Tag: book review

Reading list for your gifted young reader

Posted on by Suki

There is a lot of understanding these days about finding appropriate books for emerging readers. An entire new genre has even sprung up for struggling older readers who want something more mature than Amelia Bedelia. But there’s a problem on the other side of the spectrum for kids who read early. It’s not uncommon for an early reader to reach five years old and hit a wall: a lack of books at a higher reading level that are still appropriate for a five-year-old. Even though these children may be able to read Harry Potter, they may not be ready for the Young Adult intensity of the later books in the series.

The following books have been vetted by moms with children in this age group who are voracious readers. Asterisks denote books that may have difficult content for very sensitive readers. If you have additions, please leave them in the comments below. But make sure that the additions follow these rules:

  • No direct violence
  • If deaths of parents, pets, siblings or others are mentioned, please add a note
  • Complex enough reading for a five-year-old reading at a higher level

List:

See also:

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Resources:

The wonderful world of Diana Wynne Jones

Posted on by Suki

In the past, my kids and I had read a couple of random selections by the recently deceased British author Diana Wynne Jones, but we had never gone in depth into her large body of work until this summer. We were inspired by our book club, when another mom took a guest turn and announced we were going to be discussing Diana Wynne Jones’s work… all of it! We weren’t required to read all of it, but once we got started, we couldn’t stop.

Enchanted Glass
Enchanted Glass was a late novel for Diana Wynne Jones, offering a new world in which magic is woven into everyday life.

We started with The Enchanted Glass, a wonderful little novel that reads like the great beginning to a long series. Unfortunately, Jones died soon after this novel was released, so no more installments are forthcoming. The characters, however, live on in my mind, and while reading the rest of her books, I am getting a sense of where she might have gone with them.

Right now we’re working through all the books in the Chronicles of Chrestomanci, a group of inter-related novels about storylines that take place in a series of related worlds. Most of the books feature the wonderful and slightly ironic figure of our “contemporary” Chrestomanci, Christopher Chant. (Chrestomanci is the title of a British government position in a world much like ours, so the series features different inhabitants of this job.) We love this Chrestomanci not only because he never fails to deliver as a dapper gentleman who is most focused and dangerous to his foes when he starts to look “vague.” We also love him because we get to know him as a boy, and we sense over and over how his experiences stick with him as he deals with all the magic-wielding children who come his way.

Jones’s most well-known series are probably the books related to Howl’s Moving Castle, which was made into a well received animé film that has, if I remember correctly, very little similarity to the book itself! The books are enjoyable and fanciful, if not Jones’ deepest work.

The interesting thing about Jones’ career is that it never took off in the way that her rabid fans think it should have. She was a steady, respected presence throughout her life, but her books have never inspired lines at midnight outside the book store, or high budget films that become the must-see film for every kid.

Part of the reason for this, I think, is how internal Jones’s books are. Things do happen in the books, but the plot is seldom the focus of the book. Instead, what happens inside the characters—both major and minor characters—is the main focus and the beauty of these books. The kids in these books are desperately trying to hang on amidst events that they have little control over. The adults are flawed and real, only sometimes doing what the kids need them to do.

Another reason the books may not generate the fever of a series like Harry Potter (which owes a lot to Jones’ work) is that she made some major marketing mistakes: She doesn’t have a clear line between good and evil in her books; she doesn’t feature one character as the focus; she doesn’t have a single plot line that keeps readers waiting for the next installment. Instead, her books dip into the lives of groups of characters. She has great respect for her characters, even when they do bad things. She creates characters and worlds so vivid that they live in on the reader’s mind, even when she has gone on to a new world and a new set of characters.

Having now read over half of her books, I can’t recommend them more highly for your kids of any age. They draw in little ones who love the beautiful descriptions. They entertain the kids who like humor and offer enough action and pyrotechnics for kids who crave such things. They help kids understand motives—their own and others. They respect children and adults and all the complex situations we find ourselves in.

