ISO more old fashioned Read-Alouds!

[tammyw]

We just seem to adore the old fashioned read-alouds! I would love to get some more ideas. Some recent favorites:

 

- The Moffats (we will read the rest - we've only read the first in this series)

- The Saturdays (read the entire series)

- The Great Brain (read the entire series -- LOVE!)

- Gone Away Lake books

[Outdoorsy Type]

Swallows and Amazons

[athomeontheprairie]

Doctor dolittle. Loved book one. I have serious hesitations about book two. Views on other people groups have changed drastically since then. Still good-but I would suggest prereading, AND discussing.

[Aurelia]

Emily of New Moon

Anne of Green Gables

The Secret Garden

A Little Princess

The Marvellous Land of Snergs

The Moorchild

Thimble Summer (anything by Elizabeth Enright, really)

Laddie: A True Blue Story (I thought it was a little tedious. DD loved it.)

Seven Little Australians

Understood Betsy

All-of-a-Kind Family

The Light Princess

At the Back of the North Wind

Heidi

The Waterbabies

Captains Courageous

The Prince and the Pauper

Tuck Everlasting

Little Women

Five Little Peppers and How They Grew

Puck of Pook's Hill

Robinson Crusoe

[Tanaqui]

Do you mean they have to literally have been published before a certain date, or they simply have to be in the style of those classics you mentioned?

[tammyw]

Do you mean they have to literally have been published before a certain date, or they simply have to be in the style of those classics you mentioned?

 

Either! Thanks a bunch!

[Tanaqui]

Okay then :)

 

From your list, it looks like what your family likes the most right now are family oriented books, that is, books about families instead of classmates or wizards or whatever. Now, not to knock the old classics - because I've read 'em and loved 'em! - but they do tend to lack a certain diversity. So I'm going to give a list of family type books that have been published more recently, and I'll italicize the ones that feature characters who are minorities. And then I may give another list later if I think it over a bit. Many of these books are series, and I won't note that down individually. Edit: I got a little carried away, and included some older books. Whoops.

 

Yang the Third and Her Impossible Family

Strawberry Hill (main character is Jewish, there's some kid-level anti-semitism from the local brat)

The Mighty Miss Malone (and the companion novel, Bud, Not Buddy)

A Year Down Yonder, and other books by Peck

A Jar of Dreams

The Penderwicks

The Misadventures of the Family Fletcher - I love this book right now, I will note that it's a family headed by a same-sex couple

The Exiles

The Boys Start the War

One Crazy Summer - hits upon some more heavy issues than most of the books you listed

Year of the Dog

Clementine

How Tia Lola Came to Stay - shorter than many kids books being newly published today

The Lemonade War

The Birchbark House - there is a smallpox epidemic, so it will probably make you cry

Amy and Laura

The Grand Plan to Fix Everything

Skating Shoes and really, anything else by Streatfeild

Autumn Term - go ahead and get it used, you won't regret it. You will regret that the rest of the series is so pricey!

Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer - this book is adorable and everybody MUST read it

Ramona the Pest

Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing

In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson

 

I will also second some of the earlier recommendations - All-of-a-Kind Family, Understood Betsy, Swallows and Amazons.

Edited January 19, 2016 by Tanaqui

[tammyw]

Are the rest of All of a kind Family as good as the first?

[Tanaqui]

Honestly? I think they're a bit better. (Also, I edited that list a couple of times.)

 

Are you also interested in more or less old-fashioned read alouds that are NOT family stories?

Edited January 19, 2016 by Tanaqui

[Guest]

The rescuers

[fourisenough]

Understood Betsy is one of our all-time favorites. Also love the All-of-a-kind series. Just finished Ginger Pye and Pinkie Pye; they're excellent, too! My kids adore this type of story (simple, old-fashioned family facing challenges that are different than anything in our lives). Since I have (roughly) two different 'groups' of kids, age-wise, I get to enjoy all these books at least twice!

