Precocious readers

[mamallama]

Whoa! I'm so glad to see this forum!

My dd (now 7) learned to read (self-taught) when she was 4. She read _Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone_ when she was 5. She currently reads, comprehends and discusses on about a 7th grade level. She reads voraciously.

I'm finding there are issues unique to gifted readers. Censorship, for one. For example, there are themes that are appropriate for 12 year olds that just aren't ok for asychronous 7 year olds.

She is also discovering that her age group peers haven't read the books she's read, and they aren't even remotely interested in discussing them. And it turns out, neither are most adults. Through her love of literature, she is discovering the things that make her different.

As a parent, I am met with incredulity and disbelief at every turn. Last year I hit a wall and I asked one of the head librarians for guidance on choosing books. She said that while C might be reading books that far above her reading level, she certainly isn't comprehending them. She suggested _The Magic Treehouse_ series. C read every one of those when she was 4.

Talk to me, folks. This is a huge, multinational board. Surely someone knows where I'm coming from!

[lasciate]

That librarian was an idiot. But then, you already knew that.

I was a voracious reader and at age 7 was devouring books like Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys, as well as Judy Blume books. I don't know if that helps you any, I'm not familiar with more recent book series.

[NoHiddenFees]

DD1 is a voracious reader. I end up pre-reading a LOT of books, though it's hard to keep up with her. I'm ecstatic when I find a good series. Our local children's librarian has been very helpful. She (like us) is a big fan of British kid's fiction. Has your DD read the Bagthorpe series by Helen Cresswell?

[Mamma Mia]

I really enjoyed Wise Child and Juniper, which I previewed for my young dd who doesn't read yet, but enjoys listening to long stories like Harry Potter. We were looking for books because I felt like reading her Lord of the Rings was not quite appropriate for her age.

My library has a list called "While you're waiting for the next Harry Potter book to come out..." and has books written for about the same reading level with fun fantasy and adventure type themes. It may be a google-able thing or something another librarian can help with.

[teachma]

My maybe-gifted 6 year old is a pretty strong reader though certainly not a precocious one as we typically think of it. I can easily relate to the issue of themes in books being too emotionally sophisticated or otherwise inappropriate for gifted younger children despite those children possessing the comprehension skills to understand them. Though my son did not teach himself to read at a young age, his greatest strengths are language-related, and his accelerated comprehension creates problems all the time. For instance, when he is a passenger in the car, dh and I no longer listen to the news stories on NPR because ds understands them and in our situation, there is a lot about the world that I feel isn't safe for a high-anxiety, borderline obsessive-compulsive, very bright kid to know about. It's so much harder to keep them sheltered from anything at all when they can read and understand, but not truly process the implications, of scary/sad news or literature. Sorry for that personal side-track...just my way of expressing that I understand.

In addition to being a mom, I am also an elementary teacher, and I run into the problem of helping gifted and plain-old advanced readers choose books with appropriate content at their level. Ask any good educator or librarian- it is an age-old struggle. Unfortunately, I do not have a strong solution. I am sure you already try to read books before offering them to dd; it's just a lot of guess-work the way I pick and choose. Sorry, no help here, but I can relate.

[Charles Baudelaire]

Originally Posted by mamallama

Last year I hit a wall and I asked one of the head librarians for guidance on choosing books. She said that while C might be reading books that far above her reading level, she certainly isn't comprehending them. She suggested _The Magic Treehouse_ series. C read every one of those when she was 4!

Ah, don't you love ignorant judgments based only on prejudice and generalities?

Okay, we're in the same boat. Here are some recommendations:

1. Anything by Edward Eager
2. Anything by Lemony Snicket
3. Anything by L. Frank Baum
4. Anything by Louisa May Alcott
5. Anything by Eleanor Estes
6. The Chronicles of Narnia
7. The Hobbit
8. The Tale of Despereaux
9. Because of Winn-Dixie
10. The Island of the Blue Dolphins

That should tide you over for a little while.

[eilonwy]

This question seems to come up fairly often; I wonder if we should ask for a sticky...

Lists of books:

A recent thread here
And another
And another

[mamallama]

Originally Posted by Charles Baudelaire

Ah, don't you love ignorant judgments based only on prejudice and generalities?

Okay, we're in the same boat. Here are some recommendations:

1. Anything by Edward Eager
2. Anything by Lemony Snicket
3. Anything by L. Frank Baum
4. Anything by Louisa May Alcott
5. Anything by Eleanor Estes
6. The Chronicles of Narnia
7. The Hobbit
8. The Tale of Despereaux
9. Because of Winn-Dixie
10. The Island of the Blue Dolphins

That should tide you over for a little while.

Bwahahaha! She hasn't read all of L. Frank Baum, she doesn't like Louisa May Alcott or Eleanor Estes, and she hasn't read The Island of the Blue Dolphins. She's read Chronicles... twice, Harry Potter (books 1-6) twice, and Eragon and Eldest twice. As far as I know, she's read all of Jean Craighead George, and that lady is prolific. Seriously, she has read 10-15 books/month for the past 2 years.

