May sound off-topic, but...
 

...how do you make a twelve-year-old boy read? I mean, I've tried Hobbit and the short stories Farmer Giles and Smith.

Thanks.

Give him a graphic book like Asterix or Tintin, just tell him it's a giant comic, but there is plenty of reading in there.

Hmmmm, this is kinda off topic....


I'm complety certain Balrogs have wings! Will that do? :p

Other ideas:

What are his interests? If he likes football, get him a book about his favourite team - like the suggestion with the graphic novels, it's a start. He may just get interested, and it works best with a topic he wants to know more about.

Oh, and there's a graphic novel of The Hobbit: great pictures, and enough dialogues and explanations to get him started reading!

Read to him on a long trip - or get the audio books to get him interested. Then stop somewhere in the middle (at a particularly exciting spot!) because there's no more time, and see if he doesn't want to finish it on his own. ;)

Get him to read to you while you're doing something with your hands - maybe you can choose and provide the book, and even if he wants a different one, you're showing interest in him by listening to it.

Personal interest is the best way to entice young people (or older ones!) to read. Your own enthusiasm may be the spark that is needed to get the fire burning. Once they're hooked, you probably won't have to encourage them any longer...

I have to say that I can't see The Hobbit or Farmer Giles being appealing to a contemporary 12 year old. Many boys (and indeed men prefer factual reading) and I think finding stuff with subject matter that already appears is the key.


On the fiction side, I remember a not very academic boy cousin being addicted to the Lemony Snicket "Series of Unfortunate Events" at 12. They are nice and dark and introduce and explain a lot of vocabulary. It takes a while to build the stamina and the ability to get in to longer books so I would suggest going for page turners with that aim in mind even if they are not "great literature" . Another cousin read all the James Bond books at about that age. I read most of Agatha Christie in my preteen years and developed an addiction to detective stories.

Finally I wouldn't try to "make" him to read - youngstock are notoriously contrary beings. Try raiding the library for books that might be possible and forbidding him from reading them on grounds of unsuitability..... ;)

Do you read? Are there books littering your house? Kids pick up on those things.

So far we haven't encountered that problem (it's funny seeing the little one on the couch with a book). Heard that taking turns reading a book of interest can get things going - you read a page, then he reads a page.

We've provided Star Wars (mostly) picture books - literary masterpieces to be sure ;) - to keep things going, and then added a few science books as kids like things that are 'dangerous,' such as lightning, volcanoes and sharks.

Can't wait for any of them to pick up the Hobbit.

Good luck!