[basketcase]

To add a few I didn't see:

 

Half Magic

Homer Price

Happy Hollisters

Alexander McCall Smith's children's books have the same feeling. My kids especially love The Perfect Hamburger.

[Tanaqui]

To add a few I didn't see:

 

Half Magic

Homer Price

Happy Hollisters

Alexander McCall Smith's children's books have the same feeling. My kids especially love The Perfect Hamburger.

 

I think we've found the letter of the day, guys :)

 

Hey, did anybody mention The Borrowers? I should've mentioned that. Sorry. And of course, there's always Paddington.

[tammyw]

Love these lists! Lots of books we've read and loved and some great new suggestions we haven't! Time to do some ordering!!

 

Thank you :)

[Eagle]

Five Children and It

Children of the Green Knowe

Ginger Pye

[Farrar]

Seconding lots of these, but especially A Long Way From Chicago and A Year Down Yonder if you haven't done them.

 

Also, chipping in with the Prydain books if you want to do some fantasy. 

[Critterfixer]

The Good Master, The Singing Tree by Kate Serendy.

 

[Holly]

Bethlehem Books has 40% off printed books right now.  

[cintinative]

Almost anything by Edith Nesbit, but especially Five Children and It, The Enchanted Castle

George Mac Donald's The Princess and the Goblin 

 

we also really loved The Rescuers, but didn't read all the books

[Rachel]

Following

[RoundAbout]

Two old-fashioned books we enjoyed recently that I don't often see on lists:

 

Baby Island - Two plucky shipwrecked girls get stranded on a desert island with a group of babies to take care of.  Not sure what era, but definitely not set in modern times.  Lots of humor.  From the author of Caddie Woodlawn.

 

Summer of the Monkeys - Set in late 1800s.  Pioneer boy tried to capture a troop of monkeys that escaped from a traveling circus with the help of his grandfather.  Funny and heart warming. From the author of Where the Red Ferns Grow.

[tammyw]

Seconding lots of these, but especially A Long Way From Chicago and A Year Down Yonder if you haven't done them.

 

Also, chipping in with the Prydain books if you want to do some fantasy.

We just finished those two books and LOVED them! Even my husband was laughing throughout them! I was wondering about the third book in that series and if any other Peck books were worth checking into?

[Farrar]

We just finished those two books and LOVED them! Even my husband was laughing throughout them! I was wondering about the third book in that series and if any other Peck books were worth checking into?

 

Season of Gifts - yes, it's good. But I have to admit that I don't think I've read anything else by him. I'd be curious too if there's anything else of his that's top notch.

[Tanaqui]

ALL books by Peck are worth checking into, though they aren't all in that same style. This nostalgic style book seems to be new for him - when I was a kid, he was writing ghost stories! Voices After Midnight is still a pretty enjoyable read for me. And before that he wrote a couple of weird ones like Secrets of the Shopping Mall - which seems to stick in people's heads, as it's frequently requested on "Help me find that book!" sites.

 

 

[Farrar]

You know what else I'll bet you'd like... All the Jennifer Holm historical books. They're all based on her family. Our Only May Amelia and the sequel are sort of dark in places - poor May Amelia had a hard life. But Turtle in Paradise is very sweet. And Penny from Heaven is lovely... but watch out and prepare yourself - Penny from Heaven has a terribly gruesome accident about 2/3rds through the book. It was very jarring for us.

[Tanaqui]

Farrar, if you like that nostalgic style of book, I have to say, I don't think anybody's doing it better than Peck right now.

 

Edit: And I quite agree on Holm's work!

Edited January 22, 2016 by Tanaqui

[Farrar]

ALL books by Peck are worth checking into, though they aren't all in that same style. This nostalgic style book seems to be new for him - when I was a kid, he was writing ghost stories! Voices After Midnight is still a pretty enjoyable read for me. And before that he wrote a couple of weird ones like Secrets of the Shopping Mall - which seems to stick in people's heads, as it's frequently requested on "Help me find that book!" sites.

