# Recommend me some children's classics for summer out loud reading. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 20, 2006, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-childrens-classics-for-summer-out-loud-reading/353528 "2006-04-20T21:20:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-childrens-classics-for-summer-out-loud-reading/353528/61 "2006-04-24T16:15:28Z")
[QUOTE=bookbabe] Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren. I really wanted to go and live with Pippi Longstocking after reading this book when I was a kid. [/QUOTE] Seconded, certainly for Shirley’s age group. Anything by Astrid Lindgren is very good, and she has books for different age-groups. There’s a good reason she was _the_ writer of Europe’s children’s books for decades. ---
**Author:** ![Beadalin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Beadalin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beadalin)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-childrens-classics-for-summer-out-loud-reading/353528/62 "2006-04-24T17:05:58Z")
> [@](#): > > Though its one of my favorite books, All Creatures Great & Small is perhaps slightly too old (lots of medical stuff, dying animals, boozing it up with Tristan at the pub, hapless courtship of Helen, etc.) plus it is soooo long. It would take you all summer. You’re right, I’d forgotten about some of the more adult themes in there. It was one that my mom read aloud to me and my siblings, and we LOVED it, but now I don’t know how old we were at the time. We eventually read all four. Though each book is long, each chapter can act independently as a short story, so it does break down into manageable chunks. In the US, the books used to be packaged as: 1. **All Creatures Great and Small** 2. **All Things Bright and Beautiful** 3. **All Things Wise and Wonderful** 4. **The Lord God Made Them All** ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-childrens-classics-for-summer-out-loud-reading/353528/63 "2006-04-24T18:08:51Z")
OOOOOOOhhhh, my Amazon Wish List is growing bigger, yet again! Presently, we are reading: [Time Cat](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140378278/sr=8-1/qid=1145902041/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-1117235-3514254?%5Fencoding=UTF8) which I have never heard of by Lloyd Alexander and found at Borders by chance. We are really enjoying it. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-childrens-classics-for-summer-out-loud-reading/353528/64 "2006-04-24T21:51:05Z")
[QUOTE=PoorYorick] I don’t know if this is in the age range you’re looking for, but I remember in the fifth grade, our teacher read us [The Yearling](http://www.glencoe.com/sec/literature/litlibrary/yearling.html) by Marjorie Rawlings as a “rainy day” book (that is, when rain kept us from going out for recess). I remember not just me, but the rest of the class too, looking forward to rainy days that year for that very reason. Not many books can keep a class of fifth graders spellbound. [/QUOTE] We used to look forward to our teacher reading the latest chapter of this book where the kid’s little brother eats his pet turtle…which book was that? I was a good girl and didn’t spoil the surprise even though I knew what was coming up! And another vote for **The Phantom Tollbooth** …it’s so wonderful! I read my favorite part\* aloud to a group of friends as adults, as we were going to sleep after Halloween festivities. \*when Milo conducts the sunrise. I see words and numbers and sometimes music as colors so it made a lot of sense! The first shot of lemon yellow sun as the piccolo plays… ---
**Author:** ![Godfrey\_Daniels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Godfrey\_Daniels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Godfrey_Daniels)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-childrens-classics-for-summer-out-loud-reading/353528/65 "2006-04-24T23:32:47Z")
The Adventures of Mabel by Harry Thurston Peck. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-childrens-classics-for-summer-out-loud-reading/353528/66 "2006-04-24T23:53:29Z")
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson set the gold standard for pirates stories in 1863 and it’s still going strong. You can’t go wrong with Treasure Island. J.M. Barrie’s novellization of Peter Pan is also a good book to read to kids. Keep in mind that both books have some violence in them. Pan was far more violent than I expected. Marc ---
