My 10 y.o, elected these books to read over the summer. Appropriate or not?

Uh, maybe the Catcher and the Rye. I don't think content is the issue, but rather understanding the meaning behind the text. It's a book I think wouldn't make much sense and isn't very rewarding without understanding at least a little bit more experience.

The Crucible and Anne Frank are fine. Your child likely knows about these topics and arguably these books are the best way to learn about them at a young age and what they were like.

Wow, those are exactly the same books my 6 year old picked out! The nanny took her by the bookseller on the way to her piano lessons (she's working on a piece by Tchaikovsky because she's done all of Mozart already). Of course she was speaking in complete sentences at 2 weeks, so your child is probably a little behind. Don't worry! She'll probably catch up!

Why would you think any book is inappropriate? If you stifle your kid's intellectual curiosity now it will be worse than anything the books might contain.

Sounds like she was using the babysitter's AP Lit summer reading list. That is disappointing. My 4 year-old just finished up Gravity's Rainbow.

been a long time wrote:

The Crucible

The Catcher and the Rye

Lord of the Flies

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The Diary of a Young Girl- Ann Frank

Of Mice and Men

The babysitter took her to the bookstore and this is what she picked out on her own as summer reading books.

I can't remember if I read these books in middle school or high school. I'm not sure if Catcher in the Rye and Lord of the Flies are appropriate from a conent perspective (i.e., questionable language and discussion of suicide/murder) and certainly the historical backdrop for Ann Frank's diary and The Crucible might be unsettling.

Should I censor her reading or not?

I would actually recommend these two to kids her age:

Lord of the Flies

The Diary of a Young Girl- Ann Frank

The others should be more for tweens.

Surely a troll, but I'd say the Crucible would be the most difficult of those to read for a 10 yo. Hitchhiker in unfamiliar with. Most Steinbeck would put a10yo to sleep immediately, imo. Put me to sleep in HS.

me thinks it will help wrote:

been a long time wrote:

The Crucible

The Catcher and the Rye

Lord of the Flies

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The Diary of a Young Girl- Ann Frank

Of Mice and Men

The babysitter took her to the bookstore and this is what she picked out on her own as summer reading books.

I can't remember if I read these books in middle school or high school. I'm not sure if Catcher in the Rye and Lord of the Flies are appropriate from a conent perspective (i.e., questionable language and discussion of suicide/murder) and certainly the historical backdrop for Ann Frank's diary and The Crucible might be unsettling.

Should I censor her reading or not?

I would actually recommend these two to kids her age:

Lord of the Flies

The Diary of a Young Girl- Ann Frank

The others should be more for tweens.

They are all fine, quite frankly. Also, 10 yo IS a tween.

Many of these books involve adult themes that may not be appropriate for a 10 year old:

The Crucible- involves adultery with a minor

Of Mice and Men- involves murder of main character's wife by a semi-retarded man

Lord of the Flies- takes place during a nuclear war and involves murder of a young child by a peer (not so unlike the Hunger Games)

Catcher in the Rye- the general theme here involves the exploration of sexuality through a young man's eyes

The Hitchhiker's Guide is the only innocuous book in the list.

Young Adult literature is marked as YA these days to help parents figure out what should be appropriate.

Don't over sensor you child's reading choices. Ask them what they thought was interesting about the books they chose.

From Wiki...

Young Adult [YA] Literature uses a wide array of themes in order to appeal to a wide variety of adolescent readers. Some of these themes include: identity, sexuality, science fiction, depression, suicide, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, familial struggles, bullying, and numerous others. Some issues discussed in Young Adult Literature include: friendship, love, race, money, divorce, relationships within families...

Reading about issues that adolescents can relate to allows them to identify with a particular character, and creates a sense of security when experiencing something that is going on within their lives... Reading about it may help a young person validate his or her own experience and make some kind of meaning out of it.

The above noted, Lord of the Flies and Catcher in the Rye, are noted, these days, as more Adult literature than Young Adult.

The Crucible and of Mice and Men are noted as being YA.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is YA 13+. People think you need to be a little bit older to get the flood of jokes. I don't think there is anything wrong with a 10 year old reading, at least the four books of the trilogy, these short, fun books. They will love the later parts about mice and dolphins being the species that actually run the world.

2?? -2000 more like it. This is transparent and weak, very very weak

The comments are posted for normal readers of LRC. It doesn't mater whether or not the OP is trolling. That only matters to the troll police, who happen to be trolls themselves, even if they refuse to admit it.

If she can handle the reading without getting bored, she's probably ready to start wrestling with the questions these books raise. If not, you needn't worry censoring, her short attention span will do that for you.

Disclaimer: I'm not a parent. I have a lot of experience working with kids, but I recognize that's not equivalent.

been a long time wrote:

The Crucible

The Catcher and the Rye

Lord of the Flies

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The Diary of a Young Girl- Ann Frank

Of Mice and Men

The babysitter took her to the bookstore and this is what she picked out on her own as summer reading books.

I can't remember if I read these books in middle school or high school. I'm not sure if Catcher in the Rye and Lord of the Flies are appropriate from a conent perspective (i.e., questionable language and discussion of suicide/murder) and certainly the historical backdrop for Ann Frank's diary and The Crucible might be unsettling.

Should I censor her reading or not?

96% troll post

4% chance your baby sitter is going to get her summer reading for free.

My 17 month old read Gravity's Rainbow in the womb. My wife birthed my girl, the placenta, and then the freaking Penguin Classics edition of GR came out.

been a long time wrote:

The Crucible

The Catcher and the Rye

Lord of the Flies

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The Diary of a Young Girl- Ann Frank

Of Mice and Men

The babysitter took her to the bookstore and this is what she picked out on her own as summer reading books.

I can't remember if I read these books in middle school or high school. I'm not sure if Catcher in the Rye and Lord of the Flies are appropriate from a conent perspective (i.e., questionable language and discussion of suicide/murder) and certainly the historical backdrop for Ann Frank's diary and The Crucible might be unsettling.

Should I censor her reading or not?

Those are all good books, but they sound like a middle school reading list. The Crucible definitely to much for the average 10 year old.

I think the Diary of Anne Frank is something he should definitely read but be prepared for some awkward questions like "Daddy, what's a libia?" (page 566-ish)

WiT wrote:

been a long time wrote:

The Crucible

The Catcher and the Rye

Lord of the Flies

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The Diary of a Young Girl- Ann Frank

Of Mice and Men

The babysitter took her to the bookstore and this is what she picked out on her own as summer reading books.

I can't remember if I read these books in middle school or high school. I'm not sure if Catcher in the Rye and Lord of the Flies are appropriate from a conent perspective (i.e., questionable language and discussion of suicide/murder) and certainly the historical backdrop for Ann Frank's diary and The Crucible might be unsettling.

Should I censor her reading or not?

96% troll post

4% chance your baby sitter is going to get her summer reading for free.

Don't let her read Anne Frank. You don't want her to start believing in ridiculous nonsense like the Holocaust.

The thematic material isn't an issue for the list. Most prime time TV shows on network TV are way worse. And a 10 year old isn't going to pick up on a lot of what is considered objectionable or adult in those books. But, those are fairly advanced titles for a 10 year old just based on writing style and length. Parents and educators tend to obsess to much about reading level. Just because a kid can get through a book that is ahead of their grade level doesn't mean that they should.