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Brandon Mull, author of 15 New York Times Bestsellers, discusses what makes good teen fiction books. He also shares what he's learned about how to get teens reading for fun while giving thousands of free lectures in schools around the country.
Full show notes
When we read a book, we allow ourselves and our minds to go on a unique journey. We give ourselves the ability to experience perspectives we’ve never known or thought about before. We form attachments to people and places beyond the scope of our understanding. Overall, we learn more about ourselves and the world just by sitting down and cracking open a paperback.
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Full show notes
When we read a book, we allow ourselves and our minds to go on a unique journey. We give ourselves the ability to experience perspectives we’ve never known or thought about before. We form attachments to people and places beyond the scope of our understanding. Overall, we learn more about ourselves and the world just by sitting down and cracking open a paperback.
That’s why helping kids learn to love reading is important. Finding Good teen fiction books to read provides them a chance to expand their imaginations and views without even leaving their homes! Additionally, reading is a great tool to develop creative thinking, literary skills, and focus among young people.
However, in our modern world saturated with visual media, it’s challenging to find good teen fiction books to read. Society doesn’t really encourage teens to explore the written word anymore. Young people are much more likely to spend time on Tik Tok, Youtube and Netflix than browsing the shelves at the library or eBook store. How can we convince them to take the time to enjoy a good novel when there’s millions of hours of content available to stream at any moment?
Our guest today, Brandon Mull, is here to talk about how we can get kids reading again. He’s written fifteen--that’s right, fifteen--New York Times bestselling books, and many are suggested books for teens. His most popular book series, Fablehaven, has sold millions and millions of copies all over the world. Also, he’s made it his purpose to teach young people about the value of reading, by touring schools for four months out of every year to hold free assemblies.
“Tipping Point” Books
Brandon talks about how when he was young, he had a big imagination, but didn’t always know what to do with it. He never really liked to read, until he discovered The Chronicles of Narnia. The fantastical world and vivid characters captured his interest, and he was hooked. From then on, reading became his favorite activity, until he decided to pick up the pen and go at it himself.
Brandon stresses the idea of a sort of “tipping point” book that can turn kids into readers. Although teens might not really seem to enjoy reading, they may not have found a book that really appeals to them. Finding good teen fiction books to read that excite and invigorate them can take them from being entirely disinterested in reading to seeing some merit in it. This could lead them to pick up another book, and another after that. They might even fall in love with the written word and become avid readers!
Although Narnia was the tipping point for Brandon, it’s important to understand that every kid is different and they won’t all enjoy reading the same suggested books for teens. Brandon is a fantasy writer, and he celebrates the ability of fantasy to connect to lots of readers. That’s because fantasy is exciting and captures the imagination, he says, but also because of the mainstream success of franchises like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. If a kid is interested in planes, animals, or dinosaurs, however, they might not find fantasy appealing at all!
As a parent, if we can take the time to learn exactly what it is that our kids are passionate about, we can help them find good teen fiction books to read that’ll develop an interest in reading that lasts a lifetime.
Reading Keeps Imagination Alive
Finding good teen fiction books to read can help kids form lifelong relationships with their imaginations. They’ll be happier and more well rounded individuals that continue into adult life with a sense of creativity. One problem Brandon really tries to combat in his work is the loss of time for imagination and creativity as people get older. Our lives become busy and our priorities change, making it difficult for us to make time for things we used to enjoy.
For example, when Brandon visits a school, he usually asks kids if they enjoy creative activities like drawing. Among late elementary school students, almost 80% will say they enjoy these activities. When he asks high school students, only about 10% respond saying they still partake.
We want our kids to grow up and become innovators, entrepreneurs, and game changers. Getting kids to read a wide variety of suggested books for teens allows them to explore their imagination and creativity. They’ll grow up to be people who dream big and see the world in a unique way. If not, they’ll never find ways to challenge the norm, to think outside of the box.
As Brandon says, when we read, we generate brilliant interpretations of the written word. He explains that you often read a book, imagine it in your head, and then find the movie adaptation to be disappointing. This means that you have the power to create stories in your head that are more entertaining as those created by acclaimed directors with budgets of millions.
