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Hand That Rocks the Cradle: 400 Classic Books for Children
By Nathaniel Bluedorn
I have summarized the plot for each book. Reading levels help many parents. My mother didn't stick to these reading levels; I'll forgive you if you ignore them.
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Reading Lists
Page 1
Dateline: 12/29/97
By Ann Zeise
There are so many books available for
children, how do you choose the ones that are best for your child?
Please, if you find books you want to buy for your child or yourself
while browsing these links, do purchase the book by using the
Amazon.com search engine to the right. This is the best way to
thank me for providing this site for you. I receive a small percentage
of your purchase price, and it helps pay my expenses for maintaining
this site.
Do you know which genre your child prefers?
Scott, our son, is very much into science fiction, so I've been searching with him to find some
of the great books and short stories in that area, from Jules
Verne to Anne
McCaffrey . Your child probably prefers
something quite different than mine: historical
novels and biographies, westerns, literature
that's been made into movies, books
that tell about other cultures and other
ways of living. What your child prefers
this month will undoubtedly change next month. You almost can't
stop your children from devouring books once they are given the
freedom to read widely.
When you first "de-school" from
public schooling, it is important to
tell your child she may read as much as she likes about almost
any topic she may choose. She'll stop reading "trashy"
novels once she discovers the truer emotions in good literature.
Do allow him an occasional "escapist" novel. Think
of your child like yourself: sometimes you just need some light
reading, but you return to good books. I'm not saying that you
should ever purchase any book that does not fit your value system,
but at the same time, do not be afraid to let your child explore
new ideas.
Government
schooled children are lucky to have
the time to read one book a month, and then grudgingly have to
write a book report on it. Your child, on the other hand, will
be devouring so many books that you'll have a hard time tracking
them for his portfolio: Three or four a week is fairly typical for
older homeschoolers, more for children still in picture books.
Rather than having them write "reports," establish
a family habit of giving each other book reviews at dinner. See
who can intrigue another into reading a favorite book. Teens
aren't too old to be read to in the late evening hours. Besides,
some great books are just meant to be shared.
I do look for book reviews and other
reading lists, just to give our son ideas of books to look for.
Some resources for reviews are:
I have a list of excellent children's
literature links from non-commercial sources on my "Books, Bountiful Books"
page. Some lists have search
engines, handy for looking by age and
interests. On this page I've included some commercial links.
I have no business interest in these companies, but have liked
surfing through their reading lists. I hope you will, too.
Once you've looked at so many of these
lists, you'll come to the conclusion that there is no one set
of books ideal for any one "grade" level. So how do
you know what your child should read? A variety of "style
types" is important rather than exact book titles. Most
educational requirements I've seen state something like: "The
student should be able to read and understand a wide variety
of literature, including classic and modern novels, short stories,
biographies, non-fiction, plays, poetry, etc."
Do not be overly concerned if your
child chooses books that seem "too
easy." New homeschoolers need some time to read the great
literature written for younger children. Conversely, don't be
concerned if your child seems to be selecting books that have
a vocabulary that would make a graduate student faint. My daughter,
a horse nut from day one, as a third grader, read everything
she could get her hands on about horses, including vet manuals!
Then the next week she'd be back to "normal," enthralled
in some horse novel written about two grade levels below. If
you don't tell them a book is "too hard" or "too
easy," they'll never know.
Classic literature is online for downloading. These, too, are
on the Books, Bountiful Books page. Once the "book"
is on your computer, your child can have fun formatting and illustrating
the stories. Do compare the effort and cost of printer paper
and toner to just buying the paperback version. For studying
Shakespeare, it may be easier for a child to understand
if one of his plays is downloaded and formatted in fairly large
type and given a half page for illustrations, questions and notes.
There's nothing to inspire reading like
visiting a quaint bookstore in some town other than your own,
or on the other side of a big city. I came across a site that
lists, but doesn't usually link, bookstores all over the world:
Evelyn
C. Leeper's Bookstore Lists. This page lists stores in the
USA and Canada, and another page lists stores in other countries
of the world. Danny Yee tracks bookstores
in Australia and New Zealand.
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Explore Reading with Amazon.com
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