BOOK IDEAS FOR BOYS
from the Homeschooler's Notebook
Encouragement and Advice for Homeschool Families
Here are some terrific ideas submitted to the HOMESCHOOLER'S NOTEBOOK that might be helpful for your homeschooling experience! (To subscribe to the Homeschooler's Notebook and get these kinds of great ideas direct to your mailbox, click here and just hit "send" and you will be subscribed!)
Editor's Disclaimer: Not every parent will choose each of these books for their children. That's fine. The nice thing about homeschooling is the ability of making choices for YOUR SCHOOL!
From Vicki:The book Holes
was an excellent book! After our then twelve year old read it, so did
my husband and I!
It's a silly series, but my son also likes the Wally MacDoogle series by Bill
Meyers. They are really silly titles like My life
as a Space Alien and My
life as a Smashed Burrito
Ask your librarian, she is a wealth source of information!
From Sharon Powell, Editor of Make-A-Note: You cannot go wrong with G. A. Henty books for boys. In the late 1800's, early 190's, he wrote over 144 books of historical fiction that covered periods of history from ancient Egypt to the Victorian Era. His stories almost always center on a boy hero, that starts out rough around the edges and becomes a man over the course of the book. The books are noted for their amazing historical accuracy. Don't buy the abridged or edited versions, buy the originals, which don't dumb down the language. The cheapest source I've found for them is Preston Speed, which has a lot of specials, hardbacks,paperbacks, and audio books (great for long car trips). The web site also has more bio info on Henty, who lived through some of the very events he wrote about. You might also want to get "The Boy's Guide to the Historical Adventures of G. A. Henty" which has a list of the books in historical order (so you could have him read about the period he may be studying in history), with a short synopsis. This book is available from Vision Forum.
From Sandy:
This is for Cindy who was looking for "Boy Books" for her son.
Here is a list
of recommended books from the Provo City Library at Academy Square.
It is quite a list so hopefully he will be able find something
From Michelle: I have had similar experiences with my sons reading and rereading the same books over and over again. :-) Some of the authors
they have been reading and enjoying are Gary Paulson, Bill Wallace (great for read-alouds), J.R.R. Tolkien, Jack London, and
John R. Erickson (Hank the Cowdog mystery series). Another good series is the Dinotopia series written
by several authors including Scott Ciencin, Peter David, Donald F. Glut, Midori Snyder,
Brad Strickland, and John Vornholt. Hope these ideas help.
From Patti:
My son really enjoyed the MY
AMERICA series. They are historical fiction and the one the comes to mind
was the story of a Civil War private. The Harry
Potter books have also been a big hit with him. I would
also ask
the children's librarian at your library what the boys his age are checking
out. My son is also 12
and he's just not interested in any works of fiction right now. He's more
apt to read a book about Vietnam than any of the books on the award list at our library. If you think
your son is
mature enough, get out of the kids' section and take him over to the teen
section.
From Margaret: Having four of my own boys what they have loved are the
Ralph Moody books. The first one is LittleBritches. Rainbow Resources has the whole series, but we were able to find most of them in the library. If any boy is a reluctant reader I recommend the "Hank the Cowdog" series by John Erickson. They are hilarious. Our family just loves them and the audio tapes for the books are even better. John Erickson does the voices for all the animals. Libraries do carry them.
From Mary Beth: I'd like to offer Cindy some book suggestions for boys. My son is almost 11 and enjoys all the following. In some cases I'm simply listing the company that sells them, because there are so many; but perhaps you can visit their web sites, locate titles that interest you and acquire them through inter-library loan if your local library doesn't have them.
- The Rare Collector Series offered by Lamplighter
- All books offered by Mantle Ministries
- All historical novels by G.A. Henty
- The Ralph Moody "Little Britches" series. (There are a few curse
words spoken by some of the less honorable characters in the books.)
- "Sergeant York and the Great War" by Sergeant Alvin York
- "Gentle Ben" by Walt Morey
- "Incident at Hawk's Hill" by Eckert
- "Rascal"
by Sterling North
We also allow our children to read the "Hank the Cowdog" books by
John Erickson. Some people object to these books because the language is a bit too colorful for them. For example, "what the heck" or "the whole durn thing", etc. While we do not allow our children to use words
like that, we have found the humor in the books to more than justify the slight offense we take at them. When reading aloud, we skip over the words, and we have instructed our children that if they ever start using those words,
they will no longer be allowed to read the books. We've read nearly all of them,
and have had no problem so far with our children adopting the vocabulary.
From Kristen: I am mom to 5 boys (oldest is 13 1/2, youngest is 2). My oldest 2 love to read:
Get a catalog from Sonlight.
I have yet to find a book my boys have NOT liked!
From Barbara Frank, Author of Life Prep for Teenagers: When my son was that age he especially enjoyed The Great Brain series by John Fitzgerald, any juvenile book written by Lee Roddy, the Tin Tin series by Herge,and his special favorites, the Nathan T. Riggins Western Adventure series by Stephen Bly.
From Martha: On the question for book ideas for a 12 yo boy. You didn't mention what reading level he was at. My youngest son enjoyed the Magic Treehouse Books when he was that age, but he was a little slower with his reading. He is now 15 and is REALLY enjoying the Hardy Boys books. THese are the newer versions but I noticed at Wal mart that they have the older versions also. There are also a great set of books from the boys perspective that are similar to the Dear America books. They are usually found in the same area of the library.
From Susan: The Hatchet
series and the Mr Tucket series, both by Gary Paulsen are PERFECT for this age. My twelve year old dear son loves them. We have some of the books on tape to listen to in the car and the whole family enjoys them.
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