The Worcester, Massachusetts summer reading list for seventh and eighth graders includes John Steinbeck's The Red Pony, Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities, Jack London's The Call of the Wild--and volumes of poetry by folk singer-yodeller Jewel and former gangsta rapper Tupac Shakur.

Michelle Malkin explains how Tupac made the list, and condemns the choice:

Teachers in Worcester, Massachusetts, have embraced Shakur's posthumously published book of poems as a way to get middle school students' attention. "We wanted to include books that kids would want to read," Michael O'Sullivan, a member of the summer reading list selection committee, explained to the Telegram and Gazette of Worcester last month before school let out. ''Reading counterculture in schools, and to get kids to read anything that is not completely objectionable, is the goal,'' Deputy Superintendent Stephen E. Mills echoed.

Frances Arena, manager of curriculum and professional development of the Worcester Public Schools, told me this week that Shakur's book will remain on the list for the foreseeable future because it "heightens awareness of character education" and, more importantly, because it's "popular with the kids."

If that's the standard, why not just drop the pretense of academic instruction and assign them comic books and romance novels?

A school board member in Palm Beach County, Florida, is also championing Shakur's so-called literary work. Debra Robinson lobbied to bring Shakur's book into the classroom last month because "I always think we need to capture the children's attention where they are and bring them to where they need to be."

The presumption that children óand particularly inner-city children ócan only be stimulated by the contemporary and familiar smacks of lazy elitism and latent racism. These educators, and I use that term as loosely as gangster rappers wear their pants, are clearly more interested in appearing cool than in inculcating a refined literary sense in students. Their aim is not enlightenment, but dumbed-down ghetto entertainment. So that teachers and pupils can "relate" and be "down with that." So they can "keep it real." You know what I'm sayin'?

The schoolhouse rap peddlers disingenuously argue that Shakur's puerile scribblings serve as useful tools to engage children in reading. Reading? Deciphering is more like it. Shakur's volume, ''The Rose That grew From Concrete," looks more like a collection of cell phone text messages, teenage hieroglyphics, and Backstreet Boys album titles than a collection of poems.

One poem is "Dedicated 2 Me." Another is "Dedicated 2 My Heart." There's one "4 Nelson Mandela" and another "2 Marilyn Monroe," which laments: "They could never understand what u set out 2 do instead they chose 2 ridicule u." Another Shakur opus is titled "When Ure Hero Falls." Still another muses: "What Is It That I [insert pictograph of an eyeball] Search 4."

A dictionary, perhaps?

But with all the debate about whether it is or is not a good idea to include Tupac on the list, whether it is or is not racist to criticize his inclusion on the list, and so on, a much more elemental question has been lost: What do you put on a summer reading list for twelve and thirteen-year-olds? That's an awkward age even for bookworms--you are getting too old for kids' literature, and you are mostly still too young to be able to relate to work that is pitched to an adult audience. I'm thinking that the Steinbeck, London, and Dickens aren't the greatest inclusions on that list, either, if the goal is to get kids reading. The Red Pony rendered me yawning when I read it for a seventh-grade English class. A Tale of Two Cities is obscure even for many college students. The London is just plain bad. It's fascinating, in a surrealistic sort of way--but it is quite poorly written and at points, with its dead serious personification of Buck, laughably conceived.

So my question for readers is this: When you were twelve, what books did you voluntarily, happily read? What amazed you, knocked your socks off, made you want to read more? What would your summer reading list be?

I'll start by naming a few titles that I remember reading with absolute absorption at that age:

Anne Frank's diary
Richard Adams' Watership Down (which miraculously escapes the pitfalls into which London so awkwardly fell)
All things Tolkien
Alex Haley, Roots (I actually read this one at nine--it's very accessible, despite the length)
Anything by Agatha Christie
Pearl Buck, The Good Earth
Margaret Mitchell, Gone With the Wind (also at nine, also surprisingly accessible)
Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer

Readers are welcome to name their own adolescent favorites in the comments. We'll address the "what do you read at fifteen?" question in another post.

I can't remember if 12 is the exact age, but Douglas Adams The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was a great read around that time.

L'Engle's "Wrinkle in Time", Hemmingway "Farwell to Arms", Issac Asimov, Robert Heinlein (this was the point I discovered science fiction).

All Tolkien
Watership Down
Gone with the Wind
L'Engle Wrinkle in Time
Ursula LeGuin Earthsea Trilogy
C.S. Lewis The Chronicles of Narnia
L.Frank Baum's entire Wizard of Oz series including those written by others after his death.

I was discovering scifi/fantasy then. Hitchhikers came out when I was in high school. I also remember reading a series of biographies of all sorts of people. I can't remember the series name though. It included Revolutionary & Civil War leaders, both men & women. Actually, if somebody stuck a book in my hands and promised a good read, I was there.

12 is the perfect age to read lots of classic (read: no sex) sci-fi. I was reading Asimov and Douglas Adams then. I also started reading Agatha Christie then. And lots and lots of Madeleine L'Engle.

Dickens is not really good for adolescents in general - I didn't start liking him until I was 24 (and even then, I hate =Oliver Twist= and =Tale of Two Cities=... I like his really long books, and the stranger, the better... like Old Curiousity Shop - that's a real weird story.)

