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Dilemma! Need advice!
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Hi everyone, I wonder if you could give me some advice……………..what do you do when you have assigned a book to your child and he HATES it…………..I assigned The Yearling to my 16 year old and he REALLY does not like this book and is taking forever to get through it…….do I make him persevere and finish it (reading is not his favorite thing to begin with) or do I allow him to stop (at ch 20) and choose another book. I really struggle with this with him because he has never been a “reader” and I can never seem to find books he likes and I am afraid by forcing him to read books he doesnt like,he will dislike reading even more………………..BUT I want him to be exposed to good literature. Anyway, any advice would be appreciated!! Thanks so much!! Wendy
Do you have time to read it with him? Is he too old for that? Maybe he is just having a hard time with the language. My son loves it when I read to him, and will listen to books he would never read on his own – he is not a strong reader either. Perhaps an audiobook to listen to while he follows along would help.
If our 15yo ds is “hating” a book, we set it aside and move on. No sense in making him miserable. Now it would be one thing if book after book, he were hating – then we might have an issue on our hands; But if its just the occasionaly distaste, I’d change the book to one he might enjoy. Blessings!
If this isn’t a regular occurance (since you want perseverance, but I understand if reading is a struggle you don’t want him hating it), then I would choose another book, however, I would still get him an audio version to listen to instead designated for a certain time. Just my opinion. He may find it more interesting when another person reads it. Using audios to get him used to more advanced language and sentence structure, as compared to today’s standards, is good way to go. Since he’s a struggling reader, you may not be a ble to use something that is on the list of good lit. that is at his age or grade level, but lower; maybe choosing good lit. from the 14 yr. old bracket. It’s still going to be good stuff and significantly better than anything else out there directed to the modern reader.
Also, I would personally discourage habits that discourage good reading habits; but only you know what those are in his life.
Rachel
I just quit a book. It is only the second time I have ever done it. The first time (Anna Karenina) I owned it but just couldn’t get into it. After a year or two it was on Oprah’s book club and I though “darn it” if Oprah’s fans can read it, so can I. And the second time around I loved it. So last month I started a recommended read for high school students from a display at the library, the back looked interesting and thought provoking. I renewed it twice and still only got half way through. Maybe some day I will try again, but it just didn’t do it for me. I almost quit The Last of the Mohicans because it was so tough for me, but it is one of my favorite stories and I wanted to get through the original version. It honestly took two years. I am really proud but probably wouldn’t put that much effort into many other books! All that to say, if it isn’t a habit, if it is genuine disinterest in the story or writing style and you can agree on a suitable alternative, I would say skip it. There are other times in life that plans have to be changed and exceptions made and this could be an opportunity to teach him how to do so gracefully and seek alternatives.
If he really doesn’t like it, I would move on. It doesn’t seem worth it to struggle thru a book that is so disliked when there are so many books out there.
A thought on how to avoid his quitting many books or saying he dislikes every book would be to give him a certain number of quits each year. Maybe give him 2 a year and he can pick two different books that year that he can just quit without question from you. That would give him some control over what he reads.
Or you may also just want to offer a selection of a certain number of books (say 10) and he has to pick a certain number from those that he will read and complete (say 6).
Just some thoughts.
Rebecca
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