Life Lessons
Books use fictional places and characters to explore themes that teach important lessons to young people. Brandon explains how fiction allows him to create worlds and characters that help him express the themes he wants to share. As parents, encouraging our kids to read suggested books for teens allow them to think about their lives in constructive ways.
For example, the two main characters of his Fablehaven series both experience character arcs, or personal journeys, but they grow in different ways. The books tell the story of two siblings, Kendra and Seth, after they happen upon a magical world in their grandparents’ garden. Kendra, a very careful and cautious person, is constantly learning that sometimes in life, you have to take risks. Simultaneously, her more free-spirited brother, Seth, is learning that he sometimes needs to have a plan and practice caution. As these two characters grow and evolve, they are constantly understanding themselves, each other, and the world on new levels.
No matter which character young readers identify with, seeing these two contracting ways of growing can help kids see that we all have different personalities and struggles and that’s ok. Everyone is dealing with different things in life, but that doesn’t stop us from always improving and continuing to work on ourselves.
Family Bonding
Not only do suggested books for teens help your child develop a rich inner world, but they can also be a reason for you and your teenager to spend time together. Reading together in the evenings or listening to books on audio during long road trips is one of the ways Brandon says families often enjoy his books.
He explains how sharing these fictional worlds with your family members can provide a way for you to talk about serious issues with your children. By using the fictional universe as a kind of shared language with your kids, you can discuss real world problems without making things too intense or intimidating.
For example, in Brandon’s series, The Beyonders, he writes about a world in which the villains attempt to take down the heroes, not through violence, but through public humiliation or discredition. Instead of pointing fingers at real life individuals, Brandon is using storytelling to comment on how people often treat one another without decency, especially in the media. He shows how we can sometimes hurt each other, even without violence.
All these thoughts of finding good teen fiction books to read and more are explored in today’s episode. Brandon’s belief in the importance of books and his commitment to spreading literacy are truly inspiring! In the episode we cover:
- How to get kids to open up to the idea of reading
- Why kids are encouraged to stop being creative as they get older
- The importance of hard work and perseverance as a working writer
- The prevalence of good vs. evil in fantasy writing and how it helps teens understand their moral compass
We hope you enjoy listening. If you want to find suggested books for teens and learn more about Brandon's writing, check out www.brandonmull.com!
Creators & Guests
What is Talking To Teens: Expert Tips for Parenting Teenagers?
Parent-teen researcher Andy Earle talks with various experts about the art and science of parenting teenagers. Find more at www.talkingtoteens.com
Andy: I have read a copy of this book here, Wrath of the Dragon King.
Brandon: Oh, yeah. The newest one.
Andy: Yeah, yeah. So that was fun. Then I've also been told that you're a big advocate into literacy.
Brandon: For sure, yes. It's the doing-some-good part of my job.
Andy: Okay. All right. So can we talk a little bit just about this? This is the Fablehaven series, but you've been doing this for a while. How does this fit into the course of your writing career here?
Brandon: Well, my writing career started with Fablehaven. Fablehaven is a five book series about a brother and sister who discovered their grandparents are the caretakers of the secret wildlife park for magical creatures.
Andy: Right.
Brandon: I wrote that from 2006 to 2010. It was a five book series, I was writing a book a year. After I finished it, some years later, I saw an opportunity to return to that same story world and those same main characters, and create a whole new adventure for them, which will be the five Dragonwatch books.
Andy: Okay. I got you.
Brandon: As I toured the country sharing my books with people, one of the main things I try to do is get kids reading and creating. The primary way I do that is through assemblies. I visited over 2,000 schools around the country and sometimes around the world.
Andy: Wow, that is cool.
Brandon: I kind of work like a cheerleader for reading and literacy, and stuff.
Andy: Okay. Are we talking about elementary schools, public schools, or how do you set all this up?
Brandon: Upper grade elementary is the most frequent.
Andy: Yeah, okay.
Brandon: Next would be middle school, and next would be high school. I had to visit all those schools. Probably 95% of the visits I do, are at no cost. Occasionally a big private school, or a public school with some great funding, or an international school, will book me to come for an extended period of time and teach workshops. That's usually when I'm getting paid. But otherwise it's tends to be when I'm out on a book tour and those visits are all free. I've been touring for my books for the past 13 years or so. Probably averaging about four months a year on tour, which is-
Andy: Wow.