I think the girls may enjoy Jane Austen, and I think The Three Musketeers is a lot of fun (and the sex is pretty low-key compared to today's mores.)

Winston Churchill once when asked what should one read replied, "Kinglake. Read more Kinglake."
So to this question I reply, "Pinkwater. Read more Pinkwater."

Oh, and "Bridge to Terabithia." (sp)

In junior high I discovered Madeleine L'Engle, CS Lewis, Kurt Vonnegut ("Slaughterhouse Five" and "Cat's Cradle" specifically), "To Kill A Mockingbird," JD Salinger and Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead." I don't remember too much about "The Red Pony," but I did love "Cannery Row" and "Travels With Charley."

In the "awkwardly discovering sex" category, I filched copies of Philip Roth's "Portnoy's Complaint" and Terry Southern's "Candy" from my parents' library and read on them on the sly. While both novels were titillating and certainly helped expand my repertoire of euphemisms for sexual organs, I doubt I understood either of them. (Maybe Ayn Rand fits in this category too.)

On a similar note, a visit to my old high school's website led me to discover that incoming honors freshmen no longer have to read "Great Expectations" or "The Importance of Being Earnest," which were long-standing summer reading mainstays. Instead of assigning specific books, students may now choose to read any number of novels by a list of pre-approved authors. They are: James Agee, Michael Capuzzo, Orson Scott Card, Tom Clancy, Michael Critchton, Kate Elliott, Sarah Orne Jewett and Jon Kraukauer. Um...what? What happened to Wilde and Dickens?

One series of books I recall avidly reading at some young age were the Danny Dunn books (they may be a bit obscure at this point, but they were a kind of juvenile science fiction), as well as the usual suspects: Clarke, Asimov, Heinlein, Doc Smith, Stapledon, etc.

Unfortunately, when as an adult I've revisited these books that I adored as a kid, most of them are terribly written, completely lacking in things like style and character and even a plot that wasn't a ramshackle string of events. Some of them were just plain bad, as you've said of London.

I do see a virtue in getting students engaged in a subject by using literature like Shakur's that may not ever stand the test of time, may even be utter dreck by mature standards, but is timely and relevant to the students. Throw Whitman at them and they'll just run away and despise poetry ever more; suck 'em in with the jargon and "coolness" of some superficial rapper, and maybe someday they'll grow into the subject.

Ms. O'Connor--

I can't recommend anything I read when I was 12, but my children did do some serious reading at that age. These are a couple of books that entertained them at the time and, I think, have had some lasting influence on their lives. My oldest son and I traveled to Europe when he was 12 and we each read Daniel Keyes' wonderful short novel "Flowers for Algernon". For the first time we were able to discuss at an adult level something that we had both read. It was a seminal moment in our relationship.

Somewhere around the age of 12 my daughter read Kurt Vonnegut's collection of short stories "Welcome to the Monkey House" and was blown away. She revisited these stories when in college and used one of them as a basis for a talk she gave.

I enthusiastically recommend both of these books for any 12 year old. Parenthetically, another story: When my daughter was 12 she spent the summer in Oxford with her mom who was taking some courses there. It was a great opportunity to hang out-- as sort of a mascot-- with mostly college students. That summer she read Charlotte Bronte's "Villette". Now, almost 20 years later she remembers nothing of it and, indeed, she can't be sure that she did read it (she definitely did). My point in telling this story is that youngsters should be discouraged from reading what is well beyond their natural sphere of interest simply to show off.

Fantasy. I read fantasy, so more votes for L'Engle. Also Vonnegut. I loved Marion Zimmer Bradley's Mists of Avonlea, and that was about the end period of my Agatha Christie phase. That was just the age I was reading Dumas. I started on the Brontes around then, or actually a bit earlier, but I was also a bookworm.

I got to age 12 just around the time of the Gutenberg Bible - so my memory is dim.

My daughter raced through the Wind Singer Trilogy by [?] Nicholson in very short order at age 12. I read it with her and thought they were great. (Check them out on Amazon.com). We had some great discussions on conformity, non-conformity, the meaning of freedom etc. - all issues raised in the books within the context of the story.

She did Wrinkle in Time a bit earlier - but she has gone back to it again and still thnks of it as one of her favorites. She has a similar regard for L. Sachar's Holes - another Newberry winner. I also read it with her - and went to see the movie - both were excellent.

By the time she hit 13 - we did Lord of the Flies which I thnk works for adults and young adults. This was a nice flip side to the Wind Singer Trilogy. Life in a too rigid social structure v. life with no structre at all. We then rented the DVD (the original b&w version - not the horrible recent version).

Ivan

There's a lot of good historical fiction for that age group, and that was the point at which I read the first part of "The Once and Future King".

I don't think I found them till rather later than age 12, but Arthur Conan Doyle's "The White Company" and "Sir Nigel" are aimed at that age group (and I still love reading them).

yes, yes, YES to any and all of L'Engle's work, particularly the Austin series for those not too interested in sci-fi/fantasy at that age. Also, some of Gordon Korman's young adult novels - Don't Care High, Losing Joe's Place, and (my favorite) Son of Interflux. They might be a little harder to find, but they're so funny that the reading group I ran for a few neighborhood 13 year olds (7th graders) last summer picked Interflux as their favorite (over Harry Potter 5, I might add). Paula Danziger's This Place Has No Atmosphere and The Cat Ate My Gymsuit are also well written and accessible for that age group, and so is anything by Ann Rinaldi (historical fiction- Time Enough for Drums, The Last Silk Dress, Wolf By the Ears, etc.)

