Which 20 books help prepare for reading the Great Books?

[Kfamily]

Hi! I could really use some help deciding which books are particularily helpful in preparing students to read the Great Books. For example, I read from the LCC site that Norse Myths help with the reading of the Hobbit. I asked for 20 or so just to keep my list manageable.

 

I would really appreciate any help! Thanks.

Edited April 13, 2009 by Kfamily

[Jenn in CA]

Off the top of my head:

 

Any kind of mythology, so students are familiar w/the gods/goddesses, what they did, etc.

Famous Men of Rome/Greece, or a children's version of Plutarch.

 

And in general, "old books" so your students are comfortable with less contemporary writing styles, are a great help.

 

My high schoolers read Divine Comedy and Paradise Lost this year and it was helpful that they already read the Iliad and the Aeneid last year. They were already familiar w/that epic style. Yep, gotta love epic poetry. :-)

[Liza Q]

I had my girls read several of Louisa May Alcott's books before I gave them anything by Jane Austen or the Brontes.

[Jill- OK]

And in general, "old books" so your students are comfortable with less contemporary writing styles, are a great help.

 

E. Nesbitt and George MacDonald are two great writers that are fairly easy to read...but have rich wording and vocab. in my opinion.

 

I think that reading older writers helps to train a child's ear for unfamiliar, less modern phrasing.

[Miss Marple]

I had my kids read re-tellings of The Iliad, The Odyssey, and The Aeneid before tackling the full poetic versions. That helped them know the basic story line.

 

One thing I didn't do but would recommend is to do more poetry before reading the Greats. Epic poetry was fatiguing for my sons. But they've lived to tell of it :-)

[Kfamily]

Thank you so much ladies! Please keep them coming!

 

I posted this on the K-8 board too and this is what I have so far:

 

Bulfinch's Mythology (all of it)

Shakespeare

Bible

Epic poetry

Louisa May Alcott

E. Nesbit

George MacDonald

 

We have read Nesbit, MacDonald and Lamb's Shakespeare and Midsummer Night's Dream and will read Little Women and Bulfinch's Mythology in 7th. We have read bible stories but am adding now the Bible. We read The Courtship of Miles Standish and hopefully that was a good introduction to longer poetry. What type of poetry is that? Narrative?

 

Any suggestions for epic poetry? Any other suggestions for books?

 

Thanks again!

Edited April 14, 2009 by Kfamily

[Carmen_and_Company]

Most of the titles used in our homeschool I found at http://www.mainlesson.com/displaybooksbysubgenre.php

 

Edith Nesbit, any

Nathanial Hawthorne--any

Andrew Lang--fairy books, myths, 1001 Arabian Nights

Howard Pile--King Arthur, Robin Hood or Men of Iron

Charles & Mary Lamb--Tales from Shakespeare

A Children's version of Plutarch

Aesop's Fables

Edith Hamilton--Mythology

Bulfinch--Age of Fable, Age of Chivalry

Greek Heroes--not myths

Roman Heroes--not myths

[Jenn in CA]

Longer poetry... to stretch the poetry muscles before hitting epic poetry: "Evangeline" and "The Song of Hiawatha" by Longfellow. The latter is often found in abbreviated forms (or just the part about his childhood), but the whole poem is 250 pp (in my book).

 

And I second story versions of Iliad & Odyssey!

[Jane in NC]

Anything by Rosemary Sutcliff.

 

My son read a number of her "retellings" of great tales, as well as the Roman fiction, in elementary and middle school. I think Black Ships before Troy is well known on these boards, but I have never met a Sutcliff book I did not like.

[Laura Corin]

E. Nesbitt and George MacDonald are two great writers that are fairly easy to read...but have rich wording and vocab. in my opinion.

 

I think that reading older writers helps to train a child's ear for unfamiliar, less modern phrasing.

 

I would also add in Frances Hodgson Burnett (Hobbes adores The Secret Garden) and Arthur Ransome. For younger students, Beatrix Potter and A A Milne are great beginnings.

 

Laura

[Lori D.]

