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Tress

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Posts posted by Tress

    Looking for books that are poorly written

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted

    That sounds like a wonderful idea!!!

     

    I think it is "bad" writing only in the sense that it has a lot of sentences that are not technically correct. I think it is amazing writing in that the author could tell interesting stories, some with other content learning in them, as you say, with relatively simple to read language. I think they are excellent, but if Gil wants something like sentence grammar errors (often fragments) to correct that can be found in a real book, MTH might provide that.

     

     

    Do you happen to know what all languages they are available in--or more specifically whether they come in German and Spanish?

    We were looking for early readers for my ds to practice his foreign language and couldn't find anything good, but didn't think of trying MTH in translation. I am sure there are plenty he never read, or even if he did that trying it in another language would still be helpful.

    They are absolutely available in German and Spanish.

     

    German:

     

    http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/3785537549?keywords=mary%20pope%20osborne%20das%20magische%20baumhaus&qid=1454563448&ref_=sr_1_5&sr=8-5

     

    And Spanish:

     

    http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=n%3A301731%2Cp_lbr_one_browse-bin%3AMary%20Pope%20Osborne

     

    My oldest daugter went from reading MTH to reading Enid Blyton (I know, also frowned upon here, but I needed a fun series) to Percy Jackson/Harry Potter and then could read whatever she wanted in English. My dd9 is at the Enid Blyton stage now, dd7 reads MTH.

    We are trying to do the same in French....obviously at the MTH stage now.

    I decided not to teach German :D (man, you should have heard my sister berate me and call me a complete slacker :lol:).

     

    I need fun series in Latin and Greek, those easy readers are often far from fun.

    • Like 1

    Looking for books that are poorly written

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted · Edited by Tress

    I agree that Magic Tree House and Divergent have writing issues, but they are, on the other hand,extremely, extremely helpful for newly minted or struggling readers at various stages.

    Absolutely! If MTH is the example of bad writing in early reading books, wow, you sure do not want to read any Dutch books for emerging readers. My kids are extatic when they reach the level of English vocab needed to read MTH. Then reading starts to become fun.

     

    Dare I say it, I just ordered the first 20 MTH books *in French* from ebay. All those A0 and A1 level French readers (ERK language level) keep focussing on colours and days of the week....blech. With MTH you get to read about Vikings and Dolphins and the Rain Forest! (I wish MTH came in Latin and Greek, too.)

     

    Divergent, on the other hand, we'll skip :D. If you are ready to read at that level in a foreign language, there are plenty of other good books to chose from.

    • Like 3

    Please tell me this is just a 12 year old boy phase

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted

    Girls are affected too.

    Thanks, Jean!

     

    I had heard parents talking about this type of behaviour by teens on this forum, but I have to admit I always assumed it was a bit of an American thing. Noone around here ever mentions it, tracking starts in 7th grade and the amount of work students have to do increases a lot. This whole 'teen growth spurt, therefor their brains don't function' thing is completely unheard of.

     

    Well, it obviously doesn't matter if *I* don't believe in it :lol:, because dd12's brain definitely stopped functioning :D.

     

    So exercise and food are the solution? Anything else?

    • Like 2

    BW52: 2015 Year End Wrap Up!

    in The Chat Board

    Posted · Edited by Tress

    I am quite captivated by Per Petterson's novel To Siberia--even as I wait for the Nazis to invade Denmark.

    Knock me over with a feather; my library has 5 different titles by Per Petterson in Dutch translation!

    To Siberia is going on my reading list.

    • Like 8

    BW52: 2015 Year End Wrap Up!

    in The Chat Board

    Posted · Edited by Tress

    Please share what you are reading this week as well as your reading lists and tell us about your reading year:

    I finished History of the Medieval World. I loved it and am looking forward to HoRW.

    I finished Crossroads of Twilight, book 10 of Wheel of Time. Man, that book was a slog. It took me 4 months to get through and I only made it because everybody keeps telling me books 11-12-13-14 are much better. And indeed, book 11 *is* better, I've already read 500+pages of it :D.

    I'm still slogging through Pamela, it's so annoying I can only take it in small doses, so I don't think I will finish it today.

     

     

    How many books did you read this year and did you meet or beat your own personal goal?

