Question: I am an advanced reader, but I want to honor the Lord in all that I read and I find that some of the more advanced books have things in them that are not yet appropriate for me. We know you are an advanced reader. How do you choose books carefully? Do you have recommendations?
ATB Answer:
That is a great question because we have had the exact same problem with reading more advanced books. Hopefully what we have learned will help others.
Tip 1. Read the back cover of the book of the book. You can usually tell a lot about what the book is going to be like from the back cover.
Tip 2. Have your mom flip through the book and check it out.
Tip 3. Read reviews for the book online or even the author. Two great places to look are Plugged In and Common Sense Media. They don’t always have certain books so sometimes we just look up Christian book review for the book online.
Tip 4. If you are reading and you come across something that you don’t think is right or the Spirit convicts you about, close the book and return it. Don’t keep reading. There are so many books we have never finished because of the content.
Tip 5. To the parent, be willing to have a conversation with your kid about the/a book that they’ve recently read. Sometimes as kids, to really process things, we need to talk them out.
Tip 6. If there’s a book that you want to read that you’re worried might have something off in it, read it along with your mom or dad.
Here are some books I have read and recommend:
*The Making of America Series by Teri Kanefield
*The Mandy Series by Louis Gladys Leppard
*The Thing About Leftovers by C.C. Payne(if the readers family doesn’t want their child reading about a character with divorced and remarried parents, this probably isn’t the book for them. Mind you, it doesn’t glorify it, it’s actually about the girl’s struggle with her parents divorce, but still)
*The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart
*Glory Be by Augusta Scattergood
*the Nancy Drew series by Carolyn Keene
*the Phantom Tollbooth
*Color Me Dark by Patricia McKissack
*Loot by Jude Watson
*On Stage Please by Veronica Tennant
*Wonder by R.J. Pelocio
*Girls Who Rocked the World by McCann and Welden
*Finding God’s Life for my Will by Mike Donehey
Hopefully these help! If you have other excellent recommendations, leave a comment!
G’day Bright Eyes,
What a great post and such good choices of books to read. Which was your favourite and why?
PS What does ATB in your posts mean?
Hi Miss W.,
My favorite book is probably Wonder by R.J. Palacio. It’s a story told from several different viewpoints within the span of a year, all focused on one singular character. I’ve read it several times, and every time it surprises me with how heartwarming it is. I would highly recommend it! Also ATB stand for According to the Bible, which is a series that I and another blogger, Farm Girl, are doing together. It’s advice from the Bible on a variety of topics, some that we come up with, and some that commenters ask.
-Bright Eyes
I think this is great! I do to enjoy reading as well! I have never read any of the books you have read. But I think reading is a amazing thing! There’s lot of good things you can learn from reading!
Hello serenitys,
I totally agree! There is so much you can learn from reading, and it is amazing! I’ve learned at least one thing from every book on that list.
-Bright Eyes
Thanks for telling me about ATB. I had read a post from Farm Girl and realised what it meant from that post.
Are you using categories and tags in your posts? You could have a category called ATB and each post about that is included in that category. Or you could have it as a tag instead. You would need to have the Category or tag widget on your sidebar to make it easier for readers to find them.
To tag or categorize those posts you have already written, go to your main dashboard Posts>all posts then underneath each one that is ATB, click on quick edit and you should then be able to add the tag or category. If using categories though, make sure you have created the categories first on your dashboard Posts> categories.
Here is a post that might help https://help.edublogs.org/categories-vs-tags/