The 2 things that will probably best prepare you for the Great Works are:
1. getting used to the Victorian/pre-victorian vocabulary and sentence structure
2. being familiar with the storyline of past literature most frequently alluded to

1. Getting Used to Vocabulary, Sentence Structure, Slower Pace
I'd say just start reading aloud (or listen to books on tape) and practice with some children's classics, and some "gentler" classics":

Older Children's Classics
- A Little Princess; The Secret Garden (Burnett)
- Anne of Green Gables (Montgomery)
- Five Children and It; The Phoenix & the Carpet (Nesbit)
- The Wind in the Willows; The Reluctant Dragon (Grahame)
- The Princess and the Goblins; The Princess and Curdie (MacDonald)
- The Golden Key, The Light Princess, The Wise Woman (MacDonald) -- short stories
- Peter Pan (Barry)
- Rikki Tikki Tavi; The Jungle Book; Just So Stories (Kipling)
- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland; Through the Looking Glass (Carroll)
- The Twenty-One Balloons (DuBois)
- The Hobbit; Farmer Giles of Ham; Smith of Wooten Major (Tolkien)
- The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (Aiken)
- The Swiss Family Robinson (Wyss)
- books by Howard Pyle
- A Wonder Book for Boys and Girls; Tanglewood Tales (Hawthorne) -- retellings of Greek myths
- Tales from Arabian Nights (Lang)
- fairy tales (Lang, and others)
- Little Women (Alcott)
- Tales from Shakespeare (Lamb) or Stories from Shakespeare (Nesbit)

Gentler Classics
- A Christmas Carol (Dickens)
- Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Twain)
- Ivanhoe (Scott)
- Around the World in 80 Days (Verne)
- Call of the Wild; White Fang (London)
- Ben Hur (Wallace)
- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Carroll)
- Robinson Crusoe (Defoe)
- Rip Van Winkle (Irving)
- Treasure Island (Stevenson)
- Sherlock Holmes short stories (Doyle)

See other great lists at:
1000 Good Books = http://www.classical-homeschooling.org/celoop/1000.html
Ambleside Online Curriculum (by grade level) = http://www.amblesideonline.org/index2.shtml

2. Literary Allusions
The Great Books often allude to other works, most frequently:
- the Bible
- Greek myths
- Shakespeare
- ancient Greek epics of The Iliad and The Odyssey, and the ancient Greek play, Oedipus the King
- King Arthur and related Arthurian legends (i.e., Sir Gawain & the Green Knight)
- Robin Hood

For Shakespeare, you might try either the Nesbit's "Children's Stories From Shakespeare" or Lamb's "Tales From Shakespeare". For King Arthur, try Howard Pyle's "The Story of King Arthur and His Knights" -- and also Howard's "The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood".

For exposure to a lot of the other classics in one place, here's a lovely series of set of 10 volumes, many written with the older language/vocabulary, with excerpts or adaptations of so much of the older classic lit, that it is an excellent investment (I got my 10 volume set from the local Good Will store for $30 ($3/book), all in excellent condition):

The Junior Classics: The Young Folks' Shelf of Books, published by Collier
See it at: http://www.amazon.com/Young-Folks-Complete-Junior-Classics/dp/B000FX64IE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239747421&sr=8-1

Other great anthologies with older works:
- My Book House (Olive Beaupre Miller), multi-volume anthology with various editions/years.
- The Children's Hour (Marjorie Barrows), 16 volume anthology.
- Journey Through Bookland (Charles Herbert Sylvestor), multi-volume anthology with various editions/years.

For very young children (gr. 1-5), the Great Classics Illustrated series can be a great way to be exposed to the storylines!

We also found it helpful in middle school grades to go through "Figuratively Speaking" together to begin to learn about literary elements and how they are used in The Great Books. Available at Amazon and others; see inside it at: http://www.rainbowresource.com/search.php?sid=1239748683-1247156

Enjoy your literature journey! Warmest regards, Lori D.


ETA: Here are the contents of the 1957 version of Collier's Junior Classics Young Folks Shelf of Books:

vol. 1: Fairy Tales and Fables
(66 fairy tales from England, Ireland, Germany, Norway, France, Czechoslovakia, Russia, and India by 11 different authors, including some by the Grimm brothers; also 14 Aesop fables)

vol. 2: Stories of Wonder and Magic
(34 tales, including "The Light Princess" by George MacDonald; "The Magic Fishbone" by Charles Dickens, "Prince Rabbit" by A.A. Milne, plus 1 story each by Edward Lear; Carl Sandburg; Padric Colum; and Walter de la Mare; 2 stories by Frank Stockton; and 3 by Howard Pyle; plus 8 of the most famous fairy tales by Hans Christian Andersen; and an additional 14 stories by various authors)

vol. 3: Myths and Legends
(10 Greek/Roman myths, some by Thomas Bulfinch or Nathaniel Hawthorne; 9 Norse myths; 6 myths from India; 7 Native American myths; 19 "old legends" which include St. George and Dragon, William Tell, The Flying Dutchman, and a number of legends about beasts and saints.)

Vol. 4: Hero Tales
(ALL selections are prose retelling excerpts (some by James Baldwin or Paidric Colum) from: The Odyssey; Rustem and Sohrab (from the ancient Persian epic Shah-Nameh); The Forging of the Sampo (from the Finnish epic The Kalevala); The Song of Roland; The Chronicle of the Cid; Beowulf; King Arthur and the Round Table; The Hunting of the Boar (a King Arthur story from the Welsh epic Mabinogion; Finn and Oisin, and Cuchulain (Finnish epics); Robin Hood)

vol. 5: Stories That Never Grow Old
(complete reprints of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll); The King of the Golden River (John Ruskin); Jackanapes (Juliana Horatia Ewing); A Midsummer Night's Dream (Charles & Mary Lamb); The Gold Bug (Edgar Allan Poe); Rip Van Winkle (Washington Irving); A Christmas Carol (Charles Dickens)plus excerpts from: Tales from the Travels of Baron Munchausen (Rudolph Eric Raspe); Gulliver's Voyage to lilliput (Jonathan Swift); Don Quixote (Miguel de Cervantes)

vol. 6: Stories About Boys and Girls
(20 works, mostly reprinted chapters from longer works by mostly obscure authors, but includes more well known authors such as: Rachel Field; Louisa May Alcott; Mark Twain with a chapter from Adventures of Tom Sawyer; Booth Tarkington, with a chapter from Penrod; and Kathryn Forbes, with a chapter from Mama's Bank Account)

vol. 7: The Animal Book
(26 works, mostly reprinted chapters from longer works by mostly
obscure authors, but includes more well-known authors such as John Muir; Anna Sewell with a full reprint of her book "Black Beauty"; Jack London with a full reprint of his short story "Brown Wolf"; Eric Knight with a full reprint of his short story "Lassie Come Home"; Marjorie Rawlings with a chapter from "The Yearling"; and Rudyard Kipling with a full reprint of his short story "Moti Guj -- Mutineer”)

vol. 8: Stories From History
(22 works, mostly reprinted chapters from longer works by such authors as Howard Pyle with a chapter from his Men of Iron; Andrew Lang; Hendrik Van Loon with 2 chapters from his Story of Mankind; Ester Forbes with a chapter from Johnny Tremain; Carl Sandburg from his biography on Abraham Lincoln; Robert Trumbull with a chapter from his autobiography on surviving a WW2 plane crash and survival in the ocean for 34 days; Ernie Pyle, WW2 war correspondent, with a reprinted article of heroism; chapters from biographies on Abraham Lincoln; an General MacArtherLouisa May Alcott; and a tall tale about The Devil and Daniel Webster)

vol. 9: Sport and Adventure
(24 works, some are reprinted chapters from longer works by mostly obscure authors, but also includes more well-known authors such as: Jack London with a full reprint of his short story "Chased by the Trail"; Howard Pyle with a chapter from his Pirates book; Conan Doyle with a full reprint of his short story "The Red-Headed League"; Robert Byrd with a chapter from his autobiography about flying over the North Pole; and Charles Lindbergh with a chapter from his autobiography about crossing the atlantic in a solo flight)

vol. 10: Poetry and Reading Guide Indexes
(Over 320 poems, with a mix of nursery rhymes; poem riddles; children's poems, and at least 100 of the world's most famous poems (written before 1900) by all the most famous poets)


AND, here is The New Junior Classics (Margaret E. Martignoni) — 1962 (apparently reprinted again in 1993 with all red covers)

vol. 1: A, B, C, Go!
(nursery rhymes , favorite folk tales, best-loved poems, and stories for reading aloud)

vol. 2: Once Upon a Time
(Fairy tales and folk tales by: Charles Perrault, Ruth Sawyer, Joseph Jacobs, Grimm Brothers, among others)

vol. 3: Magic in the Air
(Excerpts from 12 children’s books: including: The adventures of Pinocchio; Alice's adventures in Wonderland; The Borrowers; Winnie the Pooh; Mr. Toad; and Twenty-one balloons)