But thanks for the recommendations

I have the reading lists, I have the library references (ie-if you liked this, try this.) I'm always looking for new books & resources, but I was more interested in talking about life with a precocious reader.

Do you censor? Based on what? How does that go over? I'm starting to encounter a lot of resistance when I say no to particular titles. In the past, I've been able to offer alternate choices. Now that she can cross-reference Amazon's search engine with the library's website and independantly request titles, she doesn't want me meddling with her choices. I have told her point blank "this book deals with sexuality in a way that I just don't think you're ready for." When I'm blunt, she is more accepting, but she still doesn't like it. Being 7 and asynchronous, she's likely to throw a fit over it.

I'll check out the other threads. I hadn't realized it had been discussed.

[eilonwy]

Originally Posted by mamallama

I was more interested in talking about life with a precocious reader.

Do you censor? Based on what? How does that go over? I'm starting to encounter a lot of resistance when I say no to particular titles. In the past, I've been able to offer alternate choices. Now that she can cross-reference Amazon's search engine with the library's website and independantly request titles, she doesn't want me meddling with her choices. I have told her point blank "this book deals with sexuality in a way that I just don't think you're ready for." When I'm blunt, she is more accepting, but she still doesn't like it. Being 7 and asynchronous, she's likely to throw a fit over it.

I'll check out the other threads. I hadn't realized it had been discussed.

I was a precocious and voracious reader. My mother pre-screened books for me until I was about eight years old (I think). She read a book called Will the Real Gertrude Hollings Please Stand Up? and told me that she thought I was too young for this book, and that it wasn't appropriate for me. I read it anyway, and I understood why she had that impression but I disagreed with her. We discussed the book, and after that she stopped trying to censor my reading material.

That said, she was much more inclined to censor for realistic situations than for things like fantasy violence. I had an easy time separating science fiction and fantasy from reality, so violence in those settings didn't phase me. I didn't have a problem with sex unless it was totally over the top or came off as "obsessive," but I was more interested in other things.

My son isn't at a reading level that necessitates (much) screening on my part. He's lucky, though; I've got a long, long list of appropriate books in my head that he'll work his way through, and he'll probably be "old enough" by the time he gets through them all.

I don't believe in censoring books, and neither did my mother; if a child isn't mature enough or emotionally sophisticated enough to deal with a particular event/character, then they're not ready for that particular book in my opinion.

[meowee]

I gave up on the censorship issue when my son was about 7... maybe I should have given up earlier.

Veritas and Sonlight have wonderful reading lists. And just because a book is "easy," doesn't mean she won't enjoy it . All it means is that she'll finish it really, really fast.

Has she read the "My Father's Dragon" books yet? They are beautiful stories, even if on the easy side.

Don't look to mainstream sources like a librarian for help... there's really no point.

Try the "library builders" section of Rainbow Resource.

Here's a great list:

http://www.classical-homeschooling.org/celoop/1000.html

[BamBam'sMom]

I was also a big reader as a child. My mom never censored the books I read, which I thought was great. She would give me books that I wasn't ready for. She gave me "Huckleberry Finn" when I was too young to read it. I mean, I got through the story, but I just didn't have the backgroung knowledge yet to understand what was going on. When it came time to read it again in high school, I realized how much I had missed out on the first time.

My favorite author as a child was Roald Dahl. I devoured everything he wrote.

[mamallama]

Yeah, she liked _My Father's Dragon_. She also likes Roald Dahl. She's read them all--and I think she's read _Matilda_ several times.

She does read the "easy" books really fast--if they're interesting enough. A growing number of them aren't. One of my library goals each week is to dig out a couple of the easier books I think she might like. She's outgrown a ton of good books without reading them, so I feel like there's an ever shrinking window to absorb some things.

[Mamma Mia]

I just remembered that I loved the Laura Ingalls Wilder books when I was a kid. I was a precocious reader myself and started reading them in 1st grade or so, re-reading them until about 3rd grade, I think. I also read Chronicles of Narnia and all the Tolkien books around that time.

[water]

What about Lloyd Alexander? Ursula Le Guin? Anne McCaffrey(sp?)? They are all fantasy writers and accessible to younger readers. I'll try and think of some more Fantasy I enjoyed when younger too.

That said, I do think you should censor at this age to some degree. I went through my parents' bookshelves from ages six through ten and there were some things I wish I had not read, the images traumatized me and still stick in my head. Slaughterhouse Five, 1984, many books on the Holocaust, various books with (from an adult's POV) not very graphic rape scenes, but to a child very horrifying.

[Mamma Mia]

I also just previewed Artemis Fowl(e?) for my child and thought it was fun.

[Charles Baudelaire]

Originally Posted by mamallama

Do you censor? Based on what? How does that go over?

Yes, we do. Based on crap. For example, about a year or so ago, Lou had plowed through all of the Ramona books and then some, so I was wondering if she would like Junie B. Jones. I pre-read the first one.

NO. Flippin'. Way.

Some may disagree (this is a big, wide world with room for more than one opinion), but I thought the books were garbage in pretty much any direction -- grammatically, literarily, and certainly ethically. I did censor them and did tell her why, and that pretty much convinced her. Whew.

Other books I've censored, I've censored because of similar reasons: limited literary value and what I think of as bad ethics -- main characters emphasizing values with which I generally don't tend to agree. For instance, I looked through Are You There, God... by Judy Blume, and although I'd liked it in 6th grade, I was surprised by how shallow and superficial all the girls seemed. One might argue, "But all adolescent girls are like that," but one might also argue whether or not these are traits that should be emphasized and encouraged in culture, KWIM?

Oh, just off the cuff, some more possible recommendations for you to bwah-ha-ha at:

The Royal Diaries series
Just Ella, by Margaret Peterson Haddix
Anything by Gail Carson Levine
The Giver, by Lois Lowry
Five Children and It, by E. Nesbit
The Earthsea Trilogy, by Ursula K. LeGuin
A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L'Engle
Dragonsong (and sequelae Dragonsinger and Dragondrums) by Anne McCaffrey. The other books in this series (e.g., the other Dragonbooks) contain some degree of adult content, specifically sexual content, but these scenes are not frequent, nor are they central features of the book. They are not graphic, and although one is nonconsensual, the circumstances make it clear that it is not an act of violence or hatred.
The Clan of the Cave Bear, by Jean M. Auel. This book does contain nonconsensual sexual content and some violence.

I'm starting to encounter a lot of resistance when I say no to particular titles. In the past, I've been able to offer alternate choices. Now that she can cross-reference Amazon's search engine with the library's website and independantly request titles, she doesn't want me meddling with her choices. I have told her point blank "this book deals with sexuality in a way that I just don't think you're ready for." When I'm blunt, she is more accepting, but she still doesn't like it. Being 7 and asynchronous, she's likely to throw a fit over it.

I'll check out the other threads. I hadn't realized it had been discussed.

Hope these suggestions help a bit more. It is frustrating -- or "challenging," depending on how much coffee I've had.

[jkpmomtoboys]

Wrinkle in Time is an interesting suggestion--I remember picking it up at 7 or 8, being able to read it but having no idea of its deeper meaning. If you do offer that option to your daughter (and it's a very interesting book, no doubt), be sure to check in with her periodically with regard to comprehension. I was sorry in retrospect that I didn't save that book for a few years down the line.

[Charles Baudelaire]

Originally Posted by eilonwy

I don't believe in censoring books, and neither did my mother; if a child isn't mature enough or emotionally sophisticated enough to deal with a particular event/character, then they're not ready for that particular book in my opinion.

99% of the time I agree with you, Rynna, to the point where I often don't reply because using the "Yeah, that" smilie too often makes one look like an idiot, but on this one, our opinions diverge.

My mom had basically that approach, but I honestly wish she'd been more of a gatekeeper. I just plain wasted my time reading a great deal of crap when I could've been reading books of far greater and more lasting value, and although I enjoyed them at the time, I think of it kind've like how we look back on a McGarbage Meal: we ate it, but we know we really shouldn't have.

When I got a little older (like 12), this also meant I was definitely reading books that would be inappropriate, specifically a lot of Jacqueline Susann. I honestly think the content (lots of Valium and other drug abuse, straight and kinky sex, and worst of all, submissive and shallow female characters) isn't appropriate for a 12-year-old in pretty much any direction. And no, it didn't make me grow three heads out of which I did three different drugs at the same time, but all the same, it would have been better, I think, if Mom had stepped in and said, "Not right now."

What I mostly regret is the waste of time and the lack of intellectual challenge I was apparently willing to give myself.

[eilonwy]

Originally Posted by jkpmomtoboys

Wrinkle in Time is an interesting suggestion--I remember picking it up at 7 or 8, being able to read it but having no idea of its deeper meaning. If you do offer that option to your daughter (and it's a very interesting book, no doubt), be sure to check in with her periodically with regard to comprehension. I was sorry in retrospect that I didn't save that book for a few years down the line.

This was one of the books that I loved as a child, and I worried that it wouldn't be "good" any more once I was a grownup. I was actually quite relieved when I reread it at 22 (my first eBay purchase, in fact!) and it was still good. Same thing with Anastasia Krupnik-- I loved those books as a little kid, and I was so glad that they were still funny as an adult. BeanBean listened to it on CD and got a real kick out of it all, but I think he'll enjoy it more when he's a bit older.

[Charles Baudelaire]

Originally Posted by jkpmomtoboys

Wrinkle in Time is an interesting suggestion--I remember picking it up at 7 or 8, being able to read it but having no idea of its deeper meaning. If you do offer that option to your daughter (and it's a very interesting book, no doubt), be sure to check in with her periodically with regard to comprehension. I was sorry in retrospect that I didn't save that book for a few years down the line.

I think WIT, like Mary Poppins' magic elixir, is something that changes its flavor a little bit every time. I read it when I was seven and it touched me profoundly: I connected most of all with the angry and belligerent Margaret (gee, wonder why? ) because she made clear so much of why I found school stultifying and horrid, and much of the rest of it, I "got," but on the intuitive, nonverbal level. It resonated for me, even though I would have been hard-pressed to put it into words.