 

Oh my gosh! I read that shopping mall book as a kid. How bizarre! But I remember it. Yeah, not exactly the same style...

[Tanaqui]

Oh my gosh! I read that shopping mall book as a kid. How bizarre! But I remember it. Yeah, not exactly the same style...

 

I think a lot of people read it as a kid! And yeah, it's definitely memorable. After everything by Sleator*, I think this may very well be the most requested "What was the name of that?" book on those aforementioned sites. (The trick to racking up an imaginarily high score in the imaginary game I play in my head is to know what books are frequently requested. If you're really good, you can get the right book even if the poster gets every single detail wrong.)

 

And do you know what? It still holds up, even 30-odd years later. Not all those books do. I was really disappointed, for example, when I re-read "This Place Has No Atmosphere" as an adult. There's a book that hasn't aged well.

 

* In order, people seem to request The Boxes, House of Stairs, Beasties, The Boy Who Reversed Himself, and Singularity. Nobody requests Interstellar Pig, which always surprises me. Tammyw, none of these books are the sort you requested at all, but they're good reads.

[Tanaqui]

Oh, you know what? I was just talking about Sleator, and his books are NOT what you requested, as I said, but his autobiography just might be - and it's available for free online!

 

Several months ago I read an "article" on why legos are so painful to step on, and they quoted Tycho Sleator, physics professor, and I just about fell out of my chair. "OMG! That's William Sleator's youngest brother! He's real! He does exist!" This is perhaps not the usual response to that article, but it was MY response.

[Carol in Cal.]

Half Magic and the other books by Edward Eager

Mary Poppins

The Golden Goblet

Circus Shoes and the rest of the Shoes books (by Noel Streatfield IIRC)

In Place of Katya (one of my favorite old-timey books)

Ben and Me

Amos Fortune, Free Man

The Diamond In The Window (best book I ever read until running across LOTR in seventh grade)

Little Women

Robinson Crusoe

Treasure Island

 

 

[freesia]

Are the rest of All of a kind Family as good as the first?

Yes

 

We LOVED the book Understood Betsy (which was listed above). The first time we read it, my 7 year old boy sighed and said,"That was a great book."

[Tanaqui]

Interesting fact about Understood Betsy, the author wrote it to sort of promote Montessori-style education in the US. And yes, it's a good book :) (Also in the public domain, so free!)

[tammyw]

Yes

 

We LOVED the book Understood Betsy (which was listed above). The first time we read it, my 7 year old boy sighed and said,"That was a great book."

I love understood Betsy!! And definitely plan to read aloud because my son hasnt read yet!

[Mothersweets]

Wonderful thread - I've added several to my cart!

[Farrar]

I think a lot of people read it as a kid! And yeah, it's definitely memorable. After everything by Sleator*, I think this may very well be the most requested "What was the name of that?" book on those aforementioned sites. (The trick to racking up an imaginarily high score in the imaginary game I play in my head is to know what books are frequently requested. If you're really good, you can get the right book even if the poster gets every single detail wrong.)

 

And do you know what? It still holds up, even 30-odd years later. Not all those books do. I was really disappointed, for example, when I re-read "This Place Has No Atmosphere" as an adult. There's a book that hasn't aged well.

 

* In order, people seem to request The Boxes, House of Stairs, Beasties, The Boy Who Reversed Himself, and Singularity. Nobody requests Interstellar Pig, which always surprises me. Tammyw, none of these books are the sort you requested at all, but they're good reads.

 

We're definitely way off Tammy's request, but oh my gosh... I loved This Place Has No Atmosphere, but it's definitely one of those books I know wouldn't be good later... Sort of like Tomorrow's Magic, which I haven't seen since I was a kid, but I'm sure somehow doesn't hold up (despite the excellentness of being post-apocalyptic and Arthurian). I sort of remember all those Sleator books too, though I know I only read a few of them - Interstellar Pig was among them though. And... do I remember right that you could actually play that as a card game or there was a card game version or something?