Ah, Scorch. He’s thisclose to turning 10, assuming we let him. As in- let him survive that long. I have a feeling we’re officially starting to move out of our parenting sweet spot and starting to enter a land full of mood swings, hormones and pure batshit craziness. My sweet, easy going boy has cried more, fought more and come this close to being grounded for life more in the past few weeks then he has since he was 3.

Let’s all say a prayer for the mothers of soon-to-be tweens everywhere, shall we?

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A few months back, we banned all electronics in the morning before school which has been amazing. Not to sound all preachy – but really, it’s made our morning so much easier as I don’t have to wrestle the kids away from a show or game. Scorch normally gets up a lot earlier than the Bean, so he’s been reading like a mad man.  Given what a complete and unabashed bookworm I am, this makes me happier than I can tell you.

The issue is we’re starting to hit a really odd stage where Scorch’s reading ability (roughly 6th-7th grade level) is butting up against his maturity level. He wants to read bigger, better books- but we’re having a hard time finding books that hold his attention while still being age appropriate (no sexual related themes, no crazy violence, no mature topics).

He’s all over the place in what he likes to read. Here are some of Scorch’s recent favorites- if they spark any other ideas about what he may like to read, please let me know!

• I Survived Series: 99% sure he’s devoured all these book and loved each one
• Who Was I/ What Am I? Series: both he and the Bean love these books!
• Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Scorch could not read these books fast enough- begging to stay up late/ getting up early to read them.
• Amulet series: Scorch went through a time when he loved graphic novels and these, hands down, were his favorites.
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: (ugh) I hate these books, but he laughs so hard, I’m afraid he’s going to hurt himself.

Together, we’ve read the first 3.5 books of Harry Potter– midway through Book 4, he started to lose interest as the books just got too old for him. We also read aloud Wonder, which was a big hit. He just finished the first Lemony Snicket book and was not a fan at all.

Any other suggestions? I’m all ears and we’re willing to try just about anything!