My 12 year old son is burning through books. I read aloud to my kids from day one, going through all the classic kids stories, plus some obscure ones. After "Harry Potter", he found no one could do magic and fantasy like JK Rowling, so he switched to science fiction. He read every Star Wars book he could get his hands on, so it is time now for some good, well written books.

My kids attend a Waldorf school, and we do not do any media (no TV, no X Box, no online stuff), just an occasional movie. Gratuitous violence and sex/love/romance are themes we avoid.

I think he is ready for some of Ray's, but which ones? I can't remember the books I read when I was a kid, and I don't have time right now to reread them-as much as I would like to.

A Top Ten List for a young kid would be great. I hope he becomes attached to Ray's writing because his books should keep my son busy for a long time.

Thanks.

For books, I would strongly recommend:
(1) Something Wicked This Way Comes
(2) Martian Chronicles
(3) Fahrenheit 451

For stories, I'd recommend some of the following:

(In The Stories of Ray Bradbury):
The Homecoming
Unclie Einar
The Coffin
The Crowd
Tehre will Come Soft Rains
Kaleidoscope
The Rocket Man
Marionettes, Inc.
The City
The Fire Balloons
The Veldt
the Long Rain
A Sound of Thunder
The Playground
Skeleton
The Happiness Machine
The Small Assassin
Dark They Were, and Golden Eyed
Fever Dream
All Summer in a Day
Frost and Fire
Tomorrow's Child
I Sing the Body Electric
The October Game
The Blue Bottle

(In Bradbury Stories: 100 of Bradbury's Most Celebrated Tales):
The Rocket
The Flying Machine
February 1999: Ylla
The Dwarf
The Wind
The Man
The Messiah
The Exiles
The Illustraed Man
The Pedestrian
The Square Pegs
The Cistern
Zero Hour

A start, anyway. I started with Ray Bradbury in 9th grade. That would put me at about 13 or so.

Jeanette, I recommend the first Ray Bradbury book I read back in seventh grade, which started me down the path to reading all of Mr. Bradbury's works. It is his short story collection, THE GOLDEN APPLES OF THE SUN. I still remember being mesmerized by the stories as I read them.

This list (RB's and others for consideration) has a rather classic focus but has worked for me as a parent and teacher:

1. Dandelion Wine & Martian Chronicles, RB
(Read orally by/w parents - a great way to introduce a young person into his poetic narratives)
2. Illustrated Man and Golden Apples of the Sun, RB (Timeless Short Stories on so many great topics)
3. Call of the Wild, London
4. Treasure Island, Robert L. Stevenson
5. Time Machine, HG Wells
6. 20,000 Leagues Beneath the Sea, Jules Verne
7. Cheaper by the Dozen, Frank Gilbreth, Jr.
8. Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain
9. Animal farm, George Orwell
10. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien

Jeanette: No TV (nearly 4 years), Video games, or free roam/unsupervised use of the net here, either. We "Net-Flix" selectively (2 per month, classic & drama, family, adventure, or wholesome comedy). My "Top Ten" above is a reference to titles I have taught over the past many years as an English teacher in a rural hs in (far) upper NY State. Our own boys (12 and 10) have read or had these books read to them. Only then do we view the original movies as a part of a family evening.

I believe this reinforces the importance of reading (valuable themes), and it is also something we share daily as a family. By no means are these the "be all and end all" of teen appropriate selections. Depending on your son's maturity - I am sure it is quite good in view of your approach to education - here are a couple of sites for your perusal:
http://info.infosoup.org/lists/ClassicsForTeens.asp?BooklistID=90
http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/yalsa/booklistsawards/booklistsbook.cfm

Then, I would also need to include: Shakespeare!!!! F451 (Bradbury), Stories from the Twilight Zone (Serling, et al), Frankenstein (Shelley), War of the Worlds & Invisible Man (Wells), The Yearling (Rawling), A Night to Remember (Lord), The Outsiders (Hinton), Cold River (Judson), Around the World in 80 Days (Verne), Captains Courageous (Kipling), Shoeless Joe (Kinsella). I have taught these with much success in having the students enjoy the reads.

Still, of course,...Hardy Boys-Sherlock Holmes (Doyle)-Sports Bios.-Chronicles of Narnia (C.S. Lewis) and continue with everything possible that Ray Bradbury has penned (from Something Wicked This Way Comes to Wonderful Ice Cream Suit).

So much for a simple Top Ten!!
(I began with Golden Apples, also!! Age 13.)

This message has been edited. Last edited by: fjp451,

Fine suggestions, all!

I would also suggest anything by Bradbury - you simply can't go wrong.

To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
My Life and Hard Times - James Thurber (the funniest thing your kid'll ever read!)
The Egg and I - Betty McDonald (maybe that's more of a fifteen year-old book)
Anything by Roald Dahl (except Switch Bitch - wait'll he turns eighteen on that one!)

Happy reading!

A "must" ~ I was remiss in not listing Mockingbird, Doug!! As a matter of fact, in my Honors 10 class, Mrs. Dubose just died today.

quote:

Originally posted by fjp451:
A "must" ~ I was remiss in not listing Mockingbird, Doug!!

It's probably as good as anything Ray ever wrote (well, almost).

Now that's high praise there!

At 12, I already had lots of Poe under my belt and was discovering Dickens and.................... Bradbury!

POE, POE, POE! Yes! He is in the Tower watching all the rest!

Interestingly, RB's socially critical stories relating to racial issues pre-dated H. Lee's monumental TKAM by more than a decade!! (RE: Other Foot, Big B & W Game, etc.)

Agreed. Poe is unreal. Love his stuff. Stunning, really.

Thanks everyone...great recommendations..I had forgotten about Thurber and Poe. I think he will be occupied for quite a while now.

It looks like you already have more than enough recommendations, but if I can add something:

When I was in grade school I read "R is for Rocket", and then "S is for Space", and then I fell in love with Ray Bradbury and I've been reading his stories ever since. These are both short story collections that were published in the 60s, and they're sadly out of print except for hard cover limited editions for $45 each. You can get used copies on eBay or Amazon though.

"R is for Rocket" is the perfect first book for a youngster. The title story brings tears to my eyes even today. It's a beautiful story of a friendship between two young boys, and I suspect that one of the boys is Ray writing about himself. "S is for Space" is a little darker in mood, and it's not quite as representative of his style in my opinion. By the way, I think it's fine for young children to read dark or scary stories from time to time--a lot of kids can relate to these stories because kids are vulnerable and feel scared a lot of the time.

So I recommend a used copy of R is for Rocket, and if you don't mind spending a little money for the limited edition, it's a beautiful book with an amazing sci-fi cover.

oh dear, jeanette, give him leave to read any of mr. bradbury's works. and let him go a little.