Good books to bolster future Critical Reading scores?

<p>I read on other threads of teenage boys that hate to read and which books may motivate them. I too, am the parent of a teenage boy (rising high school freshman) who absolutely hates to read. That aside, he is very bright and excels at science and math. He is very motivated to do well in high school (very type A personality) and recognizes that his standardized testing scores are lopsided. He usually scores in the 99%tiles in math but the reading can be 88-92%tiles. He is extremely competitive in all aspects of his life and wants to score higher and have better writing skills. He has asked me to find him a reading/writing tutor to improve his test scores. I believe that he also needs to make himself read (more than the two summer reading books assigned by his high school gifted/honors English class....which will be torture for him). I was wondering if you CCer's would help us compile a list of books that would/could be beneficial in terms of the future SAT's AND be of interest to a 14-16 year old boy. The last novel that he read that he really enjoyed was the City of Ember (and it's two sequels).<br>
I think that part of his dislike for reading is that he is very active. He is into playing football, soccer, basketball etc and is a total gamer. He could spend hours playing Call of Duty or Halo 3. He also hates going to the movies BTW and always has. The only movies he has voluntarily gone to see in the past few years are the Harry Potter ones (yes, has had read the entire HP series). I read on another thread that many boys enjoy Ender's Game. Is this age/intelluctually appropriate? I don't believe that there is anything wrong with his eyesight btw, his hand/eye coordination is amazing.</p>

<p>I logged on here to post this very thing. CR is my son's lowest section (if only they counted writing!).</p>

<p>Ender's Game is the perfect book, actually, and there is a whole series he can read if he likes it, though the rest of the series isn't nearly as engaging. It's also available on audio, which is a way to supplement the reading, I think.</p>

<p>Here is one idea for a strategy. Tell him to go to Border's or B&N or the library or wherever, take 10 books off of the shelf that look potentially interesting, and read the first page of each book. Have him put to one side the books that he doesn't want to read, and then from the stack of books left, read 2 or 3 more pages. Then pick a book to read. That might help him narrow down on a book he likes.</p>

<p>I think it's important to remember that the SAT doesn't actually test novel-reading skills, it teaches short-text reading skills. So magazines and newspaper articles etc. are actually excellent preparation for the SAT. There are also a lot of science fiction short story collections, he might enjoy more. Short stories are going to provide just as good preparation for the SAT as novels, and are often less daunting.</p>

<p>Also should look into the Phillip Dick sci fi books - thinking man's sci fi.</p>

<p>I think you're getting at two different things here. Critical reading don't come from just reading a book. It's a process, and hopefully one that his honors english teachers will teach (I had some great English teachers). At least in my experience, it's a skill that I can turn on and off, so if I want, I can read a novel like Catch-22 three or four times and at completely different levels each time.</p>

<p>I think the bigger issue to be tackled is getting him to enjoy reading. Win that battle and the critical reading issue will take care of itself.</p>

<p>Some books that I think many boys would enjoy:</p>

<p>Bringing Down the House - Ben Mizrich, was the basis for the movie 21 that was out in theaters this spring.
Catch-22
Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy
Ball Four Jim Bouton - if he likes baseball. IIRC There might be some concerns about language, but nothing a 15 year old hasn't heard before.
Lord of the Flies - Golding
The Moves Make the Man - Bruce Brooks - novel centers around basketball. </p>

<p>Actually, in searching for a couple details of these titles, I came across this website: [url=<a href="http://www.teenreads.com/index.asp%5DTeenreads.com%5B/url"&gt;http://www.teenreads.com/index.asp]Teenreads.com[/url&lt;/a&gt;] </p>

<p>Looks very helpful.</p>

<p>I'd suggest non-fiction reading--and it could be articles, rather than books to begin with. Based on your son's interests, he might like articles in Scientific American, Discover, Science News, Math Horizons (a magazine of the Mathematical Association of America), or similar popular journals. Also, National Geographic Adventure might be quite interesting to him--it focuses on "adventure" travel, and it's not the old variety of National Geographic. It is often appealing to young men. The current issue has an article on attempts to locate and salvage the Bonhomme Richard (John Paul Jones's ship, on which he defeated the British and took the Serapis). If your son has an interest in a particular period of history, or if you could deduce a period that might interest him, both well-written non-fiction and works of historical fiction might be good. What about spy novels?</p>

