Wednesday, March 7, 2018

Procrastinating with Birthday Pigs and Books

I'm prepping for testimony tomorrow, feeling lonely because no one is on our work IM chat (because it's 10:45 at night) and James is working with his headphones on (as he's been doing every night for the last 10 days; spring swim lesson registration is no joke) and I can't turn on the Great British Baking Show to comfort me because I'm reviewing documents and prepping for testimony tomorrow.

So I'm blogging. Because that is way less distracting to my exhibit review than people in British accents baking pies with strange flavor combinations and saying delightful things like, I'm a bit chuffed, to be honest. I'm surrounded by post-it flags, post-it notes, pens, highlighters, a few paper clips, a beautifully organized binder, and a half-drafted outline. We go on the record at 9 a.m.

So let's dive right in.

First, and most importantly, a blog reader left me a comment with a link to companions for the birthday pig and birthday dino candle holders that are a sacred part of our Lag Liv family birthday tradition.


I held back from using allcaps, but you CANNOT IMAGINE my excitement over this discovery. I first bought our little birthday animals at a little antique mall store in Siren, Wisconsin in 2010. Claire was a newborn and Cora was not yet even imagined. Since then I have googled and searched for more candle holders for YEARS. Years! And on ebay! They were just never available when I happened to look. My box arrived today and I'm in love. I can't wait to show the kids. I can't wait to select one myself for my next birthday. The birthday big and birthday dino have mates now! And friends! Seriously you guys, this is a big moment. Claire has the next birthday and we're going to surprise her with a whole bevy of birthday candle animals in the morning and it's going to be the best.


She'll be turning 8! In a major break with tradition, maybe we'll use ALL eight variety of birthday animals. I don't even know. There's just so many to choose from and I don't want to hurt any of their feelings.

Almost as exciting as multiple birthday pigs - Voting! I got up early to vote in the Texas primary at 7:30 a.m. on my way in to work. I had picked out one of my very favorite shirts to hold my voting sticker.


James stopped in after dropping the kids off at school. We're all in for all the elections all the time. Our front yard is too.


As are those of MANY of our neighbors. Brings me a little drop of joy every time I drive by one and two greet me on each side every time I pull onto our street. Democratic turnout was up 84% which is exciting and the highest in 16 years. With new embarrassments and ethical lows and rules being ignored and broken daily in the White House, it's nice to feel hopeful about something.


Cora colored that rainbow. It felt appropriate there. She continues to take her schoolwork VERY SERIOUSLY and we continue to hope she gets into our elementary school's pre-K program next fall. She'd love it, we'd love having all the kids in school for one year, and we'd particularly love the end of paying full-time daycare tuition after ELEVEN YEARS of it. Fingers crossed.


More Cora work. Her handwriting is better than Landon's. (Though not Claire's, but Claire's is better than mine.)


Landon has been training Cora in the fine art of fort building. She was pretty proud of this effort.


Landon continues to be a tween. Delightful and hilarious, sweet and thoughtful, innocent and inquisitive, emotional and frustrating as all fucking hell. Frequently all in the space of the same few hours. Luckily we've been spending most of our time on the front half of that sentence lately and it's been nice for all of us, including him.


Reading Robinson Crusoe before bed

Which brings me to my request- I need book recommendations for him for our 8-day Spring Break road trip. He reads voraciously and very very quickly. He LOVES true story adventure books: mountain climbing, animal anything, hiking, exploring, travel- he loves it when it's "real" (or could be real, or is based on real, or is just generally grounded in reality; obviously I don't understand this). But while he has a high school reading level, he nowhere near high school, so I struggle to keep him in age-appropriate books. For example, I just ordered a book about a famous free climber only to skim through it up on arrival and discover a whole chapter about all the action he got in Vegas on a break between climbs. So that's a hard no on that one, but I don't want to have to read every book I give him (true stories totally NOT being my genre and my genre absolutely NOT being Landon-appropriate).

