Getting Yr8 boy to read fiction

[bombula]

hi

I am trying to get my yr8 ds to read fiction for fun, this has been an ongoing battle since yr5 as he will only read non-fiction as "he reads for information". He will occasionally read the odd fiction book and only makes the effort to read any set books from school, this summer his set text is "To kill a mockingbird" which they have discussed in class already and he is fairly interested in reading.

I have downloaded some classics on audible including some which are under 2hrs in the hope of sparking an interest but i would like him to read at least 2 books in addition to set book which is real not asking a lot as he 8weeks off.

Any book ideas to try ?

leave him be, if he doesn't want to read fiction, he doesn't want to read fiction!

A lot of boys are like this and come to it much later in life!

Why? why do you care? i get the desire for a parent to push onto their kinds their own shortcomings & inadequacies, but forcing your kid to read more fiction? Do you think this is going to somehow fix their lagging imagination or give them a more forward social position in life compared to you own experiences within work?

Mid 30's, read f-all in the way of fiction in my life ( occasional asimov novels, loved non-fiction scientific & self-learning books ) work for a book company as a data analyst. Openly stated in interview that i never read most books they sell - proof that you don't need to have an active interest in reading to get forward in life.

I really don't see the point.
I understand the wish for your DC to have a love of reading for pleasure but you can't force it. As long as he can read you can do no more than to encourage his enjoyment of non- fiction.
DC1 was reading fluently at 4. I thought he would be a life long reader, instead about aged 8 he stopped reading fiction altogether. He read science stuff. Got all A*s in his GCSEs and A levels and a first at a top uni so it really didn't affect his education.
DC2 on the other hand struggled with reading and was very reluctant at first. Now also grown up he reads fiction for pleasure just as I do.

"a battle"?

"to read fiction"?

christ just leave him alone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! don't mothers on MN have any conception of free will and enjoyment.

I know this is from a couple of months ago, but another option is to look at what non fiction he reads/enjoys and see if you can find him something a bit different to read in that line. You mention that he reads autobiographies - what type? Celebrity memoirs or more serious stuff? Is there a more literary non fiction book that might tempt him? A literary memoir? A book on the historical background to To Kill a Mockingbird.

If TKAM does interest him, how about other fiction which draws/ reflects on real historical events?

Or audio/DVD of drama? We read Arthur Miller's play The Crucible, ostensibly set in 17th century New England but actually commenting too on 1950s America, when we were a bit older than your DS at school. There was a 1996 film version starring Daniel Day-Lewis and it's quite cheap on DVD.

I have the same issue with DS (11). He’s currently reading ‘My brother the Superhero’ and has enjoyed Harry Potter but mostly wants to read about history, geography, politics. School report for the last few years says ‘would benefit from reading more fiction’ . He also gets anxious so I do worry about scary books, some bits of HP gave him nightmares.

My soon to be yr 8 DD isn’t a big reader which flummoxes me as I love to read and have always read to her and our house is filled with books. I was discussing this with her English teacher and she said that don’t get hung up on the fiction aspect, as long as they are reading it can be biographies, fact based books and so on.

I love fiction and have always read lots of it, but I do think that some people will never really enjoy it, and that's fine. From an academic point of view, the big benefits of reading a lot are expanding vocabulary and general knowledge, and that can come just as well from non-fiction. The more the better, but I don't think genre matters.

IMO, the "everyone can/must learn to love fiction" line became popular in schools at the point 40 years ago where everything in primary school became about "creativity", after the Plowden Report. Back then no one knew a thing about ASD, and most people assumed everyone's brain started out the same, so all you had to do was expose children to something enough to make them like it. We know better than that now.

Hmm.How important is it really? The general push now is away from flowery writing.Clarity and precision of meaning is more important in nearly all subjects

It's important if you want a half decent grade in English Language and English Literature.

Even the "Language" papers include literary texts, comprehension and some poetry. To get decent marks, you need to be able to interpret what the writer is trying to convey. That's very difficult if you havn't read much fiction as you may easily miss hidden meanings, irony, metaphors, themes, etc.

We've had a battle with DS who simply got bored of reading fiction at primary school and hasn't read any fiction at all in secondary other than for homeworks. He hasn't even read his GCSE literature books in full/properly - he went straight into "revising" them via online you tube videos and other web resources.

Yet, give him some "true" reading and he'll read it for hours, i.e. instructions, biographies, text books, newspapers, etc. He tells us he just can't see the point of reading about things which aren't true and they just don't interest him.

Personally I blame the sanitised, dumbed down children's books he had to read at primary school.

Interesting point kestrel as DS has Aspergers!

jurrasic park - the original books

Something like 1984 or Animal Farm (can connect to politics/current events) , lord of the flies, catcher in the rye (another American classic like tkam) Friday Night Lights- American football tale (rubgyish?) written by a journalist so reporting style but fiction?
Or short stories might be good too?

My non fiction reading daughter is above average in English, her vocabulary is extensive and she uses it to good effect in her creative writing (and she’s loves creative writing), she is just bored by fiction much as I have tried. It doesnt seem to be holding her back but I guess I just feel like she is missing out on something wonderful

I guess I just feel like she is missing out on something wonderful

yeah, I would feel like that too, but at the same time, I'm aware that a parent who really loves music would feel the same about having a child who just wasn't interested in music. More and more, I'm inclined to think written fiction is like other art forms, in that people are different in their ability or inclination to enjoy it. And I think that for fiction, that probably does come down to some people having more of an ability to make the written word come alive in their heads. Because just about everyone likes watching fiction enacted on television etc, but in that case most of the mental "work" is done for you.

Cheminotte Yes, I also think the insistence on being able to grasp the subtleties of fiction and poetry can be seen as discriminatory against people with ASD or similar conditions. SATS for example used to really heavily emphasise "What is this character feeling" type stuff - I don't know whether it still does.

DD1 is dyspraxic/adhd, and she enjoys fiction, but she really struggles with metaphor etc (and she is also aphantasic). So she didn't do well in her (obligatory) GCSE Literature course.

The thing is, being able to appreciate/analyse music or art isn't a requirement of getting good GCSEs, and I do wonder if it's appropriate that being able to appreciate literature is.