can you recommend authors/books?

[hopeandpray]

need books with themes and ideas that are OK for a 7 year old but teenager reading level. Am censoring gore and too much death, crap sexism etc. Running out of ideas, having trouble keeping up with whats she's exposed to, recommendations much appreciated.

Not remotely girly, roisin, no. Written by Catherine Storr who wrote Polly and the Wolf, she was a child psychologist. I'm really surprised you haven't come across it! I would have thought it might be a bit young for your ds1 to be honest, but if Bink thinks it's right for 10 year olds then I would certainly try. It's nearly 40 years (gulp) since I read it, after all

DS1 is happy to read a whole variety of stuff - will quite cheerfully intersperse Pullman with Horrible Histories and Roald Dahl; so he should enjoy it.

And ds2 (8) this term appears to be finally reading for pleasure without being persuaded and cajoled into doing so. Hurray.

Oh good, worth a try then Actually I think I got that wrong, she was a child psychiatrist IIRC.

Well - here's a shocker - I first read Marianne Dreams at 44 - after finding out about it on here. And it was not too young for me!

There's a sequel to it, isn't there? - which is really supposed to be for teens.

Roisin - the initial main character is a girl, but the story is about her interaction with a boy who is her parallel - it's similar to the Mary/Colin vibe in The Secret Garden. But surrealer. In spades.

Did you know the Almeida's doing a dramatisation of Marianne Dreams this month & into next?

oh I don't like surreal
But ds1 does

Bink - speaking of books we found out about on here - I never told you I really enjoyed The Crown of Violet.

I'd be really interested to see what ds1 thinks.

By the by - here is link to Charles Spencer's Telegraph review of the Almeida show - I am quite tempted. But I really don't think I'd take ds (8.5) and dd (7), despite its being billed for 7+ - it seems too complex a thing for them.

My dd is older - she's 12 now. But she loved -and still loves Anne McCaffery's Dragons of Pern books. I think she was 9 when she first read Dragonsinger - and she was a good but not exceptional reader.

You know, I really wouldn't bother.

She sounds bright and self-motivated and she'll work out what she wants to read for herself.

The trouble with adults (me included) is that we get very keen about our own childhood favourites and these often don't strike any resonance with children.

My DD read solidly through Tolkien (which I was only lukewarm about) but professes to hate Harry Potter ...

They find their own ways.

Censorship a mistake IMHO. I find much of Michael Morpurgo a bit eerie but my DCs blardy love him. I think it's precisely because he doesn't pussyfoot around and does deal with real issues.

Also the classics are very good - Greek myths, Norse myths etc.

E. nesbit -- the Treasure Seekers & sequels, and The Wouldbegoods.

Penelope Lively: The ghost of Thomas Kempe etc.

Eric Linklater: The Wind on the moon.

Agree re. censorship -- I don't really. But then again I only realised the content of the Alex Rider books was aimed at 13+ when ds (8) had read the first three, by which time it was a bit late. The only thing I've encountered that I found really objectionable was Robert Swindells, which are in loads of school libraries, bizarrely. I also don't like the Goosebumps etc series, which mine have never been keen on, luckily.

Re 'censoring' or monitoring - just thought I'd add that my mother's rule from when I was very small was that I could read absolutely whatever I wanted on condition that if I was ever upset or bothered by something I had read I would tell her. I think this was quite a good principle. I read a lot of non-fiction too (eg natural history, and oddly a lot of incredibly ancient 'popular science' sort of books which I bought at jumble sales; at 9 I very clearly remember - though it's hard to credit - reading an entire book about the problems for aircraft caused by birds flying into the engines/windscreens! Not recommending anything quite so esoteric (and useless!) obviously, but definitely good to be let loose on improbable things as well as the more obvious stuff.

Agree about the teen horror style stuff - I was never into it, but once borrowed a friend's and was really bothered by it, and it's odd how much of that kind of thing is in school/public libraries. But at 7 it's a while before you need to worry about that!

A slightly contrary view. I was a precocious early reader too - and my parents had the "if you can reach the bookshelf you can read it" attitude. I did read some things that upset or worried me (and I didn't ever discuss them with anyone - so just telling your child they should doesn't mean they will!) I also put myself off a lot of books that, if I had read as a teenager I would have loved. For example, I was 40 before I read Dickens again (despite having an English degree and having written an essay on Great Expectations based entirely on Coles Notes). A 7 year old, however clever would be bored or miss the point of lots of books that a 13 year old would be delighted by. And if they've read it already at 7, they'll never have that first thrill of wonder and identification that they'll get at 13.

So I do censor my children's reading. I don't let them watch age inappropriate tv shows or computer games or films - why are books different?

Frogs - I wouldn't say Alex Rider is aimed at 13+ - considerably younger. IMO the publishing world doesn't aim anything at 13-15 yr-old boys, because it's a tiny market as there are so few of them reading. I think Alex Rider is aimed at 10+, but fine from 8 or so if fluent readers.

