Top 5 Books for Bonding with Your 13 Year Old Daughter

By Margaret Finnegan, on August 8th, 2011

[In this new series (idea copped from High Fidelity), our contributors put together a "top 5" list of books on a theme of their choosing. Read other entries in Top 5 Books here, and catch up on other fun series like this on our Special Features page.]

Top 5 Books for Bonding with Your 13 Year Old Daughter

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5. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins

Show that you can bend. Start with the dystopian action adventure she’s been obsessing over for the last year.  Sure, a book about teens battling to the death while a rapt nation watches on TV seems morbid, but there is a sweet little romance that lifts things up, and finally you’ll find something you can agree on: Peeta is way too good for Katniss.

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4. Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi

Now that you’ve proven your “cool” credentials, slide her a copy of this semi-autobiographical graphic novel about a girl growing up during the Iranian Revolution.  Bonus points: You will demonstrate that you actually know what a graphic novel is; She will realize there are worse injustices than having to clean her room.

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3. Maximum Ride, by James Patterson

This one is hard because it is sort of lame and all proceeds benefit the writing industrial complex known as James Patterson. (No one can write that much!)  But young teens really like this story about mutant flying children who battle their evil scientist creators. You’ll get through it.  IT’S NOT ALL ABOUT YOU, AFTER ALL!

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2. The Once and Future King, by T.H. White

Like a certain other wizard-loving book series, this classic novel about King Arthur, Merlin and the Knights of the Round Table starts out silly but gets increasingly dark, and here’s something else you’ll agree on: Arthur is way too good for Guinevere.

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1. Lonesome Dove, by Larry McMurtry

It’s a western, and that may be a hard sell, but emphasize that there is lots of violence.  That will help.  Then show her the actual tome. It’s like twelve pounds. That should seal the deal.  She’ll either see reading it as an opportunity to shame you (because, of course, she will read it way faster than you) or she’ll see the book itself as a potential weapon in the epic Sibling War raging in your home.  Either way, it’s a great read for you, and you did have to read Maximum Ride. You deserve some reward.

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Original Short Fiction: “Creation”

By Margaret Finnegan, on January 10th, 2011

[Original short fiction from the upcoming Chamber Four lit mag, C4. Our first issue is due out this winter; stay tuned for details.]

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The usual geniuses had red and blue first-place ribbons on their science fair boards.  The usual geniuses themselves stood in front of these testimonies to their brilliance and wore the nonchalant confidence of the high achieving.

Willie – not being a usual genius – did not have a ribbon on his board.  Like the rest of the rabble, he stood by his board in lonely silence.  Occasionally, he pulled at the too-large tie his mother made him wear and, when he thought no one was watching, gazed at passing girls.

The mother of a boy he’d played with in elementary school came up to him.  “Willie!  Look how big you’ve grown.  I wouldn’t have known you but for the name on your board.”

“Hello, Mrs. Kleeve.”

“Don’t you love the science fair?  What’s your project?  Show me.”

Willie pointed to a box standing on a table.  The box was full of sand.  In one corner there was a pool of water, and, in another corner, there were some plants that looked like corn.  In a third corner, an earth-colored blob kept banging against the side of the box.

Mrs. Kleeve crinkled her brow in the good-natured way that mothers of usual geniuses do.  “Hmm.  What have we here?”

Willie fiddled with the knot of his tie and looked down at his shoes.  It took all his strength not to melt away like ice cream.  It was just so embarrassing.  His project was so simplistic; he saw that now.  It was something a kindergartner could have done.  No wonder he hadn’t won anything.  “It’s a carbon-based life form,” he said.

Mrs. Kleeve bent down and took a closer look at the blob. “Really?  I haven’t seen one of these in ages.  Very unpredictable, aren’t they?  Still, there’s always something to be learned from them.  What’s your question?”

“Given self awareness and knowledge of its own impermanence, what will a carbon-based life form do?”

“And your conclusion?”

“Bang constantly against the side of a box.” …
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