Fiction at Almost Eight

Two's reading ability has taken off like a jet plane (he'd like that analogy, I think). He has to read for 20 minutes every night as homework, and he's taking part in the Name that Book competition at school. The pre-test was today to see who makes the team: he's read 30 books for it, so I'm really hoping his hard work will be rewarded and he will make it. We'll find out soon.
Some of what he's enjoying:

Secret Agent Jack Stalwart: Book 1: The Escape of the Deadly Dinosaur: USA. The first in the series. He's getting a few more for Christmas. Shhh.

The Spiderwick Chronicles. He read the first three and then got a little tired. He'll pick the last two up eventually: he really likes the series as a whole. It's a flash-back for me, since these were some of One's favorite books in 2nd grade.

Judy Moody Predicts the Future, by Megan McDonald. This was one of the Name that Book reads, and he loved it.

The War with Grandpa, by Robert Kimmel Smith. Two sided with Grandpa in the war.

Some of the Secrets of Droon books. These looked a little freaky to me, but he didn't have any nightmares, and if Two is scared it comes out in nightmares, so I guess we're okay.

Mortimer and the Powerful Sword, by Kevin Kurtz. Lots of adventure and lots of laughing.

The Adventures of Sir Lancelot the Great. Two enjoyed this one so much, he's getting The Adventures of Sir Givret the Short for Christmas. Shhh, again.

The second Alvin Ho, which like the first was a hit.

Three of the Flat Stanley books. Quick easy reads.

Fantastic Mr. Fox. A favorite since we read it to him several years ago, he likes it even more since the excellent movie adaptation came out.

For read-alouds, we've done everything magical:

The Story of the Treasure Seekers, The Story of the Amulet, and The Phoenix and the Carpet, all by Edith Nesbit. I think the last is my favorite, but I don't know if Two could pick one.

Edgar Eager's Half Magic, and Magic by the Lake. We're actually not quite through the latter, and we plan on reading the other five books he wrote as well.

I'm so proud of the work he's put into Name that Book so far; he loves the picture books that have been assigned just as much as the chapter books. Proving once again that you shouldn't put your child's picture books away until they're covered with dust. Sometimes there's nothing like curling up with a brightly colored old favorite, even if you suspect you might be a little too old for it. Really, you never are.

History and other Non-Fiction: the Ten-Turning-Eleven Edition

One is still up to his old tricks of devouring history books every night before he falls asleep; as has been his thing for years, we know he's fallen asleep when he lets the book fall out of his hands and bang on the floor over our heads every night. Since June he's read a lot of history, and branched out into some other non-fiction as well. Here's the big list:

Four books from the Essential Histories collection: The Spanish Civil War, The Zulu War 1879, The Indian Mutiny 1857-58 and The Boer War 1899-1902. Most of the books in this series have been hits. A few of them are too detailed on tactics and troop movements to interest him, but mostly he loves the chance to dig into different historical events in a little more detail.

The Mexican Revolution: the last of the four-book series, The Story of Mexico. This has been one of One's favorite history series. They are well-written and move along quickly. And he just plain likes Mexican history - just like both his parents.

The Spanish American War, by Georgene Poulakidas.

Battle in the Arctic Sea: a Sterling biography, which is a series that we've come to love. We've pretty much run out of them, though, which is why the Essential Histories collection is even more of a find. One other Sterling read in the last six months was Albert Einstein: The Miracle Mind.

The Tuskegee Airmen, by Phillip Brooks.

Going Solo, by Roald Dahl. The 2nd non-fiction work of Dahl's that One has read. He loved it as much as Boy.

I Remember Korea, by Linda Granfield. One loved the voice in this book, as the author used a tactic similar to Stephen Ambrose's of using different voices to tell the story.

We Shall Overcome, on the Civil Rights movement.

Another Sterling book, Martin Luther King, Jr., A Dream of Hope.

Revolution is not a Dinner Party, by Ying Chang Compestine. A fantastic look at China at the end of Mao's rule; One was both disgusted and enthralled.

