kristin0713 Posted June 19, 2019 Share Posted June 19, 2019 I need some read alouds that won’t leave me sobbing through the last chapter. We just finished Rascal, and I seriously could not get through it. 🙄😳 DS had to read the last few pages. My kids are 13 and 11. Lighter books we have enjoyed—The Phantom Tollbooth, By The Great Horn Spoon, Summer of the Monkeys (I cried in that one too but not as bad)... We love animal stories but would like to avoid ones where they die or are “set free” for now. Having a brother and sister as main characters is a plus (we enjoyed The Mixed Up Files...) Mysteries would also be good (but nothing dark). Also, no potty humor. Suggestions? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirty ethel rackham Posted June 19, 2019 Share Posted June 19, 2019 Harris and Me by Gary Paulsen is laugh out loud funny as well as poignant. We also loved A Long Way From Chicago by Richard Peck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kristin0713 Posted June 19, 2019 Author Share Posted June 19, 2019 6 minutes ago, dirty ethel rackham said: We also loved A Long Way From Chicago by Richard Peck. Oh yes! We loved that one too. I’ll take a look at Harris and Me, thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momto6inIN Posted June 20, 2019 Share Posted June 20, 2019 My 17 and 15 year old cracked up this past year when we read the Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling, and I was definitely not expecting that to be funny! The 11 and 7 year old loved them too. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted June 20, 2019 Share Posted June 20, 2019 (edited) Love the above idea of Just So Stories! A few more humorous book ideas (most are NOT animal-related): gr. 4-8The Fake Moustache (Angleberger) Half Magic, Magic By the Lake, Knight's Castle, The Time Garden, Seven Day Magic (Eager) -- brothers/sisters By the Great Horn Spoon (Fleischman) The Whipping Boy (Flesichman)The Great Wheel (Lawson)The Ordinary Princess (Kaye) -- girl and boyTwo Are Better Than One (Brink) -- girlsA Long Way from Chicago; A Year Down Yonder (Peck)Hoot; Chomp (Hiaasen) The Hoboken Chicken Emergency (Pinkwater)Farmer Giles of Ham (Tolkien) -- once you get over the hump of the older language in the first few pages, it's a lot of funBook of Dragons (Nesbit) -- 7 short storiesThe Reluctant Dragon (Grahame) gr. 6+ Bromeliad trilogy: Truckers, Diggers, Wings (Pratchett)The 13 Clocks (Thurber) -- does for use of language/vocabulary what Phantom Tollbooth does for math concepts The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Twain)Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Carroll) gr. 7+ - Life With Jeeves (PG Wodehouse) - Shakespeare Star Wars (Doescher) - Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Adams) -- just a few brief crudities and innuendos (if reading aloud you could skip over them) short stories:The Open Window (Saki)A Story Without An End (Twain)Lamb to the Slaughter (Dahl) -- "black humor"The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (Thurber)The Ransom of Red Chief (Henry) Edited June 20, 2019 by Lori D. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smfmommy Posted June 20, 2019 Share Posted June 20, 2019 Fortunately the Milk by Neil Gaimon Very light and funny, but not animal related. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CAtoVA Posted June 22, 2019 Share Posted June 22, 2019 I'm not sure how "laugh out loud" funny these are (there are some funny parts mostly involving the dog) but the Smells Like Dog series by Suzanne Selfors was a huge hit with all my kiddoes aged 7-14. Very old school, and maybe too young, but Mrs. Piggle Wiggle books are always amusing and "clean." The League of Unexceptional Children by Getty Daneshvari (a series of three books) is funny with a sly bent. I don't remember if they are 100% potty-free but the humor mainly is wittier if I recall correctly. The overall premise pokes fun at the trend of "every kid is a genius" which my children have run into as homeschoolers so they get the humor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CAtoVA Posted June 22, 2019 Share Posted June 22, 2019 Speaking of animal stories, and central character animals who DIE by the end of a book, Suzanne Selfors penned an introduction in the first Smells Like Dog book specifically stating that NO DOGS will die in her books and lamenting how authors have animals die after readers have become attached to them. It's pretty amusing and set my kids' hearts at ease. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WahM Posted June 22, 2019 Share Posted June 22, 2019 (edited) How about the wizard of oz series? Not animal related, but the Mary Poppins series is great as well. Edited June 22, 2019 by WahM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holly Posted June 22, 2019 Share Posted June 22, 2019 (edited) We have enjoyed Half Magic The Saturdays All of a Kind Family --These are all about families with several kids and are all set in the past--I guess that is a theme we enjoy. 🤣 The Hobbit has been another favorite! Edited June 22, 2019 by Holly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MirandaTeaLover Posted June 23, 2019 Share Posted June 23, 2019 We found Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Pippi Longstocking, Mary Poppins, and The Borrowers (if you don't concern yourself too much with what happened to poor Eggletina) to be very well written and funny. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktgrok Posted June 24, 2019 Share Posted June 24, 2019 (edited) On 6/21/2019 at 9:11 PM, CAtoVA said: Speaking of animal stories, and central character animals who DIE by the end of a book, Suzanne Selfors penned an introduction in the first Smells Like Dog book specifically stating that NO DOGS will die in her books and lamenting how authors have animals die after readers have become attached to them. It's pretty amusing and set my kids' hearts at ease. Sold!!! My one kid is SO sensitive, we had to shut off a butterfly documentary because he was sobbing that the farmer's tractor went over the "butterfly nursery". This sounds perfect for him! And I'm just as bad, I'm STILL traumatized by Where the Red Fern Grows and REFUSE to ever read the Yearling, Old Yeller, etc. Nope. Not happening. Edited June 24, 2019 by Ktgrok 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CAtoVA Posted June 24, 2019 Share Posted June 24, 2019 I hear you.... My oldest DD who is of the "correct age" is not reading Where the Red Fern Grows due to the, ahem, *unfortunate* events pertaining to not one but TWO dogs, and also will not read Old Yeller. We are completely besotted dog lovers here, lol. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sammish Posted June 25, 2019 Share Posted June 25, 2019 A useful website for vetting future books and movies: Does the Dog Die. It's crowd sourced, and has a ton of categories, including the one in the title. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktgrok Posted June 25, 2019 Share Posted June 25, 2019 2 hours ago, Sammish said: A useful website for vetting future books and movies: Does the Dog Die. It's crowd sourced, and has a ton of categories, including the one in the title. Oh wow! Thank you!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanaqui Posted June 30, 2019 Share Posted June 30, 2019 I've had this tab open because I meant to reply to it and I haven't - you're looking mostly for older middle grade books, yes, not YA? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alisoncooks Posted July 1, 2019 Share Posted July 1, 2019 (edited) My girls are 13 and 11, and we recently enjoyed The Fourteenth Goldfish. (There are fish mentioned that previously died.) Quick, quirky read, maybe slightly young for the ages you have (we didn't mind). Edited July 1, 2019 by alisoncooks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kristin0713 Posted October 2, 2019 Author Share Posted October 2, 2019 On 6/29/2019 at 11:09 PM, Tanaqui said: I've had this tab open because I meant to reply to it and I haven't - you're looking mostly for older middle grade books, yes, not YA? Yes, probably mostly older middle, really to avoid more mature themes. These are great suggestions! Still open to more 🙂 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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