Reading Recommendations for "Children"

[Guest]

From Beatrix Potter to Ulysses ... what the top writers say every child should read
"Top" writers in the U.K. were asked by the Royal Society of Literature to nominate their top 10 books for "schoolchildren". I presume that the books are to be read in school (vs. leisure reading). As there seem to be a number of Harry Potter fans here, I'll paste in JK Rowling's recommendations:

Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe
David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
Hamlet - William Shakespeare
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
Animal Farm - George Orwell
The Tale of Two Bad Mice - Beatrix Potter
The Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller​

Except for the Dahl and Heller, I'd read all of Rowling's books by the time I left h.school. From Philip Pullman's list I do not know his first three books.

Anyroad, I agree with most of the recommendations but I have reservations about Ulysses as I think 'children' should be exposed first to a couple stories from Dubliners and/or Joyce's "Portrait". Most importantly, I do believe it's the "teaching" that matters. I was lucky and had excellent teachers who could make heavy tomes relevant to my 10 year old or teenage mind. When I read Hamlet today I am amazed that I was able to truly enjoy it at 16, but I give 99% of the credit to the wacky nun who taught English my junior year in h.s. . On the other hand, I know people who have unwanted violent emotions about Henry James or Dante because of the way the work was presented to them at a young age (or even older age ).

Does anyone here want to make a list? I'd go with most of the books listed in the article but there do need to be more women authors and off the bat I'd add something by Virginia Woolf and Edith Wharton, and definitely a selection of Emily Dickinson.

Perdita

 

[kendo1]

There are so many books targetted for children nowdays.
My son likes the Alex Ryder books - mini James Bond. Exciting and modern to keep him interested.

I tried reading Beatrix Potter recently and was amazed at how dated it had become. The same with Enid Blyton.
It must be difficult for a writer to keep the attention of youths when games machines are so good.

Lord of the Flies, and 1984 should be included.

ken

 

[CharleyH]

From Beatrix Potter to Ulysses ... what the top writers say every child should read
"Top" writers in the U.K. were asked by the Royal Society of Literature to nominate their top 10 books for "schoolchildren". I presume that the books are to be read in school (vs. leisure reading). As there seem to be a number of Harry Potter fans here, I'll paste in JK Rowling's recommendations:

Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe
David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
Hamlet - William Shakespeare
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
Animal Farm - George Orwell
The Tale of Two Bad Mice - Beatrix Potter
The Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller​

Americans are way behind, I read Sons and Lovers by Lawrence, for one LOL, in drade 11, so it is shady, Catcher in the Rye, um Waiting for Godot, Oedipus and Electra (all of the rest between grades 8 and 13 _ and Alice in Wonderland? What is your pleasure to discuss?, P maybe a BOOK CLUB?

 

[Guest]

Some of these are award winners, some are just what my children have enjoyed.

Guess How Much I Love You
Sam McBratney, Anita Jeram

The Runaway Bunny
Margaret Wise Brown

The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Eric Carle

The Snowy Day
Ezra Jack Keats

Make Way for Ducklings
Robert McCloskey

Where the Wild Things Are
Maurice Sendak

Ramona Quimby, Age 8
by Beverly Cleary

Holes
by Louis Sachar

A Wrinkle in Time
by Madeleine L'Engle

Julie of the Wolves
Jean Craighead George

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
CS Lewis

Where the Sidewalk Ends
Shel Silverstein

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
Mildred Taylor

Charlotte's Web
EB White

 

[interracial_sex]

I know it may seem glib and outdated but the Hardy Boy series by Franklin W. Dixon was what first inspired my love of reading. I believe Frank & Joe Hardy are still viable today even in this age of goblets of stone and chalices of fire or whatever she (Rowling) writes about.

 

[Guest]

Americans are way behind, I read Sons and Lovers by Lawrence, for one LOL, in drade 11, so it is shady, Catcher in the Rye, um Waiting for Godot, Oedipus and Electra (all of the rest between grades 8 and 13 _ and Alice in Wonderland? What is your pleasure to discuss?, P maybe a BOOK CLUB?

Only if Oprah is involved, don't ya think?

 

[Guest]

Lord of the Flies, and 1984 should be included.