Seeker - ds1 read 7 or 8 of the Anne McCaffery books at aged 9 too, and I think it's an excellent example of 'censorship'. There is some sex/relationships in there - in a non-graphic but very emotional way. But for a 9-yr-old boy he's just not interested in that and would skim over it, but he's fascinated by the other concepts in the books, so keeps reading.

Have you/your dd read the latest ones written by Anne McCaffery's son?

Seeker - fortunately for me ds1 does tend to re-read books at a later point, and appreciate them more fully. I didn't really want him to read Northern Lights or The Lord of the Rings as young as he did, but he has re-read both of them already, and I'm sure will read them again when he's older.

How old are your children? And to what extent do you censor their reading now: your 12 yr-old dd, for example?

My ds1 is only 10, and whilst I gently encourage him in certain directions (buy and borrow lots of books) I wouldn't say I actively censor anything now. I wouldn't be impressed if I caught him reading Stephen King or similar, but we haven't reached that bridge yet. In bookshops he isn't attracted by the covers in the teenage section, so doesn't tend to browse there, even though he regularly reads several teenage authors.

roisin -- you're probably right about Alex Rider, though I think I might have tried to hold ds back a bit if I'd known the content, as he was only 7 when he got hooked on them.

In fact he has actually met Anthony Horowitz, he did a book-signing at a nearby bookshop a few weeks ago, and there was a queue of small and not-so-small boys stretching down the road!

Biggles went down very well here too, and has a pleasingly techy-nerd angle which appeals to certain types of child.

Alex Rider is 12 or 13, can't remember which, but Horowitz said once that he would always be that age and when he has his birthday you'll know that's the last book. I've heard that generally kids like reading books about children around 2 years older than their current age best which might suggest the books are best for 10-11 year olds.

How about Terry Pratchet as well as the discworld series for older people - I think I started these at about 13ish, he wrote truckers, diggers and wings for kids.

If they like the hobbit then Eragorn and Eldrest (sp?) are on a similar line.

For girls you cannot go wrong with Anne of Green Gables - I still love these now and I am far too old

Roisin, yes, I've read the later Mcafferys - but I still like the original ones best - I think it turned into a sort of franchise and I didn't like them as much.

It's not the sex/relationship issues that bother me in dd's reading - it's more the more unpleasant aspects of human behaviour that I still try to shield her from a little - she's not allowed to watch Casualty or Eastenders, for example. And I would absolutely not allow Stephen King. It's the level of emotional maturity necessary to process books for much older children that these precocious readers sometimes lack. And as I said, you have to save something for later!

Hmm... disagree about the censorship thing, sorry. DH let DD1 (7) bring home a pile of Jacqueline Wilsons from the library. Luckily I had a look at them, and the ones she'd brought home included domestic violence, a dad having an affair, abortion... a whole series of things that I am really not happy about having to explain to a 7-y-o. As someone else said, I wouldn't let her watch a film or TV programme with that stuff in and I don't think she should be reading it either. I'm happy for her to read things that are conceptually and/or lexically quite complex, even at the risk of her missing some of what she's reading, because I feel she can always come back to it later. But I would draw the line at anything involving sex and/or graphic/realistic violence at her age.

Hmm... disagree about the censorship thing, sorry. DH let DD1 (7) bring home a pile of Jacqueline Wilsons from the library. Luckily I had a look at them, and the ones she'd brought home included domestic violence, a dad having an affair, abortion... a whole series of things that I am really not happy about having to explain to a 7-y-o. As someone else said, I wouldn't let her watch a film or TV programme with that stuff in and I don't think she should be reading it either. I'm happy for her to read things that are conceptually and/or lexically quite complex, even at the risk of her missing some of what she's reading, because I feel she can always come back to it later. But I would draw the line at anything involving sex and/or graphic/realistic violence at her age.

Sorry....

I censored Jaqueline Wilson HEAVILY too. Especially the one about keeping dead cats in the wardrobe and the one about incest.

I think another thing to bear in mind is that with reading a lot of it is left up to the reader to interpret/imagine.

So for example I too do not allow ds1 (10) any soaps or similar. I also didn't let him go and see Lord of the Rings at the cinema. But I did allow him to read it.

Now personally, when I saw LoTR at the cinema I was shocked by the violence and how gruesome it was even in the opening scenes, and I actually had nightmares. (Then didn't go and see 2&3 at the cinema). This is despite it being one of my favourite books, that I've read several times. I think I just skimmed over the nasty bits, and 'limited' the scale of the evil and world domination desires of Sauron in my imagination.

Dead cats? Hell... could've been worse then! DD would've had nightmares for a week. The problem with JW is that her books are so 'real'. DD has no problem with 'fantasy violence', but when it's real people she gets upset. Interestingly when we saw The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe at the cinema (having already read the book) it wasn't the monsters or the battles that upset her at all, but Edmund's willingness to betray his brother and sisters....