Choosing Books for Gifted Readers

This is a common challenge for many parents of advanced young readers! How can you help them choose a book that is both challenging and interesting but also age-appropriate? This newsletter will offer some tips on how to choose appropriate books for your student, and recommend a variety of titles to help you get started!

When choosing a book for a gifted reader, it is important to know your reader's sensitivities. You want to select books that won't frighten or cause anxiety in your child.

Another thing to consider with advanced readers is the maturity and the comprehension level of the child. A seven year old reading at a 5th grade level may be able to read Anne of Green Gables or The Golden Compass and enjoy the story but miss out on the emotional nuances, relationships between the characters and beauty of the writing. In other words, a 7 year old is probably just reading for the plot, which isn't a bad thing, but Anne of Green Gables and The Golden Compass are such wonderfully written books, I wouldn't want my child missing out on any of that layered complexities just because they can handle the vocabulary. A good rule of thumb is to try to determine the age/grade of the main character. This can usually be done by reading the back or skimming a few pages.

On the whole, this is predominately an issue for advanced young readers who are girls because, at a certain age, social interactions become a major plot point in reality based fiction, whether it is mean girls, crushes on boys, sassy language or other things you may not wish to expose your elementary child to and things that a high reading elementary-aged boy will, in many cases, have absolutely no interest in.

Remember that challenge in reading is twofold: it comes from the complexity of the language and grammatical structure, but it also comes from the complexity and richness of the ideas. Therefore it is possible to have a book with a fairly easy readability and a complex theme (see The Giver and The Green Book). Likewise, there are books with difficult grammatical structures and advanced vocabulary with simplistic themes. Often the subject matter becomes too mature for an audience even though they are able to read the words. This is the inherent difficulty in finding “challenging” books. Which type of challenge do talented readers need? Actually, they need both. What is most important, however, is that when students are reading books they should be able to discuss the material with an adult.

Each of these resources below contain lists of books and other information for parents of gifted readers!

Resources: www.books4yourkids.com

www.readbrightly.com