The Wall, Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain, by Peter Sis. Another "I love this, I hate this" kind of book. In other words: he loved reading it and looking at the powerful drawings, and he hated communism even more when he was finished.

Marooned: The Strange but True Adventures of Alexander Selkirk, the Real Robinson Crusoe, by Robert Kraske. This was a fascinating look at the man whose life inspired Daniel Dafoe's novel.

Jack London: A Biography. London might be one of One's favorite people after reading this. How can a boy not like an adventurer and a writer in one?

It's Elementary! How Chemistry Rocks our World, by Robert Winston.

Mystery of the Periodic Table. Another favorite. Both boys love chemistry - and to talk about chemisty - prompting Husband to comment recently "I'm glad I paid attention in high school chemistry; otherwise you two would be driving me crazy."

The Illumined Heart: Capture the Vibrant Faith of the Ancient Christians, by Frederica Mathewes-Green. I've read this at least five times; I told One to keep reading it and someday he'd get everything out of it. Compact and full of goodness.

And circling back around from modern to ancient history (thank you, Susan Wise Bauer):

Archimedes and the Door of Science, Herodotus and the Road to History, and Galen and the Doorway to Medicine. All three are from the Living History Library, and were all well-received.
Heroes and Gods and Monsters of Greek Myths. He eats this stuff up, as you can imagine.

Peril and Peace: Chronicles of the Ancient Church. One is in the middle of this one now, and has more to say about the Arian heresy than any decent 10 year old should.

I hoping this won't be the last year he can do his history reading at bedtime. He really enjoys it, but middle school homework may take its place, unfortunately. I guess we'll just not worry about that right now, though, and let him continue to enjoy all the books he wants to.

History and Science at Ten

One has continued to read history - and even some math and science books - at bedtime. So far since his birthday he's consumed:

Science and Math:

Five of the Simon Basher series: Physics, Biology, the Periodic Table, Astronomy, and Rocks and Minerals. This is a great series; even Two likes to browse through them and read bits as he goes along.

Kingfisher's Genes and DNA

Stars and Planets, by James Muirden

Why Pi? by Johnny Ball

History:

Three books on the Ireland in the 'teens and 1920's: Easter Rising 1916: Birth of the Irish Republic, The Irish Civil War, 1922-23, and The Anglo-Irish War: The Troubles of 1913-1922. This is a new series for us: they are all military history books, from the Romans to the modern era. One has loved every one he's read, and has asked that one of his focuses next year - when we return to ancient history - be military history. The series is full of books on Greek, Roman, and other ancient battles and wars: he's very excited to sort through the titles and pick out a good selection for himself.

A number of Sterling books, which we always love: General George Patton: Old Blood & Guts, Invasion: The Story of D-Day, The Sinking of the Bismark: The Deadly Hunt, Pearl Harbor Attack, The Great Escape: Tunnel to Freedom, Thomas Edison: The Man Who Lit Up the World, and Marie Curie: Mother of Modern Physics.

Gandhi: The Young Protester Who Founded a Nation, by Philip Wilkinson

Children of the Dust Bowl:The True Story of the School at Weedpatch Camp by Jerry Stanley

Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun, by Rhoda Blumberg

The Usborne World War I History pictured above

Winston Churchill: Soldier and Politician, by Tristan Boyer Binns

A Young Person's History of Israel by David Bamberger

Orthodox Christians in America, by John Erickson

Keeper of the Light: Saint Macrina the Elder, Grandmother of Saints, by Bev Cook

The Road from Home, by David Kherdian - a history of the Armenian genocide at the hands of the Turks.

The Great Depression, by Elaine Landau

The Arab Revolt 1916-18: Lawrence sets Arabia ablaze, by David Murphy - from the military history series I mentioned above. He's in the middle of The Boer War 1899-1902 volume right now - one of those events that sort of slipped my mind when I was choosing books earlier in the year. Sorry, Boers.