Brandon: … way more than most authors. It's an uncommon amount of school visits I've done.
Andy: That's really cool though. I would be interested in a few things, like what you've noticed the differences are. You must change your presentation when you go to high schools, versus going to middle schools, versus going to elementary schools? I wonder what you focus on and what have you found are things that resonate with teenagers about literacy?
Brandon: That's a great question. I talk about the same principles, no matter where I go, but it's all about how I talk about those principles that changes. When I'm talking to an older audience or a younger audience. High school, I try to do a feel that's more almost like career day. Like a window into what it's like being a writer. That's more interesting, I think, to them than me just saying, "Reading's fun" or whatever.
Andy: Yeah. Yeah. It's something like aspirational. We just had David Allen on the show recently, who's this big productivity guy. He started this thing called Getting Things Done. That's all about creating these lists and getting things out of your head and onto paper. But one thing he said that I thought was really cool, was that, "Hey, these lists are like buffets, it's like the more stuff you can get written down, then the more options you have." Just how important it is at this age to have more options. That's kind of cool, to go in and show them what you do, and this option.
Brandon: For sure I think the older high school kids, they want anecdotes and stories. They want you to be very real and very human with them. As you do that, that tends to make them open up and listen a little more. Then I still talk about, some of the core principles I talk about is that, as we read for fun, that inherently makes our imaginations more powerful. That process of visualizing a story and engaging with the story in that way. I talk about that from elementary to middle to high school, but the way I talk about it varies. In high school I talk about how life gets really busy. You stop reading for fun, because you've got so many activities. Or you stop maybe doing your creative hobbies. Creative hobbies that you might've loved as an elementary school kid, or a middle school kid. It starts to start to fade often in high school.
Brandon: One simple experiment that's amazing is, I'll often ask the kids about what they do for fun. When I say, "Who likes to draw or doodle?" in upper grade elementary. It's like 80% of their hands go up.
Andy: Ah, yeah.
Brandon: If you take that to middle school, it's like 40% of their hands. If you take it to high school, it's like 10% of their hands. One of my theories is that by the time you get to high school, people realize if they have a real talent there or not, and so they don't want to say it unless they feel they have a real talent there.
Andy: Yeah, it's like that they're not good at it or something. So we start to judge ourselves that, "Oh, I shouldn't really be making a big deal about that thing, because I'm not really that good at it."
Brandon: Yeah, sort of like an American idol syndrome.
Andy: Yeah. ** Brandon:** As if you can't just sing for fun. You got to be like radio ready or you shouldn't sing. I think that's a disservice of course, to everybody, because it's just fun to sing. Just to be goofy and sing, even if you're not the best. Just like it can be fun to draw, or to do art, or to express yourself creatively in ways that you may not be an expert at.
Andy: How do we raise kids that are a little more fearless? Because it's hard, right? We don't want them doing fearless in reckless ways. But creatively, we do want them to take risks.
Brandon: Yes.
Andy: How do we encourage them to take the right kind of risks?
Brandon: I think it's a great thought. I'm trying to keep reading-for-fun alive.
Andy: Yeah.
Brandon: So one of the things I'll do is just try to make a logical case for it, kind of. One of the things I'll say is, "Have you ever read a story, and seen that story like a movie in your head?" Then gone to the movie theater to see the movie someone made of that story, and been disappointed. They will say, almost everybody by the time they're in high school, is "Yeah, that's happened to me."
Andy: Yeah, totally. You're right.
Brandon: As long as they are literate-
Andy: As long as they've read at least 10 books. I seen a few-
Brandon: Yeah, as long as they've read something, right? Or can read. Most people have had that experience. Then you take that experience and take it one more step and explain that once you can recognize that sometimes the story is better in your own head, you're having the empowering realization that your own imagination can create a better story sometimes, than a famous Hollywood director with an enormous budget.
Andy: Right, than a $200 million movie.
Brandon: As you make that realization, hopefully the connection that follows is, "Oh yeah, I should be reading for fun, or I'm missing out on using the theater of my mind, to make cooler stuff than directors are trying to throw at me."
