Alicia’s recommendations
Boy do I have suggestions! Did I mention that my BA is in Literature? also, I do have 6 children….
This is not in any particular order. I have read every book I list, some of them several times.
I own or have owned just about all of them.
Also, if you can find a list, just about anything published in the 50s and 60s by the Weekly Reader Book Club. Try yard sales.
My grandmother, a first grade teacher, subscribed me for years.
I am thinking about books that have good values, are readable, and might
help these children to expand their horizons a bit – fantasy is actually
quite helpful with troubled kids. Some of these may need to be read to the
children. Enjoy! alicia
I recommend the young adult novels by Madeline L’Engle (except for House
Like a Lotus – it is a good read but might be problematic for abused
children – read it first.It does have some sexual material that could be
troubling.)
here is a page with some info on her books
http://users.aol.com/lengleweb/lnovels.html
the ones I think would be good for this age group are
A Wrinkle in Time
A Wind in the Door
Many Waters
A Swiftly Tilting Planet
The Twenty-Four Days Before Christmas
A Full House: An Austin Family Christmas
Meet the Austins
The Anti-Muffins
The Moon by Night
The Arm of the Starfish
The Young Unicorns
A Ring of Endless Light
Troubling a Star
Dragons in the Waters
An Acceptable Time
And Both Were Young
Camilla Dickenson
Not all of these are in print, alas.
I also recommend the books by George Mac Donald, especially
“The Princess
and the Goblin” if you can find it. Also the sequels.
Narnia!!!!!
Any books by Edith Nesbit (The Phoenix and the Carpet, The Railway Children, The Enchanted Castle, The Book of Beasts,
The Magic CIty, Five Children and It)
Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis
A wonderful little book I had as a child is “David and the Phoenix” by
Edward Ormondroyd, if you can find it!
The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet by Eleanor Cameron (and her
other Mushroom Planet stories)
Time Cat by Lloyd Alexander (I liked it better than the Prydain series, and
it is easier reading)
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg
(and her other books, too)
Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh
Do they have the Anne of Green Gables set? Those are also very readable and
have good values.
Charles Dickens? Oliver Twist is short and abused kids really relate!
Louisa May Alcott? (Eight Cousins is not as well known as Little Women but
is actually more readable for today’s audience – and Jack and Jill which is
about a girl who was severely injured in a sled accident and has to face the
prospect that she may never walk again).
Rudyard Kipling – Kim (another story of an orphaned child who does well in
an unusual fashion), The Jungle Book (the real one, not that Disney
aberration!)
The Andrew Lang Fairy stories (blue, yellow, etc)
Mark Twain? The Prince and the Pauper, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s
court
How about Sherlock Holmes stories?
Any of the Oz books by Baum
Jules Verne?
The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy
Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving
How about The Hobbit?
Life and Adventures of Calamity Jane by Martha Cannary Burk
Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett (and several of her other books)
Half-Magic and the other books by Edward Eager (about a 4th grade reading
level)
Sid Fleischman’s books (The Whipping Boy, By The Great Horn Spoon – I read my copy of this until it broke, my kids also enjoyed his books)
Caddie Woodlawn
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster