Please take a look at my History/Lit reading for the year

[Liza Q]

Hey. My son will be starting 9th grade and, even though I have done this before a few times, he is just not like his sisters..I feel like it is all new! He likes non-fiction and biographies, and fantasy. He does not care for "historical fiction" and would rather read translations of the real thing than madeup stories about the era...except for Sutcliff!

 

Ok. For History I am using Global History (Barrons), which is a 2-yr program that he would probably use in the public schools here. I had him read Stream of Civilization Vol 1 in June as sort of an appetizer, and to get a Christian perspective. We're also reading through part of the Old Testament - the narrative chapters, mostly. I worked out a plan of about 8 chapters a week for the school year.

 

For extra History reading, I have

Caesar's Gallic Wars (Coolidge)

Martin Luther (Nichols)

Aztecs and Spaniards (MArrin)

Napoleon (Marrin)

 

For English I have Literary Lessons from LOTR. He did the first unit in June and liked it. He's read LOTR a few times before so we are really focusing on the additional notes and discussing some of the questions, and ignoring the fill-in-the-blanks, though I am having him do the vocabulary tests.

 

For extra reading I have decided on primarily myths and legends, in keeping with LOTR's theme. He is not yet ready to read The Odyssey or Beowulf, so I have some children's versions and selections in an anthology - World Literature (Holt Rinehart Winston)  The anthology has several fables/myths/legends that we'll be using as well.

 

For extra reading, I have

Mythology - Hamilton

Great Myths of the World - Colum

Black Ships Before Troy - Sutcliff

The Wandering of Odysseus - Sutcliff

The Lantern Bearers - Sutcliff (he's already read the Eagle of the 9th, The Silver Branch, Frontier Wolf)

The Shining Company - Sutcliff

Beowulf The Dragon Slayer -Sutcliff

The Ramsay Scallop - Temple

Shakespeare Stories - Garfield (for the few that are referenced in LLLOTR and maybe a few extras?)

The Arabian Nights - Dawood

King Arthur (don't have a version yet)

Grimm's Fairy Tales (don't have a version yet)

The Three Musketeers

Pilgrim's Progress

Ivanhoe

 

IS there an obvious title that I am missing? I originally had Julius Casar and Henry V, but they didn't really match my theme, so I decided to save them for next year, when I hope he will be ready for a more traditional World Lit course.

 

Any suggestions for King Arthur? I am concerned that Pyle's flowery language will turn him off. I like the Green version, but it is slight, or I could give him the Once and Future King or...???

 

Grimm's Fairy Tales? The Annotated Version is just too much $$$ (anything I didn't already own I have been able to pick up used, generally around $7 with shipping) and I realized that we read several of the Lang Fairy books when the girls were younger, but no actual Grimm version, kwim? So I am stumped!!

 

Last - recommendations for free reading? His summer reading is The Code of the Woosters (he's enjoying it!), All Creatures Great and Small, Ender's Game, and then either Father Brown or Sherlock Holmes. I am trying to get him away from just rereading Percy Jackson and Harry Potter, kwim? He likes to read, but Minecraft is so seductive....so I am trying out some different types of books to see what will stick!

 

Thanks for looking!

 

[Susie in CA]

I think your plan looks good.

 

My boys finally have found some books they like to read (free reading) Here are their summer titles thus far:

 

Divergent (series)

Game of Thrones (series)

The Leviathan (Trilogy)

 

Hope this helps.

 

Susie

[Liza Q]

Bump.

 

Really hoping for King Arthur and Grimm's recommendations!!

[JennW in SoCal]

For King Arthur I'd recommend The Once and Future King by TH White.  It was originally written as 4 separate books but he edited them and put them together into the one tome.  Another favorite told from Merlin's perspective is Mary Stewart's trilogy of Crystal Cave, Hollow Hills and Last Enchantment.  

