<p>I purchased Ender's Game and Snowcrash and will give them to DS when he arrives home from summer camp (Florida kids are already done with the first 4 week first session of sleepaway camp) on Friday. He has three weeks at home before our family trip with nothing on his schedule and I am hoping/praying to get him to do some reading beyond the two books (The Old Man and the Sea and Great Expectations) that he has to read by August 18th for English 1 gifted/honors. We have decided to limit his XBoX 360 time to 3 hours a day and I know that he will be very angry about this. BTW, I read Ender's Game this week and loved it. Great suggestion CC...just hope I can get DS to give it a try.</p>
<p>Recent readers of <em>Ender's Game</em>, don't forget the companion novel <em>Ender's Shadow</em>. Same events told from the perspective of one of the other characters.</p>
<p><em>Ender's Game</em> and <em>Ender's Shadow</em> are each the first book of a series. After reading <em>Ender's Game</em> my kids went on to complete the series and also read the Shadow (<em>Ender's Shadow</em>) series.</p>
<p>Getting him to read is great, and the books suggested are good ideas. But reading books isn't necessarily going to get him good SAT CR scores. He needs to practice reading for comprehension and answering comprehension questions. The speed with which you read and comprehend is also an issue. Test-taking skills and tips for taking the reading portions of the test are really important. The SAT study books are pretty good, but tutoring is also useful.</p>
<p>Heron,
Have to disagree a bit here.... Tips and practice can help those who have a solid vocabulary from reading, but if you don't have that vocabulary, all the test taking strategies in the world won't help.</p>
<p>Best way to build that real vocabulary - read- a lot. Best way to read a lot? Find something you enjoy reading.</p>
<p>I've worked with lots of kids who are trying to improve their reading scores on various tests. For kids who don't read (not "can't", "don't") it's a huge uphill battle. </p>
<p>I agree that the SAT is a test you can prep for, and practice and strategies help. They just don't REPLACE reading. Not even close.</p>
<p>^^^ I second mom2three. :)</p>
<p>For kids who don't read (not "can't", "don't") it's a huge uphill battle. - Totally agree.
My D. cannot make herself to read, and I did not even try since I am not a reader either. As I mentined before, it resulted in poor CR ACT score, which she compensated by other scores being much higher and her poor reading had ABSOLUTELY NO negative effect on her academic performance in college. So, do not worry too much!</p>
<p>mom2three, I may not have expressed myself well there. I'm not saying he shouldn't read or that it won't help him and enrich him in all ways, and be a wonderful and long-lasting part of his life, way beyond -- and ultimately way more important than -- SAT scores! Just saying it's not the whole answer to good SAT scores, especially since he's going to be getting his reading habit relatively close to taking the tests. I totally commend his mom for being proactive about this and asking for book recommendations and I'm not disagreeing at all!</p>
<p>I haven't read the whole thread, but a book that I still enjoy reading that might encourage reading for comprehension is The Phantom Tollbooth. I believe its rated at around a 5th grade reading level, but it has lots of word tricks to watch out for. S reread it in high school, D reread it in 7th grade, both still loved it.</p>