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MichelleW
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An audio book we enjoyed this year was "Just So Stories" read by Geoffrey Palmer. I never really got into this book when I tried to read it, but hearing Palmer with his British accent and his Old-English-Grandfather way about him has opened this book up to me. We listen to it again and again.
Did someone mention Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH? Another favorite.
Not a book, but we like to listen to the Classical Kids CD's on the way into town as well.
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JennyMaine
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Kelly, that's hysterical!
The most recent audio book we listened to was Redwall. Yes, we're just getting into Redwall (a little late!). I had never heard of it until someone mentioned it on these boards. Love it! I bought them at overstock, because audio books can be so expensive for me!
Also, I gave my daughter the audio book of Little House on the Prairie for Christmas. The whole series has been done and is just wonderful.
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Erin
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Michelle
Have just included a link for you from Angelicum Academy, they are Catholic and considering the advanced reading stage of your daughter you should find some good recommendations there. 
Personally with my children, who I consider good readers I consider some of Angelicum's age recommendations way above where I would place them.
The link here is for their Good Books in print list. Also try their home page and check out their other lists.
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Natalia
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alicegunther wrote:
Perhaps our all time favorites are the Swallows and Amazons series written by Arthur Ransome and narrated by Gabriel Woolf, but they would not be available in your library. We special ordered our copies directly from England. |
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Did you order them from Amazon.Uk?
Natalia
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Natalia
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Kelly wrote:
| MichelleM, if you can get your hands on Bethlehem Book's children's lit series called "In Review", do so. They are thoroughly enjoyable, thematic in nature, and very, very detailed (and easy to carry in your bag, to boot, slim volumes). Reading those books cover to cover was a real education for me in Children's Literature. While I might not agree with every little detail, on the whole, they are a course in themselves on children's lit! |
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How can I get this series?
Natalia
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alicegunther
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Natalia wrote:
| Did you order them from Amazon.Uk? Natalia |
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No, directly from Gabriel Woolf's site. The link is in this post.
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momwise
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Jen L. wrote:
I am enjoying this topic!
I don't want to go to far OT, but I have to share with you an interview that I just found (after reading Alice's comment of the Lemony Snicket book). (Handler is Lemony Snicket's real name) |
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Wow....I'd like to dig a little deeper into this author. My teens are going to be disappointed to hear about his attitude (they're the only kids who were allowed to read L.S.).
As far as choosing books written before 1960, I used to believe this also. Then I read aloud Water Babies by Charles Kingsley. I don't think you could find anything written today for children as racist and anti-Catholic! 
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Kelly
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True, Gwen, the pre-1960/65 thing won't weed out everything objectionable. I read "Spanish Brothers" a while back, one long Catholic bashing exercise, full of inaccuracies and totally bogus...and what about Fox's Book of "Martyrs"...that old chestnut is STILL being published and read after hundreds of years. Yikes. Likewise there are wonderful post-1960 books out there, like Lissa's, and some of the Bethlehem books publications. So, no, 1960 isn't a foolproof date! However, it IS helpful when you are first wading your way thru mountains of books for your kids and learning to screen for appropriateness. After a while, you get pretty good at ferreting out the offensive books. My kids are always shocked how I can pull out a seemingly unoffensive book and find totally objectionable passages within about two minutes. Sigh. Unfortunately, practice makes, well, better, anyway!
Kelly in FL
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Kelly
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Oh, Natalia, check out the Bethlehem books website and see if they have them listed. If not, you can call them and ask if they have any back issues. It's officially OOP, but I bought all my back-issues from BB for about $5 a pop. They are resources I use again and again. Enjoyable reading, to boot.
Kelly in FL
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cathhomeschool
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One audio series that we love is the Prydain Chronicles series. (Lloyd Alexander)
MacBeth's website has several audio sections.
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MichelleM
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JennyMaine wrote:
Michelle:
Here's a site that has lots of links to literature lists:
http://www.homeschoolchristian.com/Library/ReadingLists.html
What about multiple volume sets of things like "My Book House"?
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Thanks for the link! There are some great lists there.
I think my MIL has has some "My Book House" volumes. I'll have to call her and see!
