"The Great Brain" came out after I'd gotten into "The Adventures of Tom Swift, Jt." and "The Hardy Boys," so I didn't know it, and offered my sons the books I knew. It is available on Amazon, so I might buy it for my grandsons.
The Second-wave-feminism-inspired changes to education also affected the way school assignments were designed. I very much remember a back-to-school assignment my second son was given regarding one of the assigned summer reading books. It mentioned an action taken by one of the characters and asked, "How do you feel about that?"
"How do you feel about that?" is not a question to ask a young boy. I suggested that he could answer, "I feel hungry about it." A better question for a boy would be "Was he right? Defend your answer." That would get a long response from many boys, but feelings? That's a foreign language. Fortunately, when I contacted the teacher, she told my son to ignore it and gave him a different prompt.
It's not just about complex narratives: boys focus on very different things, and when everything is phrased in girl language, boys will be lost.
Great points, thank you. Note that the series you referenced is available thru Amazon and Barnes and Noble, so there is lots of hope for young readers.
The most baffling mystery of the late 20th and early 21st Centuries will always be why we let so many militant idiots contaminate and ruin our education system. It has become a morass that devalued education in favor of indoctrination, seems incapable of teaching even basic skills, spiraling costs, bloated bureaucracy and militant unions. Teaching techniques, procedures and courses of instruction that worked for generations were jettisoned in favor of ones that are utter failures and serve no one but the unions (and our enemies?).
Excellent recommendation! We listened to The Great Brain on a road trip and it was laugh out loud funny. My boys were already readers, but as you pointed out, it was a lot of the dystopian or fantasy series. We unfortunately had to slog through an early reader phase of Captain Underpants. Torture for me, but they loved it.
I’m glad parents contact you for math curriculum advice. I didn’t homeschool them but I probably would now. What I HATED about their math was that they made math into English. Frequent common core math assignments had questions to explain their process or understanding in words. When you can do math and numbers are fun and it all is clean and makes sense, writing sentences about it feels completely inane. I feel like many current math systems cripple both boys and girls.
I don't know about the US, but in the UK for literally decades white, working class boys have been the demographic that does worst at schools and no one cares, because it's the "wrong" narrative. If it was black boys or any girls, it would be different, of course.
I was a precocious and enthusiastic reader (still am), plus am getting on for middle-aged, so maybe not the best person to answer, but I loved genre stories: science fiction, adventure and mysteries in particular. My experience was not that "most children’s books are complex interpersonal narratives written by women" -- I suspect this is relatively recent phenomenon. Scour second-hand shops and libraries with old stock (in the UK, libraries seem to renew stock very frequently, which is not always a good thing). There seemed to be a number of books like this aimed at older children.
I hadn't heard of the Great Brain stories before (possibly they wouldn't travel well), so I'm not 100% sure what age range we're talking, but I spent much of my older childhood reading Doctor Who novelisations. I'm not sure I would recommend them now -- although some of the old novels have been republished on the back of the current series, many are out of print and can cost a lot second-hand, plus the novelisations of new (twenty-first century) stories are full of trans stuff. Avoid the new ones! (This is part of the reason I don't watch new Doctor Who any more.) But if you can get the old novelisations and steer kids away from the new ones, they're great.
Roald Dahl was a racist and antisemite, but I enjoyed his books (my wife definitely does not, though). Lewis Carroll is probably too difficult as a starter read, but I don't think the Narnia books or The Hobbit are too hard for late-primary school children.
With the help of ChatGPT, I've dragged from my memory the Mr Browser books by Phillip Curtis that I used to read -- similar in style to Doctor Who. The first book is Mr Browser and the Brain Sharpeners.
I will try to remember anything else from my childhood.
I used to read "Star Trek" (the original series) and ST's animated series novelizations. It's not Shakespeare, but adaptations seem like good "bridges" for young readers.
I also liked Dahl's "James and the Giant Peach" and the very un-PC "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". Also recommended: The Chronicles of Prydain (book series) by Lloyd Alexander, the Earthsea Cycle (6 books) by Ursula LeGuin, "Have Space Suit - Will Travel" by Robert Heinlein, "The Time Machine" by H.G. Wells.