So, if you have any authors, series, or titles to recommend for a 10-year-old non-fiction loving kid, I'd love to hear them! And he really does love ANY non-fiction. He devours fun fact books (and then reads them to us, by the hour... I'm not packing any of those on the trip) and biographies, and he still loves fictional stories, funny stories, comic-based stories, and really anything any 10-year-old does, but his truest love would be for the true ones. (This one was a big hit... but it's been hard to find others in the same age-appropriate genre.) He can handle intensity, scariness, and darkness in the plot (he read Into Thin Air after I did and he loved it), I'd just like to stay away from stories of elevator hookups in Vegas hotels. (And the longer the book the better! I can only check out 10 on his kindle at a time before we go.)

I'll stick with my urban fantasy paranormal romances and am currently trying to keep myself from devouring Karen Marie Moning's latest in the Fever series (High Voltage, came out Tuesday and I'm showing SUCH RESTRAINT by going to sleep each night without having finished it). But after that, I'm going to need new book recommendations too. Maybe in another post.

Speaking of restraint, I suppose I should stop blogging and finish my work. It is nearly midnight and I didn't forgo The Great British Baking Show AND my new book to go to bed after 1 a.m. (Except I probably did.)

64 comments:

  1. How about Sir Edumund Hillary biographies - his early autobiography doesn't seem to be on Kindle (Nothing Venture, Nothing Win - quite boys own annual). but his tory of the ascent of Everest might appeal to Landon.

    https://www.amazon.com/High-Adventure-Story-Ascent-Everest/dp/0195167341/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1520491089&sr=1-1&keywords=edmund+hillary

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  2. Whitbread round the world yacht race tales - there's this one - a few years old: https://www.amazon.com/Icebergs-Port-Starboard-Whitbread-Round-ebook/dp/B01I5M4W26/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1520491324&sr=1-3&keywords=whitbread+kindle

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  3. Richie McCaw's biography talks about how he dealt with frustration of his team failing to achieve their goals and country's expectations, and how they managed to plan to come back and win, all the time with him having a very injured foot.

    Story starts when he's about 12. https://www.amazon.com/Real-McCaw-Autobiography-Richie/dp/1781314896/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1520491578&sr=1-1&keywords=richie+mccaw

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  4. Check out Will Hobbs. They’re fiction, but realistic, and they’re all outdoor adventure, mostly in the Southwest so Landon might recognize some of the places.

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  5. For something to pore over: Charley Dancey's Encyclopedia of Ball Juggling. Hard copy best. Lots and lots of patterns, get him hooked on that and he'll be entertaining himself trying to learn more patterns ( youtube videos can help ).

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  6. And another to pore over: Charley Dancey's Every Trick in the Book (how to make a coin disappear etc)

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  7. Gerald Durrell: My family and other animals.
    All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriott (about the life of a vet). Both have lots of books in the series! A few years old so quite tame.
    The old TV series you may enjoy looking at too.

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  8. I loved mountain climbing books as a teenager - I still so I suppose, I just don’t tend to reach for them as much!

    Has he read any of Joe Simpson’s books? I would start with Touching the Void, which is about an accident he had while climbing a new route and how he and his partner got down from the mountain. There’s a documentary about it as well

    I love travel writing but thinking of several favourites they do tend to have more “adult” moments! How about Bill Bryson’s travel writing - funny (though not high octane) and I was about Landon’s age I think when I started to read them. A Walk in the Woods might be a good place to start. He wrote a book called A Short History of Nearly Everything as well, which Landon would enjoy I think!

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    1. I love Bill Bryson's writing! I was thinking about this suggestion as well. Those two in particular would be great places to start.

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  9. The boy who harnessed the wind: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00KWG9N1Y/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=&sr=

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  10. How about Seven Years in Tibet? It’s an amazing true story from the 1940s, of an Austrian climber ends up spending, well, seven years in Tibet. He escapes a prison camp at the very beinning ot the book, then observes Tibetan culture and spends time with the Dalai Lama as a young child. I haven’t re-read it for a decade or so, but don’t recall anything inappropriate for Landon’s age.