As I said, he continues to love history more than any other subject. We've followed a four-year path set down by The Well-Trained Mind, and this year has been focused mostly on the Victorians through the modern era. Next year we'll go back in time and start again with the ancient world; this time around he'll have a lot more say in the books I select. We're hopeful he'll be able to continue this cycle around two more times, and that by high school he'll be reading mostly primary (albeit translated) sources. Fortunately, he is as excited by that plan as I am. With his brother - well, we'll see if the same method works quite as well. But for One, History is as essential as oxygen.

Seven is Magic

That was the title of my 2nd grade math book, and it comes to mind a lot when I think of Two. His reading skills have grown so much in the past few months, and he is finding more enjoyment in reading on his own and aloud to me as the weeks pass. Some examples of how he's grown:

He used to read Magic Treehouse books to me aloud; now he reads them alone in bed and narrates them back to me the next day.

He has dived into The Boxcar Children series with enthusiasm; he has read the first four to me and we started on number five last night. Other read-alouds on deck are Alvin Ho: Allergic to Girls, School, and Other Scary Things by Lenore Look and How to Save Your Tail by Mary Hanson.

Together we've read:

Tales of Greek Heroes, by Roger Lancelyn Green

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, by Roald Dahl

The Bears' Famous Invasion of Sicily, by Dino Buzzati, and

Alice and Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass

Right now we're in the middle of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz; I've never read it, and I'm enjoying the differences from the film quite a bit.

I love watching him discover the magic of reading! It's so pleasant to snuggle down with him in the big bed at night and read and read and read. I close my eyes as he reads to me - it's my relaxation version of a glass of wine each night. His high, sweet voice speaks the words so clearly, and I fall more in love with my magic little seven year old with every chapter. Could there be anything better?

What to Read When You're Almost Ten: The History Edition

One’s History reading hasn’t kept pace with his fiction reading, but what can? Here is a list of what has occupied him this summer and fall:

Victorian England: Cultures from the Past – well-organized, sez One.

American West: the Struggle for the Plains 1840-1895 – also well put-together.

Two Sterling biographies: Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. We love this series, written by a host of authors and featuring so many great figures from American history. More titles keep appearing, which makes me more than happy.

Immigrant Kids

A re-read of Danger in the Desert – a huge favorite. One did his explorers' project this fall at school on Roy Chapman Andrews, who he refers to in conversation as “Roy”. They're friends.

Russia: Revolution and Counter-Revolution: he’s in the middle of this now, drowning in Russian names as he falls asleep. Maybe some of it is sinking in, maybe not.

And two dislikes:

Adventures in the West – each story was more boring than the last.

The Oregon Trail, by Francis Parkman – just too thick and One too young, or at least that’s what I’m telling myself for now. I really don’t want to try it myself and find out otherwise.

On deck:

The Spanish American War by Georgene Poulakidas.

The Mexican Revolution – the last of a four-book series on the history of Mexico, starting with Cortes. One rates these books as some of his favorite history books of all time.

Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun

The Road from Home, about the Armenian genocide at the hands of the Turks.

Two more Sterling biographies: Marie Curie and Thomas Edison

Carry a Big Stick and Then Darkness Fled. We’re trying a new series of biographies, the Leaders in Action series; the former is on Teddy Roosevelt and the latter on Booker T. Washington.

Pasteur’s Fight against Microbes

The Usborne Introduction to the First World War – a good general overview. We always like Usborne history and science books, although the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia is even better.

Dead Reckoning: Great Adventure Writing from the Golden Age of Exploration, 1800-1900 – he started this once and put it down. It might be too thick for him right now, not in terms of ounces but in the weigh (and dullness) of the subject matter. We'll see.

Lost City of the Incas – this is Hiram Bingham’s book about finding Machu Picchu. It’s a “try” for One – he wants to read about Bingham desperately, being an admirer of all things daring and heroic – but we’re not sure how dense the book will be. Another thing to try and see about.