<p>The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino is a fun "English class" book--probably the only book I ever read in an English class that wasn't depressing. I read it senior year, but I think that someone younger could handle it. It's historical, and has subtle references to famous historical figures, if that would help convince him to read it.</p>

<p>I think I read Ender's Game in eighth grade. It has a couple of rather violent bits, but if your son likes Halo and CoD, that really doesn't appear to be a problem. It's a great book, though: I still pick it up and read it when I get bored.</p>

<p>All of these recommendations are wonderful, but you should try for the more 'classic' novels also like Jules Verne with Around the World in 80 Days - if he understands British humor, it's definitely funny, and it's a good starting point to understand classics. Classics are also written much more complexly, so it should strengthen not only reading, but grammar skills in being able to understand the paragraphs itself. </p>

<p>In the end, don't start too low - you need a good balance between an interesting plot (Ender's Game is definitely excellent) and reading difficulty. Encourage him to use resources - on Amazon, if you look at one book there usually is a revolving list underneath the product description that points to similar subject books of most likely greater difficulty. Great resource for a bookworm like me :D </p>

<p>Also, if he really enjoys Halo 3 or any other media that has a huge fanbase, encourage him to start looking deeper beneath the plot, and actually unravel and analyze how everything is put together. In my days of internet nerddom, I used to regularly read well-developed essays on how a character would've potentially developed - only to have the author twist the entire thing. He probably would need a friend who is interested in talking about this stuff though; however due to this, I had amazingly developed synthesis and analysis skills in the classroom, which helped quite a bit.</p>

<p>Also, this is an exercise my teacher had us do - since songs are poetry, try to encourage him to analyze and really talk about the songs that he really likes. A lot of them that do not fall into the genre of dance/boy-band music and into the singer-songwriter category have many layers of meaning, beyond the surface message. SongMeanings</a> | music song lyrics provides a rudimentary start-point to get the cogs working.</p>

<p>Time Magazine usually provides well-developed and in-depth cover articles, but I prefer the New Yorker for a more sophisticated style and very varied subject matter - some of the most wittiest reviews of movies, albums, and other things I have ever seen. </p>

<p>Historical fiction is always good, and you could get him interested in Greek mythology - it provides an amazing amount of backbone for anything, and plus the stories are very human and very funny while retaining an air of ancient wonder. He must've heard about them several times, but never really delved into it, right?</p>

<p>Whew, I hope that's enough - just remember, like in math, there is only one correct answer for an analysis, so encourage him to think actively and be able to recall events at the end of a chapter, and have him be able to empathize with the characters and imagine the descriptive language in his head to create a setting - best of luck!</p>

<p>My suggestion is to subscribe to The New Yorker. I has a broad range of short essays and longer articles which are well written and typically sophisticated in style and content. And in most issues there may be articles which will interest your son. Recent issue features items by John Updike, Alice Munro, Sy Hersh, Hendrick Hertzberg and David Denby, an impressive array of writers.</p>

<p>OP's son sounds like my son. My son will read Michael Crichton - Jurassic Park and its sequels, Andromeda Strain, etc.</p>

<p>You DO NOT need to read books to do well on the CR section!
You just need to know literary concepts such as personification, sarcasm, etc. and how they are applied and the ability to understand/comprehend what you're reading (something all HS students should know). To be honest, watching Family Guy or the Simpsons would probably help you more on the CR section than reading books...</p>

<p>Ender's Game is an excellent choice in terms of something he would definitely enjoy. Michael Crichton is another likely winner.</p>

<p>On the non-fiction front, I'd suggest some books of collected short "popular science" articles. Some science options include <em>Eleven Blue Men</em> (medical mysteries, fascinated me when I was a kid) and Stephen Jay Gould's <em>The Flamingo's Smile</em>. </p>