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MichelleM
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Erin wrote:
Michelle
Have just included a link for you from Angelicum Academy, they are Catholic and considering the advanced reading stage of your daughter you should find some good recommendations there.
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Erin,
Thanks! I think I'm going to have to get a little more organized and compile a Book List Nootbook so dc can make their selections at home or at least choose an author before going to the library.
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~Michelle
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Our nature blog: All of Creation
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MacBeth
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alicegunther wrote:
| No, directly from Gabriel Woolf's site. The link is in this post. |
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I see the CD version of S and A is out  !
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Rachel May
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Hooray! Thank you for all the great ideas! As I was posting yesterday, I thought, "Now I know MacBeth has a list....." and that was as far as I got. 
I can't wait to sit down with an online library window and these ideas so I can do some requesting....
Michelle, We just did Just So Stories too, but ours were read by Boris Karloff. So delightfully grinchy. Since we heard it, I've had a bunch of half naked boys running around the house as Mowgli. I'll see if the Palmer version is available at the library, too.
Alice,
Is the BBC version of Pooh the one where the reader snorts for Piglet? We borrowed the snorting version once in Hawaii, and the kids were DYING they were laughing so hard, but I never thought to look at who produced it. That was when I had little audio book experience.
OK, one last question, does anyone else think that the Lemony Snickett books are just NOT for kids, ever? After reading that interview, I'm thinking, "What a jerk!"
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Mary G
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Rachel May wrote:
OK, one last question, does anyone else think that the Lemony Snickett books are just NOT for kids, ever? After reading that interview, I'm thinking, "What a jerk!"
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I agree - yuck. But he was being interviewed by David Sedaris who is also one of those creepy "I'm so proud of my homos...ality" and I'm smarter than everyone else kind of guys....double-yuck
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Jen L.
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Kelly wrote:
Yuck, I always had a gut feeling about those Lemony Snicket books, though I know many have enjoyed them. I get very weary with cynicism in kids' books (or any books, or movies, for that matter!). But that's just me and my vintage mind, I guess 
I tend to stick with the pre-1960 rule, tho I usually stretch it to 1965 (how daring, huh? ) |
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As for the Lemony Snicket books, I have to agree with Kelly. I don't want my kids' reading cynical, dark, books.
When I decide what books are okay for my kids, I like to use the book lists already mentioned. If I am starting to go back and forth on an "off-list" book wondering if it's okay, I remind myself that if it's questionable why should we bother? There are SOOOO many great books that don't give me pause!
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momwise
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Kelly wrote:
| So, no, 1960 isn't a foolproof date! However, it IS helpful when you are first wading your way thru mountains of books for your kids |
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Yep, you're right Kelly! It's especially true of s**ual content. And you really can go up to about 1966 or so in looking for good Catholic OOP fiction.
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Gwen...wife for 30 years, mom of 7, grandma of 3.....
"If you want equal justice for all and true freedom and lasting peace, then America, defend life." JPII
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Erin
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Jen L. wrote:
| As for the Lemony Snicket books, I have to agree with Kelly. I don't want my kids' reading cynical, dark, books. |
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Well I have to say this is exactly why the Lemony snicket books never made it with me. In highschool many of the books I read from the required list were dark and gloomy, I firmly believe that this accounts partially for the suicide rate.
Charlotte Mason writes, and I paraphase broadly here, that children need to form realationships with what they read. Therefore this is an area that is soo important. Books should be uplifting, inspiring, we should come away as better people for the time we have spent. Remember we will be accountable to God for any time we waste.
So do we let our children read twaddle then, not bad but indifferent? Well I do but on a limited basis, if after awhile all dd seems to be doing is reading Hardy Boys I do have something to say. We discuss why and they can analyse literature for themselves.
I don't know about the 1960s test, I would take it broadly but still peruse. I have a test if I don't have time to pre-read, I say a prayer and flip the book open to several pages and lo and behold often I will turn to the objectionable parts. As your daughter gets older you can allow her to read some of what your not entirely happy with now pre-reading and 'picking' it apart with her.
