Alicia64 Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 Sometimes I have too many read-alouds to get to and other times I'm stranded in a desert! My boys are 9, are very sensitive to animals getting hurt or people getting their heads chopped off (pirates) and we've read many of the standards: Charlotte's Web, Trumpet of the Swan, Cricket in Times Sq., Little House series, Tum Tum & Nutmeg, Rats of NIMH etc. etc. I just heard -- and thank you! -- that Little Britches is sad re: cattle and horses. My boys love both. Any read aloud ideas that are awesome but aren't mentioned as much on here? Thank you!! Alley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jayne J Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 How about the Melendy Family series--The Saturdays, and The Four Story Mistake are the first two. There are 4 altogether. We are reading them now and mine love them. No animals getting hurt, no cruelty. They follow a family of children on their adventures in the city and the country during WWII. (The war is barely mentioned so far, just a background.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kristinannie Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 My kids love the Thornton Burgess books about animals (Bobby Coon, Old Granny Fox, etc). I would link to them, but I am on my phone and technologically idiotic! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vida Winter Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 The Suzanne Selfors trilogy - not classics, but much fun and they come with a guarantee - a dog story in which the dog does not die: Smells Like Dog, Smells Like Treasure, Smells Like Pirates. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cagirlintexas Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 One we just read and totally LOVED!!! was All About Sam. Its a series and there are a few following it too but we are waiting till my son is older for those. It tells about sams life as he grows. All about sam was so funny! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stripe Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 Aiken's books about Arabel and her pet raven Mortimer are hilarious. A bit quirky and there is some tension (on the lookout for thieves type of thing) but not animal abuse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 Below are a bunch of ideas, and many are very humorous and light, while still well-written. My top thoughts right now are The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet or books from the Rescuers series as ones you may not have seen on the usual lists. BEST of luck! Warmly, Lori D. REAL LIFE - The Toothpaste Millionaire (Merrill) - Homer Price (McCloskey) - Henry Huggins series (McCleary) - Red Sails to Capri (Weil) - Family Under the Bridge (Carlson) - The Wheel on the School (de Jong) - In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson (Lord) - A Little Princess (Burnett) - The Secret Garden (Burnett) - The School Story (Clements) - Year of Miss Agnes (Hill) - The Penderwicks (Birdsall) - The Moffats (Estes) MYSTERY - From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (Konigsburg) - Chasing Vermeer (Bailey) - Encyclopedia Brown (Sobel) - The Invention of Hugo Cabret (Selznick) - The Mysterious Benedict Society (Stewart) FANTASY - The Reluctant Dragon (Grahame) - Land of Oz; Ozma of Oz (Baum) - Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle series (Betty MacDonald) - The Story of Dr. Dolittle (Lofting) - My Father's Dragon (Gannett) - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Carroll) - Half Magic; Magic by the Lake, Knight's Castle; Time Garden (Eager) - Five Children and It; The Book of Dragons (Nesbit) - The Father Christmas Letters (Tolkien) - The Ordinary Princess (Kaye) - Pippi Longstockings; Pippi in the South Seas (Astrid) - Dragon of Lonely Island (Rupp) SCIENCE FICTION - The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet (Cameron) FUN TALL TALE - The Whipping Boy (Fleischman) - Just So Stories (Kipling) - Adventures of TinTin (Herge) - By the Great Horn Spoon (Fleischman) - The Twenty-One Balloons (DuBois) - Frindle (Clements) - The Enormous Egg (Butterworth) HISTORICAL FICTION - Brendan the Navigator (Fritz) -- c.500, possible first European to reach the new world - The Kite Fighters (Park) -- 1400s Korea - The Sign of the Beaver (Speare) -- Colonial US/Native American - Robert Fulton, Boy Craftsman (Henry) -- inventor of steam engine as a boy - Skippack School (de Angeli) -- Colonial U.S. - The Great Wheel (Lawson) -- building of the first Ferris Wheel in 1893 - Little Pear (Lattimore) --1900 China - Snow Treasure (McSwigan) -- WWII Norweigan children hide the country's gold ANIMALS (real) - Ginger Pye (Estes) - Kildee House (Montgomery) - The Black Stallion (Farley) - My Side of the Mountain (George) ANIMALS (fantasy) - Trumpet of the Swan (White) - The Mouse and the Motorcycle; Runaway Ralph (McCleary) - Ben and Me; Mr. Revere and I (Lawson) - The Rescuers, The Turret, Miss Bianca, Miss Bianca in the Salt Mines, Miss Bianca in the Orient (Sharpe) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reign Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 Nicholas by Goscinny is hilarious. It is older and originally written in French. There is use of the word stupid and one of the friends is referred to as fat. So it's not everyone's cup of tea but we loved it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momof3littles Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles was a huge hit last year. Right now we are reading Miracles on Maple Hill, which I'm finding charming. It is new to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VeteranMom Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 Rascal by Sterling North The Great Brain series Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neige Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 I loved the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys series at that age. Also books by Enid Blyton (Five Have Plenty of Fun, Five Go Off to Camp, etc.). Also, for animals, what about Silverwing and Sunwing by Kenneth Oppel? I loved those. They're from the POV of a bat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
