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My husband and I are working on our Christmas gifts to our kids' schools. My son is in 6th grade and goes to a private Christian school. I'm growing the opinion that they need to raise tuition rates just so they can get the academic materials they need. But failing that, we'd like to give them some books for the kids to read for their book reports. I'm looking for a list of books appropriate to a Christian school and this age level.
Off the top of my head, I came up with:
Wrinkle in Time Many Waters Where the Red Fern Grows The Little Prince Anne of Green Gables
Other suggestions?
I'd also like suggestions on games the kids can play when it's raining out. Right now, they have Life and Scrabble. The games can't take more than 35minutes to play and should allow at least two players. I'm thinking Battleship, Chinese Checkers, Boggle, Uno, Phase 10, Cadoo, Fluxx, and Jenga, but would love more suggestions. The games should be inexpensive.
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The Hobbit The Chronicles of Prydain James and the Giant Peach Charlie and the Chocolate Factory/Great Glass Elevator The Chronicles of Narnia (perhaps a little younger target, but should still be enjoyable) Abridged versions of 20,000 Leagues under the Sea or Moby Dick
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Bridge to Terebithia King of the Wind (seriously, every library should have some good horse book) The Giver The Red Pony The Witches The Rats of Nimnh
Those are what I read in 5th and 6th grade, all but King of the Wind with my class, that one was with 8 other girls for a group project.
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I forget at what ages it's directed, but The Ear, The Eye, and The Arm remains one of my favourite grade school books.
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I solidly second Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising.
Also, depending on how advanced they are, The Lord of The Rings. (Hey, I was reading it when I was that old.) I'd probably add in Mary Stewart's Arthurian books.
Oh, and Terry Brook's Magic Kingdom series.
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Terry Brooks's Magic Kingdom gets somewhat sexual, if I recall correctly. And it's not particularly good fantasy, either.
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Steinbeck wrote his version of King Arthur's tales for his elementary school boys. It's provocative read, Steinbeck lays out in the introduction that he thinks that kids should be exposed to stories of flawed heroes with real motivations. It's clearly written.
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The Tripods Trilogy by John Christopher-but some might say no to this one because there are some sexist elements.
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If it's remotely contraversial, they won't be able to take it. Otherwise I'd have Harry Potter on the list.
Keep 'em coming. I'd like a nice long list to work from. Our budget is pretty decent, since we're pouring our real Christmas money efforts into something that will actually help people instead of just buying stuff for each other.
Thanks all for your help...I knew I could count on Hatrack for this.
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I think I should have said "debatable sexist elements." Basically, the main characters are boys (right about the age you are looking for) and the girl is a stereotypical storybook girl-helpless to overcome her fate.
I read them as an assignment in 6th grade and the class was hooked.
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Anything by Gordon Korman. I remember loving his books.
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Boon
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Books I loved when I was about that age...and I think most of them are Newberry books. (and I still re-read a lot of them, especially now that the kids can appreciate them too)
The Yearling Because of Winn-Dixie One-Eyed Cat Singularity Sounder Dear Mr. Henshaw From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler Strawberry Girl Shiloh Island of the Blue Dolphins Roller Skates Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
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The House of Dies Drear The Girl with the Silver Eyes The Gate in the Door Little Women Eight Cousins Alice in Wonderland
And of course, Harry Potter. I like a lot of the books suggested (although some of them are decidedly below my interest/reading level when I was that age, I know that that's what other kids were reading.)
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What on earth is the value of a book that isn't remotely controversial? And how do you get more controversial than, oh, say THE BIBLE? But generally considered to be non-controversial books, I can do that.
The View From Saturday by E. L. Konigsburg
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry (yes yes it's about the Holocaust, but it's got lots of good Christian values; it's a Christian girl helping out a Jewish family, after all)
Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George (we need some books for the girls who are presumably in his class, and boys tend to like survival stories anyway. And this one has wolves!)
The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Spear (not about a real witch . . . good teaching material)
Trivia: what do all of these titles have in common? All Newberry winners!
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I love Number the Stars. Also The Upstairs Room. The Devil's Arithmetic is really great, too, but probably a little older than most 5th or 6th graders can handle-- just because it's inside a camp and so graphic in some of the descriptions.
Jacob Have I Loved is great, too, but I don't know if it's in line with the school's values, since it talks about vague sexual feelings (not explicitly or anything) and mentions delivering babies (again, not explicitly.) The Borning Room is also on my list of books that I'd recommend to kids this age, but not necessarily give to a Christian school if I didn't want trouble from some parents, as is Wise Child. Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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Yeah, but they talked about it in class and such, some more sensitive kids might not be able to handle reading it alone. I know I had trouble with it at that age.
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The "Little Britches" books by Ralph Moody Little Britches Man of the Family The Home Ranch Mary Emma and Company The Fileds of Home
I'm not sure if they are for 5th/6th or possibly a little younger, but they are great books, funny and wholesome and I rarely see them recommended anywhere.
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And there's a book coming out in 2006 called Julia's Kitchen Julia's Kitchen. The author is my little sister, and it won the Sydney Taylor Manuscript Award before being picked up by a publisher.
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(That was my least favorite of the three, which is why I left it off, but tastes do vary. Was Gaudior the name? Can't recall offhand, and I don't actually own any of the three books. I always liked Proginoskes, and Charles Wallace's exposition on the farandolae and the mitochondria. Plus there's that whole "It was a dark and stormy night" thing going on.)
