Ender’s Game question

No, the book is fine. The hysteria raised here is based only on the authors personal belief and not the novel he wrote. Its a good read, I would recommend I to my nieces and nephews.

Don't stop him or her! I think this book helped me survive 6th grade. (Those of you who have read it, don't think too hard about that)

It depends on your son. I read Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth books (the ones that were then available anyway) when I was 11, and they are quite violent. Read a lot of classic fantasy at that age. Dad was OK with it because he decided I was mature enough. I would give this to the right 11 year old.

Honestly, I kind of think that 11 years old is very close at least to the age Card was looking for in the book (not that older or even adult readers can't enjoy the book too). The age and experiences of Ender would probably make the book very relatable to him, actually. It's just a question of whether or not your son would enjoy the writing style.

should be fine

I'm thinking maybe 13 and up. Many youngsters can tackle books on a reading level well beyond their years, but the content may be too strong or suggestive for them to handle, even when it is well-written. Why expose kids to that? No one knows your son better than you -- if you are doubting the appropriateness of this or any other book, you probably should wait a while.

That's the age when I read it, and I loved it so, so much! I reread it three years later for the movie and realized I missed some of the content because of my immaturity, but I think 11 is fine as long as you're not aiming for perfect.

Goes good with html and algebra, yea.

Heather wrote: "My 11 yr. old son wants to read this book. Is he too young? I forget the violence level. Common Sense Media suggests ages 12 and up. Other opinions?"

He'll be fine.

I read this book when I was 8 (same year I read The Hobbit and White Fang). It's fine for your 11 year old.

We read this as required reading in my 6th grade class, almost everyone was 11 or 12.

As someone's whose reading choices were never restricted by her parents, I say let the 11 year old read what he wants. Ender's Game is a one of my all time favorite books and I frequently recommend it and give it as a gift to all ages.

My daughter read it at 8, so your 11 year old son should be fine.

Heather wrote: "My 11 yr. old son wants to read this book. Is he too young? I forget the violence level. Common Sense Media suggests ages 12 and up. Other opinions?"
I read this book when I was 11, because I felt like it. I thought it was amazing and very thought-provoking. I believe that it would be a very good learning experience for your child, and a good perspective for him to experience. As someone basically put in an enrichment program, it was interesting to read about a character in a similar place, and the thought of a child genius was a bit of a driver for my motivation to impress teachers and the like.

I don't think it's so much a question of the violence - there is some, and also some bad language, but I think it might be a bit over the head of an 11 year old because a lot of the book that deals with Ender's sibblings deals with politics and philosophy (all of this was cut from the movie). I personally read it when I was 13 in an Honors English class and we had to have a lot of the "Locke and Demosthenes" stuff explained to us.

No I don't think so.
is a wonderful story.
And Ender seems to have a good grasp of what is right and what is wrong and what the consequences are for whatever choice you make.
But then again, if my children willingly want to read instead of watching TV or playing on their tablet/ipad or video games, I would let them.
I love books, and I was ecstatic when my mother allowed me the freedom to read whatever I wanted.
Although in retrospect, I wish she kept me from reading , that traumatized me for a while. But if she didn't I wouldn't have had the pleasure of or .

One of the pluses to this book is seeing how Ender deals with his brother Peter's bullying. I don't know how much of this your child would understand, but seeing that Ender doesn't just run away but also doesn't go into physical attack could be a positive experience. I personally did not enjoy the book but for the anti-bullying stance.

Well, I'm one of those people who think OSC isn't the kind of person I'd recommend, and I'm confident that despite the arguments of many of his readers that his politics don't appear in his work, those ideas are all over Ender's Game.

That said, an eleven-year-old could probably handle it. There's an awful lot of "bathroom humor" in the book, and some not-so-cool homoeroticism, but I don't think an 11-year-old would really get the latter, so it probably isn't a problem. There is some violence, and some of it is not really appropriate for a child, but that's something of a judgement call. There's certainly nothing one couldn't see on public television (though probably not featuring children so prominently.)

So, eleven? That might be a smidge young for the theme, but not necessarily for the content, if you take my meaning. That depends on the kid, of course, but an "average" kid of that age could probably handle it.