I read those in h.s. too (though I didn't particularly enjoy them). I still enjoy Beatrix Potter, but perhaps it's because hers are the first books I remember after "Mother Goose" and the Grimm lads . I can't imagine any young child would think her stories dated, at least my sons didn't when they were very young. However, I don't think the 'society' above, or the article, meant to elicit books "targeted" at children. I'm interested in what others might recommend for a child's reading with regard to their education. Thanks, P.

 

[CharleyH]

Americans are way behind, I read Sons and Lovers by Lawrence, for one LOL, in drade 11, so it is shady, Catcher in the Rye, um Waiting for Godot, Oedipus and Electra (all of the rest between grades 8 and 13 _ and Alice in Wonderland? What is your pleasure to discuss?, P maybe a BOOK CLUB?

Writing thread - ok

Reading is: TUCK EVERLASTING by Natalie Babbit? Best kid book

 

[Guest]

I read those in h.s. too (though I didn't particularly enjoy them). I still enjoy Beatrix Potter, but perhaps it's because hers are the first books I remember after "Mother Goose" and the Grimm lads . I can't imagine any young child would think her stories dated, at least my sons didn't when they were very young. However, I don't think the 'society' above, or the article, meant to elicit books "targeted" at children. I'm interested in what others might recommend for a child's reading with regard to their education. Thanks, P.

Do you mean by the time they leave high school?

Edited to add - Because I feel there is a certain set of books children should get through at elementary, junior and high school.

 

[Guest]

Do you mean by the time they leave high school?

Yes, thanks for asking. Also, now that I've read more ripostes, I do want to emphasize the "re. education" bit, i.e., I'm not looking for everyone's or their kids' fave books. Rather, what books will best influence their thinking as they are growing up and being formally educated.

Perdita

 

[Guest]

Only if Oprah is involved, don't ya think?

Please don't be offended SSS, but I don't want this to become a thread full of silliness. If it dies, it dies, but I wanted to present some food for thought that actually relates to writing, literature, thinking, etc.

Perdita

 

[kendo1]

Then without doubt,
Lord of the Flies
1984
Animal Farm
Hamlet
Any Roald Dahl !
Dr Seuss too

 

[oggbashan]

Function

The purpose of these lists was to stimulate a discussion on what should be taught in schools up to ages 16 and 18 and not about what children should read for recreation.

It is a debate that recurs from time to time. Until the 1960s the tendency was to concentrate on the standard classics. Chaucer and Shakespeare were the backbone of any list up to then.

Since the middle 1960s there has been a considerable 'dumbing down' of required reading with 'extracts', 'condensed', 'made simple' and other versions of the classic authors together with easier more modern authors.

It was an embarrassment to me to find that visiting French and German teenagers had read more of the classics of English Literature in the original than my intelligent daughters had. For example, my daughters weren't expected to read Shakespeare beyond the one play set for their year. Their foreign penfriends could discuss the development of Shakespearean tragedy through all his tragedies.

In my schooldays, I read widely and I too could discuss Beaumarchais, Moliere, Racine, Gide, Maupassant and Proust that I had read in the original language. Even though I wasn't studying German or Spanish, I had read translations of Goethe, Heine, Boll, Kafka, Cervantes and other classics such as the Sagas, the standard works of the Greeks and Romans, and Dante. Very few UK school students at the beginning of the 21st Century can claim as much, nor will they have the time or the encouragement to read so much. I had a distinct advantage that I was a very fast speed-reader.

The debate about what school students should read is critical to developing a literate society. However to some schools the debate is meaningless. They are struggling to get their students to leave school at 16 with the reading level expected of 10 year olds. If that is impossible, Shakespeare and Chaucer are beyond the students except in dumbed-down TV presentations.

The debate has its limitations but is a worthwhile one.

Og

 

[kendo1]

Ogg quote:

They are struggling to get their students to leave school at 16 with the reading level expected of 10 year olds.

That depends on the school and area. Generalisations!

 

[Guest]

Then without doubt,
Lord of the Flies
1984
Animal Farm
Hamlet
Any Roald Dahl !
Dr Seuss too

Your list makes me think, along with SSS's last post, that we might divide our recommendations among primary, middle and high school. I think books like those of Dr. Seuss and B. Potter are extraordinarily valuable in catching the attention of young children and thereby teaching them good grammar and influencing their vocabulary via good and fantastic stories (not to mention all the rest of the stuff one is exposed to through fine writing and illustration). P.

 

[kendo1]

Your list makes me think, along with SSS's last post, that we might divide our recommendations among primary, middle and high school. I think books like those of Dr. Seuss and B. Potter are extraordinarily valuable in catching the attention of young children and thereby teaching them good grammar and influencing their vocabulary via good and fantastic stories (not to mention all the rest of the stuff one is exposed to through fine writing and illustration). P.

I'm biased in my choice by the ages of my children.

10 and 12 year olds.

 

[oggbashan]

Ogg quote:

They are struggling to get their students to leave school at 16 with the reading level expected of 10 year olds.

That depends on the school and area. Generalisations!

If you read it with the sentence I wrote before: "However to some schools the debate is meaningless. " then the statement is less of a generalisation.

If, as in one school I know too well, over one third of the students have English as a second or third language, and English is NEVER spoken at home, to achieve a 10 year-old level of reading English by age 16 is a considerable achievement that should be celebrated. For that school this debate is indeed meaningless. They are seeking to let their students have a basic command of English sufficient to deal with the whole family's communication needs.

Og

 

[R. Richard]

Perdita:
Let me try to add another dimension to the discussion. In high school I was forced to read "Robinson Crusoe" by "Daniel Defoe." By the time I finished reading the book, I was so damn mad I wanted to kill Daniel Defoe. I mean literally kill Daniel Defoe! Later I found out that the hack writing that angered me was NOT Daniel Defoe's writing, but something added for a "school edition."

The point I am trying to make here is that the student needs to read THE book, NOT the "school edition."

I would add "The Man Who Counts" by Poul Anderson, probably the best science fiction novel ever written.

JMHO.

 

[Guest]

Let me try to add another dimension to the discussion. In high school I was forced to read "Robinson Crusoe" by "Daniel Defoe." By the time I finished reading the book, I was so damn mad I wanted to kill Daniel Defoe. I mean literally kill Daniel Defoe! Later I found out that the hack writing that angered me was NOT Daniel Defoe's writing, but something added for a "school edition."

RR, well that's obviously wrong, no matter the 'original' author; 'hack writing' should not be taught at any level unless as an example of such. Let's presume our lists presume 'THE' book (as you point out).

As for your sci-fi recommendation I'd have to know you better, or you'd have to write a more detailed rationale than the one above .

Perdita

 

[cloudy]

I read the Iliad and the Odyssey in high school, and although I understood them some, I keep meaning to go back and read them again, simply because I think my appreciation of them as literature would be better now that I'm more widely read.

Lord of the Flies disturbed me, but I agree, it should probably be mandatory reading.

I'd also add Shakespeare's King Lear, and MacBeth.

Great thread, 'dita. I'll have to think on this some more.

One last comment: I do see a dumbing-down, so to speak, of the literature that is required reading in schools comparing what I read, and what I see my children required to read. In our home, reading is a non-issue, but it makes me worry for those students who aren't exposed to it at home, and now, aren't exposed to it at school, either.

 

[JamesSD]

I love Rowling's recommendations.

Anyroad, I agree with most of the recommendations but I have reservations about Ulysses as I think 'children' should be exposed first to a couple stories from Dubliners and/or Joyce's "Portrait". Most importantly, I do believe it's the "teaching" that matters. I was lucky and had excellent teachers who could make heavy tomes relevant to my 10 year old or teenage mind. When I read Hamlet today I am amazed that I was able to truly enjoy it at 16, but I give 99% of the credit to the wacky nun who taught English my junior year in h.s. . On the other hand, I know people who have unwanted violent emotions about Henry James or Dante because of the way the work was presented to them at a young age (or even older age ).

Does anyone here want to make a list? I'd go with most of the books listed in the article but there do need to be more women authors and off the bat I'd add something by Virginia Woolf and Edith Wharton, and definitely a selection of Emily Dickinson.

No one should have James Joyce inflicted upon them. I hated portrait of an artist with a passion. I remember thinking the protagonist was a whiner and an idiot. Maybe I'd like it more now, but for my AP English class it was an awful choice.

I LOVED Dante. Well at least Inferno. It climaxes at the bottom of hell, and has no where to go from there.

I can't stand Dickinson.

Three books I really liked in high school were One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Slaughterhouse Five and Brave New World. Nice, dark stuff

 

[Guest]

No one should have James Joyce inflicted upon them. I hated portrait of an artist with a passion. I remember thinking the protagonist was a whiner and an idiot. Maybe I'd like it more now, but for my AP English class it was an awful choice.

As I said, the right teacher can make the difference in whether a young mind 'gets' an author like Joyce (or H. James, etc.) I'm not arguing re. your impressions, and I didn't read the 'portrait' til college, but I did love the story "Araby" in h. school. I'd think any adolescent male would, but then I was never that . You made me larf though, calling Joyce a whiner.

I'm also glad you mentioned Brave New World, I'd put that on a list too.

best, Perdita

 

[R. Richard]

As for your sci-fi recommendation I'd have to know you better, or you'd have to write a more detailed rationale than the one above .

Perdita

In "The Man Who Counts," Poul Anderson's protagonist, Nicholas Van Rijn and two companions are stranded on a large, low gravity planet when their space ship crashes. The planet does have a place where the three can be rescued. However, the place is halfway around the world. Another problem is that Nicholas Van Rijn and his three companions can't eat the local food and have to live off their very limited supplies. Worse yet, the three fall into the hands of winged aliens who are fighting a war with other winged aliens and have no time to spare to rescue the three.

Nicholas Van Rijn spends most of his time talking to the aliens, just talking. He does assign tasks to his two skilled companions and they are not too happy about the state of affairs.

Nicholas Van Rijn, however, very reasonably manages to get the three castaways, who are held by the winning side, to be captured by the losing side. The male companion of Nicholas Van Rijn is very unhappy with what he see as Nicholas Van Rijn's overbearing attitude. However, he finds that Nicholas Van Rijn has not only learned the alien language that his companions have learned, but also simultaneously a second alien language, that of the losing side.

He then convinces the losing side that he is a very important person by making a speech, which speech he steals from Shaespeare et al. Once established as an important man he then shows the losing side how to win the war [very well reasoned.] He does need the unwilling help of his male companion who is an engineer.

With the war won, Nicholas Van Rijn figures a way to get help from halfway around the planet, using lcoal resources only [again very well reasoned.]

With the three rescued, the handsome young engineer tries to move in on the beautiful lady companion. She is a lady of noble birth trying to find the perfect father for her child to be [so the the child can be an effective ruler for her home planet.] She points out to the engineer that she is going with Nicholas Van Rijn, to be his plaything until she can have her baby. The engineer is dumbfounded that a fat, lecherous old man can win the lady. The lady then points out that either or both of them would have died alone. Nicholas Van Rijn could very probably have survived without the other two and class tells.

The story is well reasoned action and there are no "miracles," just simple [once Poul Anderson points it out] reasoning. Read it!

 

[JamesSD]

You made me larf though, calling Joyce a whiner.

I'm glad you larfed, and I realize portrait is at least semi-autobiographical, but it was the character I called a whiner

I can see where a great teacher could save Portrait and make it relevant. Also being in college certainly would help. In my experience Joyce is intellectually interesting, but not at all pleasurable to read... perfect for college!

 

[sophia jane]

Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe
David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
Hamlet - William Shakespeare
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
Animal Farm - George Orwell
The Tale of Two Bad Mice - Beatrix Potter
The Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller​

Absolutely agree with several of these. I think a few that are missing:
The Invisible Man- Ralph Ellison
Waiting for Godot is a great choice Charley
Great Gatsby

Um, some others that were great for me and are great if they're taught well-
The Importance of Being Earnest
Bailey's Cafe (Gloria Naylor is fabulous and can be very educational for upper hs students)
Illiad and the Odyssey
poetry other than the pain in the ass stuff they usually teach- Neruda and Plath and Giovanni are great ones off the top of my head, all poets I read my sr year of hs