Posts: 6213 | Registered: May 2001
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My least favorite was Many Waters, but I included it because of its exploration into Biblical history. I thought the kids might like it. I've got a copy buried somewhere but haven't read it in years. I love L'Engle's YA books. I could probably include Heinlein's juveniles on the list too, come to think of it. Christian liked Farmer in the Sky.
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"Skellig" by David Almond. All the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. I read Farmer in the Sky in year 7 and really enjoyed it. Not sure I would have done if I'd been younger though.
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Freshmen at my high school read watership down, so it could be a bit much, but my mom and I read it together in 3rd grade and I barely found it too much.
Val, my sixth grade teacher read us the Tripod trilogy, and I wouldn't think sexist, just I wasn't that interested, but I'm still not a huge science fiction fan.
Number the Stars is good, so really are most Lowis Lowry books.
Gary Paulsen has good stuff for that age, Hatchett (yuck), Wintersong (yay), Harris and Me (yay).
Anything by Elizabeth Enright might appeal to girls, at least it did to me, her protagonists are female usually, and they're set in a great time.
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I didn't like the Tripod trilogy. My fifth-grade teacher read it to us and I was very disturbed by it. I had nightmares and hated it. I also had big problems reading Hatchet the same year. At one point I literally ran out of the class and threw up while we were reading that.
A Swiftly Tilting Planet is my favorite of the series, too. But I like the idea of having the whole set, it's nice to have context. I've only as an adult discovered most of L'Engle's other books, the local libraries didn't have much when I was growing up, and I really enjoyed the adventures of Poly O'Keefe, Vicki, and all the others.
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Yeah, Many Waters isn't really connected to the other books, I still consider it a trilogy and that kind of a "spin off" or sequel to the trilogy. Then she has a few stand-alone books and two different series that interconnect with each other and the "Time Trilogy" or whatever they call it, mostly by common characters.
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As far as games go what about chess, checkers, mancala, connect four, backgammon? They are good strategic "thinking" games.
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When I read it as a kid, it was a trilogy. Many Waters didn't come out until I was an adult. I read it for the first time five or so years ago when I was going through a L'Engle YA reading glut, ordering some of the books I'd not read as a kid. Fortunately most of them were still in print.
Is Rascal for this age group? I remember reading it, but can't remember how old I was at the time.
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Oh, yes. Ellen Raskin was my favorite author. The Westing Game and The Tattoed Potato and Other Clues were the best. I kept waiting and waiting for her next book. Finally looked her up when I discovered the internet and she had died back in 1984.
I still need to buy The Tattoed Potato. It's so out of print, it is expensive even on ebay usually.
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Oh! One more, that will appeal to boys at least as much as girls (it was a favorite of both my husband's and mine) is I Want to Go Home!Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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Many Waters has some major sexuality goin on in it, as I recall . . . might want to reread that before handing it to a Christian school.
Staying Fat for Sarah Burns is a good book, but it's written in the 2nd person, oooh. What about The Hobbit? It's definitely easy enough for 6th grade level.
Jeniwren - if your son is a reader, it might be worth it to read through some fiction books that do deal with hard issues and give him some to read that deal with stuff in a way you like. I know I picked up some strange notions (which sorted themselves out by freshman or sophomore year of high school). Like Judy Blume's Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. She got her period and had to get some kind of sanitary belt thing . . . so I was convinced that was what happened when you got your period. Yep. That particular issue wouldn't effect a boy, but I'm sure other stuff would.
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Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry HolesPosts: 106 | Registered: Aug 2005
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quote:She got her period and had to get some kind of sanitary belt thing . . . so I was convinced that was what happened when you got your period. Yep.
*giggles* My friend had that same issue with that book! I had to explain to her that that was a LONG time ago. (I had older sisters.)
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Little House on the Prairie series (I see the boxed collections showing up in good shape at the local used store every so often)
How about some of the Nancy Drew or Hardy Boy series?
How about some of the digest versions of familiar classics, such as Oliver Twist, Treasure Island or some of the Sherlock Holmes stories?
Stories from the animal's POV seem to be popular in Nathan's 5th grade class -
And what about some of the big picture books/encyclopedia/table top books . . . kids (and adults) love pouring over the pictures and reading the blurbs . . .
Older kids seem to still like games of this sort, and this sort - which encourage fine motor skills, concentration, teamwork, and concept development in engineering/architecture. On the other hand, it's also fun to build it up and crash it down, again. *grin*
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It might seem a little bit hokey but when I taught sixth grade, the kids loved those How to Draw books (there are books for many different types of animals, cars, trucks, airplanes, cartoons...) Many kids had a great time drawing their indoor recesses away and now my own kids really enjoy them.
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Thanks Shan! And thank you very much sweetbaboo...I hadn't thought about How to Draw books, but that's a great idea!
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I second the How to Draw books - my daughter, who is in 7th grade now, still loves them. Even my younger daughter can produce good pictures with those books, they're really quite good.
Anything I can think of has already been named.
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Oh yeah! I have a couple of those "How to Draw" and "How to Paint" books from when I was that age - they were very much fun! One of the funnest was the Mickey Mouse/Disney drawing book. *happy memory*
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The how to draw dolphins, sharks and whales is a big hit here at our house.
I find that in general terms, little girls are fascinated with and love dolphins while boys prefer sharks. (speaking very generally here) So it's a good one as it will appeal to different students.
I think there is a How to Draw Horses as well, I really need to get that one for Emily.
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Jeniwren- When I was in late elementary school I went through a bunch of books on the Russian pogroms that were really good. Would those be appropriate? I can hunt up the titles if they would.
Also, "Snow Treasure" is one of the best books I've read for that age group. Nothing controversial about it and amazingly well written.
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Wow, I'm sorry. It was one of my favorites.
