Hey! My nephew is 13 yo. He's a lovely, smart boy. He excelled in academics. Even though he's 12, he took iGCSS (Maths, additional maths, and physics) w all A*. A true genius! Yet he's been thru lots of family trauma that breaks my heart. As he's in his early teens, I want to gift him books that can empower him (but doesn't sound like teaching/theoretical/bland boring self help) just so he can enjoy while growing his confidence, self esteem, knowing his self worth and getting excited to explore the world ahead.
Pls give me a list and wee quick few comments on those selected books. Thanks so much!! 😊🙏
by marukobud
2 Comments
I’d suggest *Private Owens: A George Owens Novel*. It follows a boy his age on a journey of responsibility and maturity, but the story is also just really cool, exciting, interesting. *Johnny Tremain* has similar themes. *Swallows and Amazons* is the best book ever.
I mean, it’s hard for me to judge what’s an appropriate book for that age and set of circumstances. I’m pretty far removed from being that age myself and I read a lot of weird stuff at that age ranging from books geared towards 12 year olds up to Shakespeare, and J.D Salinger. When I was a few years older than him I found a lot of comfort and relatability in Catcher in the Rye. In my adult years I found two books I wish I had had around that age because they focus on coming of age as a young man in your teenage years, and both books I found deeply moving and relatable. Those two books are The Perks Of Being A Wallflower and All The Pretty Horses.
Some spoilers in the name of content warnings follow. While all three books are about young boys/ men coming of age around the 15/18 year old range, the subject matter in them is heavy.
All three touch on the subject matter of sexual assault/rape/molestation, and the trauma brought about by it. All The Pretty Horses is the lightest on that particular subject probably as it is mostly implied it happens to side characters in prison.
Catcher contains a scene of underage drinking and attempted solicitation of a prostitute.
Perks has whole chapters and side stories that are probably dicey for a lot of people, like him helping his older sister with getting an abortion in secret and wanting to protect her from her abusive boyfriend, or a whole chunk of time him and his gay best friend are somewhat socially ostracized and go through a phase of underage drinking and him tagging along with his gay friend “cruising” for sex, and also a bit of experimenting himself.
As for violence Perks and Catcher both have scenes of what amounts to emotional fistfights that wrap up quickly. All The Pretty Horses goes quite a bit further. There’s a lot of murder. Mostly by corrupt law enforcement or prisoners in a prison. There’s knife fights and shoot outs. A wonderul chapter where an older woman of importance recounts her young years and her lover who was involved in the revolution and was later quite literally torn apart by a mob of people. None of it is glorified. It’s in fact quite surreal and horrific and the MC is left mentally damaged by even the actions he takes out of pure self defense.
While all that subject matter may be heavy, life is also heavy. I found it nice to have characters I could relate to who were also going through it. My life at that age felt like a literal nightmare I felt like I couldn’t escape from sometimes. My family was fucked up and, things were very hard.
Even as an adult I found a lot of empowerment after reading Perks of Being a Wallflower and it related back to my teenage and early adult experiences better than probably anything I’ve ever read. I think thats the one I would go with. It’s specifically about what it’s like to go through the high school experience. It shows that even a good kid with a loving family can be struggling dealing with past trauma while trying to find his way in life. It’s brutally honest and it pulls no punches. The ending is uplifting and hopeful, though devastatingly emotional as well. I remember seeing the movie in theaters with my older sister after reading the book. By the time the credits rolled my sister and I were both bawling our eyes out and turned to see the ENTIRE theater breaking down crying including a big tough body builder looking guy behind me I kind of just wanted to give a hug to. It’s really really good is my point. I’m gonna be a bit to personal here probably and say that this book and movie actually had a profound impact on me as the year of my life in which I discovered the book was one of the worst. I was at rock bottom, borderline homeless, just out of a terrible toxic relationship, and had developed an addiction to pills and alcohol to numb the pain or life and trauma I had experienced in my teen years. I found this book sitting on my best friends book shelf, I was crashing on her couch at the time, and I was compelled to pick it up and read it. This book did more for my mental health than 3 different therapists and a psychologist could ever begin to. Another book I’m remembering from that period of my life that helped immensely and now that I think about it is another great novel I could suggest would be The Life of Pi.
All these books may have heavy subjects but they also have so much beauty and so much truth about the world and people and our human nature in them. As a fan of poetry I have to say All The Pretty Horses has some of the most beautifully poetic passages I’ve ever read anywhere. It is also like 25% hard untranslated Spanish, so it’s also a bit of a fun learning activity if you’re Spanish isn’t that great lol.
Anyways sorry for rambling forever I hope any of these sound like good suggestions.