Andy: Mm-hmm
Brandon: I try to teach or suggest that reading rewards you for being smart. Rewards you for being creative, as you visualize the story in your own way. Some of those ideas can be empowering and I think have helped flip some reluctant readers into readers.
Andy: Do you think that it's a more of an uphill battle today getting kids to read? I mean, because you're competing with the cell phones and the Internet and the social media. It was hard for me to find time to read when I was a kid. I didn't have all that to compete with.
Brandon: Right.
Andy: I wonder how kids today are going to find time to take even a half hour a day or whatever. Just put everything on mute and sit there with a book.
Brandon: I've been doing this 13 years professionally and all of that is post-Harry Potter. Right?
Andy: Ah.
Brandon: I fit in that category. I fit very comfortably in the Harry Potter category, probably more comfortably than most other authors. My stories feature young main characters, but they're smart and twisty at kind of an adult level. The world building is at an adult level. ** Andy:** Mm-hmm.
Brandon: Though the young main characters keep it accessible for kids. I'm not going out of my way to use difficult language, but I still use pretty rich language.
Andy: Sure. Yeah.
Brandon: Which is all defining that Harry Potter category. And because it fits in that category, I've always had a fairly easy time getting people to pick up my books. It's why my publisher tours me so much. I mean, they pay for that touring, right?
Andy: Yeah, right.
Brandon: They're touring me four months out of the year, because I'm successful at getting the people I talk to, to pick up the book. One of the most frequent things I hear, and it's one of the most special things I hear, is I'll have adults come up to me now, because I've been doing this for 13 years, and they'll say, "Your books were the books that turned me into a reader. Your book was that gateway book for me."
Andy: Ah.
Brandon: Right? When I was in fifth grade or sixth grade or seventh grade.
Andy: Yeah.
Brandon: There's nothing more special I could hear. For me that gateway book was Narnia. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, was my gateway literacy. Until I read that book, I didn't get what the fuss was about. After I read it, the big imagination of that story converted me into a reader. I've talked to a lot of kids, who are now adults, as well, who say my books did that for them. I think a big part of why, is the presentation that I bring, where I make the case for reading. I make enough of a case that they didn't do a reading experiment with my book, because I was the guy that made the case.
Andy: Yeah, sure, okay, I get-
Brandon: Consequently, my book ends up being the one that flips it, because I talked to a reluctant reader into picking it up.
Andy: Yeah, right.
Brandon: Does that make sense? I'm not kidding that I hear it a lot, and I'm not kidding that it matters to me every time. It makes me really, really happy. It feels like something useful has been accomplished.
Andy: Something about a series is good for that too, because you can really get into it and read one, and then the next, and the next, and then the next, and then by the time you get through with that series, you're like, "Well, I have been reading now for the past three months, and every day." It kind of sneaks up on you a little bit if it's really compelling.
Brandon: Yeah. What you're saying there, it ties into another principle, which is that we're trying to match up the kid with something they actually want to read. Something that they would deliberately read for fun. Something that they would read without a grade attached, without an assignment attached. That's not the easiest thing in the world, but thanks to things like The Lord of the Rings movies and the Harry Potter books, fantasy has a fairly broad reach. There's a lot of kids where fantasy will reach them. It's not just a certain kind of nerdy crowd or something, like it might've been 30 years ago. It's fairly mainstream and you'll get jocks and you'll get band kids and you just get the whole spectrum of kids. That doesn't mean everybody will read fantasy, but it's a nice wide one. It's got a story that's grand enough that can compete with a good TV show or a movie. Especially when you're a younger kid, it's got a story where a young main character is doing amazing things that are outsmarting adults and stuff.
Andy: Right, right.
Brandon: That's how every sixth grader wants to see themselves. Then there's some kids that the key will be maybe a book about sports. Or there's some kids where the key will be a romance. It's not that fantasy is a cure-all. But fantasy does reach broad. I make a living at this because it reaches broad.
Andy: Yeah. It's kind of perfect for young readers, because like you say, you can have the hero who is younger, but is equally as powerful because of some sort of magical abilities that they have. They often are using their ingenuity, or their smarts, to kind of get through situations with much larger creatures than them. So yeah, it kind of has all of that David and Goliath stuff going on. You said Narnia was the series that got you into reading. Is that what made you want to start doing this and writing? Did you read Narnia and say, "Oh, this is what I want to do, is write this kind of stuff." Or was that more of a slow process for you?
