Posted on 07/05/2009 5:12:41 AM PDT by reaganaut1
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A mountain of research points to a central lesson: Pry your kids away from the keyboard and the television this summer, and get them reading. Let me help by offering my list of the Best Children’s Books — Ever!
So here they are, in ascending order of difficulty, and I can vouch that these are also great to read aloud.
1. “Charlotte’s Web.” The story of the spider who saves her friend, the pig, is the kindest representation of an arthropod in literary history.
2. The Hardy Boys series. Yes, I hear the snickers. But I devoured them myself and have known so many kids for whom these were the books that got them excited about reading. The first in the series is weak, but “House on the Cliff” is a good opener. [...]
3. “Wind in the Willows.” [...]
4. The Freddy the Pig series. Published between 1927 and 1958, these 26 books are funny, beautifully written gems. [...]
5. The Alex Rider series. These are modern British spy thrillers [...]
6. The Harry Potter series. [...]
7. “Gentle Ben.” [...]
8. “Anne of Green Gables.” At a time when young ladies were supposed to be demure and decorative, Anne emerged to become one of the strongest and most memorable girls in literature.
9. “The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be.” [...]
10. “Little Lord Fauntleroy.” [...]
11. “On to Oregon.” [...]
12. “The Prince and the Pauper.” [...]
13. “Lad, a Dog” [...]
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Nothing from the NY Times thats for sure
My daughters love the “Little House on the Prairie” series.
For Catholic familes, the Windeatt saints series from TAN (tanbooks.com) is good reading.
Treasure Island........I was a pirate (and a damn good pirate, I might add) for months after reading this.
AAARRRRRRGH..........
For girls: The Little House series of books.
Boys and girls: The Wizard of Oz series of books. ( My kids loved them.)
I would add the Nancy Drew series - very much like the Hardy Boys, but more for girls. I read and enjoyed both as a child, and my grandchildren like both. The youngest, a girl, loves Nancy Drew - and has several computer games related to her.
My son’s favorite book when he was a pre-teen was Where the Red Fern Grows. He must have read it a half dozen times, and I can still remember hearing him sniffing and trying to hide his tears when he’d read through the parts where the dogs die.
As an early teen he liked King Solomon’s Mine...and read it quite often.
As to the list, Grahame’s writings (Wind in the Willows) are fun to listen to but difficult to read, you have to come up for air every once in awhile, LOL. The man doesn’t write in sentences, he writes in paragraphs.
Nancy Drew series. Especially the audio books. They’re read by Laura Linny who I believe is a big liberal, but a good reader for those books.
Animal Farm
1984
Brave New World
On the Beach
Starship Troopers
I Robot
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
I also loved Trixie Belden - it was a small series compared to Nancy Drew, but I bet I read each of them about 5 times. Don’t even know if they still publish it.
Hands down, bar none, have your male children read the Chip Hilton series by Clair Bee. Unfortunately, it is not written for girls, as few female characters appear.
The combination of academic and athletic accomplishment, combined with life lessons, sportsmanship, strong friendships and moral clarity make this the perfect series for teaching boys how to become men.
“Thidwick, The Kind Hearted Moose” by Dr Seuss.
I read those, too. I also read Cherry Ames, Tom Swift, Tom Quest, and Beverly Gray. (I still read a lot of books.)
Richard Haliburton’s Book of Marvels I and II
The Flamingo Feather by Kirk Monroe
Wow..... are you ever well read!
I also devoured the Weekly Reader books that came out in the '50s and 60's. They were all high quality fun. I wonder if they still publish books like that now?
I'm sure not having a television in my "formative years" was a big plus in instilling a love of reading.
The Call of the Wild and anything else by Jack London.
I can’t believe it.....left off my two very best favorites.....
Paddle to the Sea and A Tree in the Trail both by Holling C Holling
Paddle to the Sea is an American Classic and excellent tale
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