good 1st time read for an 11-year old?

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Tim D.

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Jan 15, 2013
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It's that avatar picture - pretty creeepy - do you have "mother" issues?

6a00d8341c57f753ef013489b55791970c-pi

Not anymore.:dribble:
 

JoannHBuchanan

Well-Known Member
May 20, 2014
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I am looking for suggestions on what would be a good first time read for my 11-year old. I am an avid fan and have read all Stephen King books, and one of my children would like to start their journey as well. My question..... which one would be most appropriate given my child's age? Thinking of adult content and language here. Thanks for any suggestions!
I have to go with The Eyes of the Dragon or Talisman. Both are fantasy driven books intelligently written, filled with amazing details and a good ending. Talisman he wrote with Peter Straub and it's amazing. Also if you are looking for another good book series, try Tales of a Fourth Grade Noting and Superfudge...omg to this day they are hilarious! Then there is always the Harry Potter series.

Stephen King isn't known for writing books for that age group but I loved them at that age. Pet Cemetery was one of my first King books along with the Eyes of the Dragon.
 

Ana Moody

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May 21, 2014
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I think that beyond the scary, nasty, fantasy themes and ugly words is more, more than a kid can comprehend. And SK is not appropriate for children.
This is just my opinion, I don't know much about kids, but I know a little about SK's books and about the truth he writes. Every work of him is not just something scary or impressive because of his sick and sinister characters, it is also something real, full of hope and trust in humanity and power of good, something that touches you, it is the everyday drama sometimes. This is just too much for kids.
Anyway...what I always keep in mind is what Halloran told to Danny, something like: the world is a cruel place, it doesn't hate you or me, but it doesn't love us either. good people die tormented, misfortunes happen. but all you have to do is keep your faith and your love pure and move on... maybe this is a lesson somebody should learn young, but this doesn't mean that an 11 years old should read Shinnig.
Everybody told about the Eyes of the Dragon..I know he wrote that for his daughter, so it might be good.
 
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mal

content
Jun 23, 2007
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I watched the Mist movie with my Grandkids and, although there were a few graphic swear words in it, it was still fun to watch. By fun I mean the scary parts were offset by my foreshadowing of the ending. When the surprise ending finally came, and they saw it along with my previous commentary, we had the biggest laugh I've ever had with those kids. They have asked to see the ending at least a dozen times since then.
 
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Rrty

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Jun 4, 2007
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Mal, funny you say that about The Mist, I actually thought it was pretty scary and disturbing. Haven't seen it in a while, but the tone was more serious, if I recall, not light like Iron Man or something like that (not that I've seen Iron Man).

I didn't go through the whole thread, and I'm not sure if this is a good suggestion for the age mentioned or not, but I would have to assume Night Shift might be a possibility. The stories are simple exercises in commercial storytelling (for the most part), and as far as language goes, I assume any child these days, in the era of age compression, has heard it all before.
 

chief4db

When it doubt, run!
Feb 11, 2015
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Why not the towers. Today's kids are not like when I grew up in the 80s. And we were not like the kids who grew up in 50s. Be cool to read the towers as a kid and how view it then re read for sure as an adult.
 
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Machine's Way

“Go then, there are other worlds than these.”
Jul 13, 2009
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I have to agree with everyone that picked Eyes of the Dragon. I would be interested to hear what you choose. I have a couple young ones I want to get into King and I always had EOTD picked at the starter book.
 
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muskrat

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Nov 8, 2010
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Under your bed
What, no Cycle of the Werewolf? That was my first, I was probably eight or so. Great little starter book for blossoming Constant Readers. Oh sure, a couple of Bernie Wrightson's illustrations are pretty gory, but no worse than a good vintage copy of The Haunt of Fear or Vault of Horror.

Gave a copy to my boy, when he was about ten--he flipped thru the pages, looked at the pictures, said, "Cool", then went back to blowing away gangsters in Grand Theft Auto Five. Sigh...
 

dragondrool

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May 11, 2015
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I think The Eyes of the Dragon. I wasn't much older when I read Cujo, though one should be cautious about the adultery bit. Not all kids would be able to handle that.
 
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