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What are your top 5 reading choices for Modern time period?


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Have you ever read Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank? It takes place in a small town in Florida after a nuclear war in the 1950's. The tone of the book is serious but not IMO overly graphic or gruesome. One of the reasons I like this book is that the cold war period is not a popular setting / time period for literature. I'm old enough to remember the tail end of the cold war in the late '70's . When Reagan got elected I thought I would never live to graduate from Jr High . Of course, now I'm a total conservative:lol: Life's funny that way. At any rate, check out the book. It's a good read.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Alas-Babylon-Pat-Frank/dp/0060741872/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1339887984&sr=1-1&keywords=alas+babylon

 

Also, Sophie's Choice by William Styron You may remember the movie from the '80's with Meryl Streep. It is set in NYC immediately after WWII.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Sophies-Choice-Modern-Library-William/dp/0679602895/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1339888120&sr=1-1&keywords=sophies+choice

 

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien This takes place in Vietnam. A powerful story but an important one. I suggest you preread this one since your daughter is sensitive.

 

http://www.amazon.com/The-Things-They-Carried-OBrien/dp/0618706410/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1339888161&sr=1-1&keywords=the+things+they+carried

 

HTH

 

Trafal

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We are doing Modern this year. Some of the books that my 13 yr. old will be reading is:

 

The Innocence of Father Brown--Chesterton

Perelandra (and the other two in this sci-fi series)--Lewis

Rilla of Ingleside--Montgomery

The Hiding Place--Corre Ten Boom

The Cay

Story of the Von Trapp Family Singers

The Miracle Worker

All Creatures Great and Small--Herriott

39 Steps--Buchan

My side of the Mountain

The Never Ending Story

Christy

 

Here is the list for my 11 yr. old. He will be reading some of the ones listed above as well as as these:

LIttle Britches

Poetry for Young People--Robert Frost

War of the Worlds

Call of the Wild

Number the Stars

Chronicles of Narnia

The Hobbit

Breadwinner

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

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Ditto on Sophie's Choice.

 

Spoiler:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The "choice" referred to in the title is when the mother, a holocaust survivor, first arrives in an extermination camp and has to choose which child to keep and which to let go to the gas chamber. This is told in a series of flashbacks.

 

If I recall the story correctly, there is ultimately a suicide at the end of the story.

 

It is quite an adult story and I wouldn't recommend it for a younger reader, especially one who is sensitive.

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It can be history, lit, whatever.

 

Feel free to include favorite (tame) movie/documentary choices too.

 

Dd is 12 and pretty sensitive. She cried at a tame Holocaust story (A Cup of Cold Water) so I'll need to be careful with this time period!

 

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (I think this is a great book for both depression era and intro to civil rights. The Road to Memphis is one of the sequels that I really enjoyed.)

 

Children of Battleship Row (My favorite book about Pearl Harbor, hands down. It is the autobiography of a woman who lived as a girl on Ford Island and experienced the Pearl Harbor attacks.)

 

The Endless Steppe or When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit for Europe in WW2

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Little Women and the 1995 movie

Number the Stars

The Hiding Place (there is a movie too, but I haven't seen it yet..) Though this could be tough for a sensitive one too.

To Kill a Mockingbird

 

 

Thats a top 4. There are many other good ones on the lists. But of the ones listed, these are ones I for sure wouldn't miss.

 

Documentaries: as many as possible on the presidents if not wars. The ones on presidents will tell about the wars during their time periods, but maybe not in so much detail as ones about the wars for your sensitive one.

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