Incidentally, I never understood why kids had to be given summer reading lists - I spent most of mine going to, coming from or being at the local library. My mom's exhortation to "Go play outside" meant either walking or biking there, or sitting in the backyard reading whatever I had procured. Still do, come to think of it...

Ursula Le Guin, anyone? (The Earthsea Trilogy)

I also remember being particularly intoxicated by Terry Brooks' series "The Sword of Shannara."

Beyond that, I'm in favor of L'Engle, Tolkein, Lewis, Asimov, Heinlein, Bradbury, and the rest. Most of the sci-fi genre writers are not great writers, but what one is chiefly looking for at that age is room to imagine. These days, I would also certainly say Harry Potter, though the danger there is that I would want to read it before my (hypothetical) kid.

In the Victorian era, what about "A Christmas Carol"? And maybe "Erewhon"?

Anything sci-fi: Foundation Trilogy, Heinlein, Asimov, Bradbury, etc...

Classics: Lord of the Flies, Invisible Man (Ellison), On Walden Pond, etc...

The Encyclopedia A-Z: Ok, I actually did read the entire thing a few times over the 10-13 year old timeframe. I had lots of time as we did not watch television then and still do not today. You probably cannot buy one today as it is all on CD but how do you read a CD in bed?

History: Air War vols 1 and 2, All Quiet on the Western Front, The Guns of August, etc... My family is European so WW1 and WW2 are of special interest (half my relatives were shooting at the other half).

The way things work: An excellent guide to the tehcnical and mechanical world.

Time-Life series: These were wonderful. There was one on Chemistry, Physics maybe, I cannot recall the rest.

Lots and lots and lots of science fiction - all I could get my hands on. Action-adventure too. And period fiction like Louisa May Alcott's novels; they're like a peek into another world. I still read all those kinds of books.

The comments on Michelle Malkin's site are kind of scary. But the ones claiming Tupac's work was better than Poe are just silly.

For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darlingómy darlingómy life and my bride,
In her sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.

Who can surpass this for both beauty of language and pure creepiness?

Enthusiastic seconding for L'Engle's Wrinkle in Time--which possesses the distinction of actually successfully beginning with the sentence, "It was a dark and stormy night"--and White's Once and Future King. The word "fewmet" entered my vocabulary when I read that, and, as I am a cat owner, has remained an active part of it.

Enthusiastic seconding also for the sheer disappointment of undertaking Portnoy's Complaint at too young an age. It was a memorable demonstration of a truth that seems especially counterintuitive to adolescents: that which is dirty may also be intensely boring.

I still have my childhood copies of certain treasured books--A Wrinkle in Time is among them. Others include Louise Fitzhugh's amazing Harriet the Spy, Norton Juster's Phantom Tollbooth, M.E. Konigsberg's From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, Paula Danziger's The Cat Ate My Gymsuit, and Lila Perl's utterly memorable but sadly forgotten Me and Fat Glenda.

At twelve I read every James Bond adventure Ian Flemming wrote. I loved them all.

The Westing Game. I forgot that one, though perhaps it's a ilttle younger. More votes for Korman -- I have a fondness for "No Coins, Please" -- and "The Once and Future King".

The only Orson Scott Card I'd strongly recommend is "Ender's Game". The Pullman Spyglass Trilogy is either great or horrible, depending on who you are. Diana Wynne Jones is classic.

I'm not sure I read all of these when I was actually 12, but they are a few of my favorites from late elementary school and early junior high.

Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea by L. M. Montgomery

A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, and others by Madeleine L'Engle

The Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore, Tehanu, The Dispossessed, and others by Ursula Le Guin (the last may be a bit heavy for some 12-year-olds, but I enjoyed it very much)

Heidi by Johanna Spyri (I used to read this every spring)

Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and others by Mark Twain

Cheaper by the Dozen by Frank B. Gilbreth and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

Jurassic Park and Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton

The Pearl by John Steinbeck (it terrified me, but I couldn't stop reading)

Mythology by Edith Hamilton (I read this repeatedly and became fascinated with constellations because of it)

Throughout junior high I read all of the science fiction books that were both Hugo and Nebula award winners, and enjoyed many of them, though most weren't that memorable. I also read the Valdemar Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey, which was also enjoyable but not particularly memorable.

I made a point of reading three books every summer when I was 11-14 or thereabouts: The Diary of Anne Frank, Jane Eyre, and David Copperfield. Two summers ago my son turned 12, and I made him try David Copperfield. He hated it; his taste runs very much more to sci fi/fantasty. He's read all the classic stuff (Narnia, Tolkien, Herbert, L'Engle, LeGuin, etc.) and now is reading junk. Amazingly enough, however, he really loved Dante's Inferno when his church youth group read it last month.

The other day I got out my old copies of Jean Webster's Daddy Long Legs and Dear Enemy, the first written about 1911 and the second in 1915. I was astonished to remember how delightful they were, much more accessible to today's teen than Victorian lit (i.e., Louisa May Alcott's books, also huge favorites of mine pre-puberty and later). I would hope that at least some girls would like both Webster and Alcott.

