Hrm. Modern books for that age group, for boys.
The Chronicles of Narnia is a series, but timeless.
Modern...depends on the likes of kids. "Tough to Tackle" is a good lesson on not being a quitter even when you're embarrassed or angry. "Heart of a Samurai" is also said to be good. "Dave the Potter" is about an American slave and would make a good read.
I totally love the "Lemony Snicket" series. LOL It's the opposite of normal and has nothing do with Christianity or any other religion. It's gloomy but hilarious. Lots of people die, but it's not like it sounds. You'd just have to read them and maybe have a twisted sense of humor like I do. They're totally ridiculous in a way that had me hooked from the start.
Speaking of gloomy and parents and others being deceased, one thing we've been trying to do is find series books that feature HAPPY parents. The majority have the mom dead or she's the evil stepmother, and since Carl's kids lost their mom and I'm the stepmother, we're trying NOT to put ideas in their head, especially since they were told by someone else that I'd never be their mom, they shouldn't listen to me, etc.. Someone told me the name of ONE series, but I can't remember it for anything! However, the idea sounds appealing. It's a shame that in most series books, one of the parents is always the bad guy or dead. I'd try to stay away from those types of series or books when finding good reading for kids as you never know what it might trigger. We want them to think, but we don't want to trigger a lot of painful memories or put ideas in the heads of kids who may already be suffering with some type of depression or anger issues.
I haven't read it or heard about anyone else who has, but am interested in "A Faithful Boy's Influence."
One thing is that it isn't easy to find a lot of books for that age group, not for boys anyway. However, I've found that upping their initial interest in reading with short stories with a small reward for reading them, followed by having them SEE a better reward for older books...doing that makes them really want to read the older books and most people are amazed that yes, Johnny can actually read that book that says it's for a teenager or young adult! Sometimes they may not grasp the whole concept, but it's in their minds and they got what they could at the time, then later in life they may remember it and go "oooohhh, I see different dimensions on what that book meant!"
Don't you think it would be neat for a classroom to write their own book? One kids writes the first chapter, then the next one reads it and writes the next chapter, and on it goes until every kid writes a chapter. How cool would that be, to have a tween book written by a classroom of tweens? I bet the first people to do it would sure get a lot of attention to boot! Then it could also be for boys AND girls instead of the nonsense they have with marketing a book for either a boy or a girl.
raying:
