Suggested reading material

[Sally-Anne]

Hi Perplexed and all

I have found this thread interesting, particularly that so few people mention children's "classics" as opposed to popular stuff written in the last twenty years, and no-one has suggested some good non-fiction or reading other than novels. Who knows what my children will read in the future, but I hope that if they are true "bookworms" they will read some things of substance for at least part of the time they spend reading.

This topic came up a couple of years ago:

http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/forum/ ... .php?t=437

I can smugly say that I listed some classic books there.

I would add the recent successes of Captain Hornblower and Sherlock Holmes to my original list. For girls, Little House on the Prairie is a true classic - I borrowed a set from a friend's daughter recently, and spent a few happy hours re-living Laura's adventures.

We have a recommended reading list from school, albeit for Year 8, and some of the classics on there that might be appropriate for a younger reader are:

Richard Adams - Watership Down
Laurie Lee - Cider with Rosie
Harper Lee - To Kill a Mockingbird
George Orwell - Animal Farm
G.K. Chesterton - Father Brown Stories
John Wyndham - Day of the Triffids

Mockingbird was probably the first really serious fiction book that I read, and made a lasting impact on me - I still re-read my battered copy every couple of years. John Wyndham's books were endlessly scary and fascinating.

I have never had a problem getting my boys to read non-fiction - they read everything that they can lay their hands on about aeroplanes and the natural world (David Attenborough's books), and our copies of the Horrible Histories series are disintegrating under the pressure of life in the fast lane!

The best non-fiction author for colour and fun has to be my all-time favourite, Gerald Durrell (My Family and Other Animals), but many of his other books are out of print, but you may pick them up in a charity shop or second-hand bookshop.

S-A

[frenchmum]

I often have this conversation with friends. I read (and still do) enormously and was very frustrated when my boys showed no interest at all in reading. I persevered, through Match magazine and Captain Underpants and finally cracked it. Boys do love a series - mine loved the Robert Muchamore Cherub series as well as others previously mentioned here. There is also a series of books by Margaret Petersen Haddix about illegal third children, but you have to get it through Amazon as it's American. They also love the idea of something naughty. Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime was read because it had the 'f' word in it.

My daughter in contrast will read everything and especially loves the classics. Her vocabulary is much bigger as a result I think. Just read a few paragraphs from 'What Katy Did' and the contrast between that and more recent books is amazing.

[Belinda]

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[jah]

I remember reading Robert Graves "Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece "when I was 12. Fairly scandalous!!

Also I Claudius and Claudius the God.

Also remember reading all the romantic parts of War and Peace at a similar age (skipping all the War bits). A lad might consider doing the opposite.

Television adaptations led me to the above. Derek Jacobi as Claudius, and Anthony Hopkins was Pierre Bezuchov.

I also read loads of SciFi. John Wyndham: Day of the Triffids, Midwich Cuckoos etc.

[Sam's Mum]

My son has always loved myths and legends - from anywhere. He's read the usual Greek and Roman ones as well as those from the Caribbean, Wales and Japan (and probably some others as well). They're great as there are a number of books aimed at different age groups. Those for older readers give the less sanitised versions, particularly if you can find quite old books. My son's favourite book of Greek myths was from the early 1900's - he had it on almost permanent loan from the library.

[One Down]

Belinda,
I read all the Willard Price adventures as a child, even though it was slightly frowned apon for a girl! really good animal adventures, although probably slightly non-PC now as they always involved capturing animals from the wild. They are still in print though as I bought some for my friend's son two years ago, which he loved.
They do pick up some funny old -fashioned vocab from older books. My two have both adored boarding school stories like Malory Towers and the older one informed me the other day that a very pushy, outspoken little girl she knew was in need of 'squashing'! and she didn't mean sitting on her physically!
All the old classics such as the 'What Katy Did' books (many tears at Katy's bedridden state), Anne of Green Gables, The Secret Garden are great

[Ed's mum]

I agree that reading more old fashioned books will definitely improve and extend vocabulary! My nine year old reads books such as What Katy Did and Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, The Secret Garden, A Little Princess, Enid Blyton books etc and uses extremely varied language. She used the word 'pettish' today, which I know came from Little Women.

[Belinda]

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[Lulu]

As a counter to the previous posts I'd like to report my DD's reading habits. Try as I might, I couldn't get her to read any of the books that I enjoyed as a child. It seemed to me that she wouldn't even attempt anything unless she was familiar with the story beforehand. She was not comfortable with the language used in classic stories and she read Jacqueline Wilson almost exclusively. This worried me endlessly as the 11+ approached.

However, despite her lack of enthusiasm for varied reading, in September she starts at a "super-selective" grammar school. I know if I'd have read this thread a year ago I'd have been in a huge panic. Maybe we were just lucky, but in our experience, a limited reading list didn't prove to be a as big a hindrance as I feared.

[One Down]

Hi Belinda,
How happy you must be! I look forward to the day when I can be ' Two down..and none to go!' Not long to wait now, only until September.

How did you manage to go through this four times and still stay sane? Secret supplies of valium? However, I do think it is less stressful second time around as you do have a much better idea of what is involved in the tests, what they really need to score to pass, standardisation etc etc. As the old saying goes, knowledge really does cast out fear (well most of the irrational fears, anyway!)

Going back to reading matter, my Yr7 ran out of books on holiday and is really enjoying my copy of The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton. I had read it first to see if there was any adult content though. Also the Chalet School books are still available-anyone remember those?