I remember that time, the 12-13 transition, of feeling sad that I was having to leave behind the "children's literature" that I loved so much - the Narnia chronicles, A Wrinkle in Time, the Moomintroll books, Phantom Toolbooth, Dodie Smith's books, so on and so forth.

I thought it was time to 'grow up'. (I much later learned that it's not necessary to give up "children's books" once you hit adulthood; in fact, this summer I'm reading Susan Cooper's Dark is Rising sequence for the first time and really loving it).

So, with my newly-updated library card, I ventured for the very first time into the adult section. And grabbed a book somewhat at random, it was a novel about teenagers in 1950s NYC.

And I ran across, in that book, the very first extremely graphic sex scene I had ever read. And other things, like some of the boys talking about getting their "members" tattooed and other things that horrified me at 12.

Now, I was a sheltered child, and was (and am) rather a prude. (Upon being told, at age 10, the "facts of life," my first thought was "wow, if that's what you have to do in order to have a baby, I guess I'm never going to have children. And to think - my parents did that TWICE." [I have one sibling]). I was quite shocked and horrified and I very quietly returned the book.

Don't remember much else of the reading I did - I think that book itself turned me off of reading for a while, at least "adult" books. I do remember reading "A Separate Peace" (treacly but teenagers like it) that summer, and, I also remember checking out (and renewing throughout the whole entire summer) an annotated version of Dante's Inferno and slogged my way through it (I didn't ENJOY it, not in the sense that I enjoy Trollope or a good mystery novel) but I thought it would be good for me.

All summer long, I had people coming up to me and asking me if I was reading it for school. I said "No, but I thought I should read it." And then I gloried in their startlement and discomfiture. I was a weird child.

Actually, for 12 year olds who aren't all bent on being sophisticated (as I was), I'd recommend (if they haven't already read:

Tove Jansson's Moomintroll series (might be a bit young for some, but the characterizations are so delicious)

The Chronicles of Narnia (I loved it for the language, most of all).

The Dark is Rising sequence (Susan Cooper). I never read this as a child but am reading it now and love it, I think it's more gripping and better written than many adult novels.

The Time quartet, and other of L'Engle's books. She's also written a couple of more adult-oriented books, one called A Severed Wasp, which I read last year. It's intense (maybe a bit too intense in places for some youngsters; there's violence done to characters and horrible choices that have to be made, but it's also a very meaningful and breathtaking book).

For ones who want a really long read, I'd recommend Connie Willis' "The Domesday Book", which is nominally a sci-fi novel involving time travel, but which is also incredible, gripping, and moving. (It is a book, like the ones in the Dark is Rising sequence, that I found myself stealing time from other duties to read on - I wanted that badly to see what was going to happen next).

I also wish someone had introduced me to classic mysteries when I was a teenager; I think I would have enjoyed the Nero Wolfe novels then (Rex Stout) and also perhaps Ngaio Marsh's stuff also. And there's really no sex in most of them. (Little or no graphic sex is still something I prefer in the books I read).

I concur with many of the books/authors already named. Let me add a few: I was very much into detective fiction - Ellery Queen, The Saint, and Sherlock Holmes in particular. It was about then that I first read Josephine Tey's "The Daughter of Time", and to this day (50 years later) I remain a staunch advocate of Richard III. I also liked historical fiction - Count of Monte Cristo, some Hornblower books, and especially many of the works of Rafael Sabatini.

"Count of Monte Christo"
"Three Musketeers"
"Dracula"
"The Mists of Avalon"
"Catcher in the Rye"
"The Color Purple"

I wish someone would have put "Candide" in front of me at that age. Also, in defense of Dicken's, I think "Oliver Twist" is fantastic. I wish I had that in middle school.

other books I remember reading in my early teens:

Cheaper by the Dozen

Lizard Music (Pinkwater). Weird but good.

I started "A Girl of the Limberlost" at my grandma's house, was really interested in it, then I hit a point where the book was missing five or so pages - and couldn't pick up the thread of the story again. I own a copy (with all pages intact), but I'm embarrassed to say I never sat down and read it all through, but I remember liking what I read.

Jane Eyre - which I read at about 14 and loved

Watership Down

Most of Judy Blume's stuff. I read it because everyone else was, but I didn't really like most of it, it seemed to me like she drew some kind of a problem (scoliosis, menstruation, death of a parent) out of a hat and then wrote a book around it.

The Good Earth (I remember it was a crumbling, late-50s-printing paperback loaned to me by my mother)

Where the Red Fern Grows

A Light in the Forest by Conrad Richter. (Does anyone read Richter any more? This book was an assignment when I was in 7th grade; at the time I made a big deal out of "loathing" the book, but I went back and re-read it when I was in my 20s and found it was not so bad, and actually was kind of interesting. But then again, I think it's de rigeur to loathe just about anything that's an assigned book when you're 13).

St. Exepeury's "The Little Prince" Looks like a kid's book (in fact, I think I first read it at 10) but you don't really "get" it until you're a bit older.

Metamorphosis by Kafka (Actually, I read this one as a school assignment in high school but I enjoyed it and I think it's something many teenagers would enjoy. Although, perhaps, it's not until one gets out into the workforce that one really feels for Gregor's condition)

Invisible Man (Ellison) - also a school assignment.

