - it can be done with books one already enjoys.</p>
<p>One way to develop those analytical skills is to read the same books, or watch the same TV shows as your son. Then talk about them over dinner. We actually do better discussing motives, plot devices, recurring themes etc. discussing old Buffy the Vampire Slayer shows than discussing the books my son is reading at school. (I hated Old Man and the Sea too.) When my kids were little I was often surprised when they missed foreshadowing in the things we were reading, but they’ve gotten very good at that skill now, because we talked about it then.</p>
<p>One way to develop those analytical skills is to read the same books, or watch the same TV shows as your son. Then talk about them over dinner. We actually do better discussing motives, plot devices, recurring themes etc.</p>
<p>mathmom, that’s what I have been trying to do starting with movie “the sound of music”. My S reluctant to give any responses and tried to finish in a rush. That’s the way he used to be in dealing with most of his homework and daily routines. I’m trying to ask him to be more patient and do the stuffs by getting the whole picture first, then step by step.</p>
<p>May be reading in a rush without going into details as required by the reading assignments is one of the examples of his impatience in his working. He always sticks to his own way and that has been his teachers’ comments for the last 3 years. So my question is in what way can he be improve in this aspect?</p>
<p>Choose movies he likes, not ones you like. You could probably find something to discuss watching Transformers if you put your mind to it. </p>
<p>Have you tried reading the books he’s reading in school. We don’t do this all the time, but now that my son is on to The Odyssey (didn’t have much to say about Old Man and the Sea as I never finished it), we are finding things to talk about. We are thinking about rewatching “O brother where art though” which is an amusing retelling of the story in 1930s southern America.</p>