OK, so I’ve been wanting to read to DangerGirl, age 3.5, about King Arthur and Robin Hood, but I can’t seem to find any good books for her. I want one with fairly simple story lines and nice illustrations, that won’t be too gory or too far over her head. Nothing I’ve found so far is right–but then I don’t always have access to the variety and quality I used to. So I need Doper recommendations of good titles for reading aloud to short people.
To give you an idea of where she’s at, we’ve enjoyed Pippi Longstocking, Elmer and the Dragon, and Lois Lowry’s Sam books lately, as well as piles of fairy and folk tales. She’s currently very interested in being a knight and a princess (I may have to show her pictures of Eowyn ) and runs around the house with a golden necklace and a little wooden sword fighting bad guys, which involves waving the sword and saying ‘swop, swop.’ Because she’s swopping them, you see.
My mom and grandma both read to me until I got to school and I have vivid memories of hearing Robin Hood, Swiss Family Robinson and Black Beauty when I was under six.
The version of Robin Hood we have is full of “Forsooth’s” and “Quoths”. I learned that vocabulary as naturally as I picked up the rest of the language. She won’t realize she’s learning “big” words unless someone points it out.
I think kids understand a lot more of the ideas in a story than we realize, too. I understood as a preschooler that it was wrong to mistreat a horse, thanks to Black Beauty. I think the basics of Robin Hood, fairness and standing for the right and good, will be within her grasp.
There are children’s versions out there. If you want to go “cute” , find one of the books that accompany the Disney animated version. It used animals as the characters.
When I was a tyke, I loved Howard Pyle’s King Arthur and Robin Hood. I didn’t understand it all, but I loved the flow of the language and the lovely illustrations. They pushed my vocabulary.
No, I want the real stories, not Disney. My rule, for as long as I can keep it up, is that she doesn’t get to see the Disney version until the real version is well implanted. She has yet to see a Disney movie besides Toy Story. Movies, and the picture books derived therefrom, are inferior to the books.
I just want something that’s not too complex, so’s I don’t have to explain every other word, or edit out too much wanton gore. With halfway decent pictures.
Robert D. San Souci wrote Young Merlin, with very good illustrations by Daniel Horne.
Likewise, Barbara Cohen and illustrator David Ray came up with a beautiful Robin Hood.
These books are picture books, but with a fair amount of words, and they tell of the beginnings of our two heroes. The Merlin one is a bit more advanced than the Robin Hood book. I think they are a good way for a 3 year old to start out before heading into Pyle territory.
Caprese, thanks for the suggestions. I’ll get those from Interlibrary Loan.
Bosda, I maybe should have said that I am in fact a librarian. I have looked in my library. The problem is that the local library is (as fond of it as I am) pretty pathetic and has been assiduously neglected for 20+ years now. The book budget is provided by the Friends, who have a used-book sale every week. No music or movies except what gets donated. And so on. So what I’m hoping for is titles that other Dopers have loved, that I can ask for through ILL or buy online–since the bookstores here are none too wonderful either.
I love Howard Pyle, as well as Roger Lancelyn Green and Andrew Lang, and I own them all. But they are too far over DangerGirl’s head for her to enjoy them right now. I’ll probably read them to her when she’s closer to 5. For now, I need more picture-booky titles with simpler language.
And DangerGirl does know a bit about modern superheroes, too. She likes SpiderMan and the PowerPuff Girls–not that she’s ever seen them on TV, mind you.
I’d like to second Howard Pyle, for both King Arthur and Robin Hood. (Great illustrations, too.) Please, for the sake of your child, avoid Disney versions.
Make up the stories!!!
You know enough about Arthur and Robin Hood already…tell some really spooky stories which they’ve never heard before, and which you’ll never quite remember again…you’ll leave them in the knowledge that they know about the “real” King Arthur, not what some book said
“I want one with fairly simple story lines and nice illustrations, that won’t be too gory or too far over her head.”
Mmmm, I think King Arthur is right out then. Take sex, gore, and religion out of the Arthur legend and you have nothing left but “guy pulls sword out of stone, becomes king, the end.”
As a little kid I always preferred “fake” fairy tales (i.e. books specifically written for little kids but with a fairy tale setting) to “real” fairy tales (e.g. unexpurgated Brothers Grimm.) The real stories always felt like they were written in some archaic, arcane code that was beyond me … which of course they were.
With the audio I recommended, the violence is down played and character is brought out more.
I would like to take this opportunity to recommend a non-fic book that I just found at the library that I read to my 4 and nearly 6 year old: American Girl Library: True Stories. Girls Inspiring stories of courage and heart Stories of girls who have been through a tornado, flood or what it was like to spend a day in a wheelchair, or a girl who started collecting returnables to raise money for charities. or a therapy dog story. Or, my favorite, the stories of one girl who was choking on a jaw breaker and her thoughts, and the other story of her friend who remaind calm and did the Heimlich on her.
Very inspiring. My kids actually paid attention to every story.
) and runs around the house with a golden necklace and a little wooden sword fighting bad guys, which involves waving the sword and saying ‘swop, swop.’ Because she’s swopping them, you see.