Journey to the Center of the Earth - which I loved as a young teen, tried to re-read it recently and found myself getting all hungup on the geological and geographical impossibilities in the book. (Sigh.)

I was also really into Salinger and read all his stuff when I was about 15 or 16. (I think Catcher in the Rye is another book that I would not like as well upon re-reading today).

I think I read some Poe - he wrote "A Cask of Amontillado," right? - as a teenager and liking it. (I suppose if I had been a teen ten years or so later than I was, I might have wound up as a Goth, what with liking Poe and Kafka and Salinger. Goths hadn't been invented yet when I was a teenager).

I know my list is very classics-heavy, but there weren't a whole lot of modern novels I trusted, after my experience with that New-York-teens-discovering-sex book I wound up with as my first non-child, non-YA book.

My favorite book at 12 was _Jane Eyre_. Further novels in the Valdemar series by Mercedes Lackey suitable for 12-year-old kids would be the books _Brightly Burning_ and _To Take a Thief_.

Another set of books that I think are absolutely amazing (turns fairy tale conceits on their heads)are the Dragons (starting with _Dealing with Dragons_) books by Patricia C. Wrede. They're delightful for adults, as well. Also for the fantasy buff, Diane Duane's _Support Your Local Wizard_ books.

Enjoy.

At 12 I was on my last year of reading from the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew series. Yeah, I was cruising reading those, but I still enjoyed them, and I donít mind admitting it.

Likewise, I was in my last year of reading from the Childhood of Famous Americans series. In the ë60ís these orange biographies taught me all I thought I needed to know about our forefathers and (occasionally, as in the case of "Molly Pitcher, Young Patriot") foremothers (or whatever the right word would have been in 1965). Titles such as "Ben Franklin, Young Printer" let me see children and young people, ostensibly just like me, growing up to what was pretty much portrayed as their inevitable successes. Still, if they could do it. . . .

I read and enjoyed "Huck Finn", especially since a girl I liked gave me the book. Being as how I lived in the South, I had no problem at all readiní and understandiní the written dialect and was stunned six years later when I got to college in New York by my roommate from New Jersey who hated the book and had no idea what sentences like ìShet de doî meant.

Finally, I was reading anything and everything by Jules Verne that I could get my hands on.

Thanks for getting me to remember it all.

Forgot these the first time around:

Betty Smith's "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn," James Thurber's "My Life and Hard Times," and Herman Wouk's "Marjorie Morningstar."

For readers a bit younger (actually, I have no idea how reading levels are figured out), Karen Cushman's "Catherine, Called Birdy" and "The Midwife's Apprentice" are great historical fiction novels.

I read Shakespeare for the first time in junior high ("A Midsummer Night's Dream" in 8th grade), and what disturbs me more than the inclusion of Tupac in middle school English classes, is the usage of those "Shakespeare Made Easy" editions. Has anyone else seen them? Basically, Shakespeare's original text is on the left side of the page, while a "translated" version of the same prose appears on the right. Do we really think 8th graders are too dumb to figure out what "beseech" means, or are too dumb to use a dictionary? Evidently, it would seem so.

Pinkwater! yes!

Count of Monte Cristo was a huge favorite
Jane Eyre as well

I second the Susan Cooper series

Robin McKinley writes great fantasy/fairytale books--Beauty, Spindle's End, etc.

I was really into Christie and Dorothy Sayers as well--mystery fans might like Martha Grimes and P.D. James today

Anne of Avonlea books

perhaps boys would like the Patrick O'Brien books? I am reading them now and they are great.

Always plugging the nineteenth century, what about trying Victorian children's lit--Secret Garden, Little Princess, Kim, etc.? Those books have a challenging vocabulary for today's kids.

I also went through a huge animal phase--Black Beauty, Island of the Black Stallion, Sterling, the Yearling, Watership Down, My Friend Flicka, although perhaps these skew a little younger.

Forgot to add first time around:

All versions of the Arthurian legend (still a favorite), and almost all Dumas. I did read the "classics" such as Are You there God, it's me Margaret but that was mostly because everybody was reading that. I spent my summers, and a lot of the school year, working my way around the library's fiction sections. I used to get in trouble for reading in class when I was supposed to be paying attention to the teacher.

Everything by Cynthia Voigt, particularly the Tillerman saga, is excellent. Ditto for E.L. Konigsburg.

In my early teens I discovered Recorded Books (also Books on Tape, Audiobooks, and some other companies, as well as the older books-on-record like Caedmon). In those days (1980s) popular writing wasn't usually recorded or the libraries didn't have it, so I started listening to the literary classics. By the time I was in high school, I had memorized big sections of the major tragedies of Shakespeare and lots of Poe stories.

I don't think I could have brought myself to actually "read" literature as pre-teen, but I enjoyed listening while playing Atari. I particularly recall Nicol Williamson's reading of _The Hobbit_, Orson Welles' _Leaves of Grass_, and Paul Scofield's _Hamlet_. When I finally got a VCR (about age 17), I watched Olivier's _King Lear_ and _I Claudius_ over and over again.

