Diana B Posted August 16, 2008 Share Posted August 16, 2008 My son loves to have 'chapter books' read to him. I'm having a hard time deciding what to read. Should I start him on some of the classics that I think he'd enjoy or are there some 'modern' classics that would be good for this age? He's got some twaddle picture books he enjoys (I buy as many good books as possible, but I can't keep it all out) and I really don't want to introduce twaddle chapter books to him. We are finishing up with the Mouse and the Motorcycle series and I think we'll do Nim's Island next. Anything else you would recommend? Also, at 5 years old, do you think we should do an abbreviated version of the classic? He enjoys the stories when I read aloud, but still gets lost at times (especially during dialogs). I don't want to read him something that will completely lose him. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ohio12 Posted August 16, 2008 Share Posted August 16, 2008 Mr. Popper's Penguins Charlotte's Web Winn Dixie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ruthie5573 Posted August 16, 2008 Share Posted August 16, 2008 My Father's Dragon The Chronicles of Narnia My 5-year old son is enjoying the Magic Tree House Books too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alana in Canada Posted August 16, 2008 Share Posted August 16, 2008 This may not be an issue for you, but if I had to do it over--I would not let him watch ANY movies of good books. For example, I wanted to read "Charlotte's Web" to my son--but there was zero interest--actually, resistence! After all, he'd watched the movie a zillion times when he was five. There are so many movies of books out there--and that's for when he's older--when he can read the book, watch the movie and discuss it: contrast and compare. On the other hand, at that age we enjoyed The Wind and The Willows, Just So Stories, Beatrix Potter, The Princess and the Goblin and The Secret Garden, and James Herriots' Stories for Children. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommy22alyns Posted August 16, 2008 Share Posted August 16, 2008 Becca is enjoying a read aloud of Mr Popper's Penguins right now. She enjoyed Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Black Beauty too. We're doing some Magic Tree House books right now, but I can see where they might be considered a little "twaddly." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 16, 2008 Share Posted August 16, 2008 This may not be an issue for you, but if I had to do it over--I would not let him watch ANY movies of good books. For example, I wanted to read "Charlotte's Web" to my son--but there was zero interest--actually, resistence! After all, he'd watched the movie a zillion times when he was five. There are so many movies of books out there--and that's for when he's older--when he can read the book, watch the movie and discuss it: contrast and compare. On the other hand, at that age we enjoyed The Wind and The Willows, Just So Stories, Beatrix Potter, The Princess and the Goblin and The Secret Garden, and James Herriots' Stories for Children. Thank you for this tip - this is something I had never even considered before! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haiku Posted August 16, 2008 Share Posted August 16, 2008 Socks by Beverly Cleary The Cricket in Times Square by George Selden Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert O'Brien Poppy and Rye by Avi The Ramona books by Beverly Cleary The Betsy books by Carolyn Haywood Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien George's Marvelous Medicine by Roald Dahl Mother West Wind's Children (and others) by Thornton Burgess Tara Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyNellen Posted August 16, 2008 Share Posted August 16, 2008 Most definitely Winnie-the-Pooh and House at Pooh Corner. They are big-time favorites around here! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laylamcb Posted August 17, 2008 Share Posted August 17, 2008 You've gotten some GREAT suggestions so far! I heartily second (or third?) Mr. Popper's Penguins--it is just so durn funny. My dd has also loved The Secret Garden The Pippi Longstocking books The Tale of Desperaux The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane Pinocchio (though it didn't do a THING for me) Mary Poppins Just So Stories Our Island Story The Burgess Bird Book Paddle to the Sea Viking Tales D'Aulaire's Greek Myths Black Ships Before Troy Otto of the Silver Hand King of the Golden River Alice in Wonderland The Clyde Bulla books (The Sword in the Tree, A Lion to Guard Us) The Melendy books of Elizabeth Enright Fifty Famous Stories Retold The Chronicles of Narnia (esp. Voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Silver Chair) Five Little Peppers and How They Grew The Among the ____ People books (Forest, Night, Meadow, Pond) Little Pilgrim's Progress Little House in the Big Woods Trumpet of the Swan The Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books The Betsy-Tacy books Cricket in Times Square Homer Price and Centerburg Tales (great boy interest books!) Men of Iron (advanced, but she LOVES medieval tales) The Door in the Wall (ditto above) Favorite Medieval Tales ...so many wonderful books, so little time! :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
