Indy and I decided to come up with "Reading Lists" for our boys. We take them to the library each week, and they read plenty of good fiction and non-fiction in our school day; but, for free reading, we were noticing some "fixations".... Krypto, our 9 year old 4th grader, seemed to only be reading Roald Dahl (over and over again, they were memorized) and anything Sci-Fi/Fantasy he could get his hands on. I am NOT saying Sci-Fi/Fantasy isn't good, there are lots of good choices in that genre; but, to be fixated on it, to the exclusion of so many other good choices that are available....well, we thought, we would try to broaden his horizons a bit. The hope is, if he finds a good book by another author, or in another genre/time period, that he might continue to pursue that author or time period and find a few other gems that he can enjoy.
So, here is the list we compiled last night. We gave it to him this morning and he is actually really excited about it. It's got a little bit of everything on it - historical fiction, classics, anthologies, modern Children's Lit, Christian fiction, Newberry Award winners, etc. He'll be reading some other great classics with our study of the 1800's this year for History and Literature with Tapestry of Grace. I'll share those as I do my "School Updates" throughout the year. For example, in the next few weeks he'll be reading "Once on this Island", "The Swiss Family Robinson", and "Imprisoned in the Golden City."
4th Grade Reading List
Henty - With Lee in Virginia
Henty - True to the Old Flag
Henty - Through Russian Snows
Yesterday’s Classics (YC) -
Otto of the Silver Hand
YC – Poems Every Child Should
Know
YC - Ten Boys Who Lived on
the Road from Long Ago to Now
YC - Great Inventors and
Their Inventions
YC - The Secret of Everyday
Things
YC - Our Little Athenian
Cousin of Long Ago
YC - Our Little Spartan
Cousin of Long Ago
The Cricket in Times Square –
George Selden
Indian in the Cupboard –
Lynne Reid Banks
Jungle Doctor – next in the
series
That Printer of Udell’s
The Lamplighter
Ballantyne – The Coral Island
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
The Call of the Wild
The Tower Treasure
Tom Swift series – your
choice
Five Little Peppers and How
They Grew
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Any other ideas that you may have, please share...I can add them to a future list. I'm all ears. Again, this is by no means an all-inclusive list. The point is to get him to the different areas on his Kindle, introduce him to a few new authors, and show him that there are so many wonderful genres and books for him to read. I hope this has given you some ideas as well. Tomorrow, I'll post the list we made for our 2nd grader.
Zane Grey http://www.zanegreyinc.com/zgworks.html
ReplyDeleteMight start with The Border Legion or Wildfire?
Redwall Series is good for a fantasy fix:) My son who is now 16 is going back and revisiting this again now....and he read it the first time between 10 and 12 years old.
Anything by Patrick Obrien. If I recall right, this is where the Hornblower Series comes from, but my son might ring my neck and tell me know (all I know is he had me buy everyone they have, but it has been years since I personally read any of them.
If you want to have your son make a list of "things he enjoyed" after he gets through your list, my son can probably help find similar reading.
Ahhh! Yes, Zane Grey, Indy will like that idea! We might even have a few on Kindle.
ReplyDeleteKrypto has loved the Redwall series so far. Not sure how far he got, he ran into a book he wasn't too keen on and stopped; but, I think he probably read the first ten or so. I'll remind him of those as well.
I think Hornblower was written by Forester? Obrian wrote Master and Commander and a bunch of other sea novels. BUT, THANKS! He loves the sea, so this is two good series to let him know about. I hadn't even thought of them.
Quiet time just started, he chose to start with "The Wizard of Oz"...we'll see how it goes!
Gnargh. First reply got eaten by Facebook, I think.
ReplyDeleteHornblower was C. S. Forester. Good books as well.
Make sure you do a quick pre-read-thru on the Tom Swift books - the publishing company did a rewrite on the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew series in the late 90's to make them "more appealing to today's youth"... dealing with drug issues, teenage pregnancy, and other things that the 60;s version glossed over. I'm not saying those things don't need to be talked about - they do - but you may not be ready for that yet.
Has he run through the Edgar Rice Burroughs series yet? If you're seriously talking about Hornblower then he's probably ready for John Carter.
Thought about Madeline L'Engle? A wrinkle in time (and it's successors) was good.
Oh wow, I almost forgot Treasure Island.
Ohm and if you're trying to point him at fantasy, Christopher Paolini's Eragon books are decently written (the first three, anyway; Inheritance starts to drag on, but you've gotten a good story out by the time it gets old).
Oh, and Tolkein - the Hobbit. :)
Thanks Steve! Good ideas there...I'll be keeping this list growing for sure!
ReplyDelete