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What should I cut from this book list?


mo2
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We're doing a one-year overview of world history with my 9yo. I've looked through Sonlight's book lists and this is what I've come up with, but I don't know *anything* about any of these books. Can someone help me pick the best of them? I want secular books, so I didn't list those that I could see were obviously Christian. If you know that any of these I've listed below are Christian, would you please let me know so I can remove them from my list? Seriously, this list is way too long and I need to trim it down. Are there any of these books that you've read and loved or read and disliked? Any that are just boring and skippable? Any that I need to add to it?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

The King's Equal

The Whipping Boy

Lumber Camp Library

The Door in the Wall

Twenty-One Balloons

Strawberry Girl

The Apprentice

Peter the Great

The Golden Goblet

Otto of the Silver Hand

The Trojan War

Master Cornhill

I, Juan de Pareja

Eagle of the Ninth

The Second Mrs Giaconda

The Shakespeare Stealer

Augustus Caesar's World

The World of Columbus and Sons

The Samurai's Tale

Adam of the Road

Shadow of a Bull

The Great and Terrible Quest

Mara, Daughter of the Nile

The Beduin's Gazelle

Hittite Warrior

Archimedes and the Door of Science

Mary, Bloody Mary

Banner in the Sky

The Endless Steppe

Number the Stars

George Washington's World

Escape from Warsaw

In Search of Honor

It's a Jungle Out There!

I am David

Anna and the King

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The ones in red are books we've either read or will definitely read soon. There are a couple of others that we own and may read at some point.

 

The King's Equal

The Whipping Boy

Lumber Camp Library

The Door in the Wall

Twenty-One Balloons

Strawberry Girl

The Apprentice

Peter the Great

The Golden Goblet

Otto of the Silver Hand

The Trojan War

Master Cornhill

I, Juan de Pareja

Eagle of the Ninth

The Second Mrs Giaconda

The Shakespeare Stealer

Augustus Caesar's World

The World of Columbus and Sons

The Samurai's Tale

Adam of the Road

Shadow of a Bull

The Great and Terrible Quest

Mara, Daughter of the Nile

The Beduin's Gazelle

Hittite Warrior

Archimedes and the Door of Science

Mary, Bloody Mary

Banner in the Sky

The Endless Steppe

Number the Stars

George Washington's World

Escape from Warsaw

In Search of Honor

It's a Jungle Out There!

I am David

Anna and the King

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I'll "red" the ones we have read and enjoyed.

 

The King's Equal

The Whipping Boy

Lumber Camp Library

The Door in the Wall

Twenty-One Balloons

Strawberry Girl

The Apprentice

Peter the Great

The Golden Goblet

Otto of the Silver Hand

The Trojan War

Master Cornhill

I, Juan de Pareja

Eagle of the Ninth

The Second Mrs Giaconda

The Shakespeare Stealer

Augustus Caesar's World

The World of Columbus and Sons

The Samurai's Tale

Adam of the Road

Shadow of a Bull

The Great and Terrible Quest

Mara, Daughter of the Nile

The Beduin's Gazelle

Hittite Warrior

Archimedes and the Door of Science

Mary, Bloody Mary

Banner in the Sky

The Endless Steppe

Number the Stars

George Washington's World

Escape from Warsaw

In Search of Honor

It's a Jungle Out There!

I am David

Anna and the King

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Thanks everyone! Keep 'em coming!

 

I don't know if your 9yo is a boy or girl, but my 9 yo boy cringed and then BEGGED for days to skip The Bedouins Gazelle. After reading a few pages, I could see why, it was way too "romancey" for him!

 

Well, my 9yo right now is a girl. But my next 9yo will be a boy. So we'll go ahead and skip it. She's not too "romancey" anyway. Thanks!

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If the reading is suppose to be history related, then skip "Twenty-One Balloons". It is not really history related in any way.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Twenty-One_Balloons

 

Good to know. Thanks!

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We're doing a one-year overview of world history with my 9yo. I've looked through Sonlight's book lists and this is what I've come up with, but I don't know *anything* about any of these books. Can someone help me pick the best of them? I want secular books, so I didn't list those that I could see were obviously Christian. If you know that any of these I've listed below are Christian, would you please let me know so I can remove them from my list? Seriously, this list is way too long and I need to trim it down. Are there any of these books that you've read and loved or read and disliked? Any that are just boring and skippable? Any that I need to add to it?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

The King's Equal

The Whipping Boy

Lumber Camp Library

The Door in the Wall

Twenty-One Balloons

Strawberry Girl

The Apprentice

Peter the Great

The Golden Goblet

Otto of the Silver Hand

The Trojan War

Master Cornhill

I, Juan de Pareja

Eagle of the Ninth

The Second Mrs Giaconda

The Shakespeare Stealer

Augustus Caesar's World

The World of Columbus and Sons

The Samurai's Tale

Adam of the Road

Shadow of a Bull

The Great and Terrible Quest

Mara, Daughter of the Nile

The Beduin's Gazelle

Hittite Warrior

Archimedes and the Door of Science

Mary, Bloody Mary

Banner in the Sky

The Endless Steppe

Number the Stars

George Washington's World

Escape from Warsaw

In Search of Honor

It's a Jungle Out There!

I am David

Anna and the King

 

I think that your list looks great. My oldest probably could have read all of these books at 9, but I'm not sure what he would have taken away from them. The Genevieve Foster books are definitely 6th grade and up books. You have a few other books on your list that I think also might be above a 9 year olds ability to comprehend, not so much read, just comprehend.

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I'd skip The Trojan War.

 

Definitely read:

The Apprentice

The Door in the Wall

The Whipping Boy

 

Might be too difficult, but I love them:

Augustus Caesar's World

George Washington's World

 

Have you read Detectives in Togas? It's a fun book for World History.

 

Maybe cut Anna and the King and watch one of the movies. You could do the same with I am David.

 

It's a Jungle out There is not really about World History, but it's a fun book.

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In Search of Honor -- check into it, the Amazon reviews seem to indicate that it's somewhat Christian and it's published by an imprint of BJU.

 

Some books that I loved, loved, loved.

 

The Door in the Wall

I, Juan de Pareja

Strawberry Girl (although this would also fit just fine in American History if you're overfull this year)

The Twenty-One Balloons (just a rollicking good and silly romp)

The Genevieve Foster books (those lived in the bathroom for a long time, great place to read a two-page spread)

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I ditto the comments on the Whipping Boy.

 

Doesn't Otto of the Silverhand contain a monastery and christian brothers? It isn't overtly "Christian," but it does contain religious elements as part of its action. (IMO, it covers them in a 'historical' way that is hard to subtract from that part of history.) Just a heads-up.

 

That one & Adam of the Road would have been too difficult for MY 9 yr old last year, but ok for read alouds.

 

Mary, Bloody Mary - I think I read this one a couple years ago. Main character & her mother are solidly Catholic and that plays a part in what happens in the book when Mary's father, Henry VIII, divorces her mother & breaks from the Catholic Church.

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