Brandon: It was a little bit of a slower process. My journey looked like this. As a little guy, I loved to live in my head. I loved to make up stories. My parents would peek into my bedroom and they'd catch me walking around the room and throwing punches in the air and just having battles. Five years old, six years old. When they would catch me doing that, I would just be so embarrassed. I would just, "Oh no, go away, go away." I'd say, "I'm playing my games. Go away." I knew it looked dumb, but in my head it was super fun.
Andy: I was just in the middle of an epic thing and then-
Brandon: Yeah, but I can't have you looking at me because I know it looks foolish. If you leave me be, I'm having a great time. I don't really know knows. That wasn't the only thing I did, but I did do it pretty frequently. I had this pretty rich inner life. In some ways I think at school it even made me kind of a weird kid, because I had a lot going on in my head.
Andy: Oh yeah, totally.
Brandon: You've got your parents trying to get you to read. For a while they had a hard time with that, and I wasn't the best student. But when I read Narnia, the big imagination of that story dovetailed with the way my brain liked to make up stories and daydream anyway. That just upped the amount of daydreaming I did and it directed it toward fantasy. So I became a fantasy daydreamer after reading Narnia, but I still didn't know I was going to write books. I was just doing this because it was fun in my head.
Andy: I see. Okay. ** Brandon:** As I matured, the stories in my head got cooler and it reached a point where I was like, "Wait a minute. This stuff in my head is better than some of the movies I see. And better than some of the books I read. So I want to share this with people."
Brandon: So I started trying to write it down and then that was so frustrating, because it was really cool in my head and just terrible when I wrote it down. Everything I wrote down, just looked embarrassing.
Andy: It's a lot harder than it looks, huh?
Brandon: So I learned, okay, there's a craft to this. There's-
Andy: Exactly.
Brandon: I need to learn how to take what I see in my mind, and share it with other people. One author gave me a beautiful metaphor that I'll be forever grateful for, when he said, "When the stories in your head, it's like this beautiful flock of butterflies. And then when you write it down, it's sort of like, you have to kill that butterfly and pin it and preserve it, so that you can share it."
Brandon: We you write the story down, you make it much more finite, much more concrete.
Andy: Yeah, you limited it, right.
Brandon: You reduce it to specific words.
Andy: Totally, yeah.
Brandon: But if you can reduce it into the right words and encode it correctly, it can then come to life in someone else's head. They can decode it and the butterflies are flying again. Does that make sense?
Andy: Yeah, right.
Brandon: I mean, that's getting like metaphorical about it, but it's a fairly good way to say it. What I learned through my teenage years, my young adulthood was, okay, if I want to really succeed at this, I need to learn how the best people encode their stories. I need to learn how to use details and scene building, to communicate a story in a way a reader can appreciate, with verbal impressionism, paint on somebody's mind.
Brandon: So I paid attention to how my favorite authors built their scenes. I practiced writing my own scenes and I gradually got better at it. By the time I was through college, I was determined in my heart to try to succeed at writing, even though I had I'd majored in public relations with an English minor.
Andy: Well, hey, now you are doing four months a year of public relations for your books.
Brandon: Yeah, it's funny. For sure with a writing gig, with a writing job, you wear a marketing hat sometimes. I worked in entertainment marketing for about five years after college, to pay my bills, and wrote my books on the side. Around age 30, I was able to turn writing into my day job.
Andy: That is really cool.
Andy: If people, they listened to this podcast and they're like, "Hey, wow, this guy sounds great. But man, 15 New York Times bestsellers, where do I even get started?" Where should they go to find out more about you and what you do?
Brandon: If you haven't tried my books before, good places to start are Fablehaven Book One. I have a series called Five Kingdoms. Book One of that's a good one. Or you could start with Dragonwatch Book One. If you're looking for a teen who's really into fantasy, that wants a meatier, more epic fantasy, my Beyonders series would be the right one for that teen. If you want a little younger and lighter, it would be my Candy Shop Warbook, or my Spirit Animals book I did with Scholastic. You can find information about all those books at brandonmull.com.
Andy: Awesome.