Sharing Books with my Boy & Books for Tweens and Younger Teens

As I read the Happy Hooligan's blog post about reading to her boys along with  a list of their favourite books, I was hit with a wall of nostalgia that left me sad and on the verge of a depression episode.

As much as I adored reading to them when they were toddlers and little boys, for me, it got better and better as they got older!  We’d dive into these great chapter books, and tackle trilogies and series’, and just get lost in them for an hour or more every night. Read More...  

My favourite memory was when I'd cuddle up with the kids in my queen size bed and we'd take turns reading chapters of our latest book until we fell asleep. My son is now 16 and the idea of snuggling up with his mom for any reason is the stuff of horror stories.

One of the main conflicts within my novel THIRTEEN is the struggle between Jack and his mom. He wants to be his own person and his mom isn't ready to let him grow up yet. Every child grows up before their mothers are ready for them to. One day he's a little boy the next.... It's world war three.


I wrote this post, Getting Older - Cutting the Strings is So hard, on my raising siblings blog around the time I was considering writing a novel about a boy surviving war.

My son is getting older and it is so frustrating because I am having a hard time with the distance he's putting between us.  I am beginning to understand how obsolete technology must feel.  I know he doesn't mean to be mean but it still hurts just the same when he tells me he doesn't need me anymore.   

I look at him and see a young man where a boy used to be.  I wonder where all the time went and why I didn't hang on to every second of every moment with him.  I was distracted at times by work, friends, TV, books, and the internet while he was growing up.  I remember his baby years better than the last 5 years, his primary school years where friends grew more important than mom.  I long for those wonderful years when I was the only person in his world. Read More....

Has your son or daughter grown up sooner than you would have liked? Share your experiences in the comment section. Any tips for parents whose kids are becoming tweens or teens? 

If your child is still small enough to want to cuddle up with you... Click here to find out what 40 books for boys 8-16 Happy Hooligans recommends. 

About my son when he was 10 and pulling away from me.

Click here to discover the books my son and I shared together. 

Shannon Peel is the mother of two wonderful teenagers who live with her in South Surrey, BC Canada. 

She is the author of THIRTEEN a book about a boy trying to figure out who he is in a world that has turned upside down. She drew from her own conflict with her son and his personality to write the story.

THIRTEEN is her debut full size paperback novel.

Click to go to her website.

Grade 5 Boys Who is this kid?

Ever wake up and think who is this boy and where did he come from?  For me, Grade 5 was one of those moments.

Grade 5 is that time when children start caring about friends, brand names, and fitting in. My son's fears about making new friends and not fitting in has made this glaringly clear, so much so I feel like I am a bad mother.  

My 10 year old son, my precious baby, is very outgoing, extremely extroverted and makes friends easily. His personality is usually a magnet to other boys who constantly find themselves at our doorstep. It is not unusual for him to bring home a new friend he met at the park or just outside our door. It's his energy, his sense of humour, and his attitude that attract many different types of boys to orbit around him waiting for his attention. At times he gets overwhelmed and shuts the door for alone time to recharge his batteries from the drain of others demands. This is why I didn't worry about him when we decided to move.  

This summer there was a change in him, he became worried about fitting in, what others thought about him, carrying about brand names and interests. He began to hide his magnetic personality Read more...

Well the good news is we got through it and we survived Grade 5. The bad news, he never did revert back to the little boy I once knew and has continued to pull away from me, become more secretive, and more independent.

Boys are different than girls because it is in their DNA to leave the family and become men. No matter what mothers do, they will still automatically start to pull away and continue to do so until they move out.

I drew from my own struggle with my son when I wrote THIRTEEN.


Is your boy 10?
How has he changed?
More about how we survived Grade 5.
Share your thoughts on how your son has changed in the comments below.
Post from when he was 13 and pulled away more, inspiring me to write THIRTEEN

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 Shannon Peel is the author of THIRTEEN and is currently working on Book 2 in the series about a boy, his mom, a cop, and an invading army. She has brought war to a North American town to answer the question, what if it happened here?

Click to visit her website.