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Would you share your favorite read-alouds for older kids?


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Have we done this yet? I don't think so (but Kareni can always point me to the thread!;) ).

 

My oldest at home are middle and high schoolers. I'm at the point where I need to really do two read alouds and I'd love to have a list for my olders. We'll take anything: nonfiction, theology, philosophy, historical fiction, classics. And feel free to add anything that you have read, but that you think would make a great read aloud.

 

Thanks!

Lisa

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:blushing::blushing::blushing: 1001 Arabian Nights by Geraldine McCaughrean. Yes, I know it says ages 9-12 and I was only going to have the youngest read it and have the older one read a more adult version to go along with the TC's lecture in The History of World Literature, but I couldn't figure out what else to order and thought this would save time. Both students savored the subtle, sly language, and did not want the reading sessions to end.

 

My Family and Other Animals - Gerald Durell

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind - by William Kamkwamba

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The Little Britches series (We only read aloud the first two, but the whole series would be good.)

Peace Child by Don Richardson (We loved this!)

Little Women (We're almost finished with this now. I'm reading it to just the girls. I'm not sure boys -- at least not my boys -- would appreciate it as much as the girls are.)

 

ETA: It's a lot of fun to read Shakespeare together with everybody taking parts.

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My husband reads to our teens/early twenties. He has read some of the Patrick O'Brian sea stories, Coral Island, The Frozen Water Trade, some Pooh stories (if you haven't read these as an adult, you are in for a treat - they are hysterical), lots of Wodehouse, and (probably edited on the fly) The Hungry Ocean. These were not exactly carefully selected. He just happened to be reading them and the children happened to be there and not doing anything in particular, and then everyone happened to get involved in the story and want to know what happened next.

 

As a teen/twentier, I was read Little Men by my grandmother, LotR multiple times by my mother (we did this over and over throughout my childhood - it is structured to be read aloud), Captain's Couragous, Kim, Jungle Books, and Treasure Island. My father, a non-reading engineer, read us Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy because he just couldn't keep the book to himself. When we were in college, he took my sister and me and our husbands (then boyfriends) to a tiny (really tiny - 9 foot by 9 foot) cabin one winter weekend and it was so stormy and we were all so tired that we spent the whole weekend in our sleepingbags listening to Dad read. It made a fantastic read aloud. I can't remember why he decided to take us without my mother. Anyway, read-alouds are a nice thing to do with your college students, to help keep them part of the family. Somebody read us some Mark Twain somewhere along the line, and Shakespeare, too.

 

We have been reading great books aloud. I have read fairytales, folk tales, National Geographic and Science News articles, Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods (his Short History of Nearly Everything would be good to read aloud), Pooh, and many other things. We have all loved listening to Lindsey Davis (probably should preview) mysteries, Three Men in a Boat, and some other things on tape, also.

 

-Nan

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