I was an odd child, reading and writing far more than was good for my social development. I'm looking at my bookshelves now to pick out my most worn books from around that time. I remember Salinger's "Catcher In The Rye" and F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" as being particularly striking, but I'm pretty sure I was 13 when I read those - I got them for my birthday when I was in sixth grade. I KNOW I read Faulkner for the first time in the summer between fifth and sixth grade, in the guise of "A Rose For Emily." So, I read Faulkner when I was twelve. I loved "A Rose For Emily" but I had trouble with most of the rest of it until I hit my mid-teens. But the Faulkner book was a Viking Portable Library edition, so I went back to the library and found Viking Portable Edition of Chekhov. Man, am I ever grateful to the good people at Viking for turning me onto two wonderful authors. Other books, though, were whatever I found around the classroom, which included the Chronicles of Narnia and the Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators series. Oh, and everything Poe. I loved Poe, who, like me was Virginia and had the same middle name. I found that re-reading him later in life that Emerson was right in calling him "The Jingle Man." I started reading fantasy novels by then, too, mostly Dragonlance stuff. Hey, it nurtured a love of reading, so I guess it all worked out okay.

I second many of the sci-fi and fantasy recommendations, and will add a couple of choices from my own cusp-of-adolescence reading list: those big compendiums of mystery/horror stories from Alfred Hitchcock, and the 'Little House on the Prairie' series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I had to read all of these books surreptitiously: a boy that age really shouldn't let his parents find him drooling over the racy bits from the Hitchcock, and he would surely be consumed by embarrassment if his friends found out he was reading those 'girl books' from Wilder. They're pretty wonderful, although maybe a bit better for the 9- or 10-year-old.

It's so long ago it's hard to remember.

I outgrew comic books around age ten and the Hardy boys not too long after that. It's hard to remember, but I think I was into bestsellers back then. Leon Uris' Exodus and Mila 18 were big back around then. Seven Days in May. All the Bond books, which were in the process of coming out when I was 13 and 14 -- or at least becoming popular because Kennedy said he liked them. From Russia with Love was just out in paperback when I was 13.

The Civil War was big then, because it was the Centennial. The first "big" book I ever read was the American Heritage History of the Civil War, at about age 9 or 10. I think I probably read Gone With the Wind a few years after that, so that would be around 12 or 13.

I was force-fed Great Expectations at age 13-14, and hated it, mostly because of a poor teacher. I read A Tale of Two Cities on my own and liked it. Around then I also actually finished, on about the tenth try, Moby Dick.

I didn't discover Tolkien until a later age. Actually, although the trilogy was written then, I think the editions authorized by Tolkien didn't come out until I was in high school, or maybe shortly before. At any rate, I didn't discover them until high school. T.H. White I discovered in college, as well as Robert Heinlein and the whole world of sci fi.

Where the Red Fern Grows?

My kid came to hate Where the Red Fern Grows, The Red Pony, Old Yeller, The Yearling, all those coming-of-age why'd-my-pet-have-to-die books. Me too.

I like many on the list so far, but really think literature is more than just fiction. If we want people to grow up appreciating poetry that strives for more than simple chants, this age is a good time to branch out to some contemporary American poetry. How about David Wojahn's Mystery Train with its rock sonnets or just about anything by Denise Duhamel? When I was in the preteen/early teens stage Trout Fishing in America by Richard Brautigan was mindbendingly important to me. I don't think it would connect well to teens today since it hasn't aged particularly well (it's very Haight-Ashbury sixties), but the language still pushes across genre boundaries in unexpected ways.

The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean Auel
Night

All the Robert Heinlein juvenile novels. They are GREAT! Well written, inventive, they teach character and independent thinking, and explore large complex ideas. They take seriously young people's desire for heroism and responsibility. And they can be enjoyed by adults too.

"Citizen of the Galaxy" is the best.

As a nerdy kid, I deliberately worked my way through all the Newberry Award winners. Some are for younger kids and some for puberty. "A Wrinkle in Time" was a great favorite of mine. I read Tolkein and Le Guin as an adult, but heartily recommend them to teens.

I could never get into Dickens.

I also remember reading "Cheaper by the Dozen" while recuperating from an appendectomy at 12. I remember it was so funny and it hurt so much to laugh. I read all the horse books mentioned too, although i wasn't as horse crazy as some girls.

Than, as now, I have omnivorous tastes. I started reading adult works when I came to the end of the children's section, and walked through the doorway separating the kids from the adult section. I wandered around for a while, found the fiction section, and realized that no one was going to kick me out. I then settled in for the long haul.

Les Miserables was one of the first. Then, alphabetically close, I found Fitzgerald, and read almost the whole of his work. I never got to the Last Tycoon until decades later. Fitzgerald, at least the early work, is himself something of an eternal adolescent, so resonated with me.

But, more appropriately for my age, I read The Mouse That Roared, and discovered satire. I read all of the Grand Duchy of Fenwick books, and was never the same. The play is often performed, but I've never seen it on a reading list. Pity.

Pullman's Amber Spyglass trilogy would be great for middle-schoolers, Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, To Kill a Mockingbird, I read lots of mysteries at that age - Agatha Christie,Sherlock Holmes, Lord Peter Whimsey, PD James could be good - Oliver Twist, I loved Watership Down at that age, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, I read some old classics like Louisa May Alcott, Hans Brinker and Heidi. I read Ray Bradbury, HP Lovecraft, Roald Dahl, and I loved biographies like Microbe Hunters and I remember reading Nevile Shute and Daphne DuMaurier at that age and loving them. I liked adventure, mystery, crime, battle, lives unlike my own. A summer list should be interesting, various and fun. Why it includes books they will be assigned to read in class like Tale of Two Cities or the London is beyond me. the last thing a kid wants to do all summer is feel like they've been assigned school work.

