LNC Posted October 15, 2012 Share Posted October 15, 2012 (edited) I have dozens of ma and renaissance books and my 8th grade daughter is not challenged by or enjoying many historical fiction middle grade titles. I'm considering making a pared down MUST READ list. She can pick and choose what looks good to them after that. I will use Omnibus and Invitation to the Classics for readers when they apply. Included some mediocre historical fiction titles she has already read from my huge list, but disliked. Pared down reading list Spines: □Famous Men of the Middle Ages □First Book of Barbarian Invadors, Donald Sobol □An Island Story, H.E. Marshall □Invitation to the Classics □Young People’s Story of Art: Painting, Sculpture and Architecture □Fire Upon the Earth, Norman Langford □Trial and Triumph, Richard Hannula □Middle Ages: Cultural Atlas for Young People □How Should We Then Live, Francis Schaeffer □Story of Liberty, Charles Coffin □Famous Men of the Renaissance and Reformation □Renaissance and Reformation Times, Dorothy Mills □This Country of Our, H.E. Marshall Middle Ages: □D’Aulaire’s Book of Norse Myths, Ingri and Edward D'Aulaire □Part seven of Mythology by Edith Hamilton □Volsung Saga □White Stag, Kate Seredy □Beowulf with audio □King Arthur, Roger Lancelyn Green □Sir Gawain and the Green Knight □A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Mark Twain □Song of Roland □Arabian Nights, Kate Douglas Wiggin □Shadow Spinner □Little Duke, Charlotte Yonge on Kindle □Viking Quest series for fun □Anna of Byzantium, Tracey Barrett □Midwife's Apprentice, Karen Cushman □The Star and the Sword, Pam McInikoff □Ivanhoe, Sir Walter Scott (maybe) - 500 pages □The Magna Charta, James Daugherty □Adventures of Robin Hood, Roger Lancelyn Green □Adam of the Road, Elizabeth Jane Gray □Scottish Chiefs, Jane Porter □The White Company, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle □The Canterbury Tales, abridged and unabridged but translated Renaissance: □Rats Bulls and Flying Machines □Divine Comedy, Dante □w/ Ascent to Love, Peter Leithart □The Black Arrow, Robert Louis Stevenson □Faerie Queen book 1, Edmund Spenser □The Prince, Machiavelli □The Agony and Ecstacy, Irving Stone □Foxe's Book of Martyrs - selections □Here I Stand, Roland Bainton □Bondage of the Will, Martin Luther □Utopia, Sir Thomas More □This Was John Calvin, Thea Van Halsema □Institutes of Christian Religion, Calvin (selections) □Trumpeter of Krakow, Eric Kelly □Keniliworth, Sir Walter Scott □Tales from Shakespeare, Charles and Mary Lamb □Shakespeare plays, selected □dvds of plays □Shakespeare Stealer trilogy, by Gary Blackwood for fun Reference/picture books/fun books: Cultural Atlas Middle Ages Life in the Middle Ages, Jay Williams Landmark Giant Life in the Middle Renaissance, Marzieh Gail Landmark GIant Eyewitness: Middle Ages Vikings Knights Renaissance Da Vinci and His Times Diane Stanley Leonardo Da Vinci Michelangelo David Macaulay Ship Castle Cathedral Mike Venezia Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Artists series Carolyn Meyer (library) □Duchessina a novel of Catherine de Medici □Mary Bloody Mary □Beware Princess Elizabeth □Patience Princess Catherine □Doomed Queen Anne □Loving Will Shakespeare More than enough right? She could maybe even pare down this list, not to mention all the books (Bethlehem Press and Hentys!) on our shelves I'm guilting her into reading bc she skipped them during her grammar level. My 6th grade son read Augustine goes to Kent in two days and liked it, but is that the best use of her time in 8th grade? History reading counts as literature for us - though she is also doing LLoLotR. Btw, we own all of these or on our Kindles. Any thoughts? Edited October 17, 2012 by LNC final pared down list Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewelma Posted October 15, 2012 Share Posted October 15, 2012 (edited) can only comment on the ones we have read: King Arthur, Roger Lancelyn Green (we used Pyle because the text was slightly more advanced) Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (a difficult read, but he enjoyed it) A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Mark Twain (liked it ok, but not his favorite) Ivanhoe, Sir Walter Scott (maybe) (I loved this book, but ds never got around to it, read it after Robin Hood because of the references) Adventures of Robin Hood, Roger Lancelyn Green (also used Pyle, one of my younger kid's all time favorite books (dad read it outloud)) Adam of the Road, Elizabeth Jane Gray (excellent) The White Company, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (seriously disappointing, it just has no depth) The Canterbury Tales, abridged and unabridged but translated (obviously wonderful, but can be raunchy) Renaissance: The Black Arrow, Robert Louis Stevenson (he loved it) Tales from Shakespeare, Lamb (excellent) Shakespeare plays, (read 3 without trouble) selected dvds of plays (we did a 2 week unit and rented 5, just great) ds also read and loved: The Once and Future King, White, (trilogy) Tales from Arabian Nights Lang Ruth in NZ Edited October 15, 2012 by lewelma Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snickerdoodle Posted October 15, 2012 Share Posted October 15, 2012 :lurk5: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meriwether Posted October 15, 2012 Share Posted October 15, 2012 My Dd did not enjoy the Magna Carta by James Daugherty. Of the others you listed she read and enjoyed: Adventures of Robin Hood, Roger Lancelyn Green Adam of the Road, Elizabeth Jane Gray This Was John Calvin, Thea Van Halsema Tales from Shakespeare, Lamb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corraleno Posted October 16, 2012 Share Posted October 16, 2012 Personally, I don't use historical fiction (IMHO it's not really history and it's rarely great literature), so I would pare the list down to just the Great Books: Norse Mythology titles (I'd do a couple of the sagas, not just a 'retelling") Beowulf Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Song of Roland Arabian Nights The Canterbury Tales Divine Comedy, Dante The Prince, Machiavelli Utopia, More Shakespeare plays If you want to beef it up, I'd just add