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DD7 Just listened to all of Narnia but now...


Hedgehogs4
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My dd7 just finished listening to all of the Chronicles of Narnia series (in less than one week) and she is dying to listen to something similar. We recently finished the Hobbit and her brother (11) is listening to all of the LOTR (the unabridged audio version). She is keenly interested in listening to it, but I think that it is "too much" for her--I just feel it is a more mature story. She has requested something else along the lines of Narnia (what is there, after Narnia?)

 

Since LOTR and Narnia are the only real fantasy books that I enjoy, I don't have a clue about what she might like. Any suggestions?

 

TIA

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I read The Chronicles of Narnia and The Hobbit with my seven year old this summer, too, and he is dying for LOTR. I agree on waiting on it, though.

 

We've tried to follow different strands of interest from the two. We kept reading books with anthropomorphic animals, like The Wind in the Willows. I think we may start Redwall soon, but am deciding if I want to do them as read alouds or save them for silent reading.

 

We followed the Norse and Germanic heroic threads in The Hobbit by reading Ian Serraillier's version of Beowulf, which was surprisingly a big hit. That lead us to reading some other epic poems, like Katherine Paterson's retelling of Parvizal and Seraillier's Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

 

Now we're planning on following up on the Greek mythology references in The Chronicles by reading some Greek mythology. I think we are going to start with Mary Pope Osbourne's Tales from the Odyssey.

 

There are so many ways to go beyond just fantasy books. Though a good fantasy series is always fun!

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Here are a few more individual titles, and some series ideas:

 

- No Flying in the House (Brock)

- The Shades (Brock) -- out of print, but worth looking for

- Twig (Jones)

- The Ordinary Princess (Kaye)

- The Dragon of Lonely Island (and sequel) (Rupp)

- Land of Oz; Ozma of Oz -- and others in the series (Baum)

- The Rescuers; Miss Bianca; The Turret; Miss Bianca in the Salt Mines; Miss Bianca in the Orient (Sharp) -- out of print, but SO worthwhile! (lots at Amazon used books)

- The Borrowers (series) (Norton)

- Enchanted Forest Chronicles (series) (Wrede)

- Toots and the Upside Down House (series) (Hughes)

- Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle series (Betty MacDonald)

- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Carroll)

- The Princess & the Goblins (George MacDonald)

- Pippi Longstockings; Pippi in the South Seas (Astrid)

- Peter and the Star Catchers series (Barry)

- The Reluctant Dragon (Graham)

- Half Magic; Magic by the Lake, Knight's Castle; Time Garden; Seven Day Magic (Eager)

- Five Children and It; The Phoenix and the Carpet; The Book of Dragons (Nesbit)

- The Father Christmas Letters (Tolkien)

- The Secret of Platform 13 (Ibbotson)

- Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (Fleming)

- Charlie & the Chocolate Factory; Great Glass Elevator (Dahl)

- The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (Aiken)

- The Never Ending Story (Ende)

- The Inkheart trilogy (Funke)

- Dragon Keeper Chronicles (series) (Paul)

 

 

In general (of course there are exceptions! ;)), I found Eragon, the Percy Jackson Olympian series (and others by Rick Riordan), Harry Potter series, and The Lord of the Rings trilogy much better suited for older children (10+), although The Hobbit (Tolkien) could be a "go" at this age. Enjoy your fantasy world read aloud adventures! Warmest regards, Lori D.

Edited by Lori D.
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Here are a few more individual titles, and some series ideas:

 

- No Flying in the House (Brock)

- The Shades (Brock) -- out of print, but worth looking for

- Twig (Jones)

- The Ordinary Princess (Kaye)

- The Dragon of Lonely Island (and sequel) (Rupp)

- Land of Oz; Ozma of Oz -- and others in the series (Baum)

- The Rescuers; Miss Bianca; The Turret; Miss Bianca in the Salt Mines; Miss Bianca in the Orient (Sharp) -- out of print, but SO worthwhile! (lots at Amazon used books)

- The Borrowers (series) (Norton)

- Enchanted Forest Chronicles (series) (Wrede)

- Toots and the Upside Down House (series) (Hughes)

- Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle series (Betty MacDonald)

- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Carroll)

- The Princess & the Goblins (George MacDonald)

- Pippi Longstockings; Pippi in the South Seas (Astrid)

- Peter and the Star Catchers series (Barry)

- The Reluctant Dragon (Graham)

- Half Magic; Magic by the Lake, Knight's Castle; Time Garden; Seven Day Magic (Eager)

- Five Children and It; The Phoenix and the Carpet; The Book of Dragons (Nesbit)

- The Father Christmas Letters (Tolkien)

- The Secret of Platform 13 (Ibbotson)

- Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (Fleming)

- Charlie & the Chocolate Factory; Great Glass Elevator (Dahl)

- The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (Aiken)

- The Never Ending Story (Ende)

- The Inkheart trilogy (Funke)

- Dragon Keeper Chronicles (series) (Paul)

 

 

In general (of course there are exceptions! ;)), I found Eragon, the Percy Jackson Olympian series (and others by Rick Riordan), Harry Potter series, and The Lord of the Rings trilogy much better suited for older children (10+), although The Hobbit (Tolkien) could be a "go" at this age. Enjoy your fantasy world read aloud adventures! Warmest regards, Lori D.

 

The issue I have been having with a lot of these titles is that it is nearly impossible to find them on audiobook! Is there some secret I'm missing? My 5 y.o. fell in love with Half Magic, but it is the only one of the series I can get on audio (even with the dyslexic sources) and even though he is begging for the rest of the series, I can't read aloud as much as he wants. There are so many great books, but if you have delayed readers, there are not nearly enough audiobooks for them to consume!

