Which book would you pick?

[Aurelia]

I'm looking at lists of books I have and want to schedule for school and am trying to make a choice for some of them, but can't seem to make up my mind! Which book would you choose to read to a ~9 year old, Robinson Crusoe, Captains Courageous, or Treasure Island?

 

And if you had to choose between reading a book on King Arthur (R. L. Green) or Robin Hood (H. Pyle), which would you pick?

 

I'd love to hear your reasoning for your choices. :001_smile:

 

 

FTR, we aren't following the 4 year cycle, and I'm not terribly worried about my literature matching up with the history cycle.

[Chrysalis Academy]

I was having this exact same conversation with myself!! I decided to pre-read Robinson Crusoe again before deciding, I hadn't read it since I was a kid (it's on my "self-education" reading list anyway). In any event, I decided to hold off on it for dd9. I think there are more . . . engaging books out there for this age range. I just got Treasure Island on cd to pre-listen to and make the same decision! So I don't know yet about that one. I've never read Captain Courageous.

 

Ok, this falls into the TMI department, so feel free not to read on, but:

 

FWIW, we are reading To Kill a Mockingbird right now, because our local theater company is putting on a production at the end of the month (dd is very involved in theater) and I wanted to read it with her before she sees it. I was a little leary of doing it with her, thought she might be too young, but it is actually going *really* well. She identifies with Scout, and reading about the realtionship between Atticus and his children is actually really, really good for both of us.

 

After this, we are going to read Pinocchio, and then Peter Pan, for contrasting views of growing up/coming of age type stories. We'll also watch the Disney films after reading the books, and talk about how and why films change stories, what editorial choices the filmmakers made, and how that changed the theme/message of the story.

 

That's my plan so far . . . it's fun to hear about other's plans for this age group. I've been very inspired by many ideas I've read here.

[Aurelia]

That's what I was worried about when I saw the century Robinson Crusoe was written. I've found most 18th century books to be a bit of a slog, and didn't want to have to worry about losing DD completely when reading it. I've actually scheduled Pyle's The Book of Pirates for next year, which is a collection of pirate stories (she's fascinated with pirates and adventure stories) rather than a novel, but I keep seeing RC, TI and CC on reading lists for children aged 9-11, and I guess I'm wondering if they really are THAT good, or if people just recommend them because they're antique.

 

I had completely forgotten about To Kill a Mockingbird. I guess I just had it in my memory banks for "later", though that might be really good to read with DD. I remember really enjoying it when I read it in 6th grade (once I figured out Scout was a girl) and it had a big impact on me. I also plan to read Peter Pan next school year, and was considering Mary Poppins, too, since the book is very different from the movie, even though P.L. Travers actually was consulted for the movie. We like to read different books and compare them to the movies based on them. We did that recently with Arrietty's World/The Borrowers, and was considering doing Tales from Earthsea/A Wizard of Earthsea.

 

How do you feel about King Arthur vs. Robin Hood?

Edited April 12, 2012 by Aurelia

[Chrysalis Academy]

I started to read Pyle with her a few months ago, but really, the vocabulary was a little out of reach. I do believe that the best way to grow vocab is reading stuff that stretches you, but this was too much of a stretch. I decided to do some other books with "advanced" vocab, but gentler, first - things like The Wind in the Willows, which was our last RA, and George MacDonald and maybe Little Women. We're also studying vocab explicitly with Caesar's English. I think we'll try Pyle again in a year or so.

 

I haven't read Green's King Arthur, so I can't really comment on that one . . .

 

I'm definitely going to do the Borrower's / Arriety thing too! Dd loved the borrowers, and we'll Netflix Arriety as soon as it's released.

[happyhomemaker]

I would pick Treasure Island. The story is easy to follow and I remember the language as being older but not horribly antiquated.

 

I am getting Green's King Arthur for dd10 to read. She read some excerpts from it in WWE3 and loved it. She didn't seem to have any trouble understanding it. I'm also ordering Pyle's from the library just to compare the 2, but we will probably stick with Green because she has already enjoyed some of it. I think Green has a Robin Hood book as well if his writing ends up seeming a bit easier to you than Pyle's.

[OrdinaryTime]

I read TI aloud to my 7 year old this year. Not a total winner, but not a complete stinker either. The language is a stretch, but the plot keeps moving. I think it a better choice than RC. I haven't read CC.

[Donna T.]

I would pick Treasure Island and Pyle's Robin Hood. My 9 year old son LOVES both of those!