Substitute for "Last of the Mohicans"?

[madteaparty]

I'm told this is not a great choice. We are doing U.S History this year and I have a homemade book list to roughly go with it. Any suggestions at a 7-9th grade level for the time period? Thank you

[EKS]

How about some short stories instead?  Washington Irving and Poe come to mind.

 

There's always The Scarlet Letter, but I don't know if it's the right reading level.

[madteaparty]

How about some short stories instead? Washington Irving and Poe come to mind.

 

There's always The Scarlet Letter, but I don't know if it's the right reading level.

Thank you!

[Lori D.]

Hmmm... For a 7th grader, I don't think there's anything wrong with Last of the Mohicans. It's an adventure story and likely to have strong appeal for a 7th grade boy, and, while it's not usually placed in the "classics top shelf," it would have enough for a very beginning level of formal literature study. On the other hand, it DOES have stereotypes of Native Americans, so I can understand if avoiding it for those reasons. I've *** works below that involve Native Americans, in case that's of special interest in a substitute work.

 

What are your goals for the novel, whether Last of the Mohicans or a substitute? More formal literature study? Just exposure to American works to go along with American history and give a feel to the times? Pleasure reading?

 

JMO: I would hold off on The Scarlet Letter -- it is set about mid1600s (100 years earlier than Last of the Mohicans), and the overly-long Custom House introduction to the work very nearly killed all interest in the novel with DSs here, before getting to the actual story.  :ohmy:

 

Some ideas for a 7th grader -- a mix of YA and gentler classics, listed by time SETTING, not by when written (except where noted)

 

 

EDITED

 

1500-1700

*** The King'd Fifth (O'Dell)

*** Walk The World's Rim (Baker)

*** Children of the Longhouse (Bruchac)

 

1700s

*** A Light in the Forest (Richter)

*** I Am Regina (Keene)

*** Indian Captive (Lenski)

The Kidnapped Prince: The Life of Olaudah Equiano (Cameron)

Amos Fortune, Freeman (Yates)

The Journeyman (Yates)

Justin Morgan Had a Horse (Henry)

1797 = Fever (Anderson)

 

Revolutionary War

Johnny Tremain (Forbes)

Chains, and, Forge (Anderson)

 

1800-1860

1820s = Legend of Sleepy Hollow; Rip Van Winkle (Irving) -- short stories

1830s (setting) = Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Twain) -- novel

1840s = The Black Cat, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Cask of Amontillado, or other (Poe) - short story

1840s = *** The Birchbark House (Erdrich)

 

Civil War

The Boy's War (Murphy)

Bullrun (Fleischman)

Slopes of War

Across Five Aprils (Hunt)

Rifles for Watie (Keith)

The Red Badge of Courage (Crane)

 

1865-1880

1868 (pub.) = The Luck of Roaring Camp (Harte) -- short story; Western mining camp

1898 (pub.) = Bride Comes to Yellow Sky (Crane) -- short story; end of West with arrival of East/civilization

1882 (pub.) = The Lady or the Tiger (Stockton) -- short story; fantastical

 

1880-1900

1850s = ***Island of the Blue Dolphins (O'Dell) -- true story of Native girl surviving alone on an island

1860s = *** Sing Down the Moon (O'Dell) -- forced move of Navajo to reservations

1870s = Dragon's Gate (Yep) -- Chinese immigrants working on transcontinental railroad

1889 = The Terrible Wave (Dahstedt) - Johnstown PA dam breaks, floods the town

1893 = The Great Wheel (Lawson) -- Chicago world's fair and first Ferris wheel ever

 

1900-1920

1903 = Dragonwings (Yep) -- Chinese immigrant family in San Francisco

1903 = Call of the Wild (London) -- novella; Alaskan Gold Rush

1907 = The Ransom of Red Chief (Henry) -- short story

1900s = The Great Brain (Fitzgerald) -- rural tween boy hijinx in rural turn of the century setting

1900s = Little Britches (Moody) -- Colorado rural tween boy, ranching family

1900s? (setting) = Mama's Bank Account (Forbes) -- immigrant family

 

World War 1

 

1920-1940

1920s = After the Dancing Days (Rostkowski) -- post WW1

1920s = Cheaper By the Dozen (Gilbreth)

1924 = The Most Dangerous Game (Connell) -- short story

1930s (setting) = Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (Taylor) -- Depression, Deep South

1930s ? (setting) = Sounder (Armstrong) -- poor Deep South black family

1930s = The Red Pony (Steinbeck) -- novella (short story collection)

 

World War 2

 

1940-1960

1950 = The Old Man and the Sea (Hemingway) -- novella

1950s (pub.) = The Martian Chronicles (Bradbury) -- sci-fi

1950s = Something Wicked This Way Comes (Bradbury) -- supernatural; small town and a spooky carnival

1957 (setting) = October Sky (Hickam)

 

1960-1980

1960s = The Pushcart War (Merrill)

1960s (pub.) = A Wrinkle in Time; A Wind in the Door (L'Engle) -- fantastical/sci-fi elements

1960s = Where the Red Fern Grows (Rawls) -- rural Ozarks boy and his hunting dogs

1968 (pub.) A Wizard of Earthsea (Le Guin) -- novel; fantasy

1970s (setting) = When You Reach Me (Stead)

 

1980-present

1980s = The Hunt for Red October (Clancy) -- Cold War submarines

1990s = Maniac Magee (Spinelli)

1990s = The View From Saturday (Konigsburg)

1990s (pub.) = The Giver (Lowry) -- sci-fi setting

2000s = The Wednesday Wars (Schmidt)

Edited November 3, 2016 by Lori D.

[madteaparty]

Oh my goodness Lori, you always deliver in such a spectacular way!

My goal is just exposure to American lit, roughly by period, starting at the beginning. I've had it up to here with lit analysis since we have two classes doing that now ;)

We will add some local interest books and he is doing the online G3 American lit class in the fall, but I was drawing a blank on early American state history. Thank you!!

[Lori D.]

Oh my goodness Lori, you always deliver in such a spectacular way!

My goal is just exposure to American lit, roughly by period, starting at the beginning. I've had it up to here with lit analysis since we have two classes doing that now ;)

We will add some local interest books and he is doing the online G3 American lit class in the fall, but I was drawing a blank on early American state history. Thank you!!

 

Since that's the goal, I EDITED the list above by dumping the classics (except for a few short stories of interest), and did a more detailed break-down by time period. That gives you 12 time periods (not counting WW1 and WW2), so one way to approach this is to read 1 book per time period to go along with your history.   :)

 

That's one book every 3 weeks; if you have a faster reader, then you could shoot for one book every 2 weeks, and choose which time periods you want to double up on. Enjoy, whatever you decide to do for books to go with American History! :) Warmest regards, Lori D.

Edited November 3, 2016 by Lori D.

[MarkT]

The "Last of the Mohicans".is a classic and a middle school boy would certainly enjoy it. It is also good to expose students to a different prose style from early America.

Some of the 'Native Americans ' are the story heroes so not sure why that is bad.

 

Masterpiece Theater/BBC had a TV series on this back in the 1970s - I really enjoyed it. You may want to find that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_of_the_Mohicans_(1971_series)

Edited November 4, 2016 by MarkT

[J-rap]

Just wanted to add that I wouldn't completely discount Last of the Mohicans.  We read it in about 8th/9th grades, and my children loved it.  It was so different than anything they'd read before.  I think it gave them some good insight into that period.  It is still one of the books from homeschooling that they bring up the most.