Vol. 4: Just Around the Corner
(Excerpts from 17 children’s books set in different countries of the world, including: Anne of Green Gables; Chucaro, Wild Pony of the Pampas; Li Fun, Lad of Courage; The Wheel on the School; The Big Wave; Snow Treasure)

vol. 5: In Your Own Backyard
(Excerpts from 17 children’s books, mostly unknown to me, but includes: And Now Miguel; The Hundred Dresses; and Henry and the Paper Route)

vol. 6: Harvest of Holidays
(stories, poems, documents, and factual material about 22 American national and religious holidays)

vol. 7: Legends of Long Ago
(2 Arabian Nights tale (Aladdin, Ali Baba); 11 Greek myths; excerpt from Padric Colum’s The Odyssey); 4 Norse myths; excerpts from King Arthur and Robin Hood; 4 American tall tales)

vol. 8: Roads to Greatness
(short biographies of the following people from history: Robert E. Lee; Helen Keller; Mohandas Gandhi; Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain); Mary McLeod Bethune; Thomas Alva Edison; Anna Pavlova; Lou Gehrig; Saint Francis of Assisi; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; Florence Nightingale; Fridtjof Nansen; Edgar Allen Poe; Louis Armstrong; Marie Curie)

vol. 9: Call of Adventure
(excerpts or complete reprints of: Black Beauty, Lassie Come Home, Johnny Tremain, and Call It Courage)

vol. 10: Gifts from the Past
(excerpts from 10 works: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Mark Twain); Ivanhoe (Walter Scott); Last of the Mohicans (James Fenmore Cooper); Little Women (Louisa May Alcott); 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Jules Verne); The Swiss Family Robinson (Johann Wyss); Robinson Crusoe (Daniel Defoe); Gulliver’s Travels (Jonathan Swift); Don Quixote (Miguel Cervantes); Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen); and the complete short story of Rip Van Winkle (Washington Irving))

Edited February 19, 2021 by Lori D.
added info

[Kfamily]

Lori,

 

You are so very helpful to others. Thank you so much for the time you took to help me with this. You answered all my questions and then some!! Thank you!

 

:grouphug:

[Stephanie/MO]

reading of myths and Shakespeare Stories by Garfield.

Blessings,

Stephanie

[Emmy]

I love threads like this! They are so inspirational to me....(I mean, apart from the spam post lol)

[Moni]

Maybe "The Good Books" list? That is, the books before the "Great" books.

 

http://www.angelicum.net/the_good_books_in_print_list.html

 

http://www.angelicum.net/the_good_books_in_print_list.html

 

:seeya:

[Karen in CO]

I second everything you have been told so far, AND further...

 

For the bible, I recommend the King James version either start with it or move to it in junior high - if they are used to that then those British poets won't be so hard.

 

E. Nesbit and McDonald as readings for younger children are awesome for setting up to read those big stories with the really long sentences and detailed descriptions.

 

I don't like abridged versions of more modern stories, but I love providing gradually more detailed versions of epic classics. My ds had read Sutcliff for years so had an easier time with Homer's versions. But, my dd8 is on her second kid's version of the Aeneid and is looking forward to Virgil in Latin someday. It her whole reason for studying Latin right now.

 

We usually do one Shakespeare play a year. We start with a simple version, then a beautiful illustrated version, then exerpts from the real thing, then watch a performance live then maybe a film version or two also.

[dymphna57]

My dyslexic son before attempting his first year of Great Books study took it upon himself to design and implement a course of reading to prepare himself. He read at least ten( maybe more but I never counted):lol: P. G. Wodehouse novels. P G Wodehouse, you might question? Ah, but the ''best prose writer of the age;'', according to Belloc has wondrous magic to perform on growing minds.

He was very successful, thoroughly enjoyed his summer, remained positively cheerful through three years of the stiffer stuff and is happily starting his fourth year.

What ho!

[Murphy101]

Thoroughly enjoying this thread!

And thrilled to find that all but those woden- and lambs Shakespeare books are on my shelf already!!!

[Kfamily]

Just thought I'd add a few more...