 

If your son is ready for Ivanhoe, I think he would be ready for some meatier translations of the Iliad and Odyssey than the Rosemary Sutcliff books. And he is certainly ready for Beowulf. I'm saying this as a mom who had a high school student that wasn't a strong reader in 9th grade.  I understand the reason you have Sutcliff on your list, but I think they are far too light for high school, even for a student who isn't a strong reader. They may even feel babyish to a young male teen.  The units in Literary Lessons will give enough background to prepare him for the real thing. The Robert Fagles translations of Homer are very accessible, and are available in audio format. We both listened and read them, and watched some Teaching Company lectures about them.  The Seamus Heaney Beowulf is also very accessible to a 21st century teen, and the audio version is actually read by him. 

 

As for summer reading, has your son read Christopher Paolini's Eragon series?  The first in the series was written when the author was a homeschooled teen!  I've seen him speak and enjoyed hearing him talk about his love of fantasy, how his love of Tolkein led him to Beowulf, then led him to the Iliad and Odyssey and other mythologies. 

 

Books don't come with ratings the way movies do, but Game of Thrones is very much an R rated series! It isn't a series I'd casually recommend on this board! 

 

If your son enjoys the humor in Code of the Woosters, and since he likes fantasy, then he would certainly love the Terry Pratchett books. They are all so good, so funny and all set in another universe that is much like our own.  Wee Free Men is a good entry title, and I love the stories featuring the Night Watch -- Guards, Guards is the first of those.  

 

 

[Sebastian (a lady)]

I think I might put most of the Rosemary Sutcliff into a pile of fun free reading, but not assign them for high school.  Or maybe read one retelling alongside a translation of the original (The Odyssey with Wanderings of Odysseus and maybe Itaka by Geras?)

 

I was somewhat underwhelmed by the annotated books that I've read.  However, I have often seen them in libraries, so you might check there.  You might also consider Tales before Narnia by Anderson, which is an anthology of several stories that were inspiration for Lewis' writing.  There is also a Tales before Tolkien book (which I haven't read).

 

I agree with a pp that if Ivanhoe, Three Musketeers, Hamilton's Mythology are at his level, then a good translation of Beowulf or The Odyssey should be something to read in the original.  You could cut Beowulf down and stop where he attacks and kills Grendel (skipping the fight with Grendel's mother).  You could also choose to read a selection of The Odyssey rather than the whole thing.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

Oh, you might find the podcasts from The Tokien Professor, Cory Olsen or the lecture series on fantasy by Michael Drout to be interesting.  The Tolkien Professor podcasts are free.  We found several literature lecture series set by Michael Drout at the library in the audio non-fiction section.

[Liza Q]

Thanks Jenn

 

I did mention that I am considering The Once and Future King - I own and love it. My oldest did, but my second didn't...I am just considering my options. I am picking up the Pyle version from the library and who knows - maybe he will like it?

 

The Sutcliff books are easy reading, I know. I think he will do fine with Ivanhoe and the Three Musketeers. What he is dreading is the POETRY of Homer, of Beowulf. So my current plan is to use this year to bump up his reading level, get comfortable with analysis and poetry, using Literary Lessons and the World Lit text I have, and practice on the shorter myths and legends. Then have I'll have him read the actual works in the 10th grade. If he is game, we will totally read the Heaney version this year. I read it with my two oldest several years ago. I loved it, but they hated it! Maybe he will like it, lol!

 

I know that a lot of families use audio versions, but he is not keen on them anymore. Kind of reminds him of when he was younger - he'd rather read than listen. Except for Farmer Boy - he was listening to it again this spring! Maybe, if the library has it on CD, I could try it for Beowulf?

 

Game of Thrones is a nogo for him. My older girls read them so I read them too (even though they are grown, we read a lot together) and I thought they were too racy for me, forget about them!!

 

And  I am trying to get him away from too much fantasy right now, so I am introducing him to different genres. I wasn't crazy about Eragon (only got through the first book) but I am saving Pratchett. If I gave him those he would balk at reading anything else for a while, kwim?

