What authors stretch children to prepare for future Great Books study?

[LNC]

I assigned Nesbit's The Story of the Treasure Seekers to my 9yo 4th grader with Veritas Comprehension guide. He read chapter 1 and it was a stretch for him - a lot of inferring required. She also uses British vocab and a complicated sentence structure. We decided to have him read to me so I could talk him through some things. He read it perfectly as far as phonics and fluency - it is the comprehension I need to help him with. I'll definately read along to help him understand.

 

I would like to find other authors that would stretch him like she does. He has read widely through historical lit, so this kind of fantasyish story may be what is stumping him. Thanks!

[nmoira]

Rosemary Sutcliff, Howard Pyle, Padraic Colum, Robert Louis Stevenson, Barrie, Kipling, the Lang colored Fairy Books (the Blue Fairy Book, etc.), are a few. Consult a Charlotte Mason reading list such as at Ambleside Online, paying particular attention to 19th century works. If the language proves a stumbling block, read aloud or use audio books to help with syntax and cadence.

Edited April 27, 2011 by nmoira

[Chris in VA]

Agreeing with above--anything rich and deep. Cornelia Funke and Susan Cooper are good fantasy writers that stretch my dd, who reads a ton.

[Carol in Cal.]

Louisa May Alcott. Her books include old-fashioned terms, lots of references to the Bible and classical mythology, and long, complicated sentences.

 

Also, for younger children, "My Book House" is an excellent, broad introduction to the great literature, mythology, music, and art of the past.

[Critterfixer]

Second Robert Louis Stevenson and Alcott.

Also, I found Hans Brinker by Mary Mapes Dodge to be a stretch-lots of words that I was not familiar with.

If he likes Fantasy at all I'd sic him on the Hobbit and LOTR--for a breather.

I also like The Neverending Story by Ende--fairly complicated with beautiful imagery.

The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann Wyss is tough and fun at the same time.

[Donna T.]

Not sure if this is what you are looking for, since it's just a list of books and not organized by author, but I really like it and have been pulling from it extensively.

 

http://www.greatbooksacademy.org/curriculum/good-books-list/

[LNC]

Not sure if this is what you are looking for, since it's just a list of books and not organized by author, but I really like it and have been pulling from it extensively.

 

http://www.greatbooksacademy.org/curriculum/good-books-list/

 

I like this one bc it is so much shorter than my 1000 good books list. I have soooo much great historical fiction, non fiction and bios for TQ which is mostly what we read. He loves science and reads science bios. He also read through several fun series for fluency (Boxcar then Sugar Creek Gang). So, he hasn't been exposed to a lot of rich literature that isn't history based - and so tends to think concretely and chronologically when he's reading. This challenge of reading more widely will really benefit him.

 

Please keep make recommendations!

[LNC]

Louisa May Alcott. Her books include old-fashioned terms, lots of references to the Bible and classical mythology, and long, complicated sentences.

 

Also, for younger children, "My Book House" is an excellent, broad introduction to the great literature, mythology, music, and art of the past.

 

I have My Book House - I need to have them look through it this summer. Thanks!

[LNC]

One more thing, do most of your 9yo children read these works mentioned in this thread????

 

I'm just this year assigning Alcott's works, Swiss Family Robinson and Heidi to my 11yo daughter. She was reading chapter books at 4yo - starting with the abridged Little House books. They read a lot - but maybe I haven't challenged them enough... :bigear:

 

For historical fiction they've read a lot like Speare, Little House series, Caddie Woodlawn, Hilda Van Stockum, Mildred Taylor - tons like that. They have read lots of bios in the Signature and Landmark series, just beginning to read the Messner biographies - which are more detailed and challenging reads.

 

Maybe it is because we've camped out in American history for the last three years - so as we begin our journey with Ancients next year and then Middle Ages they will read some of the authors mentioned in the thread like Sutcliff and Pyle.

[Carol in Cal.]

One more thing, do most of your 9yo children read these works mentioned in this thread????

 

I'm just this year assigning Alcott's works, Swiss Family Robinson and Heidi to my 11yo daughter. She was reading chapter books at 4yo - starting with the abridged Little House books. They read a lot - but maybe I haven't challenged them enough... :bigear:

 

For historical fiction they've read a lot like Speare, Little House series, Caddie Woodlawn, Hilda Van Stockum, Mildred Taylor - tons like that. They have read lots of bios in the Signature and Landmark series, just beginning to read the Messner biographies - which are more detailed and challenging reads.

 

These sound like good books.

It's not a race!

