Annabel Lee Posted January 24, 2011 Share Posted January 24, 2011 In TWTM grammar stage Reading lists (not history, but the assigned reading that is used for Literature), it says to find "stories and poems by, about or from" at the top of the list. The intent is to expose kids to great books they'll likely encounter later at their current level w/ adaptations or abridgements. I just typed in "John Milton" into my library's online catalog to find nothing but the originals. I don't think Paradise Lost or Areopagitica are 2nd and 4th grade fare, but his name is on the list. Where do I look for children's books on authors, or children's versions of these types of works? I also tried a google search but it came up w/ some pretty broad results. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stripe Posted January 24, 2011 Share Posted January 24, 2011 I just happened to run across this one: Latch Key of My Book House by Olive B Miller There are stories in there (some more appropriate than others!) about a variety of authors and other people. Milton is in there, briefly (p 133 of the PDF): MILTON, JOHN (English, 1608-1674) John Milton was a stern old Puritan, a born rebel from his boy hood, an apostle of liberty, who hated tyranny and was yet neither gracious nor tender. He was Secretary for Foreign Tongues to Oliver Cromwell, the Puritan Protector of England, and during that work became totally blind. But with his tremendous power and force he never gave up his work. Out under the trees in his garden he forced his three daughters to read to him hour after hour, long, tiresome books of which they often understood nothing. With Cromwell's death and the return of the Royalists to power, Milton lost his standing and was forced for a time to go into hiding. His books against the Royalist cause were publicly burnt and he himself was thrown into prison. When he was released, he was a friendless old man, blind as well, but with that tremendous spirit of his he set to work once again and finished the most powerful of all his works, one of the greatest epic poems in the English lang- uage—Paradise Lost, as well as two other long poems. A lot of libraries have Something About the Author, in print (multi volume) and/or online. I am not entirely sure of a reliable way to find abridged works. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michelle l Posted January 24, 2011 Share Posted January 24, 2011 Our library has abridged versions in the children's section. They just in the fiction section by author's last name, so the abridged books are right next to any unabridged versions. My kids have read Great Illustrated Classics -- you can sometimes find these on ebay. My younger two got some Classic Starts books for Christmas that came from Barnes and Noble, and my older one got Junior Illustrated Classics version also from B&N. I'm still tryiing to figure out if that is abridged or not. I'm assuming so because it says "Junior", but it doesn't say specifically. My youngest read an Oddysey for kids series by...is it Mary Pope Osborn? (The woman who writes the Magic Treehouse series.) My children have really enjoyed all the "classic";) books they have read so far. I'm anxious to have them read the real things. However, this has been a nice introduction for them, and are their favorites, which has been a real surprise to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stripe Posted January 24, 2011 Share Posted January 24, 2011 I just found one at my library. The Tale of Paradise Lost by Nancy Willard. It's shelved with kids' stuff and is 150 p long. Anyhow, the subject heading is Milton, John -- 1608-1674 -- Adaptations. I am not sure how many of these books are assigned the adaptations heading, but it's one idea. I ran a search with keyword "adaptations" on children's books, and it looks promising (Nesbit and the Lambs' Shakespeare adaptations came up, as did various works by Geraldine McCaughrean). Try that. Not what you're looking for, but there's alsoTwitterature: The World's Greatest Books In Twenty Tweets Or Les. Cough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annabel Lee Posted January 27, 2011 Author Share Posted January 27, 2011 Oh, thank you stripe! I'll have to get it on ILL; I searched & my library doesn't have anything on him for kids. I did search all the Great Illustrated Classics, Bullseye Step into Classics, and Stepping Stone Series; as well as a few publisher's websites. I searched amazon and google to no avail. Thank you so much! ETA: Twitterature? Srsly? {:O lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeanne in MN Posted January 27, 2011 Share Posted January 27, 2011 Tales From Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb is a great book for introducing Shakespeare. Cantebury Tales by Barbara Cohen. (I never could get into Cantebury Tales, but if your are interested, this rendition is available. I know there are more, but it's too late tonight for me to find them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annabel Lee Posted January 28, 2011 Author Share Posted January 28, 2011 I like Lamb's Shakespeare, it's on my shelf, but my boys just couldn't get into it (maybe it didn't help that I started at the beginning of the book with The Tempest). We read some Bruce Coville adaptations and the Shakespeare Can Be Fun series and they loved those; laughing-out-loud, -interupting-brother's-math-lesson-type enjoyment. That's rare for "real" classics here; such enthusiasm is usually reserved for Beverly Cleary books, 39 Clues, or sports biographies. I just couldn't find anything on John Milton. My librarian came up with one other title and it has to be ordered on ILL also. That's OK, the boys are enjoying Perrault adaptations for now. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stripe Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 I don't know exactly what this is, but I saw it on Amazon: John Milton's Drama of Paradise Lost by Hugh Richmond, 79 p, ISBN 082041719X The previous book I mentioned got a single one-star review on amazon as being "painfully impotent" and "unsuitable for any age" -- yikes! Also the "look inside" feature of a book by John Collier reveals that he wrote an adaptation of Paradise Lost (Paradise Lost: Screenplay for Cinema of the Mind). Not sure what that is, but there you are. ANYhoo, I found this one on Google Books for you: The Story of Paradise Lost for Children by Eliza Weaver Bradburn (1830) Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aludlam Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 Our library has abridged versions in the children's section. They just in the fiction section by author's last name, so the abridged books are right next to any unabridged versions. My kids have read Great Illustrated Classics -- you can sometimes find these on ebay. My younger two got some Classic Starts books for Christmas that came from Barnes and Noble, and my older one got Junior Illustrated Classics version also from B&N. I'm still tryiing to figure out if that is abridged or not. I'm assuming so because it says "Junior", but it doesn't say specifically. I'm looking at some of the Classic Starts books on Amazon. How have you liked them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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