 

I've started a notebook where I read and take notes from every guide I can get a hold of on all the Great Books that I think we may try to read. For example, I started with Julius Caesar since that along with a couple of others will be the books we will read next year (the soonest!). I printed a couple of free teaching guides and read through them-taking notes as I read. I also write down any tips I come across in other articles or books I read. My plan is to keep a notebook as I go along. I will try to read as many of them as I can beforehand and will add notes as I read. Reading the guides first lets me plan a little better now since it will take a while for me to read them for myself.

 

Here are a few I have written down: ( and those of you more experienced-please feel free to correct or add to anything I have. I really love to hear from others' experiences, opinions, etc.)

 

 

For Julius Caesar-read some selections from Plutarch before reading the play

For Russian novels-read Way of a Pilgrim by Helen Bacovcin

For Marcus Aurelius Meditations-read What is Philosophy? by Pierre Hadot (some of these are from LCC)

For Sophocles- Oedipus Rex- good background in Greek Myths...maybe The Greek Way by Hamilton

For Nichomachean Ethics-maybe Aristotle for Everyone by Mortimer Adler

For Paradise Lost-read Homer and Virgil first (Oops-this was already mentioned)

I could use some help with this one...For The Prince by Machiavelli a good background in the Italian history of that time (especially the Medici family) would be helpful...only I will have to do some hunting for this book. If anyone has any recommendations for a good book that covers this for high school I would really appreciate it.

 

 

HTH and thanks! :001_smile:

[nmoira]

According to Michael Dirda (book critic at The Washington Post), these are the works which have most influenced "the diction and imagery of English prose":

 

The Bible (Old and New Testament)

Bullfinch's Mythology (or other account of Greek, Roman, and Norse mythology)

Homer, Iliad and Odyssey

Plutarch, Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans

Dante, Inferno

Arabian Nights

Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur

Shakespeare's major plays, especially Hamlet; Henry IV, Part One; King Lear; A Midsummer Night's Dream; and, The Tempest

Cervantes, Don Quixote

Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe

Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels

The fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen

Any substantial collection of the world's major folktales

Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

[Murphy101]

Okay. Edit my collection. I do not have peter pan or Alice in wonderland because I personally consider them to be some of the worst books ever written. And I've never understood why they are considerkiddie books either. I think they are very dark. However I'm okay with dark. I just think they are terrible books! Not that my opinion matters. lol

[coralloyd]

We are reading Alice in Wonderland right now. It's a hard read for me, yet my girls are really enjoying it. I didn't think they would get into it, and I would have to toss it. Nope, they beg for it every night.

[bkpan]

Okay. Edit my collection. I do not have peter pan or Alice in wonderland because I personally consider them to be some of the worst books ever written. And I've never understood why they are considerkiddie books either. I think they are very dark. However I'm okay with dark. I just think they are terrible books! Not that my opinion matters. lol

 

Oh my goodness, I loved reading Peter Pan to my kids. A tiny bit of editing, but I just enjoyed reading that book. Very clever writing.

 

Kim

[Murphy101]

I know

I know

I'm weird

:)

[swimmermom3]

Yes, I'm guilty of resurrecting a thread. I purchased the set Lori D. recommended and my dc love it. What a bargain for $40ppd. Thank you! Thank you!

[jibaker103]

Yes, I'm guilty of resurrecting a thread. I purchased the set Lori D. recommended and my dc love it. What a bargain for $40ppd. Thank you! Thank you!

What does it include?

[swimmermom3]

Hey Jennifer, it includes:

 

1. Fairy Tales and Fables-(Aesop, Brothers Grimm, Germany, Ireland, Russia, India, etc.)

2. Stories of Wonder and Magic - (Dickens, Milne, Sandburg, Pyle, H.C. Anderson, Padriac Column)

3. Myths and Legends - Greek, Roman, Norse, American Indian, Jataka Tales

4. Hero Tales - The Odyssey, The Song of Roland, Beowulf, King Arthur, Robin Hood

5. Stories That Never Grow Old - Carroll, Ruskin, Lamb, Poe, Swift, Irving, Dickens

6. Stories about Boys and Girls - Louisa May Alcott, Kate Douglas Wiggen, Booth Tarkington, Twain

7. The Animal Book - John Muir, Anna Sewell, Jack London, Rudyard Kipling

8. Stories from History - Howard Pyle, Hendrik Willem Van Loon, Andrew Lang, Sandburg, Stephen Vincent Benet

9. Sport and Adventure - Jack London, A. Conan Doyle, Charles A. Lindbergh, Richard E. Byrd

10. Poetry/Reading Guides Index - Nursery Rhymes, Riddles, Dickinson, Rossetti, Stevenson, Shakespeare, Frost, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Emerson, Wadsworth, Lear, Carroll, Longfellow, Sir Walter Scott, John Keats, Chesterton, Whitman, de la Mare, Shelley and on and on and on:D

