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I combed my drafts for posts I never finished and found this gem about reading and tweens. 

Earlier this month (October 2013), I wrote about the importance of creating a warm, cozy corner for reading and  I shared pictures of my daughter’s reading space. This week, I am going to focus on tips on how to fill the reading space.  I hope you can use the tips. 😉

• Remember to fill the bookshelves with great reads from genres your child loves at each stage of their development. My daughter is out of her cutesy, picture book phase and wants to read books about ….. “teenagers.”  The scarier and more exciting the better.   We read and co-reviewed Chasing Yesterday #1 Awakening by Robin Wasserman for the Mother Daughter Book Review blog. She loved it so much she finished all three books in the series. I am currently working on adding great paperbacks to her reading nook including novels series by Margaret Patterson Haddix : The Shadow Children and The Missing.  I love Haddix. Her books are filled with nail-biting adventure and thrills. She released the finale in The Missing Series, Redeemed this week.

 

The Shadow Children is a dystopian series set in a world where families are only allowed to have two children creating a population of “shadow children” who have to live in hiding from society and authorities. If they are caught, the punishment is death. The Missing series takes reader on adventures in time travel and includes twisted adventures in all centuries surrounding historical events and people.

My daughter found another series by Erin Hunter that she absolutely devoured: Warrior Cats. These books are popular with the tweens, ages 10 through 12. Ms. Hunter is actually a pen name for a team of six writers. Authors on the team include experienced children’s book writers Kate Cary, Cherith Baldry, Tui Sutherland, Gillian Philip, Inbali Iserles and Victoria Holmes. Together these writers have amassed five series in the Warrior collection. Each series has seven books. My daughter has read most of them for a total of 29 books in one year. She has not read the Manga series. The authors just published the last book in the last series: Dawn of the Clans, Path of Stars.

                   

The authors plan to publish a new series, A Vision of Shadows, in March 2016.

These books are filled with stories of family, survival, and adventure as the cat clans war with one another for territory and the best hunting grounds. Even in battles, the brave warrior cats adhere to the Warrior Code. Those cats that do not become enemies and rouges who threaten the warrior way of life.  Tween girls and boys love these stories. 

Check out Erin Hunter’s site for even more great series collections which include stories about dogs and bears.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My daughter also loved the series Dork Diaries by Rachel Renee Russell.

This hilarious series narrates the life of chronicles the oh-so-fabulous life of Nikki Maxwell as she navigates the halls of middle school, mean girls, BFF drama and first crushes. The latest in the series Dork Diaries 10: Tales from a Not-So-Perfect Pet Sitter releases in October. My daughter cannot wait.

 

 

 

Another great series, I recommend for your child that loves fantasy is the classic The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. My daughter read all of J.R. Tolkien’s books.  She wanted to read them after watching the movies. She became wrapped up in the tales of the hobbits, Bilbo and Frodo, and their elfish friends. Some days I had to beg her to stop reading so we could do other things together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Reluctant readers will sometimes like fun nonfiction titles if you cannot get them to read fiction.  

Find out child’s interests and take a visit to your local library. Your reference librarian will guide your through great award-winning titles to match any interest.

My daughter is fascinated by weather stories about hurricanes, tornadoes, and weather.

 

 

 

She also loves reading about the weird and the unusual.  I love the book Weird Animals to Shock You.

• Remember when picking great nonfiction to look for books loaded with information and great pictures to keep your tweens and teens attention.

 

When I worked as a school librarian the National Geographic titles flew off the shelf. My students loved books like:

• National Geographic Animal Encyclopedia: 2,500 Animals with Photos, Maps, and More!

• 5,000 Awesome Facts (About Everything!) (National Geographic Kids)

• National Geographic Kids Just Joking: 300 Hilarious Jokes, Tricky Tongue Twisters, and Ridiculous Riddles

 

• National Geographic Kids Ultimate Weird but True 3: 1,000 Wild and Wacky Facts and Photos!

 

 

 

• Remember you don’t just need to settle for books. Magazines are a great edition too.  My daughter continues to love these magazines:

Discovery Girls  : Self-esteem magazine for girls 7-14 empowering confidence, inner beauty, anti-bullying, making a difference, being authentic, & positive thinking. Featuring positive tween & teen celebrity role models, real girls making an impact, self-esteem articles & tips, quizzes, contests, puzzles, jokes, & more.

New Moon Girls : Frequent Parents’ Choice and Golden Lamp Winner, New Moon Girls is the unique, ad-free, global magazine and fully-moderated social network for learning and creative self-expression. Best quality content by/for grades 3-8 explores the world and develops empathy and confidence. 

Sports Illustrated for Kids:   Teen boys and girls faved this classic magazine in my schools. Featuring interviews of the current sport stars that young people look up to, this magazine also delivers the excitement, passion, and fun of sports to kids, tweens and young teens in an action-oriented, authentic and interactive style. 

 

As you are thinking about building your tween’s or teen’s home library, you may want to read Monday’s guest post as part of Literacy Musing Mondays by Holly Pennington. She wrote about, “4 Things I Learned From Hating to Read.” This is a very important read for all parents. Your child may not like to read, but the key is to find out their interests and to involve them in selecting reading materials. Be flexible and make it fun. Her key points that really apply to remember are:

• Reading can’t be forced and it’s not for everyone.
• Books choose their readers as much as readers choose their books.

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Linking up with these hops this week: #LifeGivingLinkup; Inspire Me Mondays at Create with Joy, Inspire Me Monday at Angie Ryg,Mama Moments Monday, Motivation Mondays, Good Morning Mondays, Inspire Me Mondays at Table for 7, Mommy Monday Blog Hop, The Book Nook – Blog Party For Book Lovers!, Together on Tuesdays at Chronically Content, Totally Terrific Tuesdays, Women with Intention Wednesdays, What to Read Wednesdays, Mom’s Library,  A Little R &R Wednesday’s linkup, Kid Lit Blog Hop, Booknificent Thursdays,  and TGI Saturdays.

And continuing with :

Be sure to check my Link-Up Parties page for more great blog hops. I will also link up with some of those hops too.