3 Books of the Week: Looking for Alaska, Where Things Come Back & We Were Liars

Looking for Alaska by John Green

Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

I’m always trying (but failing) to get my boys to love reading as much as I do.  This year as I packed for our annual beach vacation I decided to choose books that I thought my kids might like instead of my personal preferences.  (Oh the sacrifices we make for our kids!)  My plan was for them to see  me reading  these young adult books therefore piquing their interest enough for them to pick one of them up.   It took me 3 days to finish all 3 and I couldn’t have been happier listening to the waves and soaking up the sun with my head stuffed in these books!  However…my plan didn’t really work.  

First of all I’m a bit of a book sensor mom (gasp!)  There’s a fair amount of teenage sex/drinking/smoking/drugs sprinkled through the three books and although I might not prevent my almost 17 year old from reading them,  I certainly didn’t love any of them enough to BEG him to read them.   I’m steering my middle-schooler clear of them for now.

I require each of them to read one book in June and one in July.   Burger Boy is going to read Looking for Alaska (my fave of the three).   I’m very much looking forward to our discussion.