If an older middle-schooler is so inclined, I'd recommend "Animal Farm" by George Orwell, "Call of the Wild" by Jack London, The Lord of the Rings series, "The Lord of Flies" by William Golding, the Witch World (Estcarp cycle) series by Andre Norton, "Star Wars: Master and Apprentice" by Claudia Gray (but skip the more recent High Republic Star Wars books to avoid Woke).
I think The Time Machine might be a bit difficult for inexperienced readers, but I would definitely recommend it for somewhat more experienced ones and also The War of the Worlds by the same author.
I love The Great Brain series so much. I am a Mormon who has lived all my life in Utah, and even as a kid I felt like they were books that were set in and understood my world (even if the setting was 150 years ago).
But even more than that, it's the humor of the stories and the character of Tom that make the books work. The stories are often so, so funny (though sometimes poignant and honest about sorrow). And Tom is just something else. There are times where he's just a conniving, schemer. And there are times when he's truly heroic and selfless. And most of the time he's just trying to swindle people out of their money, and if he can do it by being good, well that's a cost he can bear.
My favorite stories are often when JD, the younger brother who is most often the victim of Tom's schemes, tries to be like his older brother—because, as the younger brother, JD can't help but idolize Tom.
I recommend the Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling. The author is out of favor in the West. The stories are short. Most of the characters are “of infinite resource and sagacity”. They are all beautifully written.
_The Butterfly that Stamped_ is hysterically funny. Also it’s politically incorrect.
The Sing Song of Old Man Kangaroo reads like a lyric poem.
Also, for slightly older boys, try O. Henry short stories. Critics pretend to look down on them for their twist endings.
Thanks Holly. I bought the first 3 books in the series from Amazon. We have a lot of young families in our church and I think it would make a great gift as the start of a lending library for the school that we just completed building.
AbeBooks.com has over 500 new and used Great Brain books available now, many under $5. A relative newcomer, @RACONTEURPRESS, has a Books for Boys series going. Their first two releases, "Storm Dragon" and "Boy's Own Starship," are outstanding.
"The Great Brain" came out after I'd gotten into "The Adventures of Tom Swift, Jt." and "The Hardy Boys," so I didn't know it, and offered my sons the books I knew. It is available on Amazon, so I might buy it for my grandsons.
The Second-wave-feminism-inspired changes to education also affected the way school assignments were designed. I very much remember a back-to-school assignment my second son was given regarding one of the assigned summer reading books. It mentioned an action taken by one of the characters and asked, "How do you feel about that?"
"How do you feel about that?" is not a question to ask a young boy. I suggested that he could answer, "I feel hungry about it." A better question for a boy would be "Was he right? Defend your answer." That would get a long response from many boys, but feelings? That's a foreign language. Fortunately, when I contacted the teacher, she told my son to ignore it and gave him a different prompt.
It's not just about complex narratives: boys focus on very different things, and when everything is phrased in girl language, boys will be lost.
Astute. The Swallows and Amazons series by British author Arthur Ransome was a favorite among my kids, and has been popular across many generations.
Great points, thank you. Note that the series you referenced is available thru Amazon and Barnes and Noble, so there is lots of hope for young readers.
The most baffling mystery of the late 20th and early 21st Centuries will always be why we let so many militant idiots contaminate and ruin our education system. It has become a morass that devalued education in favor of indoctrination, seems incapable of teaching even basic skills, spiraling costs, bloated bureaucracy and militant unions. Teaching techniques, procedures and courses of instruction that worked for generations were jettisoned in favor of ones that are utter failures and serve no one but the unions (and our enemies?).
It’s tempting to blame Soviet agents of influence. I suspect we’re more than capable of such stupidity all on our own.
Excellent recommendation! We listened to The Great Brain on a road trip and it was laugh out loud funny. My boys were already readers, but as you pointed out, it was a lot of the dystopian or fantasy series. We unfortunately had to slog through an early reader phase of Captain Underpants. Torture for me, but they loved it.
I’m glad parents contact you for math curriculum advice. I didn’t homeschool them but I probably would now. What I HATED about their math was that they made math into English. Frequent common core math assignments had questions to explain their process or understanding in words. When you can do math and numbers are fun and it all is clean and makes sense, writing sentences about it feels completely inane. I feel like many current math systems cripple both boys and girls.
I don't know about the US, but in the UK for literally decades white, working class boys have been the demographic that does worst at schools and no one cares, because it's the "wrong" narrative. If it was black boys or any girls, it would be different, of course.
