Tell me about Collier Junior Classics--

[MeAndTheBoys]

So I have the Bookhouse set that i got for nothing basically; Little Guy and I have worked through Volume 4, and I hope to use them more this year with my older guys--one in particular does really well with shorter selections, so I hope to have him read more stories this year in between full books.  And there are some good selections in there--we've had them for about a year or more.

 

BUT in reading lovely threads about these sets, people kept mentioning other sets--and the least expensive and seemingly well loved was the Collier Junior Classics--so I searched around and found a reasonably priced set and they are on their way.  And I don't know if I should feel warm and fuzzy or if I should kick myself because I don't have room for these----

 

Tell me why they are awesome.  Tell me how you use them.  Explain to me a little bit about the organization--when I see titles listed, it looks like they are topical, not age-based like the Bookhouse ones.

 

How are they regarding classic stories compared to random stories.

 

Anything you want to tell me will be helpful :)  It's the 1962 set--I know some comments say the pre-1960 are the best, but several ppl said the 1962s are very good, and they were easiest to find.

 

B

[MeAndTheBoys]

Anyone? Anyone?

[Twigs]

These past threads may help. Also, if you x-post on the K-8 board you might get more response.

 

Anthologies: The Children's Hour vs Young Folks' Library vs ?

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/350540-anthologies-the-childrens-hour-vs-young-folks-library-vs/

 

Junior Classics Anthology- what now?

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/426399-junior-classics-anthology-what-now/

 

What vintage reference and anthology type sets do you recommend?

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/555236-what-vintage-reference-and-anthology-type-sets-do-you-recommend/

 

s/o Vintage UK Books esp. Anthologies

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/503178-so-vintage-uk-books-esp-anthologies/

 

Need suggestions for vintage (or free) readers, please no McGuffey...

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/533876-need-suggestions-for-vintage-or-free-readers-please-no-mcguffey/

 

My Book House vs Journeys Through Bookland... compare

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/511174-my-book-house-vs-journeys-through-bookland-compare/

 

How to use "My Book House" set?

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/514499-how-to-use-my-book-house-set/

 

Leveled reader compilation similar to My Book House?

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/233977-leveled-reader-compilation-similar-to-my-book-house/

 

Just wanted to share again how much I really like Journeys through Bookland

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/498123-just-wanted-to-share-again-how-much-i-really-like-journeys-through-bookland/

 

Collier's Young Folks books questions

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/178809-colliers-young-folks-books-questions/

 

Which 20 books help prepare for reading the Great Books?

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/93913-which-20-books-help-prepare-for-reading-the-great-books/

[Twigs]

Also, would you mind adding tags to this thread? Once you add tags, you can get all the other threads with the same tag.

 

I suggest at least these tags. You can look at the tags on the above threads for more ideas. Thanks

       anthologies

       vintage

 

How to tag: The original poster can later edit the original post and add additional tags.

To add tags, go the your 1st  post, click on edit.

Underneath the Topic Title is a field for "Topic Tags". Just add the tags there.

 

Best wishes.

[Lori D.]

Twigs:

THANKS for linking all those past threads! Great stuff there! :)

 

MeAndTheBoys:

You might post this on the General Board or the K-8 Board. I virtually never visit the Chat Board, and just happened to stumble over this today in a rare outing on the Chat Board; I would guess you would get other "eyeballs" on your thread on those boards who also don't frequent the Chat Board. :)

 

As for how we used these… I have the 1957 edition, which has loads of classics and excerpts in it. In the elementary and middle school years, I just matched up the selections to fit in with our chronological history and literature studies; so if we were studying Ancients, if DSs were really young, I'd read aloud Greek myths or other selections that fit with Ancients (and weren't written too far over their heads); if they were older I'd assign that as part of their reading.

 

In this past thread, "Collier's Young Folks books questions", in post #3, I listed what the titles of the volumes are for the 1957 version and how they are organized:

 

Post 1960 volume titles:
A B C Go! 
Once Upon A Time 
Magic In The Air 
Just Around The Corner 
In Your Own Backyard 
Harvest Of Holidays 
Legends Of Long Ago 
Roads To Greatness 
Call Of Adventure 
Gifts From The Past


Here is a helpful description about the 1962 edition:
"The purpose of Collier's Junior Classics is to introduce boys and girls to some of the best books ever written for children, to stimulate young readers to seek for themselves the books from which the selections have been drawn as well as other good books of similar appeal, and to encourage children to become disriminationg, thoughtful, life-time readers. author, title, and publisher are given at the foot of the page on which each selection opens. this enables readers to ask for the complete book at a library or bookstore. when necessary, brief introductions set the scene for the selection, while follow-up recommendations, complete with publishers' names, appear at the end of most stories."

"junior classics is a series of ten individually indexed volumes. A, B, C: Go! has been lovingly compiled for the youngest, and consists of nursery rhymes , favorite folk tales, best-loved poems, and stories for reading aloud. four volumes have been assembled for the intermediate group consisting of folk and fairy tales, fantasy, warm-hearted stories of other lands, and stirring books about our own country. four additional volumes cater to the interests of more mature boys and girls: world classics, great myths and American tales, excerpts from biographies of some of the greatest men and women of the world, and selections from action and suspense stories. Finally, the most unusual of all, is the volume entitled Harvest of Holidays, a feast of stories, poems, documents, and factual material about twenty-two American national and religious holidays."

 

 

Then in post #8, I summarized what was in each of the volumes from my older 1957 edition, which are arranged thematically. For interest level I would say this set is best used as RA for grades 1-5, and readers for grades 5-9. 

