The Vine: September 25, 2009
Inevitably there is backstory (which I have tried to keep short), but ultimately this is a request for book title suggestions.
My mom lives in rural Utah.She volunteers for a tiny and ill-funded (understandably; the town has fewer than five thousand residents) 501c3 that provides afterschool tutoring and snacks to about 20 kids, all ESL elementary and middle school students, most several grade levels behind for reading comprehension, very few have even one parent that is comfortable speaking English.
The kids are seriously fantastic.They are engaged, they are interested, they are nifty.They are also easily discouraged when it comes to reading.The reading material that’s provided by the school is clearly remedial and involves lots of word lists, and they’re not learning to read for fun.Reading is a chore, and it’s worse, somehow, than even math, something I cannot imagine.
The stuff the program has is mostly picture books (although recently, there has been an onslaught of Twilight donations, and they do have Captain Underpants), but what they do have that’s at a comfortable reading level, or even an easy-ish stretch, they have all read over and over or is dull subject matter for them, so their comprehension and confidence aren’t increasing.
The reading levels seem to span from about 2nd grade through about 7th grade. My mom needs books for the kids.The kids need stuff to read that’s fun and interesting, and, oh, please, not all about vampires.
I’m good with getting them books (hello, tax deduction!), but I don’t know what titles to get.Kids aren’t still reading Nesbit, are they?Those are the only children’s chapter books I remember, before I started raiding my parent’s bookshelves.
Can your readers give me suggestions? Books that y’all loved, elementary school through, say, 10th grade.Fiction, non-fiction, whatever made you want to read more.
And yeah, the library would seem like a natural resource for this, but parents have to sign off on library-card applications for minors, and — not so much most of these parents.The two kids reading above grade level have library cards.My mom checks out ten children’s books every two weeks for the kids, the maximum allowed.
If you want more details on the program for whatever, I can give you that.
Thanks!
Annie
Dear Annie,
Perfect timing for your letter, for two reasons!First, once the contest page goes live, you and/or your mom can browse some of the reading-project requests and see what other teachers have asked for, to get ideas.I know I’ve added a few Captain Underpants requests to the list.
Second, I myself just finished plowing through the first three books in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series.(“PLOOPY.”Manny kills me, you guys.)I don’t know what formal grade level the books are, but I got wind of them from an 11-year-old young lady who found them hilarious, and there’s a website. It also looks like the books come in Spanish, if that’s the kids’ first language; they could start out on the Spanish-language version, get psyched about the books, and be inspired to continue in English. Or at least be inspired to continue.
At that age, I had my nose buried in Stephen King, which I wouldn’t advise but wouldn’t exactly discourage, either (this is why I shouldn’t have kids; heh) — but I also still liked re-reading the Newbery Award set my mom had gotten me: The Witch of Blackbird Pond, Island of the Blue Dolphins, and I think Johnny Tremain came as part of that set.(Please tell me someone else had a discussion with her best friend about Rab coming off as a smug dillweed.…Just me and Agent Weiss, then?Great.)
Readers?Any thoughts — on inspiring books for pleasure reading, or on wanting Rab to march off to war and shut it already?
Tags: Ask The Readers contests popcult
I loved reading early on and read almost anything I could get my hands on by these authors:
Beverly Cleary
Judy Blume
Marguerite Henry
C.S. Lewis
Piers Anthony (Xanth series)
Anne of Green Gables series
Little House on the Prairie series
My two favorite books ever were “King of the Wind” by Marguerite Henry and “Season of Ponies” by Zilpha Keatley Snyder. I still have both and they are well worn and dog-eared.
Two books I’m disappointed not to find mentioned are Betty Brock’s *No Flying in the House,* about a little girl who discovers she’s a fairy, and Julie Edwards’s *Mandy,* about an orphan who finds an abandoned cottage she adopts as her own. They were my very favorites from, say, 8-11.