I mentioned this thread to my husband last night, and he added in Andre Norton. I do remember reading a lot of her stuff at about that age.

Also sometime around junior high I discovered Georgette Heyer, and all her regency romances. No sex, and the heroines are intelligent.

Somewhere around 12 years of age, I remember reading:

Deliverance (James Dickey)
Anything by Arthur C. Clark, especially Childhood's End and Rendezvous with Rama

Haven't seen these mentioned yet:

The Anabasis of Xenophon,
The Romance of the Three Kingdoms
(Both typically boy-ish sorts of tales.)

I also enjoyed the Susan Cooper books, and the Ursula K. LeGuin books.

At the age of 13 or so, I guess I was just entering HS, so I think I'd read some Dickens by then (without enjoying much of it, except a Christmas Carol), and also War and Peace and Anna Karenina. The latter is fine, I think, for young teenagers, despite the subject matter. Actually, I went through a lot of Russian writers around then--Dostoevsky, Turgenev, and Gogol.

E.M. Forster's stuff is good at that time, I think. I enjoyed it, at least. There's an English translation of Chretien de Troyes' Arthurian Romances that I've enjoyed, and think I would have liked at that age (I did like an abridged version of the Morte d'Arthur, then, though).

(more dittos) L'Engle, Jane Eyre, Pride & Prejudice. Also Lord of the Flies, The Once and Future King, and I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (which I found incredibly difficult, but fascinating.) A Farewell to Arms was for school, and I found it slow going at first, but once I got into it, I really got into it and couldn't put it down. I was seriously bummed when Catherine died at the end of the book. I moped around all weekend.

Lastly, I'd never heard of The Hiding Place at at that age, and didn't read it until later, but I suspect I would have loved it at that age.

How about George Orwell's Animal Farm and 1984? And maybe I've missed noticing it in the comments, but as far as fun science fiction goes Larry Niven was unsurpassed when I was young. (Yes, this was a long time ago).

Excellent suggestions.
I'd add Robt. L. Stevenson, & I think someone mentioned Mary Stewart's Arthurian books.

I discovered Edward Abbey just before turning 12. It really is eco-radicalism for pubescents. (Hey, let's bolw up a dam!) Loved it then but see its limitations now. Plus all the SF stuff everybody else said.

Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Might I suggest some of the easier Civil War Biographies like Sheridan?.... Of course also possible, if a bit older would be the Horatio Hornblower series. As for Science Fiction... I think the best examples would be Ender'
s Game and Starship Troopers

"I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (which I found incredibly difficult, but fascinating.)"

I read that about 30 times between the ages of 14 and 18. I found it holds up very well as an adult novel. Teens love it because it's about a misunderstood teen and about mental illness (which teens find fascinating), but it's also about responsibility and freedom, sex, antisemitism, ethics, the nature of reality.....

*the following is done in semi-stream-of consciousness. I tried to make complete sentences at least, but apologize for the lack of coherence.*

I suppose everyone here is older than me, so they never discovered the "My Teacher is an Alien" series by Bruce Coville. Those books really turned me on to science fiction, and his other books are fantastic as well. And only one Roald Dahl mention? Shameful! _Matilda_ is a must, as is _Boy_ (the first part of his autobiography), and _The Witches_.
Susan Cooper's "The Dark is Rising" sequence is great, but another good book of hers is _Seaward_.
I forget who wrote it, but _The Children of New Forest_ was a great read, and is a lost classic.
_The Swiss Family Robinson_ is another classic that belongs in this list.
Terry Pratchett's "Diskworld" series would have delighted me at that age.
And sci-fi short story collections are usually good. I took a couple collections of 20th century sci-fi from my grandmother. And how could I forget _I, Robot_? Everyone should read that again before the movie comes out.
And another shameful omission from this list is the "Redwall" series by Brian Jacques. I still eagerly await the next ones in the series.
They were kind of pulpy, but the "Goosebumps" series was fun summer reading.

A genre that this list hasn't covered (and didn't intend to, I'm sure) but is still worth mentioning is activity-oriented books. The "Roadside Geology" series is great for road trips, and informative even for adults. I also went through many art and craft books, both how-to and biography.

And the pull-quote in the post also disparages comic books. They're not all Archie. I highly recommend _Meridian_ for that age group, as well as the Batman series _Hush_. Nearly anything by Neil Gaiman (a respected comic author, not just novelist) is also a good bet.

People have already mentioned much of what I read at 12 (fantasy, science fiction, mysteries, plus older works like LM Montgomery, Louisa May Alcott, Laura Ingalls Wilder...). I also think much of Mark Twain is great for that age, and I was able to do pretty well with Dickens. I also liked some of the lesser popular teen authors of the time (Judy Blume, that guy who wrote "I am the Pigman", etc.) Le Morte D'Authur (Mallory) is also amazingly readable for a young teen.

However, I was never able to get some of the classics (Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte) until I was in my 20s.

Hello,

I used to think that the wolf was the enemy of ranchers and farmers. I could say more about that, but I want to jump to the purpose of this email.