    I read 146 books, which is way more than my goal of 100. I used to be one of those who were complaining about reading a book a week :D. I still don't know what has changed.

    Dutch: 52

    English: 90

    Latin: 4

    Dusty: 15

    Chunky: 11

    I'm not feeling up to giving a complete list, I seem to go from migraine to sinus infection to migraine this last month.

    Share your top 5 (or more) favorite books.

    Adam Sisman – Boswell’s Presumptuous Task, the Making of the Life of Dr Johnson

    Ursula le Guin - Earthsea quartet

    Wendell Berry - Jaber Crow

    Jo Walton – Farthing (Small Change part 1)

    Doris Lessing – Shikasta, Re: Colonized Planet 5

    I loved Adam Sisman's book, have written about that before. Highly recommended to non-fiction readers.

    I love Ursula le Guin and very much enjoyed her Earthsea quartet. I noticed that there are several more Earthsea books, but I will have to buy them to be able to read them.....so that might take a while.

    Wendell Berry. I kept hearing/reading people raving about his books, so I used birthday money to buy Jaber Crow (obviously no Dutch library is going to have his books, sigh). Loved it.

    Jo Walton's Farthing gave me quite a punch and made me realise how very vulnerable our freedom is.

    Shukriyya, thank you for mentioning Shikasta! I loved it! I'm looking forward to reading the other books in the series, but again, I will have to buy them to read them....and that might take a while.

    One book that touched you - made you laugh, cry, sing or dance!

    Rod Dreher - How Dante Can Save Your Life

    Beautiful book, although at times a bit too personal to be comfortable to read. Beautiful edition, too!

    Share your most favorite character, covers and/or quotes?

    Too many quotes to copy now I finally have found a good way to use my common place book, and most of them in Dutch.

    What countries or centuries did you explore?

    18th century in Dutch and Brittish literature.

    What was your favorite part of the challenge?

    I love reading these weekly threads and love the many book recommendations! Thanks everyone! And especially Robin for leading these threads!

    • Like 12

    Book a Week 2015: Best of 2015

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    Oh please do! I enjoyed it and wished I'd read it long before. It's not too long a read (and you may find there are some skimmable parts).

    We might have a difference of opinion about 'not too long' :D. I downloaded the Gutenberg version in 6 volumes and the first volume alone has 648 pages.....

     

    Do you have any recommendations for works by Johnson himself?

    • Like 7

    Book a Week 2015: Best of 2015

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    I know I'm not the only one who loves books-about-books, so I want to mention:

     

    Michael Dirda's new book: Browsings, a Year of Reading, Collecting, and Living with Books.

     

    It was my Sinterklaas present and it is quiet good. Not as good as Classics for Pleasure and Bound to Please, but still very nice. His essays are a bit more personal and -I feel- a bit scattered, but still he can sell me on any book :D. (Like the Sisman book, see above, which he recommended in Bound to Please.)

    • Like 11

    Book a Week 2015: Best of 2015

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    I'm finishing up several books, but wanted to mention this one:

     

    Adam Sisman - Boswell's Presumptuous Task, the Making of the Life of Dr Johnson.

     

    I know it's a bit weird to be reading the Making of the Life of Dr Johnson, without having read The Life of Johnson, or anything by Johnson himself :blush:, but it was a very interesting book! Definitely on my top-2015 list.

     

    I'm now going to read The Life of Johnson, by Boswell, but that might take the whole of 2016 to finish :D.

    • Like 10

    Book a Week 2015: Best of 2015

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    That would be nice:

    Reading along in Dutch :)

    I had no idea it would be translated into Dutch, so I bought it in English when it came out. I would really like to support SWB's book being translated, but buying another copy is sadly not in the budget. You buy it ;).
    • Like 9

    Book a Week 2015: Best of 2015

    in The Chat Board

    Posted · Edited by Tress

    I love Eliana's idea of a group read of Story of Science and some of its original sources. Shannon and I are reading it together now, and I'm thoroughly impressed at what a great job SWB does in summarizing and contextualizing each great work of science. I would enjoy coming back through and reading some of the original sources that I've not ever read.

    I would like that too!

     

    Story of Science has been translated into Dutch recently and there was a highly complimentary review in a major Dutch newspaper this weekend! :hurray:

    • Like 10
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