11 KiB
[Q] media recommendations for eleven-year olds?
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Author: u/pizzahedron *
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URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/3weoml/q_media_recommendations_for_elevenyear_olds/
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Score: 18
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Created: 2015-12-11T18:22:45
Post:
tl;dr any recommendations for young adult rational or rationalist fiction? i would be especially interested in TV shows or films.
i've been hanging out with a couple of eleven year old girls recently (my cousins) and i mentioned (bragged?) that i had read at least three harry potter fan fiction series that were as long as the original series.
and in one of them, harry is a rationalist and does science to magic!
--what's a rationalist?
i sort of flubbed the response, but hoping i can do a bit better since i once saw a dog-eared bible in that house and i want to make sure these kids get many perspectives on life.
so, any recommendations for young adult rational or rationalist fiction? i would be especially interested in TV shows or films, since i have already given each girl a book set this past year (his dark materials, and few neil gaiman books).
edit: wow thanks for all the responses. still exploring them; i think some will become part of my new reading list. and sorry for not being around to respond.
Comments:
u/redrach [+16] (6 hours later)
All the Tiffany Aching books in the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett.
u/Kishoto [+15] (5 hours later)
The Deltora Quest series was pretty good. It wasn't explicitly rationalist, but contained some interesting puzzles in and of itself, and is appropriate for eleven year olds.
The Artemis Fowl books aren't rationalist either, but they do have an intelligent vibe about them, for certain, and is, again, appropriate for eleven year olds. They're very enjoyable.
It's been a while, but Detective Conan is a fairly intelligent anime. It's really just kind of Sherlock Holmes pint sized edition but that doesn't make it bad, I enjoyed it a lot when I was younger. I can't say for certain it's all that age appropriate (the majority of the cases solved are about murders, after all) but it's not all that bad. Very little explicit violence, no sexuality that I can recall, easy to follow, episodic plots, etc.
While not rational, I'll throw in a recommendation for Code Lyoko. Well animated, action packed, while still being very good.
As far as rationality in fiction, I don't believe much of it in the current sphere is suited to eleven year olds. I would never let an eleven year old read HPMOR (Pretty early on, we're privy to Draco talking about raping a ten year old, with Harry providing justification for his viewpoint to the audience. His justification isn't incorrect, nor does it make it right, but it's the sort of complex issue I'd never want to introduce an eleven year old too. Particularly female ones) A lot of rational fiction is, in my opinion, too advanced and/or complex for a sixth grade child. Ironic, considering how Harry complains so much about people censoring things BECAUSE he's eleven, but it's true. A lot of the rational fiction we enjoy on this subreddit deals with themes that I find a little too mature for children. That's just a personal viewpoint I have, and I understand if people feel differently, but I can't see most eleven year olds marveling at Jake's orbital drop plan (other than going "Oh, cool! Explosions!") or at Aro's subtle manipulation of the Volturi (with a little detached vampire bling for flavor)
u/callmebrotherg [+2] now posting as /u/callmesalticidae (10 hours later)
Pretty early on, we're privy to Draco talking about raping a ten year old, with Harry providing justification for his viewpoint to the audience.
Oh. Yeah. I, uh, totally forgot about that bit. Thanks for reminding me, since I've been wondering when to introduce my (much younger, from ten to going-on-fourteen) siblings to HPMOR.
(Maybe double-thanks are in order, since I'd been planning on doing it when I went home for Christmas)
u/Kishoto [+3] (21 hours later)
I would pay to see the discussion you have when your parents sat you down and asked you why little Tommy and Rachel were discussing the ethics of child rape, a la nature vs nurture.
u/MoralRelativity [+2] (a day later)
I just skipped that bit when I was reading it to my then 11 year old.
u/Kishoto [+3] (a day later)
Are there any other parts you skipped?
Also, you read all of HPMOR to your kid?? It's so long!
u/MoralRelativity [+3] (2 days later)
I'm not sure exactly how far we got but I read a heap before he wanted to read it himself and then we discovered /u/embrodski's fabulous podcast and so we have been listening to that together instead. Final episode out very soon, I think!
As far as I can recall there wasn't anything else I wanted to skip. I'm pretty liberal really, I think introducing some adult concepts can lead to interesting questions and discussions. But I actually can't recall anything else in HPMOR that I would consider 'adult' but the depth of the content did lead to some interesting discussions about topics like 'how we know what we know' and the like.
u/gbear605 [+1] history’s greatest story (23 hours later)
Double the rec for Deltora Quest and Code Lyoko (if you can actually find anywhere to watch it)
u/Kishoto [+1] (23 hours later)
Pretty sure the dvd's can be scrounged up. If not, our seafaring friends are always ready to lend a hand.
u/ExiledQuixoticMage [+15] (12 hours later)
Shockingly I appear to have beaten /u/PeridexisErrant to this but the So you want to be a Wizard series by Diane Duane is a pretty solid proto-rationalist YA series. Magic in the series is based on precise language and an understanding of the natural world and to be a wizard you have to take an oath to fight entropy. It also has a nice dusting of various mythologies.
u/PeridexisErrant [+9] put aside fear for courage, and death for life (13 hours later)
I and /u/eaturbrainz endorse this recommendation, and if you can't trust mods of /r/rational (and /r/errantry), why ask?
