The results of the most recent Nation’s Report Card: National Assessment of Educational Progress include good and bad news: Our 9- and 13-year-olds in public school are making progress, but our 17-year-olds are performing at the same levels as they were in 1971.
Although I have no suggestions that might increase scores in mathematics for 17-year-olds, I do have a practical idea that has benefits beyond verbal test scores: Read with your teen this summer.
I have never been enamored of summer assignments. I remember the dread I felt when Labor Day drew near, and I knew my “freedom” was ending — even though I generally liked school. But I do champion the idea of leisure reading, all year long. My 17-year-old students have often been surprised when they liked a book for the first time. That surprise could occur in your own home.
The way to tempt your teen into discovering a good book is to bring several home several, and start to read one yourself. The following list comes from books students have told me are “the first book I’ve ever enjoyed reading.” All express, in some way, the anxieties and pleasures of growing up, and all are models of the writer’s craft.
“Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini: When the Oakton High School English department bought 40 copies of this novel, there was a waiting list of students who wanted to read it. Students like the theme of betrayal and reconciliation.
“A Girl Named Zippy” by Haven Kimmel: Told in the voice of an 8-year-old girl, this memoir is funny and authentic and utterly wonderful. I have rarely been enthusiastic about autobiographies, but this is the most creative one I’ve read. The sequel, “She Got Up Off the Couch,” is darker in mood, but just as good.
“Bel Canto” by Ann Patchett: This has become very contemporary since its publication in 2000 by virtue of its focus on a hostage-taking crisis, and the very human situations that work against a simplistic view of both hostage and terrorist.
“1984” by George Orwell: You may have read this in your youth, but if your children have not read it yet, encourage them to do so — and reread it yourself. The specter of surveillance is more relevant today than it was in Orwell’s time period. My students always love this book, right up to its famous last line about Big Brother.
“The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien: This is the best of the genre of books that re-create the horrors of Vietnam. The language is strong, and there is plenty of violence, but that’s true of every book written about this war. It might spur a conversation with your teen about whether the language is necessary to authentically recreate O’Brien’s (somewhat fictionalized) wartime memories.
Every one of the above books is engaging and will pull readers into a complex, vivid world — every bit as complex and vivid as their own lives. A first step toward better reading scores is eliminating the dread factor. And reading with your teen could help you glimpse the strange, and not so alien, world of adolescence.
What kids are reading
This weekly column will look at lists of books kids are reading in various categories, including grade level, book genre and data from booksellers. These books will appeal to adolescents and adults alike.
More books to bond by:
1. “Prep: A Novel” by Curtis Sittenfeld. This captures the authentic voice of a boarding school girl and is better written than most novels directed at teens.
2. “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger. This classic captures the authentic voice of Holden Caulfield, a preppie boy who drops out and experiences “the real world.”
3. “Mona in the Promised Land” by Gish Gen. This is a very funny novel, narrated in the voice of an upper-middle-class, assimilated Chinese-American teenager.
4. “The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency” by Alexander McCall Smith. This is not specifically directed at teens, but it will reassure them (and you) that civility and cleverness are still alive in social situations.
5. “Purple Hibiscus” by Chimamanda Adichie. This is an amazing coming-of-age novel that transcends its Nigerian setting.