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  11. Into the wild by Jon krakauer might be a good one for him

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  12. I can totally relate. I remember telling my mom that I wanted to read books about people "just like me, but NOT me" when I was a kid. I'm having to really reach back to remember what I read around his age, but I second the recommendation for James Herriot books. I think I also read Anne Frank's diary around then. He also might like "Walking with the Great Apes" about Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Birute Galdikas and their research. I haven't read it in ages so I can't remember if there's anything not age appropriate in it but I remember it being an interesting read.

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  13. Fiction - but I think I read Chinua Achebe's novel, Things Fall Apart, for the first time when I was around 11/12. Deals with issues of colonialism in Africa.... so, kind of heavy, but a classic.

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    1. Oh, also, check this out: http://www.ala.org/yalsa/alex-awards. Recommends adult books with YA crossover appeal.

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  14. I second G.Durrell- very entertaining
    Thor Heyerdahl- the Kon Tiki expedition : by raft across the south sea is very good and very real :-)

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  15. Cora sounds so much like my four year old when it comes to school. She takes is sooo seriously and is almost as hopeful as I am that she gets into our district’s pre-k next year. It’s funny because she is a twin and her brother is the complete opposite. It will be interesting as they get older...


    I think the internet may have eaten my comment above, so just in case, I second Into the Wild. I think Into Thin Air was better (probably because it was Krakauer’s first person account of a lot of it), but Into the Wild was good too.

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  16. Gary Paulson (Hatchet, and lots of others. They are on the shorter side, but my boys loved them. Fiction, but about a boy who survives in the woods by himself). Hidden Figures (there is a YA version!). Jack London (Call of the Wild, etc). Rudyard Kipling (Kim -- about an Irish orphan turned surveyor/itinerant monk/spy in British India; The Jungle Book). If you really want to keep him busy, the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, or the Hobbit. My now-teenager devoured them in 3rd/4th grade and continues to reread them

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  17. Has Landon read any Gary Paulsen? The Hatchet series (I think there were only 3 when I was young but Amazon tells me there are now 5?), The Francis Tucket series, The Haymeadow, Woodsong, Dogsong, Winterdance... he has a bunch of memoirs, too. Everything is high adventure, full of animals and wild escapades (nature, not strippers) -- might be right up his alley. Also: Will Hobbs' books; I remember my personal favorite being Downriver. Similar vein as Gary Paulsen; maybe for a slightly older audience (but still, no strippers).

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  18. He LOVED the Hatchet series, though I never looked for others (and I don’t know why not!), so thank you!

    And all the YESSES on James Herriot! I read all of them years ago and ADORED them. I gave them as gifts to my family in high school. He would love them!!

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    1. 4th grade teacher chiming in with another vote for Gary Paulsen books. Thought of those immediately and there are so many!

      Does he mainly stick to reading about males? There’s a chapter book biography (maybe autobiography?) about Malala that could be interesting...

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    2. Great! And no he’s a equal opportunity reader (and a natural, if occasionally exasperated feminist; I can’t tell you how many I’ve heard him sigh and say to a friend “it’s just a color. The pink cup is still A CUP” among many other things, which never fails to crack me up from the other room.) I think he’d be fascinated by Malala. What is the title? I know there are several about her.

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    3. This is the one I was thinking of: I Am Malala (Young Readers Edition). https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/books/i-am-malala-young-readers-edition-by-malala-yousafzai/

      I haven't read it but I've read a bunch of Malala picture books with my 4th graders and they've been really interested in her story and inspired by her. Are you familiar with Common Sense Media? It's a good place to do a quick check for age appropriateness -- ratings specifically for violence, language, etc. Here's the page for parent reviews of this book: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/i-am-malala-how-one-girl-stood-up-for-education-and-changed-the-world/user-reviews/adult It may solve the problem of being able to okay a book for your son without having to read it!

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    4. I second checking out Common Sense Media. I rely on it a lot for multiple media formats.

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  19. Has he read The Martian? I can't recall any sexy-times off the top of my head, though I'd have to google/go flip through the book to be more certain of that. I think there was some four letter word usage though.

