What Should My Child Be Reading?

http://www.scholastic.com/parents/books-and-reading/book-lists-and-recommendations/ages-11-13

http://www.commonsensemedia.org/

Just in case parents are searching for good books for their readers, I have included two sites with book recommendations. Both these sites list many books, offering a variety of reading levels and genres. Parents who google “best books for teens” will find many, many more sites with book lists to peruse.

The NPR site is a general list of teen novels, which will provide a variety of reading abilities, interests, and maturity levels. The Scholastic site offers many popular titles for young teens, specifically ages 11-13. The last site, CommonSense, is one I use frequently for my students and family, and this site is invaluable in determining the maturity level of popular books and movies. I highly recommend it! At the middle level with students who have such varying levels of ability and maturity, I encourage parents to take an active role in determining appropriate reading materials fortheir child.

Challenge Your Children to Read Outside Their Comfort Zone

Sometimes it is so difficult to find time, materials and motivation for our children to read that parents are just happy if their children are reading at all. However, it is very important for young readers to be constantly challenged. New genres, books, and reading levels are vital for students to continue developing into mature readers. Even though it is tempting to let our children read the same types of books over and over, be sure they are branching out and challenging themselves since new reading experiences are essential to growth.