 

Gee - I feel like I shot down all your kind suggestions! I guess I was not that clear in my first post. I want him to be ready for Homer, not drag him kicking and screaming.

 

[elegantlion]

You might want to give Beowulf and Odyssey a chance. They are not poetry in the sense you might think. My son, who thinks poetry should be banished from the earth, loved Beowulf  and Homer. It's Epic poetry (with a big E). Translation can make a world of difference in appreciation. 

 

In the end, they might not be his cup of tea, but I wouldn't dismiss them because of their poetic nature. 

[Liza Q]

Hmmm...

 

I know that they are not poetry in that sense - I know that I said that above. I have taught the Iliad, Odyssey and Beowulf - and the Aeneid and the Song of Roland etc. It is because I have read them that I am quite sure that my son is not ready.

 

However. I come here for an objective look, so I am now open to the fact that he may be ready sooner than I think. So, I retooled a few things and now I have a week each for reading the excerpts in the World Lit text. And then 4 open weeks that I can plug in any time during the school year to really read one, if that is what he wants. Then we'll do the others next year like I had originally planned...but I won't wait to give him the chance to find out. If he's really not ready, I have a list of other books that we can tack on to the end of the school year - some that I've read, like The Sorrows of Young Werther and Frankenstein or even Pride and Prejudice, or maybe something new to me, like Robinson Crusoe. Or maybe some essays, like The Social Contract and Critique of Pure Reason. Or - ?? Well, I have the month set aside, so I can see where we land.

 

And I still need a Grimm's Fairy Tales!!! He is sensitive to reading a bowdlerized version - he wants a straightforward translation.

 

 

 

 

[elegantlion]

Hmmm...

 

I know that they are not poetry in that sense - I know that I said that above. I have taught the Iliad, Odyssey and Beowulf - and the Aeneid and the Song of Roland etc. It is because I have read them that I am quite sure that my son is not ready.

 

 

 

Oops, I missed the fact you've taught them previously, my apologies. 

[Sebastian (a lady)]

I used to have a big paperback Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales.  I suspect it was the one from Pantheon Books.

 

Actually reading some of the reviews for Grimm's (which seem like they are reviews for several different editions, all smashed together as aggregated reviews - something Amazon does that irritates), it looks like there are some pretty decent versions on the Gutenberg Project.  You could select the stories you want to cover and print them at Staples or at home.  Or you could read them online.  Or I think you could also send the pdf files to something like a Kindle.

 

 

[Liza Q]

Oops, I missed the fact you've taught them previously, my apologies. 

 

Actually, I should apologize. I was - am - having a hormonal day - week -month. At 48 everything is just off and I am more sensitive than I used to be.

[Liza Q]

Thanks Sebastian. That is an excellent idea!!

[elegantlion]

Actually, I should apologize. I was - am - having a hormonal day - week -month. At 48 everything is just off and I am more sensitive than I used to be.

 

:lol:  :lol:  I'm 47, so um, yeah, I completely understand. 

[Liza Q]

Just an update. We started in August with easyish reading - selections from the Lit textbook, re-reading LOTR with the LLLOTR, Hmailton's Mythology, and a few Sutcliff retellings. About a month ago we did the Beowulf Unit in LLLOTR and I encouraged him the read the Heaney version, which he loved. As he was feeling confident, we decided to read the Iliad over three weeks. I own the Lattimore, but I had him look over Fagles and Fitzgerald before we started. He chose the Lattimore and we have been having a great time! He told me today (he is reading books 11 and 12 today) that he is really glad that he is reading it. He likes the way it is written and doesn't think it too poem-ish at all, which had been his fear. We are having some great discussions, which is thrilling for me because my daughters pretty much moaned through it. Discussing free-will and honor, as well as the fact that Eris is a character in his favorite video game (Destiny) and knowing the meaning of her name gives him a different spin on her, has been a pleasure.

 

Overall, I am glad that we waited till December for it. He has discovered that he can read much more than he thought he could!