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  20. My husband's favorite book from Junior High was My Side of the Mountain and he still loves it.
    https://www.amazon.com/Side-Mountain-Jean-Craighead-George/dp/0141312424

    For outdoor adventures, there is a fascinating book on the true story of how Teddy Roosevelt navigated the Amazon river in boat made out of a log AFTER he lost the presidency. Not as scary/dark as Krakauer, in my view, and you get the bonus of learning some US history.

    https://www.amazon.com/River-Doubt-Theodore-Roosevelts-Darkest/dp/0767913736/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1520517973&sr=1-1&keywords=river+of+doubt

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    1. I loved My Side of the Mountain when we read it in school! I’d totally forgotten about it. And the Teddy Roosevelt book sounds wonderful!

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    2. My Side of the Mountain and Hatchet are the first two books that came to mind as I read your post. Also, a book I loved that my dad gave me was King Matt the First (my dad is Polish and this is a famous story there). About a young boy who becomes King and has to figure out how to govern. Good book for a future leader :)

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  21. Another vote for Gerald Durrell, Bill Bryson and James Herriot.

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  22. One of my friends sons really loves the "I survived" series. They are fiction, but based on actual things that have happened (9/11, Hurricane Katrina, etc.). He might like those?

    Good luck. My oldest is 5 and I cannot wait until we can lay on the couch and read our own books together. <3

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    1. He has read every single one and *loves* them but they’re short and quick (though totally age appropriate and probably in his top 3 fave books ever). I basically need that series but triple the length of each book.

      And yes, reading books near each other is the best. Unless it’s a fact book and every fact is SO AMAZING it must be shared. All 1500 of them.

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  23. My husband remembers reading and enjoying
    Off the Planet: Surviving Five Perilous Months Aboard the Space Station Mir, which is an autobiography by Jerry Linenger. I don't see it on Kindle, though. I was always firmly a fantasy girl, so I have no recommendations of my own, ha.

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  24. P.S. I recently shared about 50 biographies for my students to peruse during our reading class and have so far noticed THREE different boys choosing to read Hillary Clinton's biography (Who Is Hillary Clinton?). This made me SO happy, as even just a few years ago the boys tended to gravitate toward reading about males and now it just isn't a Big Deal. (I kept my glee to myself when I saw it! :) )

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  25. For an old school, huge book by Jules Verne? In Search of the Castaways, (some editions are The Children of Captain Grant). On a boating trip, a medium-rich family finds a message in a bottle, partially desired by water (and therefore ambiguous), with a message that a group people is shipwrecked somewhere, and set off with a mixed group on an adventure around the world. Lots of history, geography, how different people love around the world, etc. No sex, no particularly bad violence (same level as other Jules Verne). https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Search_of_the_Castaways?wprov=sfla1

    It's also conveniently extremely long!

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    2. Omfg AutoZoneaut. Destroyed.

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  26. How about the James Herriot books? "All Creatures Great and Small", etc.? I read them in the Reader's Digest Condensed Books around his age, if not younger.

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  27. YES YES YES to the James Herriot books! I LOVED them when I was Landon's age. I don't think I even did the condensed versions, which is helpful for you if Landon reads super fast. They are fiction, not non-fiction, but what about the Patrick O'Brian Aubrey-Maturin novels (Master and Commander, etc)? The nice thing is that there are TWENTY of them. I don't *think* there was sex, though you might want to consult someone who has read them more recently. Rascal, by Sterling North, based on his childhood growing up in Wisconsin around World War I, and his pet raccoon. The Dog Who Wouldn't Be, by Farley Mowat, about his growing up in Saskatchewan and his pet dog. Owls in the Family, also Mowat. What about the Laura Ingalls Wilder books? They are based on true stories, there is definitely adventure, and they also open up an opportunity to talk about treatment of Native Americans and changing norms and understandings of westward expansion.

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  28. American Wolf by Nate Blakeslee is a nonfiction story about a wolf followed by naturalists. I checked it out for myself, but my 11 yo (who is into wolf/dog stories) loved it.