<p>Another superb non-fiction writer to consider is John McPhee, but I'd probably avoid his most recent books about geology--they require a lot of commitment <g>--and try something like The Survival of the Birch Bark Canoe or his <em>Levels of the Game</em> or <em>Giving Good Weight</em>. Another possibility from the realm of the "new" journalism: Tom Wolfe's <em>The Right Stuff</em> or his earlier books of essays such as <em>The Kandy-Kolored, Tangerine-Flake, Streamline Baby</em></g></p>

<p>If my kids were given The New Yorker I doubt they'd read much beyond the funnies. My oldest got an 800 on the CR. He reads ALOT - mostly sci fi and fantasy. I don't think what you read is that important. Anyway for a kid who liked City of Embers, I'd suggest trying some of these authors.</p>

<p>Orson Scott Card (second the suggestion for Ender's Game and it's sequels), I also like Songmaster and Pastwatch which are stand alones.</p>

<p>Elizabeth Moon - The Deed of Paksenarrion, The Herris Sarrano and Esme Suize books, the Vatta's War books. Her books tend to have military female heroines, but my boys love her. I also like the award winning Speed of the Dark, but it's quite different - it's a high functioning autistic young man facing the decision as to whether to get an operation to be cured.</p>

<p>Robert Jordan - endless series of very fat books. My boys say they get repetitive - I haven't read them.</p>

<p>David Weber - another military sci-fi guy the Honor books are his most popular - I got tired of them.</p>

<p>Lois McMasters Bujold - Miles Vorkosigan books. I think these are the best and most addictive space opera books out there. You really get to care about Miles a military mad, disable young man who manages to commandeer a mercenary fleet. </p>

<p>Sharon Lee and Steve Miller - Liaden Universe books - sci fi with fantasy elements. Lots of fun.</p>

<p>Debra Doyle and James McDonald - Mageworld books - another set of books that blends aspects of sci-fi and fantasy</p>

<p>Terry Pratchet - very silly humorous fantasy</p>

<p>My younger son likes getting Air and Space magazine.</p>

<p>I agree Michael Chrichton is a good idea.</p>

<p>How about Graphic Novels, which look like comic books but can be as serious as anything.</p>

<p>Examples: Art Spigelblatt, Maus I and II, or something by Neil Gaemon.</p>

<p>A good modern writer of text novels, for a boy who loves superheroes, is Michael Chabon, especially The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. It's about two guys who come to NYC and one makes it as a comic book writer. But Chabon has many other books with appealing themes. He's a pleasure to read, and close to your boy's age demographic.</p>

<p>Guys write for guys read</p>

<p>edited by Jon Scieszka</p>

<p>Lots of your favorite male authors and illustrators of children's and young adult literature offer short personal essays on writing, illustration, and life. A fairly painless introduction to the styles of multiple authors/illustrators. The big kid (aka happydad) about laughed himself to death reading the bit by Gary Paulsen about peeing on electric fences.</p>

<p>There also is a website with more fun reading suggestions at</p>

<p>Guys</a> Read</p>

<p>Humor is attractive, for example: Jon Stewart and Steve Colbert both have popular, satiric books out with a young point-of-view about the nation. The thing is to start him on reading -- anything.</p>

<p>How about a reading discussion group where there's some interchange on the material read? Reading is helpful but a student can just read and not necessarily pick up on all of what is going on in a short story or a book.</p>

<p>DS has read every Dave Barry compilation there is. His first reading for pleasure was Garfield and Calvin and Hobbes. He still reads VERY few novels for himself. They had better grab him on the first page and keep him turning, or he's done. He likes some Michael Crichton, and Dan Brown. That's about it.</p>

<p>He did end up scoring well on the SAT verbal, and got a B (by the skin of his teeth) in AP English this year, so I now apparently have to stop bugging him to READ A BOOK.</p>

<p>sigh.</p>

<p>In all honesty, from what I've read/heard, the better way is to read periodicals like the New York Times, Scientific American, the New Yorker, etc.</p>

<p>How is his reading speed? S1 is a very good writer, and his reading comprehension is great, but he is a s-l-o-w reader, and it was always an issue for him on the standardized tests.</p>