For me, Diana Wynne Jones’s books are simply some of the best that you could read with your kids. She has been a fascinating companion to have in our car, inspiring a number of great conversations and ideas.

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Book Review: A Parent’s Guide to Gifted Children

Posted on by Suki

A Parent’s Guide to Gifted Children
James T. Webb, Janet L. Gore, Edward R. Amend, Arlene R. DeVries
Great Potential Press, 2007

Parents often wish their children came with an owner’s manual. If there is anything that comes close to being an owner’s manual for parents of gifted children, this book is it.

The authors comprise a who’s who of experts on gifted children. James T. Webb, the lead author, is perhaps the best-known writer and speaker on gifted issues in the United States. His more recent book, Misdiagnosis and Dual Diagnosis of Gifted Children and Adults (also written with a team of experts), outlines the specific psychological pitfalls gifted children face. The other three authors, Janet L. Gore, Edward R. Amend, and Arlene R. DeVries, add both depth and breadth to Webb’s solid credentials. Together, the authors have worked with gifted children in almost all capacities.

The book serves first as a very good primer for a parent who is facing questions about raising a gifted child. The first two chapters define giftedness and explore common characteristics of gifted children. In doing so, they answer two questions that often accompany a parent’s first forays into the gifted literature: First, is my child gifted?, and second, how is my child different from other children?

The authors point out that the diagnosis itself can cause problems for gifted kids and their parents. From dismissive comments by other parents such as “all children are gifted,” to misunderstandings from educators like “bright children don’t need any special help,” gifted children and their parents face a lot of opposition as soon as their children are identified.

The second goal of the book is to teach parenting and educational approaches that work as an approach to all children, but are even more important when working with the needs and intensities of gifted children. Chapters on communication, motivation, and discipline outline an approach that takes into account both the child’s age-appropriate emotional needs as well as respecting the child’s unusual ability to process and understand information.

The parenting sections of the book expand into gifted-specific problems: How do the parents of gifted children help them in relationships with their peers? How does having a gifted child affect the relationships of siblings? How can a family’s values support a gifted child? And most importantly, how can a marriage survive the complexities of parenting a gifted child?

A Parent’s Guide only touches upon aspects of aspects of raising a gifted child with twice-exceptionalities such as learning disabilities, mood disorders, and ADD/ADHD. Parents who suspect that their gifted child may suffer from concurrent problems will do well to read Misdiagnosis and Dual Diagnosis of Gifted Children and Adults after getting an introduction to the issues in this book.

Finally, the book devotes chapters to the educational needs of gifted children, as well as working with other professionals. The educational section gives a blueprint for looking at schools — what to expect in traditional schools, private schools, gifted programs, and gifted schools. There is a short section on homeschooling, a popular choice for parents of gifted children. More useful is the information offered about teacher training for gifted issues (most teachers receive no training), gifted programs in schools (which may or may not serve a gifted child’s needs), how to work with the school administration, and how to advocate for your gifted child.

A Parent’s Guide is a great starting point for educating yourself about the needs of your gifted child and the possible pitfalls you may face as you raise and educate him or her. However, more important than the actual information in the book are the pointers to how to learn more about giftedness, schools, and your child’s emotional health and educational success. If you’re just starting down the road to helping your gifted child, especially a younger child, this book offers a straightforward “owner’s manual” that will guide you through the challenges you and your child will face.

Accidental favorites

Posted on by Suki

If homeschoolers were living up to our name, you might think we spend a lot of time at home. However, the opposite usually ends up being true. We are out and about, going to clubs and classes, our homeschool program, and on fieldtrips.

This results in a lot of time for my kids to argue in the car. And argue they do, unless, I have found, something else is occupying their brains.

The best thing I’ve found is audiobooks. Unfortunately, we seem to need a steady supply, and unless I have been doing my homework, ordering books from the library ahead of time, we find ourselves about to embark on a roadtrip, bookless.