 

volumes 1, 2, and parts of 10 = gr. 1+
volumes 3, 4, 10 (due to vocabulary and sentence structure = gr. 6+
volumes 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 = gr. 5+

1 = Fairy Tales and Fables
(66 fairy tales from England, Ireland, Germany, Norway, France, Czechoslovakia, Russia, and India by 11 different authors, including some by the Grimm brothers; also 14 Aesop fables)

2 = Stories of Wonder and Magic
(26 folk tales and magic stories by famous authors such as Edward Lear, A.A. Milne, Carl Sandburg, George MacDonald, Walter de la Mare, Padraic Colum, Howard Pyle and Frank Stockton; also includes reprints of Aladdin and Ali Baba from "The Arabian Nights"; plus 8 stories by Hans Christian Andersen)

3 = Myths and Legends
10 Greek/Roman myths, some by Thomas Bulfinch or Nathaniel Hawthorne

9 Norse myths

6 myths from India;

7 Native American myths

19 "old legends" which include St. George & Dragon, William Tell, The Flying Dutchman, + legends about beasts & saints

4 = Hero Tales
(ALL selections are prose retelling excerpts (some by James Baldwin or Paidric Colum) from:)
The Odyssey
Rustem and Sohrab (from the ancient Persian epic "Shah-Nameh")
The Forging of the Sampo (from the Finnish epic "The Kalevala")
The Song of Roland
The Chronicle of the Cid
Beowulf
King Arthur and the Round Table
The Hunting of the Boar" (a King Arthur story from the Welsh epic Mabinogion)
Finn and Oisin and Cuchulain Finnish epics)
Robin Hood)

5 = Stories That Never Grow Old
(ALL are complete reprints of the original, except where noted:)
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll)
The King of the Golden River (John Ruskin)
Jackanapes (Juliana Horatia Ewing)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (Charles & Mary Lamb)
The Gold Bug (Edgar Allan Poe)
excerpts: Tales from the Travels of Baron Munchausen (Rudolph Eric Raspe)
excerpts: Gulliver's Voyage to lilliput (Jonathan Swift)
excerpts: Don Quixote (Miguel de Cervantes)
Rip Van Winkle (Washington Irving)
A Christmas Carol (Charles Dickens)

6 = Stories About Boys and Girls
(20 works, mostly reprinted chapters from longer works by mostly obscure authors, but includes more well known authors such as: Rachel Field; Louisa May Alcott; Mark Twain with a chapter from Adventures of Tom Sawyer; Booth Tarkington, with a chapter from Penrod; and Kathryn Forbes, with a chapter from Mama's Bank Account)

7 = Stories About Animals
(26 works, mostly reprinted chapters from longer works by mostly obscure authors, but includes more well-known authors such as John Muir; Anna Sewell with a full reprint of her book "Black Beauty"; Jack London with a full reprint of his short story "Brown Wolf"; Eric Knight with a full reprint of his short story "Lassie Come Home"; Marjorie Rawlings with a chapter from "The Yearling"; and Rudyard Kipling with a full reprint of his short story "Moti Guj -- Mutineer")

8 = Stories from History
(22 works, mostly reprinted chapters from longer works by such authors as Howard Pyle with a chapter from his Men of Iron; Andrew Lang; Hendrik Van Loon with 2 chapters from his Story of Mankind; Ester Forbes with a chapter from Johnny Tremain; Carl Sandburg from his biography on Abraham Lincoln; Robert Trumbull with a chapter from his autobiography on surviving a WW2 plane crash and survival in the ocean for 34 days; Ernie Pyle, WW2 war correspondent, with a reprinted article of heroism; chapters from biographies on Abraham Lincoln; an General MacArtherLouisa May Alcott; and a tall tale about The Devil and Daniel Webster)

9 = Sport and Adventure
(24 works, some are reprinted chapters from longer works by mostly obscure authors, but also includes more well-known authors such as: Jack London with a full reprint of his short story "Chased by the Trail"; Howard Pyle with a chapter from his Pirates book; Conan Doyle with a full reprint of his short story "The Red-Headed League"; Robert Byrd with a chapter from his autobiography about flying over the North Pole; and Charles Lindbergh with a chapter from his autobiography about crossing the atlantic in a solo flight)

10 Poetry (and reading index guide to all 10 volumes)
(over 320 poems, with a mix of nursery rhymes; poem riddles; children's poems, and at least 100 of the world's most famous poems (written before 1900) by all the most famous poets )

 

 

 

If you're looking for vintage books to use as readers, we used and really enjoyed the 1950s/1960s Ginn Basic Readers, especially the ones designed for grades 4-6. DSs are average readers (not advanced or gifted), and could read these 1-2 grades earlier than the stated grade level without very many problems. While there are always a number of sappy 1950s stories written esp. for these readers, there are lots of classic poems and adaptations of classics (such as Beowulf, and, Chanticleer from the Canterbury Tales), and lots of myths/tales from other cultures which is very nice for fleshing out World Geography studies. I also really liked these as several of the longer stories have discussion questions at the end that you can incorporate as part of your LA studies, and a dictionary in the back of all the words that were bolded in the text, so your student can practice dictionary skills.

[MeAndTheBoys]

Thanks ladies!!  I have been looking through those threads; that's why I suddenly decided yesterday that I NEEDED this set, lol---but some I haven't seen.  I will tag this and post it again somewhere else--

 

B