Kosher secular books for 12 yr old dd

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GLUE

Wed, Mar 29 2023, 4:42 pm

bigsis144 wrote:

Look at the same list that is being made right now for 12 year old boys. I don’t think books should be separated by gender, though girls are more likely to read and enjoy “boys’” books with male protagonists and action/science/history.

- Rangers Apprentice
- Artemis Fowl
- Harry Potter
- Alcatraz vs The Evil Librarians
- Bartimaeus trilogy (it has a golem in an alternate magical history of our world!)
- There are a bazillion books and spin-offs in the Wings of Fire series, I haven’t read them all but the ones I have read are pretty kosher

Wings of fire can get pretty violent

All the books that I have read by Jonathan Stroud author of Bartimaeus Trilogy were clean like
Lockwood & Co.

amother

Bone

Wed, Mar 29 2023, 4:44 pm

GLUE wrote:

Wings of fire can get pretty violent

All the books that I have read by Jonathan Stroud author of Bartimaeus Trilogy were clean like
Lockwood & Co.

I've been told wings of fire has gay characters and have personally seen inappropriate stuff in bartimaeus.

cbsp

Wed, Mar 29 2023, 5:06 pm

the world's best mom wrote:

Really? Which ones are inappropriate, and why, pray tell? And BSC is clean compared to these? You gotta be kidding me.

My parents allowed us to read BSC but not Boy Crazy Stacy. Let me tell you, there was plenty of boyfriend/girlfriend stuff in the other books.

I know chinuch.org is not so approving of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler because there's a drawing of a pond that has a nude statue in it. I don't know of a single inappropriate thing about the other books I posted. Except there's one sentence in A View From Saturday that I wish wasn't there.

The View from Saturday does have the idea that intermarriage and non observance of Judaism is an option and a fine one at that. I wasn't crazy about the whole "it's axiomatic that humans are destroying the planet" premise. I did enjoy reading it (as an adult) and read it to DD, editing and explaining as I went along. But I can see why it's considered inappropriate.

cbsp

Wed, Mar 29 2023, 5:08 pm

amother Bone wrote:

I've been told wings of fire has gay characters and have personally seen inappropriate stuff in bartimaeus.

Oh no, my kids just devoured 14 or more wings of fire books in novel and graphical novel formats Surprised

I read the first few and it seemed more about the sarcastic quips rather than focusing on any particular relationship...

amother

Bone

Wed, Mar 29 2023, 5:13 pm

cbsp wrote:

Oh no, my kids just devoured 14 or more wings of fire books in novel and graphical novel formats Surprised

I read the first few and it seemed more about the sarcastic quips rather than focusing on any particular relationship...

bigsis144

Wed, Mar 29 2023, 5:20 pm

amother Bone wrote:

I've been told wings of fire has gay characters and have personally seen inappropriate stuff in bartimaeus.

I guess violence (yeah, the dragon fights can get pretty visceral with teeth and claws and broken bones) or gayness in non-human characters don’t concern me as much.

My kid read a graphic novel in which a literal alien (who could look human but preferred their alien form) went from using male pronouns to identifying as nonbinary, and I know that’s a current controversial topic, but ultimately I decided that especially in this context, where the person in question had alien biology and culture, it’s really just sci fi and not something worth censoring.

And for some kids it’ll just go over their head, and some kids may use it as an opening to ask questions, and I don’t mind that.

seeker

Wed, Mar 29 2023, 7:40 pm

bigsis144 wrote:

Well if people have concerns about romance, Harry Potter is not the series for you. Serious crushes situations.

Artemis Fowl I enjoyed reading but so far did not recommend to my kids. I felt there was too much meanness. Which is interesting because I'm usually not that squeamish about things like that in books (and my kids read Harry Potter fully endorsed) but there was a certain coldness that put me off about Artemis Fowl. If they brought up an interest in it, I would be ok with it, but I haven't actively offered it.