The last two books we listened to were found in this way: we’d run out of books, and I had to make do with what I could find that day. One day, we were at our homeschool program and I happened to look on the books on CD shelf. There was a book I’d never heard of before, A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park. It looked promising, so I checked it out and popped it in.

One of the problems we’ve been having lately is that my kids like big, meaty books, but aren’t so fond of scary books. As you move past the kids’ classics and get into the middle grade and teen fiction, a lot of it gets way too exciting and full of stories more scary than we are interested in. A Single Shard is an example of what can be done with a sweet, historically based story. Though it has no blood-sucking vampires, no evil villains, and no end-of-the-world scenario, the book is powerful and fully gripping.

A Single Shard
A Single Shard

In the book, a young orphan is being raised by a homeless cripple under a bridge in medieval Korea. The orphan is awed by the work of the local potters, who are famous across the land for their celadon glaze. Through a mishap, he ends up needing to work for an elderly master potter to repay a debt, and becomes his helper.

The book is rich with historical details woven seamlessly into the stories. I believe that my children and I learned more about historical Korea just by listening to that book than we have about historical Japan in the studying we’ve been doing. (Can anyone recommend a similar book set in Japan?) On top of that, the book had a moral lesson. When the main character is about to embark on a long, arduous journey, the man who has raised him tells him that sometimes, a closed door leads us to find an open door. It’s a tiny bit of wisdom that takes on great significance in the book.

I recently reviewed the book Some of my Best Friends are Books, which is such a great read. One of the things that the author says is how important it is for kids to learn from fiction. She points out that books can act as therapy, teaching kids lessons in ways that really stick in their brain.

Can there be a better lesson than this? A loss often leads to an opportunity. In the case of A Single Shard, the opportunity is small. Our hero doesn’t become world-famous, rich, or even well-known enough to pass his name to the present. His work was anonymous; his identity is lost. But in writing this book, Park shows how much meaning a life can have, if only a boy does not give up on his quest.

The next time we were left without an audiobook, we had time to stop at the library. I never know what’s going to be there, though I can be sure of a few things:

  • All the books on CD that we’ve already listened to will be available for checkout
  • Lots of second, third, and fourth books in series will be available
  • Most of what’s left will be for little kids, teenagers, or in a language we’re not studying at the moment.

At this stop, however, there was one book that didn’t fit in those categories. It didn’t look too scary. It wasn’t part of a series. (I later found out it was the first in a series, though.) And we had never heard of it. Trusting the staff of SCPL, I checked it out.

Airborn by Kenneth Oppel was completely unfamiliar to me. The description sounded promising, though it had very little information. We popped it in and were immediately sucked in.

The story takes place in a sort of alternate universe — like His Dark Materials, but much less dark and scary. In this version of Earth, a compound called Hydrium has been discovered, and Victorian-age peoples have taken to the air. Our hero is not much of a hero yet. Matt is just a cabin boy on a luxury sky-ship.

What I loved about this book was the slow, Victorian-age pacing. I am reading Oliver Twist to my 11-year-old right now, and Airborn has the same easy pace. “Don’t worry,” the book seems to say. “Your world is all in a rush, but this one drifts with the air currents.”

Nothing happens all in a rush. We have time throughout the book to experience things as our protagonist does: through his senses and his emotions. This isn’t a perfect book, but it’s more than good enough. The flights of imagination are superb. I can almost feel the whoosh of the cloud-cat’s wings as it flies past me.

Like A Single Shard, there is no gratuitous excitement here. This book is exciting, however, and there is violence. One of the main characters is killed, but his death is properly mourned, and the meaning of his death — a young man’s life has been ended before he had the chance to find out his purpose in life — is made clear. This is a very moral book, which I appreciated. Our hero is Errol Flynn, not Steven Segal.

My kids and I sat in the car a few times, unwilling to stop the book and go in. In the end, I relented and brought the CD in to listen inside. We just couldn’t leave our hero hanging out in the car while we went on gaily with our lives!