................... Posted August 17, 2008 Share Posted August 17, 2008 Mr. Popper's Penguins- my kids never giggled so much. Illustrated Classics- 20,000 Leagues under the Sea, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Captain's Courageous, Gulliver's Travels... I like Illustrated Classics. the kids get a picture on every page and the story is long enough to be worth a good read, and some interesting vocabulary without all the meandering the real classics provide. Little House- a boy probably wouldn't want to read all of them but Little House in the Big Woods, Little House on the Prairie and Farmer Boy all kept my son's interest. Some of the others didn't go over too well. Farmer BOy is a hoot. Great stuff! The Sign of the Beaver- if your ds has a good vocabulary this one is a wonderful edge of your seat adventure. I am going to read it a second time around for sure. You could try getting your feet wet with Chronicles of Narnia but he'll get a lot more out of it in about a year, so I say wait unless you run out of other ideas. My boy really loves this book I found, which you may search on PaperBack Swap called, Children's story Hour (part of that series) Heroes and Heroines. It's a wonderful biographical account of all the major historical American figures- but it also includes Marco Polo, Ponce De Leon, the Vikings, and even Hellen Keller. We also look for the Sonlight books at the library- we tried Apple and the Arrow...that was okay but we weren't exactly enthralled. But we've read a lot of the K books and pretty much at least liked all of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alana in Canada Posted August 17, 2008 Share Posted August 17, 2008 I also just remembered my favourite book list: http://www.classical-homeschooling.org/celoop/1000.html Glad to help, krazzy. We didn't start this whole homeschooling thing until ds was eight--so we hadn't thought about it either! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diana B Posted August 17, 2008 Author Share Posted August 17, 2008 This may not be an issue for you, but if I had to do it over--I would not let him watch ANY movies of good books. For example, I wanted to read "Charlotte's Web" to my son--but there was zero interest--actually, resistence! After all, he'd watched the movie a zillion times when he was five. There are so many movies of books out there--and that's for when he's older--when he can read the book, watch the movie and discuss it: contrast and compare. On the other hand, at that age we enjoyed The Wind and The Willows, Just So Stories, Beatrix Potter, The Princess and the Goblin and The Secret Garden, and James Herriots' Stories for Children. This is the reason we are doing Nim's Island next. I really want to see the movie, I know ds will enjoy it, but I want to have the book under our belt first. Thank you for all the suggestions! I will be compiling them here shortly and figure out what we want to do this year. We are bus-takers and this is our greatest past-time when on the bus. :-) I think after Nim's Island we'll go to Aesop's Fables, simply because we haven't read any of these yet. :) Thanks a bunch!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alaska Mom Posted August 18, 2008 Share Posted August 18, 2008 OUTSTANDING LIST LEILA! Looks very much like ours :D ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwinMominTX Posted August 18, 2008 Share Posted August 18, 2008 You can find a list here: http://www.ala.org/ala/alsc/awardsscholarships/literaryawds/newberymedal/newberymedal.cfm Some of these are "older", but many are great books. We are reading Sign of the Beaver right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Medieval Mom Posted August 23, 2008 Share Posted August 23, 2008 These are perhaps similar to what others have suggested, and overlap quite a few. But I couldn't help responding :) Here's the list I made for suggestions to myself for the coming year. (My son is also five.) Old Mother West Wind by Thornton W. Burgess Animal Stories by Thornton W. Burgess The Burgess Bird Book by Thornton W. Burgess Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling The Jungle Books by Rudyard Kipling The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis The Princess and Goblin by George McDonald The Complete Book of Dragons by Edith Nesbit The Railway Children by Edith Nesbit Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White Stuart Little by E.B. White The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl Little House on the Prairie Series by Laura Ingalls Wilder My Father’s Dragons series by Ruth Stiles Gannet Black Beauty by Anna Sewell Indian in the Cupboard series by Lynn Reig Banks The Wizard of Oz series by Frank L. Baum A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Florence and Richard Atwater Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren Old Yeller by Fred Gibson Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame Complete Tales & Poems of Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne Heidi by Johanna Spyri The Fairy Books by Andrew Lang Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lovedtodeath Posted August 23, 2008 Share Posted August 23, 2008 Beautiful Feet's Teaching Character through Literature is only $15 new. It has a great list of books, the reason for reading them, and discussion. There is a list with additional books that are not included as lessons in the discussion guide, but many of them still have descriptions and pointers. I am so happy with my purchase. I was grieving the loss of Sonlight and BF includes many SL books in a do-able way for my family. Out of everything I have bought so far this is the best. All of the guesswork is taken care of and I even get discussion pointers. I can not recommend this enough. There is a section included for K-3 and another one for 4-6. We will probably end up using it for at least 4 of our homeschooling years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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