Surprised nobody mentioned Mysterious Benedict Society. First few books are purely platonic, I think in the last book there's some light awkwardness where the kids start being more aware of each other's attractions. Iirc it was very light though. The series is generally recommended a little younger but if a 12 year old didn't already read it then it would still be very enjoyable.

amother

Bone

Wed, Mar 29 2023, 9:48 pm

seeker wrote:

Warning about mysterious Benedict society: they put out a much later sequel very recently which I found to be inappropriate. If you want your kids to read it I'd suggest doing your research.

cbsp

Wed, Mar 29 2023, 9:50 pm

amother Bone wrote:

Warning about mysterious Benedict society: they put out a much later sequel very recently which I found to be inappropriate. If you want your kids to read it I'd suggest doing your research.

Thank you. We just discovered this series as well. What was inappropriate?

amother

Bone

Wed, Mar 29 2023, 10:02 pm

cbsp wrote:

Thank you. We just discovered this series as well. What was inappropriate?

I don't remember a lot. Honestly I found it pretty boring and confusing. There was definitely a line about how the friends were all in love with each other (boys with boys as well as girls) at some point. That may have been all, but I think the series is better off without it.

seeker

Wed, Mar 29 2023, 11:04 pm

amother Bone wrote:

Ah yes that's that last one I was thinking of. So annoying. But anyway none of us (me and kids) enjoyed it as much as the others anyway and the series wasn't missing anything without it (unlike HP which you can't get closure on the first, say, five unless you read all.) But the first 3 main books and the prequel (the something education of Nicholas Benedict) are great I thought.

seeker

Wed, Mar 29 2023, 11:06 pm

Candymakers is another fun read in a similar vein I think (interesting creative adventure, some mystery, and purely platonic relationships) I know of one sequel so far but I don't remember much about it.

gamanit

Wed, Mar 29 2023, 11:16 pm

Just reminded myself about the Penderwicks. That was a great book too

amother

Cherry

Thu, Mar 30 2023, 6:26 am

What about Enid Blyton? those were the books I read at 12, and the comics I read were Tintin... both very clean

aimhabanim

Thu, Mar 30 2023, 7:18 am

My kids enjoy Allan Gratz’s books I have checked them and found most of them to be appropriate for my kids

amother

Aqua

Thu, Mar 30 2023, 7:37 am

There's nothing wrong with a 12 year old reading Anne of Green Gables...in fact, I have a colleague who reads it aloud to her 5th grade BY students. The girls love it and no parents have ever complained. There isn't even any romance in it, you'd have to read further into the series (and that romance is quite quite understated).
As far as L.M. Montgomery's "adult romance" novels, she wrote 2. You won't find them shelved in the adult section of any library or bookstore, they are classified as children's lit and are extremely mild and tame, barely more romance than in a Jane Austen novel, really. If you've read her private journals you'll know she heavily disapproved of the modern trashy novels of her day (we are talking early 1900s) especially references to s*x or immoral behavior.

amother

Birch

Thu, Mar 30 2023, 9:22 am

amother Cherry wrote:

What about Enid Blyton? those were the books I read at 12, and the comics I read were Tintin... both very clean

Tintin are the kids’ favourite!

amother

Bottlebrush

Thu, Mar 30 2023, 3:08 pm

I'm not a big fan of the babysitter's club books from a chinuch perspective. I loved them at that age and my dd age 10 has read a few. Even putting aside the talk about boyfriends, cute boys, crushes, etc, the books also have a focus on clothing and style and being cool which my 10 year old immediately latched on to (while she dismissed the boy stuff). The books do have their good points and good character traits too. But not my favorite influence.

My dd is a bit younger than yours, so not sure if the reading level is right, but here is what she likes that seems clean to me (I have read at least one book from each series myself):
- The Borrowers series
- First 3 harry potter books (crushes appear starting in #4)
- A Wrinkle in Time
- Charlotte Sometimes
- Tales of Magic series by Edward Eager

GLUE

Thu, Mar 30 2023, 4:10 pm

Little house on the Prairie- Laura Ingalls Wilder, there are some more series then just the ones she wrote, there is one series on her daughters life and her mother.

All-of-a-Kind Family-Sydney Taylor

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