When he's through with all of these, I have three groups of books waiting for him in my Wish List: one on the Thirties, one on World War II, and one on the post-war modern era. He'll be well into fifth grade when he finishes them all, but then we can go back to the beginning and start over - just like the book says!

What to Read When You’re Almost Ten: The Fiction Edition

One has been reading like a madman this year, as usual. At close to ten he shows no signs of throwing books out the window in exchange for a gaming system – which is wonderful, since we’ll buy him any number of books but no gaming system, not. ever. He still reads history at bedtime each night, but he is much more devoted to all kinds of fiction. A list from this summer until now:

Linnets and Valerians by Elizabeth Goudge. Magic + orphaned kids = a great adventure.

Captains Courageous – not the first Kipling he’s read but by far the favorite.

My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George

The Swallows and Amazons series by Arthur Ransome – One has read four of these, has the middle four waiting from his Christmas stash, and after that will have four to go. He absolutely loves them, and I am so grateful to Melissa Wiley for the recommendation.

The first three books in the Hornblower series. These are also well-loved, and he’ll eventually get around to finishing the series, I’m sure.

Across Five Aprils, read while he was reading history books on the Civil War.

Journey to the Center of the Earth – his hands-down favorite Jules Verne.

Around the World in Eighty Days – the second-favorite Verne.

Oliver Twist – unfortunately an abridged version (grr) but One liked it anyway. I have a thing against abridged version – a very Charlotte Mason-ish thing. I don’t see the point to just the story; you need the language as well to get the most out of a classic book. If you can’t read it unabridged, put it down and wait a year or two. As usual, my two cents on almost everything are available to you, here, for free.

Little Britches: Father and I were Ranchers. This is first in a series by Ralph Moody. Loosely autobiographical, they are about Moody’s childhood on a ranch in Colorado. There are seven books left in the series, which I’m sure One will devour at some point.

Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. Tom wins over Huck, which Husband tells me is quite unusual.

On deck for the book-eater:

Kim

The Saturdays, by Elizabeth Enright. Three more where this came from if it's a hit.

Goodbye Mr. Chips

A Swiftly Tilting Planet

The Hardy Boys, numbers 15 to 21. A Christmas present from Two.

The Switherby Pilgrims: A Tale of the Australian Bush

All Quiet on the Western Front (a read-aloud with his dad)

The Wheel on the School

And most unusual: a dislike category:

The Great Brain. One wanted to know who would put up with this mendacious, nasty kid for more than five minutes without socking him one. I have to agree.

The themes for One that ring most true: (A) adventure, (B) bravery, (C) children fallen on hard times who show (B) and have (A) as a consequence, and (D) watching kids grow up, however painful it may be.

I'll have a history post for One tomorrow. Don't worry: it's not half as long.

Reading in First Grade

Two, who is speeding towards 7 (gasp!) has really improved his reading skills since he started first grade, contributing to my thought that he learned absolutely nothing last year in Kindergarten. He reads out loud with me every night; not only does he have a big reading vocabulary, he is great at sounding out unfamiliar words as well. His favorite read-to-me books right now are the Magic Tree House series, of course. When he can speed through these a little faster, he has the first Boxcar Children book to start on.

For read-alouds, this summer we read The Wonderful O, The Wind on the Moon, and The House of Arden. All three were very well-loved, although I have a particular fondness for Arden (I would read Edith Nesbit's vintage shopping lists, I think). This fall we have gone through Mary Poppins and The Wanderings of Odysseus by Rosemary Sutcliff, and are now part of the way though the latest Hiccup Horrendous book, A Hero's Guide to Deadly Dragons. He and his brother absolutely love Mary Poppins, and sneer at the musical version as the worst book-to-screen adaptation ever. Two is not the history animal that One is, but he loved Odysseus, as well as anything to do with Greek gods and their adventures (like this). On deck for reading aloud we have Black Ships before Troy (the companion to Odysseus), The Railway Children, and both Alice stories. He loves magic and fantasy, so the Alice book should be a huge hit.

