There are SO many thrillers out there that don't have such mature content. I think I've read them all and the only one I *might* suggest, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, is one of my least favorites. Some of his are much more age appropriate (although some definitely aren't) and they're every bit as good. "Lisey's Story" was touching, but there's a lot of domestic violence in it, so you'd have to make the call on whether your son could handle that or not. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong on any of that. If I had to pick one to recommend, I'd say "The Green Mile." I don't recall there being too much gore, I don't remember any sex, and the story was beautiful. I still get nervous when I'm alone in bathrooms because of that book. I read it as a child, and it creeped me out for YEARS. Someone mentioned "It" previously, and I'd say definitely cross that one off the maybe list. And that one was so godawful boring that it might be a good one to let him read- he'd probably stop asking for King books for awhile. I love his books, absolutely adore them, but they just aren't appropriate for that age group.Įxcept for the Tom Gordon one. The whole premise of it is something I still think about years later.Īs a few people around here probably have noticed, I'm much more open-minded about stuff like this- especially sex- than the average person, and even I'd have some reservations about letting a 12yo read Stephen King. The Body has a short story within a the story about a boy & his gf & she loses her virginity.Īpt Pupil is one of the most disturbing I've ever read. IT deals with children being killed (and then children killing the evil clown, who isn't like "John Wayne Gacy" - guy dressed up as a clown, but the clown is supernatural), so that could go either way. Gerald's Game is about an abusive husband, so I'd skip that one initially. Salem's Lot is about vampires, Pet Sematary deals with pets (and then later a young boy) coming back to life (so sort of zombies, but not exactly). I kind of like King's stories that involve a good government conspiracy. I don't remember if there's sex in Firestarter. "The Long Walk" is a probably 12 year old acceptable short story - it's largely psychological, but it is about boys about that age, so it could go either way. There's a prison "e-p.a*r" scene in that (I reversed the letters and added some symbols). Not "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption" (it's a short story). If you decide to let your child read The Stand by King (post-apocalyptic), you could make it a literary lesson by comparing it to McCammon's Swan Song. His most recent books are set in the US at the time of the Revolution and feature a serial killer being tracked by a law clerk. I've been reading his stuff since I was a young teen, and I am still a functional member of society.Ī similar author is Robert McCammon. You could check individual books and short stories there and see what you find acceptable. So, while that one story ("The Body") might be okay, the rest of the book probably isn't.įor what it's worth, you can find pretty detailed descriptions of most of King's books on Wikipedia. That's part of the Different Seasons collection that also includes "Shawshank" described above and "Apt Pupil" which is about a teen who sort of befriends a Nazi in hiding and then starts killing people himself. "Stand By Me" (the movie) is based on King's novella "The Body" - another story that has teenagers as the protagonists. These are wonderfully realized characters, and again, we are fully immersed in their sense of righteous grievance with the world. They feel hopelessly inadequate, but they know they have no choice, so they do it. In both It and The Talisman, adults are oblivious to a danger only the kids are able to see, and therefore, they have the burden of saving the world. Other Resources for Learning Challenges.Resources (and Curricula) for Processing Difficulties.
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