Abridged for Youngesters?

[Thia]

I'm looking at several different currics to pull together a literature plan for next year. My oldest will be doing third grade work. I'm finding a huge difference in where various programs place their books. For example, I have seen Little Women listed for third grade with one curric and sixth grade for another. I can understand this. What I'm not sure I grasp is the wide use of abridged editions. Why would I give her an abridged version of Swiss Family Robinson now instead of waiting a few years and letting her read the full edition? Is there any benefit of this? Surely there is enough age appropriate material to not chop up other books? Yes, I suppose you can tell that I hold a bias against abridged editions in general. I just want to know from more experienced homeschoolers if there is some benefit I am not seeing.

[SarahW]

I don't know exactly, especially for Swiss Family Robinson. But some books are unnecessary in their unabridged versions, unless you're writing a research paper on them. Victor Hugo and George MacDonald are two notorious authors for these sorts of books.

 

Maybe the thinking is that the abridged version hits the main idea, and it is better to get that out of the way early in order to read a more advanced idea later?

[Faithr]

I don't see the benefit of using an abridge version of a book either. Now retellings of classics that are geared toward children, in my mind, are in a different category. I enjoy reading retellings by Sutcliff, McCraughean, Baldwin, Church etc. These are of stories like The Odyssey, The Iliad, The Aeneid. Also retellings of Shakespeare plays are good as well. These introduce kids to classics which may be difficult in a friendly way so that when they encounter them later, they will already have familiarity with the story line and can therefore focus on the language, etc.

 

But abridged version of classics like Little Women or Uncle Tom's Cabin or what have you, don't seem to belong in a curriculum. My kids though did enjoy reading these on their own. They were late bloomers with reading and were intimidated by big thick books. One Christmas their uncle gave them a set of those great illustrated classics that must have been on sale somewhere (he never buys anything unless it is on sale, LOL) and they loved them. But they read those on their own time and not as part of their curriculum.

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

I'm strongly against abridged editions... I had a thread on this recently that you might find interesting-

 

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/448918-childrens-versions-of-shakespeare-and-other-adult-stories-thoughts/

[weederberries]

We read abridged versions of classics when they fit our "theme" or historical studies. For instance, we read an abridged version of Don Quixote (4th and 2nd graders) as we studied that time period in Spain. We usually spend about a week studying a specific region at a certain time in history and whole books would be too much for us to finish within our limited time frame. We read other (complete) literature simultaneously, too.

 

Don't get me wrong, I love good literature, usually in its entirety. Sometimes, it's nice to get the essence of a book to help you relate to your other areas of study, remembering that if it is truly a classic work, you will return to it as the trivium progresses.

[Violet Crown]

I think it's important to distinguish between 'abridged' and 'adapted.'

[Thia]

Okay, I can see now how it's not always just taking the easy way out. I think for us, we will stick to full length works, but I think there's a point in using the retellings as exposure . I'll have to think more about it.

[VaKim]

The only reason we have used abridged versions is if it happens to be a book we pretty well know we are not going to read the full version of, but yet want exposure and knowledge of the story for whatever reason. That would vary depending on what one enjoys reading and what they find important. We did an abridged version of Don Quixote for history, just like a pp mentioned. There would have been no way we would have gotten through the whole thing, and honestly, none of us had any desire to.

 

I absolutely hate abridged versions of things like Heidi, Little Women, etc. But then, we enjoyed those books. :-)