I was a precocious and enthusiastic reader (still am), plus am getting on for middle-aged, so maybe not the best person to answer, but I loved genre stories: science fiction, adventure and mysteries in particular. My experience was not that "most children’s books are complex interpersonal narratives written by women" -- I suspect this is relatively recent phenomenon. Scour second-hand shops and libraries with old stock (in the UK, libraries seem to renew stock very frequently, which is not always a good thing). There seemed to be a number of books like this aimed at older children.
I hadn't heard of the Great Brain stories before (possibly they wouldn't travel well), so I'm not 100% sure what age range we're talking, but I spent much of my older childhood reading Doctor Who novelisations. I'm not sure I would recommend them now -- although some of the old novels have been republished on the back of the current series, many are out of print and can cost a lot second-hand, plus the novelisations of new (twenty-first century) stories are full of trans stuff. Avoid the new ones! (This is part of the reason I don't watch new Doctor Who any more.) But if you can get the old novelisations and steer kids away from the new ones, they're great.
Roald Dahl was a racist and antisemite, but I enjoyed his books (my wife definitely does not, though). Lewis Carroll is probably too difficult as a starter read, but I don't think the Narnia books or The Hobbit are too hard for late-primary school children.
With the help of ChatGPT, I've dragged from my memory the Mr Browser books by Phillip Curtis that I used to read -- similar in style to Doctor Who. The first book is Mr Browser and the Brain Sharpeners.
I will try to remember anything else from my childhood.
I used to read "Star Trek" (the original series) and ST's animated series novelizations. It's not Shakespeare, but adaptations seem like good "bridges" for young readers.
I also liked Dahl's "James and the Giant Peach" and the very un-PC "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". Also recommended: The Chronicles of Prydain (book series) by Lloyd Alexander, the Earthsea Cycle (6 books) by Ursula LeGuin, "Have Space Suit - Will Travel" by Robert Heinlein, "The Time Machine" by H.G. Wells.
If an older middle-schooler is so inclined, I'd recommend "Animal Farm" by George Orwell, "Call of the Wild" by Jack London, The Lord of the Rings series, "The Lord of Flies" by William Golding, the Witch World (Estcarp cycle) series by Andre Norton, "Star Wars: Master and Apprentice" by Claudia Gray (but skip the more recent High Republic Star Wars books to avoid Woke).
Yes, I read a couple of the Star Trek books.
How did I forget Earthsea?!
I think The Time Machine might be a bit difficult for inexperienced readers, but I would definitely recommend it for somewhat more experienced ones and also The War of the Worlds by the same author.
I love The Great Brain series so much. I am a Mormon who has lived all my life in Utah, and even as a kid I felt like they were books that were set in and understood my world (even if the setting was 150 years ago).
But even more than that, it's the humor of the stories and the character of Tom that make the books work. The stories are often so, so funny (though sometimes poignant and honest about sorrow). And Tom is just something else. There are times where he's just a conniving, schemer. And there are times when he's truly heroic and selfless. And most of the time he's just trying to swindle people out of their money, and if he can do it by being good, well that's a cost he can bear.
My favorite stories are often when JD, the younger brother who is most often the victim of Tom's schemes, tries to be like his older brother—because, as the younger brother, JD can't help but idolize Tom.
I recommend the Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling. The author is out of favor in the West. The stories are short. Most of the characters are “of infinite resource and sagacity”. They are all beautifully written.
_The Butterfly that Stamped_ is hysterically funny. Also it’s politically incorrect.
The Sing Song of Old Man Kangaroo reads like a lyric poem.
Also, for slightly older boys, try O. Henry short stories. Critics pretend to look down on them for their twist endings.
_The Ransom of Red Chief_ is good for a laugh.
I also recommend the memoir series by Ralph Moody that starts with “Father and I Were Ranchers.”
Thanks Holly. I bought the first 3 books in the series from Amazon. We have a lot of young families in our church and I think it would make a great gift as the start of a lending library for the school that we just completed building.
AbeBooks.com has over 500 new and used Great Brain books available now, many under $5. A relative newcomer, @RACONTEURPRESS, has a Books for Boys series going. Their first two releases, "Storm Dragon" and "Boy's Own Starship," are outstanding.
https://raconteurpress.substack.com/p/open-call-for-boys-adventure