 

Hope this helps. If Noah doesn't mind old books, I think it's a treasure.

[Melissa in Australia]

all of the recommendations in WTM logic reading list are great preparations.

[Murphy101]

I just wanted to say thanks!! I mentioned to my dh that I wanted to add this to our home library and he found a sets in pretty good condition after weeks digging thru old damp used bookstores. Oddly enough all the sets he found are missing book 2. The list given and the Lori d link are for the 1940's editions. The 1960s version is not the same selections at all. Even sans book 2 they are great! Thanks again!

 

Yes, I'm guilty of resurrecting a thread. I purchased the set Lori D. recommended and my dc love it. What a bargain for $40ppd. Thank you! Thank you!

 

Hey Jennifer, it includes:

 

1. Fairy Tales and Fables-(Aesop, Brothers Grimm, Germany, Ireland, Russia, India, etc.)

2. Stories of Wonder and Magic - (Dickens, Milne, Sandburg, Pyle, H.C. Anderson, Padriac Column)

3. Myths and Legends - Greek, Roman, Norse, American Indian, Jataka Tales

4. Hero Tales - The Odyssey, The Song of Roland, Beowulf, King Arthur, Robin Hood

5. Stories That Never Grow Old - Carroll, Ruskin, Lamb, Poe, Swift, Irving, Dickens

6. Stories about Boys and Girls - Louisa May Alcott, Kate Douglas Wiggen, Booth Tarkington, Twain

7. The Animal Book - John Muir, Anna Sewell, Jack London, Rudyard Kipling

8. Stories from History - Howard Pyle, Hendrik Willem Van Loon, Andrew Lang, Sandburg, Stephen Vincent Benet

9. Sport and Adventure - Jack London, A. Conan Doyle, Charles A. Lindbergh, Richard E. Byrd

10. Poetry/Reading Guides Index - Nursery Rhymes, Riddles, Dickinson, Rossetti, Stevenson, Shakespeare, Frost, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Emerson, Wadsworth, Lear, Carroll, Longfellow, Sir Walter Scott, John Keats, Chesterton, Whitman, de la Mare, Shelley and on and on and on:D

 

Hope this helps. If Noah doesn't mind old books, I think it's a treasure.

[Lori D.]

swimmermom3 said:

Yes, I'm guilty of resurrecting a thread. I purchased the set Lori D. recommended and my dc love it. What a bargain for $40ppd. Thank you! Thank you!

Just saw this today -- so very glad it has been a hit for your family! (Though, sorry and guilty for making you spend money!!:tongue_smilie:) Enjoy! Warmest regards, Lori D.

Edited May 4, 2019 by Lori D.

[IsabelC]

Bumping for my own benefit :)

[Farmgirl70]

I tend to visit the boards here when I am in planning mode, but this thread is inspiring to me.

 

I had an idea that worked for our reading of The Odyssey. My son used a curriculum that recommended listening to the Odyssey on CD while reading the text. He used the Robert Fagles translation available at our library and he enjoyed it so much that he requested the Iliad book and CD for his birthday.

 

A couple of principles I have followed in inspiring a love of classics in my kids:

--never let on that it is not perfectly normal for a kid of age __ to want to read a particular classic. I found that I saw some books as daunting only because they were given an entire semester of study the senior year at my high school. It gave me the impression that they must somehow need to be moderated rather than enjoyed. Remember that classic works were not lofty when they were written, for the most part. It just requires that we become familiar with slightly different language than we are used to.

--I only read books of classic quality or literary merit aloud to them for the most part. They can read the others on their own.

--We've read widely all along. Sometimes we "studied" books, but often we just read--even Shakespeare. It's amazing what they've enjoyed that I wasn't so sure about.