Something else I've found, what I may have read and enjoyed as a child, and I came from a devout Catholic home with a mother who made 'scenes' over my English course doesn't always pass muster with me now.
Just makes it tough, doesn't it.
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Kelly
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[QUOTE=Erin]
"Well I have to say this is exactly why the Lemony snicket books never made it with me. In highschool many of the books I read from the required list were dark and gloomy, I firmly believe that this accounts partially for the suicide rate."
I agree, I agree, I agree. This is my huge beef with the school reading lists. Every year I borrow the list from my old alma mater, just to see if I'm missing anything (homeschooler's "gap-itis"!). Invariably, I am appalled at the dark, bleak and/or snide books they include. For example, can you IMAGINE putting Sylvia Plath's "The Bell Jar" on a teen reading list????? I've seen it there, and others that are even more disturbing. We all internalize what we read, but teens (I prefer to use the expression Adults In Training...) especially connect with their books and are so impressionable, not to mention prone to huge emotional ups and downs. Between raised suicide rates, and teen pregnancies, my gosh, WHAT is in their mind with pushing bleak, depressing books or books full of sexual innuendo? It absolutely floors me.
This is not to say that my dc are such saints, in reading or in behavior, far from it. But I sure as heck want them to read as much as possible that which is good and beautiful and true. I want them to shout "MON JOIE!" as they ride into the battle of life, not "Oh s--t" You know? Grrrrrrrrrrrrr 
Kelly, hyperventilated in FL
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abcmommy
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Kelly wrote:
True, Gwen, the pre-1960/65 thing won't weed out everything objectionable...So, no, 1960 isn't a foolproof date! However, it IS helpful when you are first wading your way thru mountains of books for your kids and learning to screen for appropriateness. After a while, you get pretty good at ferreting out the offensive books. My kids are always shocked how I can pull out a seemingly unoffensive book and find totally objectionable passages within about two minutes. Sigh. Unfortunately, practice makes, well, better, anyway!
Kelly in FL |
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I am new but want to offer my 2 cents, with a caveat that I am more permissive and liberal in much of what I allow than many others.
While much of my own favorite children's lit was written pre 1960, going by dates alone is SUCH an imperfect and dangerously narrow habit to get into. I love a lot of older series books for girls and boys- All of a Kind Family, the Shoes Series incl. Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfield, and Five Little Peppers and all of Alcott. But I think, at least with American authors, you run the risk of anti catholic sentiment as often pre 1960 as you might today! Watch for caricatures of irish immigrants and italian immigrants. My Dad has told me about the election of JFK and how concerned people were about voting a Catholic into office. Anti catholic sentiment was very common even 30 yrs ago.
Also,I would point out that the racism found in many old british colonial era works (How the Leopard Got His Spots, for example, and Little Black Sambo)is very difficult to edit when reading aloud bc it is intrinsically part of the story. Popular American fiction and non fiction is also rife with portrayals of black mammy caricatures (Bobbsey twins, my beloved B is for Betsey series, even, early editions of both Tom Swift and Hardy boys contain stereotypically racist caricatures.)
I also hesitate to cast aside entirely all works that may contain small objectionable paragraphs. We did read Tom Swift to our boys and we did read Betsy (and discussed both issues as they arose.)
But carte blanche with a library card is more my style than heavy handed censorship, for now. Irreverance in LS is not surprising to me, I suppose, bc it is an irreverent series. Unpleasant too.
I think its literary value is nil and cant stand the contrived vocab insertions. Frankly if you (as an author)can't use a word well enough that a child can understand from the context what it means, IMO, perhaps you had better choose a penny word instead. LS is weird and not on my short list for my kids, that is for sure.
As for the last bit in the post I quoted: I dont want to find myself in a position where I am picking apart seemingly good books in search of offensive material. I want to make sure what my kids read is largely good and rich, but I want them to enjoy finding and selecting books too. So while I might steer them or select books to have at home (and certainly as a HSer I will make sure I give them a rich curriculum of wonderful lit) I do want them to feel free to read 99% of what one might find in a children's dept of a public library.
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4Real Forums : Living Literature
Topic: Choosing appropriate literature