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A series that is similar to Narnia, as well as to a number of other books, is Books of Beginning, Emerald Atlas. There are only 2 books so far.

 

ETA: I know the first book is on audio because DD is listening to it this week. The second book was just published, so our library doesn't have the audio yet, but Audible.com does.

Edited by crazyforlatin
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My dd8 loves the How to Train Your Dragon audio books narrated by David Tennant - they are abdridged, but wonderful audiobooks. Her other favorite audio books are Trumpet of the Swan, Alice in Wonderland, Winnie the Pooh, and Peter Pan.

 

Her two newest audio books that are getting a lot of play time are Black Beauty and Moby Dick. We have Treasure Island queued up next.

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The issue I have been having with a lot of these titles is that it is nearly impossible to find them on audiobook! Is there some secret I'm missing?

 

 

Ah, I missed the need for audio books. My secret was I read aloud a TON every day for years and years and years and years... ;)

 

 

Is it possible to invite a grandparent or relative or elderly friend to come over twice a week to read aloud to share some special time with your children? Or record books on cassette and send them to DC?

 

 

How about some of these:

- Clover Twig

- The Castle in the Attic

- Dragon Rider

- The Enchanted Forest Chronicles

 

Or browse titles from these free audio book download sites:

Open Culture

Books Should Be Free

Librivox

Ambling Books

iTunes

Project Gutenberg audiobooks

 

And then this list of websites with free audiobooks/downloads: http://www.techsupportalert.com/free-books-audio

Edited by Lori D.
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My dd8 loves the How to Train Your Dragon audio books narrated by David Tennant - they are abdridged, but wonderful audiobooks. Her other favorite audio books are Trumpet of the Swan, Alice in Wonderland, Winnie the Pooh, and Peter Pan.

 

Her two newest audio books that are getting a lot of play time are Black Beauty and Moby Dick. We have Treasure Island queued up next.

 

Are you using abridged for the others?

 

We subscribe to audible.com. We just listened to "Journey to the Center of the Earth" by Jules Verne which was unabridged and a hit! We also listen to the Story of US by Joy Hakim which is enjoyable as an audiobook. We listen mostly on road trips.

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Ah, I missed the need for audio books. My secret was I read aloud a TON every day for years and years and years and years... ;)

 

 

Is it possible to invite a grandparent or relative or elderly friend to come over twice a week to read aloud to share some special time with your children? Or record books on cassette and send them to DC?

 

I did this too, but I appreciate having an audiobook now and then now that he is older;)

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Ah, I missed the need for audio books. My secret was I read aloud a TON every day for years and years and years and years... ;)

 

 

Is it possible to invite a grandparent or relative or elderly friend to come over twice a week to read aloud to share some special time with your children? Or record books on cassette and send them to DC?

 

Maybe. This probably sounds terrible, but I am working so hard this year just schooling both of them that reading aloud any more than my typical 1-1.5 hrs sounds like an unattainable feat. :tongue_smilie:This has been tough year so far with nobody being independent and my only time of sanity is the 2 hour quiet time where they listen to audiobooks and not me!

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Playing off Lori's list, we really liked the audio version of Half Magic, though we had read aloud the rest of Eager, so I don't know about those. It does use different voice actors for the different parts, which isn't the norm, but it's a good read.

 

We also enjoyed the audiobook of Ella Enchanted.

 

And, seconding the audio version of Cornelia Funke's Dragonrider. It's is really good. And really long.

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Are you using abridged for the others?

 

We subscribe to audible.com. We just listened to "Journey to the Center of the Earth" by Jules Verne which was unabridged and a hit! We also listen to the Story of US by Joy Hakim which is enjoyable as an audiobook. We listen mostly on road trips.

 

Nope, How to Train Your Dragon is the only abridged we have. The narrator is awesome and worth a breach of my rules against abridged books.

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We're also big Narnia and Hobbit fans and all long books we read are audio in the car!

 

We've also enjoyed

the Percy Jackson series,

the first Harry Potter,

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (lovely with a girl hero), and

The Castle in the Attic.

 

I've also got Thor's Wedding but we haven't got to it yet.

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How do you get your kids into audio books. Mine will listen for hours if I read but...

 

We don't have a TV and our computer has a password. There is nothing to do here except read, draw, build, and listen to audiobooks. :001_smile:

 

A good narrator or a full cast of characters could make a difference. Bruce Coville's books tend to have a full cast of actors. Jim Dale is one of the best out there, so I tend to borrow anything that he reads. Still, listening to him makes me feel that someone in HP will jump out in Alice or Emerald Atlas.

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How do you get your kids into audio books. Mine will listen for hours if I read but...

 

We listen over breakfast, over lunch, over tea-time...whenever we are gathered together. I don't know exactly how I got them "into" audiobooks except I said "let's try this..." and we were all hooked. I could clean up the kitchen and we'd be into a book. They could then worm their way out of hours of schoolwork by listening to a book with me...long after I would have tired out. Maybe THAT is the hook! :lol: "PLEASE, MOM, PLEASE?" JUST ONE MORE CHAPTER?"

 

DD is not at a reading level to read a lot of these books independently. She's getting there--she is able to do much more than she realizes. She still thinks it is "hard" and "tiring." She doesn't realize that she can read much longer than I even ask of her when we do SSR. I don't force her though. She dutifully reads what I ask her to read, but would rather listen, still. I know it will come in time. She has been exposed to so much complex vocabulary and literature, it's practically inevitable. If (God forbid) it turns out that she is not a reader, then at least I've exposed her to really great literary texts.

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