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  29. another really long one that my 10-yr-old at the time LOVED, is The Invention of Hugo Cabret. We watched the movie and it was also good. https://www.amazon.com/Invention-Hugo-Cabret-Brian-Selznick-ebook/dp/B011J7Y27Y/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1520524744&sr=1-1&keywords=hugo+cabret+book

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  30. Has he read "The Great Brain" series? Fiction, but fun, set ~100 years ago. And I see you already got suggested "My Side of the Mountain". The sequel was good, too, and I think there was a third. If he's OK with books that are more girl-heavy, there is a series about "The Penderwicks" that are 4 sisters and a boy they meet on vacation who becomes a family friend. "The Wild Robot" would be quick for him, but very good. My son has really been liking the series by Stuart Gibbs lately -- Spy School and Space Case especially.

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  31. My son (now 17) also loves only "real" books - and he REALLY got into Gerald Durrell. While they are mostly PG-13, a couple of them might have references that you don't think Landon is ready for (Three Singles to Adventure comes to mind here).
    Another entirely PG writer is James Herriott - 4 books (yes this is the order) All creatures Great and Small, All things Bright and Beautiful, All Things Wise and Wonderful and Lord God Made Them All.

    There are also the Horrible Histories and Horrible Geographies series - Both my kids loved the Horrible Histories - there are several, covering many of the major areas of the world. HG isn't as engaging unless one is already into Geography.

    Island of the Blue Dolphins
    Lost in the Barrens
    20000 leagues under the sea
    If you are OK with the explaining Colonialism and its effects :) - Rudyard Kipling. Jungle Book, Kim and Captain Courageous are great reads, and though I know their problems now as an adult, my childhood love for them holds up somewhat
    Eagle of the Ninth series by Rosemary Sutcliff
    Actually just about anything by Rosemary Sutcliff.

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  32. My non-fiction reader loves Atlas Obscura!

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  34. Can you post a link to the birthday candle holders? Those are very cute and I would love to start that tradition. Thank you!

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    1. Hi, Hilary! I'm the one that found LL's candleholder set on eBay, because I'm also inspired by her birthday traditions and wanted some animals of my own. The brand is Tag Ltd., and unfortunately they are no longer in the birthday animal business (but if anyone from Tag is reading this, I want you to think about the elephants, squirrels, turtles, and other cute animals you could do in a Part 2, because then you could take all of my money). I did find some other brands, though!

      Birthday chickens!
      https://www.ebay.com/itm/Bonnie-Lynn-Farm-Animals-Duck-Chicken-Turkey-Porcelain-Candle-Holder-Set-of-7/152431193117?hash=item237d9b6c1d:g:lE0AAOSww1dZ2DXI

      Birthday puppies!
      https://www.ebay.com/itm/Princess-House-Ceramic-Puppy-Dog-Birthday-Candle-Holders-2386-Cake-New/192453483269?hash=item2ccf1f1b05:g:wngAAOSw~f5Z4ASo

      And so many choices on Etsy (like this shop):
      https://www.etsy.com/shop/TheFestiveHouseUK?ref=l2-shopheader-name

      Hopefully this helps.

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  35. My students are reading Irena's children - the story of a Polish Catholic woman who rescued 2500 children during the holocaust by convincing their parents to give them up. There is a young readers version of this.

    Also - if your kids get book orders, click ahead to the high school books, that should give you some titles too. clubs.scholastic.com

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  36. Would the Laura Hillenbrand books be too intense for him? (Seabiscuit and Unbroken)? Seabiscuit May be a bit better. Unbroken was probably the best book I ever read but the scenes when he is a POW are very very heavy.

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    1. There is a kid's version of Unbroken!

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  37. My 12-year-old son and Landon would very likely be fast friends. I'll give you a list of books my son, who is less likely to talk at dinner time, has raved repeatedly to me about and recommended ad nauseam. "Hatchet" was his favorite book for years, followed by "Rocket Boys" (true story, then watch "October Sky" together, and even build a rocket together) holding a favorite spot for another couple years. He liked "Touching Spirit Bear" by Ben Mikaelsen (not fiction but reads like it is, very good for moody tweens/teens). He has recently loved the "Reckoners" series by Brandon Sanderson, and as a not-too-big-fan-of-fantasy, I've read them on Audible at his insistence and I've thoroughly enjoyed them. He also highly recommends the "Maze Runner" series by James Dashner (word of warning, only the first film is worth watching) and the "Gone" series by Michael Grant. Other notables include "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card (truly excellent for all teens) and "The Art of Racing in the Rain" by Garth Stein.