I'm the author of chapter adventure books for readers 8 and up. Early in 2005 my publisher will release my seventh book, LEGEND OF THE WHITE WOLF. This book, like my previous six titles, is first aimed to be sold through Christian bookstores. What may surprise you is that the book is unmistakably pro-wolf.

An early review: Legend of the White Wolf snatches reader's interest in a "wish that could happen to me" way. This book is a wonderful mixture of Indian lore, truth, God's love and redemption, and adventure. No one can walk away from Legend of the White Wolf without being satisfied in their heart, soul, and mind. Melody DeLeon, Author

I'm wondering if you'd be interested in making it's availability known on your site.

Thank you,

Max Elliot Anderson

NEWSPAPER CAPER, TERROR AT WOLF LAKE, NORTH WOODS POACHERS, MOUNTAIN CABIN MYSTERY, BIG RIG RUSTLERS & SECRET OF ABBOTT'S CAVE compared by readers and reviewers to Tom Sawyer, The Hardy Boys, Huck Finn, Nancy Drew, Harry Potter, Tom Swift, Star Wars, Scooby-Doo and others.

REVIEWS: http://maxbookreviews.blogspot.com/
INTERVIEW Re: Wolf http://www.surf4theearth.com/blog/ - scroll down near the bottom of the page after you download it

For the past three years I've been writing chapter adventure for readers 8 and up. My original focus was reluctant reader boys. I soon found that they loved my books. So did avid boy readers, girls, and even adults.

These books are intended to teach character, family vales, and spiritual principles for the next generation. Following are brief summaries of the first 6 books that have been released by my publisher, Tweener Press. You'll also find a link to reviews at the bottom of this message.

Since I'm a new author, and my publisher is small, I need all the help I can get to spread the word about my books. I'm finding that kids don't want to stop with just one book. Most parents and grandparents have been buying every title as they come out. Focus on the Family is also currently evaluating the books.

Thank you for taking time to give these new books a look. I just finished writing manuscript number 31. In the next few months, my publisher will release LEGEND OF THE WHITE WOLF, RECKLESS RUNAWAY, and THIRD HOUSE ON THE LEFT.

Sincerely,

Max Elliot Anderson

NEWSPAPER CAPER Released $10.95 0-9729256-4-3
Tom Stevens was a super salesman. He and his friends delivered newspapers early every morning. Along their route, the boys often saw some pretty strange things. Then one day they actually became the story. Readers will like the humor, attack dogs, car thieves, and the chop shop Tom and the others uncover. This story reminds us of how important friendship is. It also teaches God isn't just for emergencies. He wants to guide our lives every day.

TERROR AT WOLF LAKE Released $10.95 0-9729256-6-X

Eddy Thompson was known for one thing and one thing only. Eddy was a cheater. He cheated on anything, anytime, anywhere, until something happened up at Wolf Lake. It wasnít the brutal cold. It wasnít when he fell through the ice. It wasnít even when two scary men arrived at their remote cabin. What happened would change Eddyís lifeÖforever.

NORTH WOODS POACHERS Released $10.95 0-9729256-8-6

The Washburn families have been coming to the same cabins, on the same lake, catching the same fish, for about as long as Andy can remember. And he's sick of it. This summer would be different he decided. Only he never imagined how different. The story is filled with excitement, danger, humor, and drama. In the end, Andy learns the concepts of family tradition, that God loves justice while He hates injustice, and it is important to follow the rules. Readers will enjoy the gigantic, jet-powered floatplane, computers, home made radio transmitter, and naturally, no one will ever forget Big Wally. Heís a fish of course.

MOUNTAIN CABIN MYSTERY Released $10.95 0-9729256-3-5

Scott and his friends had dreamed and prepared for their first wilderness camping adventure. When they become separated from their group in a mountain fog, trouble begins. There was that bear, the decrepit suspension bridge over a bottomless gorge, the sheer cliff in the dark, those terrorists in the remote cabin, the Army, the helicopter ride, andÖ

This story reminds us what happens if one of God's lambs is lost.

BIG-RIG RUSTLERS Released $10.95 0-9752880-1-6

Todd and Amanda live with their parents in a Midwestern city. The family doesnít go to church. The children are invited to visit their uncle, aunt, and cousin Drew, on their Wyoming ranch over spring break. Todd learns, in a unique way, why stealing is wrong. He decides to choose a new path for his life because of his uncleís Christian example. A band of high-tech cattle rustlers are caught, revealing that Todd was also wrong about Travis, a shadowy character.

Read about the round up, rattlesnake, and rustlers.

THE SECRET OF ABBOTT'S CAVE Released $10.95 0-9752880-0-8

Who are the real heroes in America? Randy and his friends pooled their resources to go cave exploring, discovered the hidden loot from a bank robbery, and learned they weren't heroes at all.

Max Elliot Anderson P.O. Box 4126 Rockford, IL 61110 (815) 877-1514 Mander8813@aol.com

REVIEWS: http://maxbookreviews.blogspot.com/

NEWSPAPER CAPER, TERROR AT WOLF LAKE, NORTH WOODS POACHERS, MOUNTAIN CABIN MYSTERY, BIG RIG RUSTLERS & SECRET OF ABBOTT'S CAVE compared by readers and reviewers to Tom Sawyer, The Hardy Boys, Huck Finn, Nancy Drew, Harry Potter, Tom Swift, Star Wars, Scooby-Doo and others.