Gifted Child

DS has always been a great reader. With him now at 8yrs, I sometimes have a hard time knowing if a book is appropriate for him to read. Last spring, he picked up a Star Wars book, "The Force Unleashed". It really took him a while to read it, but he kept at it, while reading other things. He seemed to like it, but I kept thinking it seemed like it was intended for high school or up. I looked through, reading a few short sections, but not finding anything specifically wrong with it. I'm not a big sci-fi fan, so I'm not likely to be up on those types of books. I was kind of glad when he finished it, but now he has found two more: "Dark Lord, the Rise of Darth Vader", and "Millenium Falcon".

I've read reviews on Amazon, but they don't address what ages the book is appropriate for.  Do you have any resource for knowing which books are okay for younger advanced readers? I guess I'm just worried a book will contain adult situations that he's not really ready for at 8.

Isha

That's where I get stuck. I don't have an interest in what he is reading (sci-fi), though DH might, and I don't have time - this book is 300+ pages. I've never been a big fiction reader, so it's really got to be something that interests me to read it.

Well, if you're really concerned about subject matter you might just have to skim-read it, even if you don't enjoy it. Like changing dirty diapers, there are things about parenting that aren't intrinsically enjoyable.

Another alternative is to keep a dialogue going and trust your child. Make him aware the issues of violence, sexuality and such exist in books. Enlighten him about what "adult content" can be ... purely matter-of-fact, talk to him about how issues like romance, sexuality, violence, drugs often make up part of novels written with an older teen/adult audience in mind. Discuss how important it is to recognize one's feelings of emotional discomfort as they begin to develop while reading through something questionable, and how disturbing episodes in books can sometimes haunt people's thoughts and dreams if they continue reading despite their reservations and without taking the time to discuss those feelings and issues with a parent or other adult.

And then talk to him on an ongoing basis about the books he's reading, what they're about, what he enjoys about them, how they make him feel, what he thinks about the content. Co-read along with him if there is stuff he's struggling to process.

My kids have always self-regulated just fine. They've read some more adult stuff than I would have chosen to expose them to, but they've handled it just fine. Usually they've been persuaded by a comment from me -- "I think that book has a lot of romance and some sex in it and will probably interest you more in a few years," and they'll decide not to read it. But if not, they've done very well at dealing with whatever they've encountered.

Miranda

My sons are 7.5 and I have been running into the same problem for the past year or so. I used to pre-read pretty much everything, but I just can't now. Many things I have read reviews of, here or other places, and others I do manage to pre-read. I try to keep up as best I can with what they are doing, but I can't cover it all.  My sons have a few sensitive points, and one of them is far from ready for anything beyond allusions to dating and romantic relationships. The Star Wars books they read come from the, I think, age 9-12 shelves at Chapters/Indigo books. While I haven't pre-read them, I have chosen to trust that those particular issues aren't present. In the meantime, I am trying to pre-read a few other books they want to read where I am not sure of the target group.

I miss the younger books with the codes on the back like "RL2:7-10" (Reading level grade 2, likely of interest to children age 8-10). That is a terrific system.