Agony Bookworm: Done with Wimpy Kid and Mr. Stink? What next?

Welcome to the first in my Agony Bookworm series! I've had a great response from social media and I can't wait to get around to answering all of your questions! This one was actually one of the first ones I received and it happens to be a great age group to recommend for.

Sharon Leavy from www.behindgreeneyes.com asked: Do you have any suggestions for a 10 year old boy who has read all the Diary of a Wimpy Kid and David Walliams books? He's a good reader so I don't mind if it's a little older as long as it's still suitable for his age.

         

At 10, kids tend to go into two camps; they either can't get enough of books, or they've been lost to the dark side of gaming.. Just kidding, but the amount of Minecraft books we sell to this demographic is crazy! 

For this age you can always depend on the big classics, Harry Potter and especially Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series. If he has already seen the films, don't worry; as is the case with most movie adaptions, the books are so much better. Riordan's writing style is accessible but exciting so you don't need to wory about it being too old or too young for him. It mixes adventure and laughs with a great diversity of characters. Plus, they will learn so much from this series! Studying Classics in college without having done it for the Junior or Leaving cert, all of my prior knowledge came from these books. Just be ready to be bombarded by classical Greek references you may need explained to you!

Another one that comes into the funny adventure genre is the How to Train your Dragon books by Cressida Cowell. Another one with a film adaption (which in fairness is a very good one!), the difference with these guys is that the films are based on the books but are not straight-out copies. The main change is that Toothless the Dragon is small enough to sit on Hiccup's shoulder and is really bold! The only way to get him to do what he's told is to tell him a bad joke and Hiccup uses that to show is village that you don't need to be mean to dragons to get them to help you. Add that to the illustrations provided by the author herself and you have a quick favorite. 

If that doesn't strike his fancy, you can stick with the Diary of a Wimpy Kid style books with the Tom Gates books by Liz Pichon. These are a natural next step for kids who've finished the Wimpy books and offers the same kind of laughs mixed with illustrations that is so popular right now. We can't keep these on the shelves!

Two special mentions have to go to Moone Boy: The Blunder Years by Chris O'Dowd and Nick Murphy which has just come out in paperback in Ireland, and The Astounding Broccoli Boy by Frank Cottrell Boyce which has only just been published. Very funny books which don't really take themselves too seriously!

      

    

As always, never be afraid to ask your bookseller for recommendations, its what we're there for! If you have any questions you want me to answer, comment below or give me a shout on Twitter at @lorrainebow_lv!  

   

Agony Bookworm: Wondering what to Give them Next?

So one of the main parts of my job, aside from telling stories and hearing about how Jim in school called Rachael a bold name and now everyone is going around calling each other boobs, is helping parents/ grandparents/ aunts/ uncles/ friends pick books for their respective tiny people. The kid's department can be a minefield from picture books right up to YA. From reluctant readers to devoted bookworms, we face similar problems when trying to make the right choice. That is why I thought I would devote some of my blog to answering some questions and queries that you guys might have either about specific books or general tips for choosing books.

I am hoping to do more reviews in the future, away from comics and to some more child-friendly topics but I think this is a good way to cover more ground! So hit me with your questions either here or on Twitter!
Twitter: @lorrainebow_lv

Dear Parents, stop buying sex for your kids, and other tales from the YA section.

While at work on Sunday, we were quiet (as usual) and I was taking some time to flick through one of the new YA releases. The book? The Boy Next Door by Katie Van Ark. Published by Swoon Reads, a company whose books we have never (in my memory) have stocked before and by the looks of their website, are very much focused on the ‘romance’ genre of YA fiction. I was really getting into the story when a customer approached the desk and the following conversation ensued:

(The part of the customer will be known as Bessy)

Bessy: Cushy job if you’re allowed to read while working.

Me: Hey you f%@k, I work hard, I have three sick puppies at home that I have to support. If I want to f@%king read while its quiet, I’ll f$&king read! 
Throws copy of Guess How Much I Love You at her head for dramatic (and somewhat ironic) effect.

Of course this didn’t really happen.. I was told my outbursts at work “scare the customers” or something. I actually explained that it helps if I read some of the new material because it can be hard to recommend books to the older (11-14) kids if I don’t know what’s in them. That then leads to the age old question. What could be in kids books that we need to be careful about? Surely I can be safe knowing that if my kids have the reading ability to comprehend the book, then it must be suitable..

Well no, not really.

There is a reason we have a 12+ and YA section in the children’s department. They are roughly the same reading level but there's a huge variation in CONTENT when it comes to different sections. 

Lets take The Boy Next Door for an example. The premise sounds like a Disney Original movie that came out a few years back, boy and girl are skating partners, they’re best friends, he’s the hot guy at school and she’s the quiet book-ish type. They like each other but don’t want to strain their friendship and their partnership on the ice as they want to get to the Olympics. Sounds nice and innocent right? Reading the back of the book, this is basically all the information you can get. That is, except for the little box just above the bar code that says, ‘Suitable for Older Readers’. This is quite vague. What dictates an,older reader'? Is the language above average in difficulty and has some specialized terminology? Or, maybe it’s that after the first couple of chapters the main characters decide that, because their new routine is based on Romeo and Juliet, their lone Practices should involve episodes of heavy petting and.. you can see where this is going. It makes no apologies about its content. There is a point where our female hero undresses in front of her window so Himself can see her from his bedroom in the next house in an attempt to make him commit to his relationship with her. She is constantly plagued by the fact that he has slept with so many other girls in his car and he routinely asks her to pick up his mobile when one of his escapades gets too clingy and pretends to be another girl so she thinks he’s cheating.

Now, in fairness, I haven't finished the book yet (thanks Bessy) but you can get my point.

Actually a really great read but please take my point..

I’m not saying that teens shouldn't read this stuff, I am actually enjoying reading it myself and it would be pointless to try and censor the YA books that your 15/16 year old is reading. The more mature ones help develop their understanding of their own feelings and sexuality and so long as you talk to them about things, you shouldn't be worried. BUT if you go into a bookshop and your 12 year old picks up something that, although it may seem to be a popular title, is out of their age range or could lead to some conversations that you’re not ready to have yet maybe ask someone about it, have a look over it yourself or even Google search it; it can’t hurt. There are plenty of good books for all ages if you search for them, don’t put kids off because they’re not ready for what they’re reading.

P.S. This also rings true for violence. I had a couple of, approximately 11 year olds come in and buy If I Stay by Gayle Forman because the film was coming out. Its the one with the girl in the coma after a car crash reliving her memories while trying to decide if she wants to wake up to a world where her parents and little brother are dead.  While I personally loved that book (and the sequel), they do not dance around the violence. Just think about what the book is about. The emotional and physical elements in this book are supposed to make people feel uncomfortable, what is it going to do to a kid that’s not even in secondary school?!