Certainly, I’ve not had 100% luck in random audiobook choices, but these experiences reminded me that there are so many great books out there. You just have to be willing to try something new and unknown. And be willing to jump ship if it turns out not to be the journey you had hoped.

A Parenting Book List

Posted on by Suki
People who know me know that I’ve had my share of challenges with my kids. They are both very bright in a book-learnin’ sort of way, which means that I seldom worry about things like test scores. In fact, I’m sure I’ll write at some point about my search for schools that are academically rigorous but don’t stress testing as the end product of learning.
What I don’t want to do with this blog is get into my kids’ personal lives too much. I’ve seen other parents do that and I think it does a disservice to the kids. But last week at a party someone was asking me about resources I’ve run across, and I thought it would be a good idea to write a sort of book (and website) review of materials that might be helpful to other parents.
From their earliest times, I have been interested in figuring out how to help my highly sensitive little people negotiate the world. A book that has some really great advice is The Highly Sensitive Child (isbn 0767908724). I’ve never found that sticking my kids into a category really worked for them or us, but this book applies even if you don’t want to pigeon-hole your child as “highly sensitive.” It has some really great common-sense advice for dealing with your children’s sensitivities — not coddling them but finding techniques to help them succeed in a world that is full of stimulation that they might not appreciate.
Advice I appreciated from this book included helping non-highly-sensitive family members understand the difference between coddling your child and helping them learn to live with their sensitivities. I also liked the emphasis on finding the positive side to something that may seem all negative. When you can’t go out in public with your two-year-old because you don’t know if he’ll freak out at any unexpected loud sound, it’s easy to be negative. But the book helped me to appreciate and even draw on my children’s sensitivities.
The Out-of-Sync Child (isbn 0399531653) is to a certain extent a general manual on child-rearing. What child hasn’t been out of sync in their abilities at any given age? I have tried not to “pathologize” this in my kids as much as possible — I fully expect that an “out of sync” child will go in and out of being in sync his or her entire childhood (and possibly further). But again, whether or not I view a child has having a disorder or just having some challenges that are discussed in the book, the book can be helpful.
My homeschooled daughter benefits from my having read this book every day. I keep reminding myself that it’s OK that she’s not particularly good at certain skills, and that pushing her won’t help. As a strong-willed person, she reminds me when I’ve forgotten and I start to push her. She pushes back… hard! The skills that she lacks are ones that we need to work on, but she’s happier when we work on them slowly and in a positive way. And all the work we do on the things that don’t come easily to her has to be overbalanced with lots of fun doing the things she excels at.
The Mislabeled Child (isbn 9781401302252) is one that I happened upon at a particularly difficult time in parenting one of my children. It taught me to question the wisdom of lumping children into categories rather than looking at them as individuals. The professionals I liked working with were ones who were willing to admit that labels are convenient but not necessarily “real.” Every child can go in and out of displaying symptoms of various disorders, even if they’re perfectly normal. (Someone I know called me in distress one day because her child’s preschool teacher had suggested she get him evaluated for autism. The suggestion was based on the fact that he flapped his hands like an autistic kid when he was excited!)
In The Mislabeled Child they show how often behaviors can be misunderstood: a partially deaf child is labeled learning-impaired, a gifted child is labeled ADHD, etc. While dismissing the use of drugs as a cure-all for behavioral problems, the authors provided an entire chapter on the drugs available and what their effects and side-effects are. That chapter on drugs really made me think about how easily our culture falls back on drugs as a simple cure-all, and helped me take a firm stance in my own situation.
In the midst of a very difficult parenting year last year I wrote an article on PVUSD’s GATE (Gifted and Talented Education) program, run by the talented Lyn Olson. GATE is the bewildered step-child of the California public schools. (You can read the article on my website, sukiwessling.com/familystories.html.) Lyn led me to an amazing website, http://sengifted.org, which serves as a virtual library of information for helping a gifted child stay mentally healthy.
I could write more, but I’m just about to hit my maximum word count! Good luck in your parenting journey…

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