--Listen to stories that were originally told (like the epic poems), watch plays, read novels. A play is meant to be seen and it is so much different to see it rather than to read it. Even when we read them first, I always try to see the play with them. Shakespeare is so much easier to understand when you see the action as well as hear the words spoken with the right inflections.

 

Sorry to go on...I'm just passionate about the classics : ).

[Kareni]

--never let on that it is not perfectly normal for a kid of age __ to want to read a particular classic. I found that I saw some books as daunting only because they were given an entire semester of study the senior year at my high school. It gave me the impression that they must somehow need to be moderated rather than enjoyed. Remember that classic works were not lofty when they were written, for the most part. It just requires that we become familiar with slightly different language than we are used to.

 

 

 

I think this is a great point, Farmgirl. I believe that all too often we hear the words 'Classic' or 'Great Book' and the book instantly becomes more daunting. Hopefully our children will not have that particular prejudice.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Andrew Kern]

This is a great thread! It makes you realize how incredibly rich we are in our cultural heritage.

 

I would like to add one set of books that I've always loved called My Book House, a 12 volume set edited by Olive Beaupre Miller and printed from 1919 to 1970. the first volume has nursery rhymes and mother goose and the last has biographies of famous people. In between, you'll read a children's version (though with great style) of Shakespeare's plays, Dante's Divine Comedy, Beowulf, Greek and Roman myths and legends, Robin Hood, King Arthur, the Egyptian Cinderella sources, sailing stories, etc. etc.

 

If a child read this set between say four years old and 8th grade he would have a junior liberal education and be ready for the more advanced versions in high school.

 

You could find it in used book stores ten years ago for from 20 to 250 dollars, but I haven't looked for it since then.

 

There are two disadvanteges: one, it doesn't have the little volumes that young children can easily hold in their hands, so they can't read it by themselves before they're five or six years old, and two, Miller didn't like grisly stories so there's no Grimm, so far as I can remember.

 

Read on!!

[HeidiKC]

We usually do one Shakespeare play a year. We start with a simple version, then a beautiful illustrated version, then exerpts from the real thing, then watch a performance live then maybe a film version or two also.

 

I LOVE this idea!

[Sebastian (a lady)]

Loved the thread. Funny I don't remember it from the first time around.

 

The Young Folk's Shelf of Books is also published as Collier's Junior Classics, which seems to have had multiple editions.

 

I remember it was a story in a friend's edition of Collier's that introduced me to Robert Heinlein, which sparked a love of science fiction and a chapter of Caddie Woodlawn that stuck with me until I finally figured out what book it was from as an adult.

[gandpsmommy]

I think reading mythology (so far we've used the D'Aulaires' books for Greek mythology and Norse mythology), and reading Bible stories helps. We aren't a religious family, but I have read three or four different versions of storybook Bibles to my kids over the past few years. There are so many Biblical allusions in Western literature, and I want them to understand them.

[Saille]

I would like to add one set of books that I've always loved called My Book House, a 12 volume set edited by Olive Beaupre Miller and printed from 1919 to 1970. the first volume has nursery rhymes and mother goose and the last has biographies of famous people. In between, you'll read a children's version (though with great style) of Shakespeare's plays, Dante's Divine Comedy, Beowulf, Greek and Roman myths and legends, Robin Hood, King Arthur, the Egyptian Cinderella sources, sailing stories, etc. etc.

 

My grandparents had this set in their basement when I was a child. I devoured it, and inherited the set when I had children. There was one missing volume, and my mother tracked down a copy for me to complete the set. Some of the works are in the original language...Thackeray's The Rose and Ring, for example, and all the poetry. And the illustrations are just 1920's bliss. There's actually a Waldorf "bridge" curriculum that uses one of these volumes, too.

 

What a great thread!

[Kfamily]

How interesting that you (Andrew) mention the My Book House series. We have all the books but book 3. I bought these at a used book store and they were missing this one volume. I love these little books and have planned for my younger dd to read through them all.

 

It's fun to see this thread continue. Thanks all.:001_smile:

[i.love.lucy]

Resurrecting to ask if I bought the My Book House set (I bought it but it hasn't arrived yet) do I also want to get the Young Folks set? Is there enough difference to make both worthwhile? I guess this would be a question only someone with both sets could answer...:confused:

[momma aimee]

Resurrecting to ask if I bought the My Book House set (I bought it but it hasn't arrived yet) do I also want to get the Young Folks set? Is there enough difference to make both worthwhile? I guess this would be a question only someone with both sets could answer...:confused:

 

thoughts on the My Book House? I jsut ran into it for the first time today ... :bigear:

[JennyD]

This is a great thread! It makes you realize how incredibly rich we are in our cultural heritage.