Speaking of reading first graders, my niece – just 7 this fall – is an excellent reader, so we have sent her the first three Betsy-Tacy books for Christmas, as well as All of a Kind Family. One was at this reading level at her age, but Two is not there yet. I was so glad when her mom asked us for books for her for Christmas! Choosing books for girls is a treat I’m not accustomed to, but enjoy very much when I get the chance.

One has been eating books like chocolate this fall; I’ll post an update on his literary exploits soon.

Book List

The Houston Museum of Natural Science, one of the greatest museums for kids on Earth, is writing up great booklists for kids on a variety of subjects. They add a new topic every month, and divide things up into age groups. This month the subject is the Middle East; here are just a few of the dozens of excellent books on the list:

Keating, Susan. Saudi Arabia. Mason Crest, 2003.
Khan, Rukhsana. Muslim Child. Albert Whitman, 2002.
Kummer, Patricia. Jordan. Children’s Press, 2006.
Kummer, Patricia. Syria. Children’s Press, 2005.
Laird, Elizabeth. A Fistful of Pearls and Other Tales from Iraq. Frances Lincoln, 2008.
Losleben, Elizabeth. The Bedouin of the Middle East. Lerner, 2002.
Matthews, Mary. Magid Fasts for Ramadan. Clarion, 2000.
McCoy, Lisa. Qatar. Mason Crest, 2002.
McDaniel, Jan. Lebanon. Mason Crest, 2003.
Metha-Jones, Shilpa. Life in Ancient Mesopotamia. Crabtree, 2004.
Minnis, Ivan. The Arab-Israeli Conflict. Raintree, 2003.
Mobin-Uddin, Asma. My Name is Bilal. Boyds Mill, 2005.
Monroe, James. Djibouti. Mason Crest, 2002.

Check it out and enjoy.

Rating Books by Age

There is a movement in the UK to "band" children's books by age: 7+, 9+ and so on. A website has been established by authors, librarians, teachers and parents in opposition to this trend.

Our local Barnes and Noble organizes the children's section by age, as most bookstores do. Amazon allows you to search by age as well. This seems to be much the same thing, although I agree with the opponents to banding on the idea that having a big "7+" sticker on the front of a book deters older children who may still enjoy the story, far more than how a bookstore shelves its books.

Honestly I don't think parents need this kind of additional information to help their kids choose books. Sure, it would be easy to say "okay honey, you go buy anything you want as long as it's banded under 10+", but that's just lazy parenting. I've never bought a book (or a toy or a movie) for my boys asked for without examining it first, and I've never needed a big age sticker on the front of a book to be able to tell if it was appropriate or not. If I'm on the fence and we're in the store, I make a promise to come back and get the book or buy it online after I go home and do additional research - I've never had a freak-out over that, although I have compromised - on a wet, rainy Saturday, perhaps - and agreed to buy another Hardy Boys now, and research the new book later on.

Age banding isn't the way to go because it could discourage children from reading "young" books. More importantly it doesn't work because it substitutes another person's judgment for that of a parent. Discouraging parents to do their homework and pay attention to what their children are interested in is an unhealthy recipe indeed.

Reading While Rome Burns

If you're wondering what to read to your children as financial markets collapse, Slate has a list.

Frankly, the Ramona books scared me half to death as a little girl. I guess I noticed that while Ramona's parents were fighting, they were also reassuring their nervous offspring that they wouldn't divorce. My parents did the fighting part, but never got around to the latter. I think I was sensing the handwriting on the wall, since they did eventually split when I was 14.

Unlike Ramona, the Little House on the Prairie series never inspired fear; playing Mary, Laura and Carrie was a favorite game of my 2 cousins and I when we were small. Even One enjoyed Farmer Boy, which is set about an hour from where I grew up. One was overwhelmed by the endless lists of delicious food consumed by the characters--a fairly typical reaction for a 6 year old boy, I think.