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  38. I can't figure out how to leave my name. I'm a technical person, I promise--Liz. Anyway, these are fiction, but my son lived them. The Warriors by Erin Hunter. There are a billion books in the series about clan-fighting cats. There is some fantasy, but not overly so.

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  39. Dan Gutmans genius files and flash back four series are fictional stories based on geographic places and historical events. Lots of smart humor too. Also, has he tried Harry Potter?

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  40. My boys (9 and 11) and I would recommend How They Croaked; How They Choked: What If?; Bill Bryson; My Side of the Mountain; The Art of Racing in the Rain (there is a kid's version); and Unbroken (kid's version for sure -- some of the scenes in the Japanese camps are brutal).

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  41. Wow. You already have so many good suggestions. I definitely second Into The Wild!!

    I do not have children, but I am a climber who devours adventure books. Here are 2 more suggestions:

    My Old Man and the Mountain: A Memoir
    by Leif Whittaker
    This is a memoir about Leif, who grew up in the shadow of his father, Big Jim Whittaker, the first American to summit Mount Everest. Leif is not only a good writer, but has some great stories to share.


    Paths of Glory
    by Jeffrey Archer
    This is a historical fiction book is based on George Mallory’s life. There is great mystery surrounding Mallory because he died while climbing Everest in 1924. No one knows if he died on his way to the summit, or the way down. The latter would make him the first person to successfully climb the highest point. However, without ever knowing the truth, the credit goes to Sir Edmund Hillary.

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  42. How about The Freedom Writers? Really good true story about the power of the written word.
    https://www.amazon.com/Freedom-Writers-Diary-Teacher-Themselves/dp/038549422X/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1520613383&sr=8-3&keywords=freedom+writers

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  43. Skimmed the comments quickly so this may have been mentioned, but Lost on a Mountain in Maine by Donn Fendler is a true story about a kid who took one wrong turn and didn’t make it back to his family’s campsite. It’s written by the kid, so you know he survived, but it is a fascinating and harrowing story! I gave it to my nephew for his 11th or 12th birthday. Makes for a great discussion of hypothetical “what would you do if...”

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  44. Ok, I'm going out on a limb here, but as a teacher I'll say if you'd like to stretch his genre interests a bit - I cannot recommend The Missing series by Margaret Peterson Haddix enough. 3 books: Found, Sent, Sabotaged. Sci-Fi/fantasy genre. Very suspenseful and very high interest for his age group. Really fun books.

    https://www.amazon.com/Found-Missing-Margaret-Peterson-Haddix/dp/141695421X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1520618561&sr=8-2&keywords=found

    Haddix is pretty prolific writer. There's other series she has as well.
    https://www.amazon.com/Margaret-Peterson-Haddix/e/B000APJ6Y6/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1

    Also has he tried the 39 Clues series?
    https://www.amazon.com/gp/bookseries/B00CKCV24E/ref=dp_st_0545060508

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  45. _Holes_ by Louis Sachar and the rest of his books are good. _Cheaper By the Dozen_ by JK Galbraith (?) is great as is _Charlie_ by ??
    (Charlie is about a rat.)

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  46. Whoops - it’s not _Charlie_ it’s called _Flowers for Algernon_ by Daniel Keyes.

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  47. What about The Black Stallion series (by Walter Farley)?

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  48. We homeschool and use Sonlight for our curriculum. All the books are history based. Some of my favorites are, Walk the world's rim, sign of the beaver, incans Aztecs & mayans. You should peek at their stuff. Best books ever!

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  49. Paddle to the Amazon by Don Starkell

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  50. Gary Paulson, Rudyard Kipling, jane Goodall, Bill Bryce

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