Two out of three mods agree: Young Wizards are best Wizards!
u/None [+6] (19 hours later)
Seven-year-old tested, eleven-year-old approved! READ IT NAO.
u/xamueljones [+3] My arch-enemy is entropy (a day later)
I'm a little confused. I checked out /r/errantry, but I don't really understand what it's about. Do you mind giving a quick elevator pitch about it?
u/PeridexisErrant [+2] put aside fear for courage, and death for life (a day later)
It's a subreddit for the series above, which mostly posts blog posts or short stories in the universe - because it's a slow update series.
u/None [+1] (a day later)
I checked out /r/errantry[1] , but I don't really understand what it's about.
ROW ROW FIGHT DA LONE POWER.
u/pizzahedron [+1] (4 days later)
i think i am about to order the first in this series...and i should probably test it out first before gifting it. yes.
u/mhd-hbd [+11] Writes 'The World is Your Oyster, The Universe is Your Namesake' (17 hours later)
Steven Universe — it has very constructive messages about emotional matters, tolerance of others, etc. It is not rationalist on a meta level as in "how to develop good habits of thought," but it does provide good habits of thought on an object level, and portray deep and intelligent characters.
u/Colonel_Fedora [+6] Ravenclaw (a day later)
I think this show is incredible for teaching good relationship habits.
u/mhd-hbd [+4] Writes 'The World is Your Oyster, The Universe is Your Namesake' (a day later)
Yes!
u/GaBeRockKing [+9] Horizon Breach: http://archiveofourown.org/works/6785857 (4 hours later)
The rithmatist is YA. It's by Brandon Sanderson, and that's basically all I need to tell you about it.
^^^^edit: ^^^^brian ^^^^to ^^^^brandon
u/brandalizing [+1] Reserve Pigeon Army (5 hours later)
*Brandon Sanderson
u/GaBeRockKing [+1] Horizon Breach: http://archiveofourown.org/works/6785857 (10 hours later)
whoops, derp.
u/ArgentStonecutter [+4] Emergency Mustelid Hologram (21 minutes later)
Don't know any rational movies.
For fiction that applies rationality to magic, I recommend the Incompleat Enchanter series by Pratt and de Camp, and the Lord Darcy series by Randall Garret. They're not explicitly "young adult" but they're definitely safe for kids. About the only reference to adult themes I can think of is when Lord Darcy pretends to be seduced by the Mata Hari expy in "The Ipswitch Phial" and that's all indirect.
u/xamueljones [+3] My arch-enemy is entropy (a day later)
How about Augie and the Green Knight?
It was a Kickstarter project to explicitly write rationalist fiction for young children.
u/boomfarmer [+3] Trying to be helpful (a day later)
Philip Puilman's His Dark Materials trilogy is YA, but it's also got a lot of stuff that only adults will pick up on, which innocent minds will not. It's actually kinda one of the themes of the story. Good choice, that.
Susan Cooper's Dark is Rising sequence sometimes has a female protagonist, and is interesting, but I'm not sure I'd term it rationalist.
Around that time, I was reading Dune, but it's ... well, strange.
u/MoralRelativity [+2] (a day later)
'Dark is Rising' is definitely not rationalist but I absolutely loved it as a kid.
u/nerdguy1138 [+2] GNU Terry Pratchett (4 days later)
The Young wizards series. I've massively enjoyed the first few books, and they're still being written.
High Wizardry blew my mind!
u/Frommerman [+1] (4 days later)
Ender's Game isn't rationalist, but I recommend it to everyone that age. One of the single most important books to kid-me.
u/chaosmosis [+1] and with strange aeons, even death may die (11 days later)
I don't know if they count, but outdoorsy problem solving books like The Hatchet, Rascal, The Swiss Family Robinson, Jack London, seem somewhat rational to me. They're rather applied obviously, but there's a general element of take chargeism and creativity to be learned from these books that I think matches what rational books try to impart.
u/Nighzmarquls [+1] (3 hours later)
Tumble leaf on amazon prime struck me as being very rational.
The phrase "Brussel sprout I figured it out" and the way he works through physical puzzles and resolves physical problems is very much children's TV meets rationalism.
u/Nighzmarquls [+1] (3 hours later)
Actualy sorry that's for a bit of a younger audience but check some of the other amazon catalogue I would not be surprised if there was more in that vein.