 

I read Little Women when I was 8. It was challenging but I really liked it, and I have read it many times since then over the years. I also read David Copperfield, which turned me off to Dickens forever. There are downsides to rushing as well as upsides.

 

For my DD, I started by reading her much more complicated books than she could read herself, from a very early age. I continued to read to her every day through about age 12 or so. I still read to the family, but not every day, and she is almost 15.

 

What I noticed is that she would continue books that I had started reading aloud, and also she would read much harder books to herself that I had already read to her than the books that she attempted on her own, so the reading aloud scaffolded her to absorb and also to read herself books that were pretty hard. You might think about that as a technique.

 

The other cool thing about reading aloud is that you can stop and talk about vocabulary, and it's retained better that way.

[Laura Corin]

Rosemary Sutcliff, Howard Pyle, Padraic Colum, Robert Louis Stevenson, Barrie, Kipling, the Lang colored Fairy Books (the Blue Fairy Book, etc.), are a few. Consult a Charlotte Mason reading list such as at Ambleside Online, paying particular attention to 19th century works. If the language proves a stumbling block, read aloud or use audio books to help with syntax and cadence.

 

Frances Hodgson Burnett and Arthur Ransome. Don't be afraid to step back a bit to the original AA Milne books, plus Wind in the Willows.

 

Laura

[redsquirrel]

well, my 10 year old is reading Sutcliff because it works well with logic stage children in our year (ancients) of the history cycle. He has very, very much enjoyed reading "Outcast' and "Eagle of the Ninth".

 

I would also like to plug Kipling. My sons adored Kiping as read outlouds when they were littles ("Just So" "Jungle Book") and my elder son very much enjoyed "Captains Courageous" when he was 9.

[elegantlion]

E.B. White. We read Stuart Little as part of a narration/writing study this year. The sentence structure was wonderful.

[Kfamily]

I saved this thread because it had so many great replies!

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=93906

[swainsonshawk]

One more thing, do most of your 9yo children read these works mentioned in this thread????

 

I'm just this year assigning Alcott's works, Swiss Family Robinson and Heidi to my 11yo daughter. She was reading chapter books at 4yo - starting with the abridged Little House books. They read a lot - but maybe I haven't challenged them enough... :bigear:

 

For historical fiction they've read a lot like Speare, Little House series, Caddie Woodlawn, Hilda Van Stockum, Mildred Taylor - tons like that. They have read lots of bios in the Signature and Landmark series, just beginning to read the Messner biographies - which are more detailed and challenging reads.

 

Maybe it is because we've camped out in American history for the last three years - so as we begin our journey with Ancients next year and then Middle Ages they will read some of the authors mentioned in the thread like Sutcliff and Pyle.

 

My kids definitely don't read any of these "stretching" books listed. My oldest is going into 7th next year and these are good goal books for him right now for next year. My rising 5th grader is not ready for any of these. I am reading Redwall outloud right now for them. It definitely is stretching their vocabulary and attention to detail--exactly my goal!

 

Becky

[Critterfixer]

My boys are seven, and not reading very well yet. But-we have read the first four Little House books as bedtime stories, and we just finished a read aloud of Pinocchio, and are halfway through The Princess and the Goblin. Before all that we read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and Charlotte's Web.

Do they comprehend everything? No, but they have narrated most of those stories sufficiently. And I get asked lots of times what this or that word means, which is all to the good.

[momma aimee]

Louisa May Alcott. Her books include old-fashioned terms, lots of references to the Bible and classical mythology, and long, complicated sentences.

 

Also, for younger children, "My Book House" is an excellent, broad introduction to the great literature, mythology, music, and art of the past.

I looked up My Book House on amazon.com -- so is each 'book' a actually book -- incuding discussion about the book? (or no discussion) -- or are they selections from differnt books more antholgy like?

[Kfamily]

Sorry, this is the thread I was trying to link. This one has many great responses.

 

HTH:001_smile:

 

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=93913

[Carol in Cal.]

I looked up My Book House on amazon.com -- so is each 'book' a actually book -- incuding discussion about the book? (or no discussion) -- or are they selections from differnt books more antholgy like?

 

Neither. Not so much selections as retellings.

Lots of nursery rhymes in one of them. Retellings of myths and history in others. Biographical sketches from lives of artists, musicians, saints, etc. here and there. Retellings of a couple of Shakespeare plays and Dante's Inferno and Don Quixote. Kind of, on the whole, like an intro to Western Civ for children.

[MusicMouseTN]

Thanks so much for this information!!!! Excited to use it as my kids grow! Thanks!