 

I would like to add one set of books that I've always loved called My Book House, a 12 volume set edited by Olive Beaupre Miller and printed from 1919 to 1970. the first volume has nursery rhymes and mother goose and the last has biographies of famous people. In between, you'll read a children's version (though with great style) of Shakespeare's plays, Dante's Divine Comedy, Beowulf, Greek and Roman myths and legends, Robin Hood, King Arthur, the Egyptian Cinderella sources, sailing stories, etc. etc.

 

If a child read this set between say four years old and 8th grade he would have a junior liberal education and be ready for the more advanced versions in high school.

 

You could find it in used book stores ten years ago for from 20 to 250 dollars, but I haven't looked for it since then.

 

There are two disadvanteges: one, it doesn't have the little volumes that young children can easily hold in their hands, so they can't read it by themselves before they're five or six years old, and two, Miller didn't like grisly stories so there's no Grimm, so far as I can remember.

 

Read on!!

 

Hey, I have this! It was my father's when he was a child. I think the publication date is 1926, IIRC. I had to put the set in storage this year but am looking forward to getting it out. The whole thing smells a bit from a fire in my grandmother's apartment back in 1980 or so, but substantively it is just a treasure.

[Moni]

Maybe "The Good Books" list? That is, the books before the "Great" books.

 

http://www.angelicum.net/the_good_books_in_print_list.html

 

http://www.angelicum.net/the_good_books_in_print_list.html

 

:seeya:

 

Better link now

But you need to sift through the grade levels to see the list for each grade

http://angelicum.net/curriculum/curriculum-book-list-2/

[Hyzenthlay in Pa.]

My dyslexic son before attempting his first year of Great Books study took it upon himself to design and implement a course of reading to prepare himself. He read at least ten( maybe more but I never counted):lol: P. G. Wodehouse novels. P G Wodehouse, you might question? Ah, but the ''best prose writer of the age;'', according to Belloc has wondrous magic to perform on growing minds.

He was very successful, thoroughly enjoyed his summer, remained positively cheerful through three years of the stiffer stuff and is happily starting his fourth year.

What ho!

 

Thank you, I love Wodehouse & will add a few for summer reading.

[tjarnold]

What great info! Thank you all for your suggestions.

 

Tiffany

[Jennefer@SSA]

So glad this thread keeps coming back! I started reading not realizing the thread started over 2 years ago. :)

 

OP what a great question! Thanks for asking and everyone thanks for responding.

[momma aimee]

Thanks everyone!!!!!

[Sebastian (a lady)]

E. Nesbitt and George MacDonald are two great writers that are fairly easy to read...but have rich wording and vocab. in my opinion.

 

I think that reading older writers helps to train a child's ear for unfamiliar, less modern phrasing.

 

 

Several years ago, I tried to read Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian. I could appreciate on one hand that it was incredible writing. But I just couldn't stay engaged with the story, despite having been in the Navy for many years.

 

Skip forward a decade, with a lot of life and several years of Jane Austen under my belt. This time, I thought Master and Commander was just delightful. Part of this is certainly that as an older reader, I was better positioned to appreciate the troubles and foibles of the characters. But another big factor was that the reading was so much more effortless.

 

So two lessons are that you can build up reading stamina and that just because you didn't enjoy or appreciate a work once, doesn't mean that you will never enjoy it or similar meaty books.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

Loved the thread. Funny I don't remember it from the first time around.

 

The Young Folk's Shelf of Books is also published as Collier's Junior Classics, which seems to have had multiple editions.

 

I remember it was a story in a friend's edition of Collier's that introduced me to Robert Heinlein, which sparked a love of science fiction and a chapter of Caddie Woodlawn that stuck with me until I finally figured out what book it was from as an adult.

 

Must be my memory, because I didn't recognize the thread the third time around either. :lol:

[Kareni]

How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines by Thomas C. Foster would be a good non-fiction read to consider in preparation for reading the great books.

 

Regards,

Kareni