All of Ellen Raskin’s books are great, not just *The Westing Game,* and Elizabeth George Spears’s *Calico Captive* is as good as *The Witch of Blackbird Pond.* Sidney Taylor’s “All-of-a-Kind Family” series is wonderful and taught me everything I know about Jewish holidays. I also loved the “Trick” series of books (beginning with *The Lemonade Trick*) by Scott Corbett — these are great for boys, too.
Mythology collections and biographies shouldn’t be overlooked. The only thing I can get my nephew to read are survival-in-the-wilderness adventures (a la *Hatchet*) and travelogue/sporting books (*Unforgettable Places,* etc.).
Someone has already mentioned Agatha Christie. On the mystery front, I’d also recommend Dorothy Gilman’s “Mrs. Pollifax” series and the juvenile mysteries by Phyllis Whitney.
There are a million comments here, which is so cool. I want to add one more: any book from this series:
http://www.amazon.com/How-Dinosaurs-Clean-Their-Rooms/dp/0439649501/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254322170&sr=8-3
Sars and Annie, if you want someone to organize these recs into a list, since there are so many, I will. Just say the word!
I’ve skimmed through the comments and though I’ve seen one or two people suggest mythology books, I didn’t see anyone mention this one:
D’Aulaire’s Book of Greek Myths
An aunt bought me that for my 10th birthday and i devoured it. The stories are interesting in and of themselves, and it turns out that hey! It’s also darn useful! Cultural references to those stories are everywhere. I can still remember some of the artwork and the stories. Even the more obscure ones were rendered memorable by the language and the artwork. How about Melampus who could understand the animals because his ears were licked clean by grateful serpents? This is fairly text-dense and may skew a bit older than other suggestions here reading-level-wise, but the illustrations are so fabulous I can’t help but think it would help motivate them.
Reading all the comments on this was so fun. All of my favorites! I did want to throw in another two cents: I remember when I was a kid, my mom had me enrolled in the Book It! program – each time I met my reading goal, I got a free mini-pan pizza from Pizza Hut. I checked, and they do still run this program. I loved reading as a kid, so this was icing on the cake, but it was also another great form of incentive, and may be a nice way of rewarding kids for all the work they’re putting in as they read. For more info: http://bit.ly/12sUCr
Dick King Smith for sure. He writes a lot of books with animals in them. Either as the main character or interacting with kids. Even if you’ve never heard of him, you’ve probably seen the movie Babe, which is based on his book The Sheep-Pig.
I was a huge fan of Andre Norton books, some of which I read repeatedly. Also Robin McKinley.
My elementary school library would give us a gold star for every Newberry winner and honor book that we read. I don’t even remember what the prize was, but I plowed through so many of them. Everything I’ve seen mentioned here takes me back. I loved them all! They are still my favorites, to this day.
also, @t.alice: Oh my god, “Book it”! I’d totally forgotten, but i used to do that too! it was like a tasty cheesy reward for something I wloved doing anyway!
Blind Flight. Action story about a blind girl traveling on a plane her father is flying when an accident knocks him out & she has to land the plane. I don’t remember the age level, but the suspense kept me turning pages & I finished it in an afternoon. Of course, I read fast and finish most things in a day, but still…
Gordon Korman! Lots of books and a variety of characters.
Heather in Canada
Oh, hi, hi, hi.
Thank you all so much. You have pretty much redeemed what has been an awful 6 weeks with all your suggestions and thoughtfulness. I have been offline for what feels like forever contending with elderly father medical emergency and to come back in the middle of contest and find this list is a big deal.
I have to skitter off to Donors Choose and then come back and print all of these pages out and start ordering books for kids.
Thank you very much. Again. This means a lot.
For those who prefer fantasy:
Winnie-ther-Pooh
C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia
Piers Anthony’s Xanth series
Robert Asprin’s Myth series
Tamora Pierce’s Lioness saga (4 books, when I read them)
Christopher Pike for the older, into scary/liteHorror/mystery stuff – very swift & simple reading.