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Help me beef up this reading list (Ancients, 5th grade; x-post)


patchfire
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We'll be swinging back around to ancients & the beginning of medieval times next year, and, yes, I'm already working on it. :tongue_smilie: Dd will be in fifth grade. She's a strong reader; I would say she's currently on a 7th or 8th grade level. I find it difficult at times to get age-appropriate books that still challenge her.

 

So I have a list of books for next year; some of these may be read-alouds or summer reading. However, I have a lot of them in hand and frankly, I worry that not enough of these are challenging. Suggestions for different books about the same thing or additional works would be welcome.

 

Gilgamesh the Hero, Geraldine McCaughrean.

1001 Arabian Nights, Geraldine McCaughrean.

Tales of Ancient Egypt, Roger Lancelyn Green.

Heroes, Gods, and Monsters of Greek Myths, Bernard Evslin.

The Golden Fleece, Padraic Colum.

Tales of the Greek Heroes, Green

The Children’s Homer, Padraic Colum.

Aesop’s Fables

The Last Days of Socrates, Plato.

The Aeneid for Boys and Girls, Church.

Caesar’s Gallic Wars, Coolidge.

Julius Caesar, Shakespeare.

Tales from the Mabinogion, Gwyn Thomas and Kevin Crossley-Holland.

Tales from China, Cyril Birch.

Tales from Japan, Helen McAlpine and William McAlpine.

Tales from India, J. E. B. Gray.

Tales from Africa, Kathleen Arnott.

Song for a Dark Queen, Rosemary Sutcliff.

Heroes and Heroines, Monsters and Magic, Bruchac.

 

I could add Bullfinch’s Mythology or Mythology, Hamilton, or substitute either of those for one of the other Greek myth books (Green or Evslin, likely). I will have a bunch of fun books on hand as well for her to choose - Detectives in Togas, Caroline Lawrence's Roman Mysteries series, Eloise McGraw's books set in Ancient Egypt, and so forth, but those also won't really challenge her.

 

Help! :)

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You can look for more Sutcliff - we find those fairly dense.

 

I'd go with the Hamilton - it's substantial but the language is not quite as quaint as the Bullfinch. Calvin loves ancient myth and reads Shakespeare easily, but hasn't been tempted by Bullfinch.

 

Laura

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