myfunnybunch Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 The Children of Green Knowe and sequels (Lucy Boston) are lovely and sweet. They do deal with "ghosts" (or time overlap, it's never quite clear) but the ghosts are gentle not scary. The Wind in the Willows Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stripe Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 There are a lot of great ideas in this thread! Nicholas by Goscinny is hilarious. It is older and originally written in French. There is use of the word stupid and one of the friends is referred to as fat. So it's not everyone's cup of tea but we loved it. I thought it was a scream, too, but my kids didn't get it. Ha! The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles was a huge hit last year. Right now we are reading Miracles on Maple Hill, which I'm finding charming. It is new to me. I have Whangdoodles on the shelf -- time to get reading it! I love Miracles on Maple Hill, I consider it the perfect spring read (maple syrup season), but my kids groan when they see it coming....we've only really read about 1/3 of it! Maybe this year? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jilly Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 We read Starry River of the Sky last month and loved it. It is wonderful, as is the companion novel Where the Mountain Meets the Moon. They both make great read alouds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twoxcell Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 Some my ds enjoyed: Esperanza rising By the Great Horn Spoon Snow Treasure King of the Wind Farmer Boy The Twenty One Balloons The Indian In the Cupboard Follow My Leader All of a Kind Family Mr. Popper's Penguins The Railway Children Black Beauty Homer Price Little House In the Big Woods Little House On the Prairie Also Christian Heroes Then and Now Lillian Trasher Corrie Ten Boom David Livingston Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aurelia Posted February 15, 2013 Share Posted February 15, 2013 I wouldn't recommend Black Beauty. He gets mistreated. Favorites here: Five Little Peppers and How They Grew Nurse Matilda At the Back of the North Wind Little Lord Fauntleroy No Flying in the House The Children of Green Knowe series Tumtum and Nutmeg Mio, My Son On my list, but haven't read yet, so I'm not sure about mistreatment, but I think they'll be okay: Lassie, Come Home The Wind Boy Gone-Away Lake Kensuke's Kingdom The Rescuers The People of Pineapple Place The Phantom Tollbooth Freddy Goes to Florida Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Definitely avoid: Bambi Sounder Old Yeller Gentle Ben Poppy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JessieC Posted February 15, 2013 Share Posted February 15, 2013 Any read aloud ideas that are awesome but aren't mentioned as much on here? Alley Yes--Ereth's Birthday by Avi. We are halfway through and my kids love it--it's about a porcupine. Also Poppy books by Avi. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twoxcell Posted February 15, 2013 Share Posted February 15, 2013 I wouldn't recommend Black Beauty. He gets mistreated. Woops I guess I missed where the OP said they were sensitive to that. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoundAbout Posted February 15, 2013 Share Posted February 15, 2013 I recommend the Cat Pack gang books by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. The first one is called The Grand Escape. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UrbanSue Posted February 15, 2013 Share Posted February 15, 2013 Have you tried the Swallows and Amazons series by Arthur Ransome? That is a huge favorite here. It is a 12-volume series set in England in the 1930s. There are several families of children who appear in various combinations through the series. It's very much kids having adventures (mostly camping and sailing) without parents around. I'm asking ds8 for potential scary parts. His report: Misee Lee is about pirates and is "kind of scary" Peter Duck also has pirates but is "less scary" There is nothing at all violent in either of those but they are also not "real". I think the term for them is metafiction? The kids in the story are making up their own story, though that isn't obvious apart from the fact that their adventures are totally improbable. The rest of the books are realistic and the only other scary part according to my mostly reliable ds is that Pigeon Post has a fire (the heath is burning, I think) which concerns lots of people but no one is hurt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fairfarmhand Posted February 15, 2013 Share Posted February 15, 2013 My dd loves the Land of Elyon books by Patrick Carmen. (actually we are all big fans) The girl in it gets a special jewel that enables her to talk to animals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nono Posted February 15, 2013 Share Posted February 15, 2013 We are listening to A Long Way from Chicago before bed this week. Both my kids are dying to get to bed to hear more each night. It is not for folks who disapprove of eccentric old characters, with a wider than standard definition of good, because the grandmother they visit each summer is totally crackers! She's also kind. In one segment, she visited the old lady, an "Aunt," who's demented. My kids made the connection that the "Aunt" is in the same mental state as their very own Grandmother (my Mom). While some scenes are touching, most are hilarious situations outside the bounds of normal city life. Give the reviews on amazon a read. It should give you a feel for the book. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cinder Posted February 15, 2013 Share Posted February 15, 2013 Ditto on the recommendations for Frindle (Clements) and A Long Way from Chicago (Peck). Peck also has a few other quirky books: A Season of Gifts and The Teacher's Funeral might work for their ages. Ds enjoyed the Mr. Chickee series by Curtis. And if you don't mind fluff (and you can find these at your library--they're OOP): The Plant That Ate Dirty Socks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmilyK Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 Not the OP, but thanks for these great lists! We are looking for new Audible titles and this gave me a lot of ideas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisB Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 How about the Castle in the Attic by Elizabeth Winthrop? It has a sequel too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nmoira Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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