more Shakespeare. Jackie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kfamily Posted October 16, 2012 Share Posted October 16, 2012 (edited) Personally, I don't use historical fiction (IMHO it's not really history and it's rarely great literature), so I would pare the list down to just the Great Books: If you want to beef it up, I'd just add more Shakespeare. Jackie :iagree: Although for an 8th grader, in some cases, a retelling might be a better choice since some of the Great Books may need more foundation before a student is ready for them. We do read some historical fiction, but tend to choose those more sparingly. My older dd read these for 7th and 8th (her MA and Renaissance years): King Arthur (Pyle) Canterbury Tales Retold (McCaughrean) Mabinogion Mabon and the Guardians of Celtic Britain (C. Matthews) Henry V Shakespeare's sonnets Fierce Wars and Faithful Loves (Spenser) Arabian Nights (selections) Utopia (More) Everyman (morality play) Ivanhoe The rest of our readings for the Renaissance were primary sources. We took these from The Portable Renaissance Reader which included a large number of essays and letters from such authors as Erasmus, Luther, Machiavelli, Galileo, etc. Here is a partial list of these authors and works from another post: The Man of Letters by Francesco Petrarca The Return of the Muses by Giovanni Boccaccio Petrarca and the Art of Poetry by Leonardo Bruni Antwerp, The Great Market by Ludovico Guicciardini The Plight of the French Poor by Cahier of the Estates General A Portrait of Lorenzo de Medici by Francesco Guicciardini The Strength and Weakness of France by Michele Suriano Gargantua's Advice to Pantagruel by Francois Rabelais In Praise of Poetry by Giovanni Boccaccio The Election of a Pope by Pope Pius II Savonarola, A Portrait by Francesco Guicciciardini A Preacher of Reform by Girolamo Savonarola poetry by Bellay poetry by Ronsard poetry by Petrarca Here are some more important authors from this book: Erasmus Martin Luther Leonardo da Vinci Copernicus Galileo Tycho Brahe We're still finishing up the rest of the Renaissance and have these left to read: Essays (Bacon) poetry from Milton, Donne and Raleigh (We're using Milton's shorter works...not Paradise Lost this time around...) We also have been using English Literature for Boys and Girls which provides her with a background of the author and introduction to their work(s). We read Shakespeare every year at this level for her. Edited October 16, 2012 by Kfamily Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corraleno Posted October 16, 2012 Share Posted October 16, 2012 The rest of our readings for the Renaissance were primary sources. We took these from The Portable Renaissance Reader which included a large number of essays and letters from such authors as Erasmus, Luther, Machiavelli, Galileo, etc. :iagree:with this recommendation. I have several books from this series, and they are excellent! Portable Medieval Reader Portable Renaissance Reader Portable Enlightenment Reader There are also Portable Greek & Roman Readers, but I have other resources for the Classical period, so I haven't seen them in person. Jackie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kfamily Posted October 16, 2012 Share Posted October 16, 2012 :iagree:with this recommendation. I have several books from this series, and they are excellent! Portable Medieval Reader Portable Renaissance Reader Portable Enlightenment Reader There are also Portable Greek & Roman Readers, but I have other resources for the Classical period, so I haven't seen them in person. Jackie We love these too! We'll be using Portable Enlightenment Reader this year and I wish I had known about them when we covered the Middle Ages because I would have used it then. (We do have The Portable Medieval Reader now.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LNC Posted October 16, 2012 Author Share Posted October 16, 2012 (edited) Personally, I don't use historical fiction (IMHO it's not really history and it's rarely great literature), so I would pare the list down to just the Great Books: If you want to beef it up, I'd just add more Shakespeare. Jackie I was going to assign D'Aulaire's Norse Myths and part 7 of Hamilton's Mythology. Which saga would you recommend? Which translation of Nibelungenlied or Volsung Saga is most readable for example? Edited October 16, 2012 by LNC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corraleno Posted October 16, 2012 Share Posted October 16, 2012 I was going to assign D'Aulaire's Norse Myths and part 7 of Hamilton's Mythology. Which saga would you recommend? Which translation of Nibelungenlied or Volsung Saga is most readable for example? I have this version of Saga of the Volsungs, which is the most famous of the sagas and was a huge influence on Wagner & Tolkein. The translation gets great reviews, and the introduction and notes are very helpful. The saga itself is pretty short (about 75 pages). There is also a large Penguin volume of selected sagas by various translators, The Sagas of Icelanders, if you really want to get into the sagas. (It doesn't include Saga of the Volsungs, though.) I have this version of The Prose Edda: Norse Mythology, by the same translator. The only criticism I have seen of it is that it's abridged/simplified, but it contains all the material that would be of interest to most readers and I think it's fine for pre-college students. This one is more complete, but I think more difficult to read. There is also a Poetic Edda, but there seems to be much less agreement as to the best translation. To me, it's sort of the equivalent of Hesiod's Theogony and the Homeric Hymns — interesting for students who are really into Greek or Norse mythology, but rarely included on student reading lists before college. Jackie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LNC Posted October 17, 2012 Author Share Posted October 17, 2012 I edited the op with final list. Anyone else have suggestions. I feel better about things, this seems more her level. I will have to read along to discuss now though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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