I have a few additions to the list. Definitely some of the Edith Nesbit stories qualify: for example, in The Railway Children, the father finds himself in jail and mom and the kids pack off to the country to live by a railway station. Much the same can be said for the characters in The Treasure Seekers and Five Children and It (at least to some extent). Finally, the first of the Edward Eager books, Half Magic, also features children in straitened circumstances--their widowed mother works while they spend the summer in magical adventures.

I think what succeeds best in this strange "category" of fiction are the stories that take children out of their everyday circumstances, rather than those that leave children to dwell on them. The Ramona stories are largely about not having enough money; the other stories celebrate people without material wealth who discover themselves wealthy in other, more important ways.

One's Bookshelf

One and I finished Johnny Tremain last night. A big accomplishment for both of us: we didn't cry at the end. We read The Wind in the Willows over the summer (a summer book if there ever was one) and are now starting Swiss Family Robinson.

On his own this summer One read The Narnia Chronicles, The Hobbit (3 times), The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, How to Speak Dragonese (by Cressida Cowell), Marcus and Junia (by Michael Giesler) and several Hardy Boys. He is in the middle of The Trumpeter of Krakow right now; only he knows what comes next.

He's still an absolute sponge for books. Thank God.

I Like Green Eggs and Ham, Sam I Am

In an earlier post I discussed what I think is the unfortunate trend of books that cater to boys by basing themselves on potty humor. I still don't like them; I squash enough potty jokes each day to start sending the opposite message to the boys by giving them "parent-approved" reading material full of superheroes in underpants.

Nevertheless, when Kevin Bolger commented that I needed to stop picking on his book, Sir Fartsalot Hunts the Booger, I did as he suggested and read the except on his website. And I like the book. It's well-written. It's silly. It's funny. It's good.

So now what I don't understand is: why the farts? why the boogers? Why pander to children at all? One has laughed himself sick through several Roald Dahl books; last time I checked none of them had the word "poop" in the title. He loves Clarissa Claridge's Hiccup books, and the potty humor in them is also close to non-existent. Yes, kids (especially boys) love bathroom humor. And men in the 18 to 25 year old demographic love full frontal nudity in movies. But you don't have to resort to potty humor (or a potty title) to write a funny book, any more than you need full frontal nudity to make a sexy movie. So don't. And I think you'll find more people will read your book, not fewer. I suspect so anyway.

Bad Books Make for Poor Readers

Although I'm usually the one hawking the idea that young boys need to read more, this article in today's WSJ disturbs me. Why? Because I don't think you should sacrifice quality material in order to get boys to read: I don't believe you have to. If the choice is between my 8 year old reading Sir Fartsalot Hunts the Booger and not reading recreationally at all, I think I'd go for the latter. At least I'd have the chance later on to introduce something good and fun, rather than have my son get addicted to the literary equivalent of daytime television.

Think of it this way: do you remember when you were starting to feed your baby solid food? Everyone warned you: veggies before fruit, right? And maybe you compromised and did the orange veggies before the green ones, but it made sense. You got him to like foods that taste good and that he needed to eat before you gave him the sweet treats. You didn't say - oh, I want my baby to like solid food, so I'm going to start with the yummiest, sweetest foods I can find, just to make sure he likes eating. No, not when you knew he was also going to have to go through life eating broccoli, you didn't.

The same thing should be true with books. It's not just about getting you child to like to read. It's about teaching him to recognize and value well-written, interesting books. That's a much harder job, but it's a more rewarding one in the end.

Amazing Children's Books

The New York Review has a set of children's books - appropriately named The New York Review Children's Collection - that is a collection of classic children's books from long ago.

Authors include:

James Thurber
The d'Aulaires
John Masefield, Poet Laureate of England
Munro Leaf
Edith Nesbit
Eilis Dillon
Eric Linklater
Philip Pullman

These are children's books; not scary stories that happen to contain children and keep the average 10 year old up half the night for weeks with nightmares. Read aloud and enjoy.