I bought my niece a Kindle that just arrived and I'm about to load it up with books to give it to her tomorrow for her birthday. I've decided to be a sneaky uncle and include good books that can teach better abilities to think or at least to consider science cool and interesting. She is currently in the 4th Grade with 5th coming after the Summer.
She reads basically at her own grade level so while I'm open to stuffing the Kindle with books to be read when she's ready, I'd like to focus on giving her books she can read now. Ender's Game will be on there most likely. Game of Thrones will not.
What books would you give a youngling? Her interests currently trend toward the young mystery section, Hardy Boys and the like, but in my experience she is very open to trying new books with particular interest in YA fantasy but not much interest in Sci Fi (if I'm doing any other optimizing this year, I'll try to change her opinion on Sci Fi).
His message was unforced in the first book, occasionally clumsy in the second, and completely and utterly anvilicious in the third, to the point where it obliterated all pretense of narrative or character development.
I always feel a sense of what almost feels like betrayal when I read these kinds of books -- be it by Pullman, or Ursula LeGuin, or Neal Stephenson. Here is an author who obviously can write extremely well, based on his past works; and yet he chooses to write poorly as a tradeoff, in order to push his message... But there was no need for a tradeoff ! Writing is not a zero-sum game !