Recommend books for bright 15 year olds
- Thread starter spanglechick
- Start date
Ms Ordinary
randompointlesschemistry
Einstein's Monsters by Martin Amis is sort of longish-short stories. Very dark AFAIR - and it was written in 1987 so the introduction bit could even count as non-fiction / historical now, fear of nuclear weapons during the cold war.
Seconding JG Ballard, & there's Empire of the Sun as well.
I loved Sam Shephard (Motel Chronicles and Hawk Moon) around that age - short stories mixed with tiny (half a page) stories and little manageable poems.
Trying to think of some female writers - Beverley Naidoo?
Seconding JG Ballard, & there's Empire of the Sun as well.
I loved Sam Shephard (Motel Chronicles and Hawk Moon) around that age - short stories mixed with tiny (half a page) stories and little manageable poems.
Trying to think of some female writers - Beverley Naidoo?
pennimania
still dre and drooling
Not all kids like the fantasy stuff.
My middle son (13 but an adult reader) despises it.
He did however like the Checkmate trilogy by Malory Blackman. Worth a try.
When I was teaching in Hackney, I found bright 14/15 yr old girls liked Mary Webb's 'Precious Bane' - not very long but made a big impression.
Love John Steinbeck but doubt many teenagers would like him right now unless they were into beachcombing and bumming.
My middle son (13 but an adult reader) despises it.
He did however like the Checkmate trilogy by Malory Blackman. Worth a try.
When I was teaching in Hackney, I found bright 14/15 yr old girls liked Mary Webb's 'Precious Bane' - not very long but made a big impression.
Love John Steinbeck but doubt many teenagers would like him right now unless they were into beachcombing and bumming.
Orang Utan
Maybe I like the misery
Wot no Bravo Two Zero? 
mentalchik
"I say we take off and nuke the site from orbit."
What about Holes by Louis Sachar, it's not too long (i finished it in about 2 hours)and involves kids, great read and good twisty plot to keep 'em thinking !
spanglechick
High Empress of Dressing Up
i love holes! thankfully it's on the year eight syllabus in just about every school i've been to. It's so well written.mentalchik said:What about Holes by Louis Sachar, it's not too long (i finished it in about 2 hours)and involves kids, great read and good twisty plot to keep 'em thinking !
I swear, the upsurge in fiction for children over the last ten years is phenomenal.
equationgirl
Respect my existence or expect my resistance
I must have been about that age when I had to read Steinbeck's 'Of mice and men' and I loathed it. Absolutely bloody hated it. Hated most of our set texts.
The only set text I ever liked was 'An Inspector Calls' by J B Priestly, which was a play.
What about some Agatha Christie? Most are fairly short, there's short stories, and it's an interesting reflection on the language used in the 1950s and 1960s?
The only set text I ever liked was 'An Inspector Calls' by J B Priestly, which was a play.
What about some Agatha Christie? Most are fairly short, there's short stories, and it's an interesting reflection on the language used in the 1950s and 1960s?
catcher in the rye - jd salinger
all of john irving
doors of perception - huxley
all of stephen king
all of paul theureux
kingsley amis
all those 'philosophy for beginners' books
good luck mate xx
all of john irving
doors of perception - huxley
all of stephen king
all of paul theureux
kingsley amis
all those 'philosophy for beginners' books
good luck mate xx
felixthecat
are we there yet?
For short stories they might like The Blue Lenses - Daphne Du Maurier, or any of the Jean Rhys collections - Sleep It Off Lady, Tigers are Better Looking, Tales of the Wide Caribbean etc. A lot of Jean Rhys's stories are written from the point of an adolescent or young adult, and might be of particular interest to any kids of Caribbean descent. On that line, VS Naipaul's A House for Mr Biswas is a nice read (often a set book for CXC english in the Caribbean).
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