**Author:** ![manx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/65b543/32.png) [@manx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manx)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2006, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-childrens-classics-for-summer-out-loud-reading/353528/67 "2006-04-25T05:36:06Z")
[QUOTE=gigi] We used to look forward to our teacher reading the latest chapter of this book where the kid’s little brother eats his pet turtle…which book was that? [/QUOTE] It sounds like one of the Fudge books by Judy Bloom. I never liked those books much - as the oldest in my family it all seemed too familiar - the youngest gets away with everything, the oldest gets the blame. (I haven’t reread them since I was a kid, so this may not be accurate) ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2006, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-childrens-classics-for-summer-out-loud-reading/353528/68 "2006-04-25T12:22:43Z")
[QUOTE=gigi] We used to look forward to our teacher reading the latest chapter of this book where the kid’s little brother eats his pet turtle…which book was that? [/QUOTE] Tales of a Fourth-Grade Nothing. ---
**Author:** ![Silence\_of\_the\_clams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Silence\_of\_the\_clams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silence_of_the_clams)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2006, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-childrens-classics-for-summer-out-loud-reading/353528/69 "2006-04-25T15:41:16Z")
If your kids are into the more adventurous stories, I also would recomend the stories from Astrid Lindgren, especially Ronja the robbers daughter, and The brothers Lionheart. Also mentioned are Jules Verne, my favourites from childhood being 20 000 leagues under water, and Around the world in 80 days. Marvelous stories! Another book that I happily remember from childhood is Call of the wild by Jack London. I must also recomend two books because of the really good illustrations in them, one is The muddleheaded wombat by Ruth Park, and the other is The magic pudding by Norman Lindsay. I must say I envy your kids since you mentioned you are reading the books to them. Is it possible to join, I can bring my own pillow to sit on? ---
**Author:** ![Sleel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@Sleel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleel)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-childrens-classics-for-summer-out-loud-reading/353528/70 "2006-04-26T01:53:24Z")
The Earthsea books by Ursula Le Guin almost seem written to be read aloud. I love the original three books and plug them at every opportunity. ---
**Author:** ![Kiminy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Kiminy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiminy)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-childrens-classics-for-summer-out-loud-reading/353528/71 "2006-04-26T02:53:37Z")
[QUOTE=kaylasdad99] And, so as not to make a hijack out of this, I’d also like to suggest _The Adventures of Tom Sawyer._ [/QUOTE] Not to continue the hijack or anything, but… I decided to read _The Adventures of Tom Sawyer_ to my son (now 11yo) a couple of years ago, over the summer. While I am perfectly aware that it _is_ a classic, and that it was written for an era long, long ago, I’m not sure it’s really appropriate for a child that age in the 21st century. Much of the vocabulary is so outdated that I had to interpret a lot of the text for him, and there are so many outdated concepts in the book that I’m not sure he understood many of the major plot themes. Anne McCaffrey has a great series of Pern books that are good adventures, and that aren’t necessarily above a 6yo’s comprehension level, even if they are meant to be adult books. The _Dragonriders of Pern_ Trilogy (_Dragonquest_, _Dragonflight_, and _The White Dragon_) are fun to read. (More books have been added to the series since then, but they get more complicated from a scientific point of view, and aren’t as much “fun.” ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-childrens-classics-for-summer-out-loud-reading/353528/72 "2006-04-26T08:05:03Z")
I can’t believe nobody has recommended \*Johnny Tremain \* by Esther Forbes. (Note: US children especially.) I second _Where the Red Fern Grows_. Certain books should be read by the children themselves, like any Beverly Cleary book (Ramona, Henry Huggins, _The Mouse and the Motorcycle_, _Dear Mr. Henshaw_) or _How to Eat Fried Worms_, but many books, like The Boxcar Children series, _Charlotte’s Web_, _The Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler_, _The Cricket in Times Square_, and many others are fine when read out loud. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-childrens-classics-for-summer-out-loud-reading/353528/73 "2006-04-26T12:13:28Z")
[QUOTE=Kiminy] I decided to read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer to my son (now 11yo) a couple of years ago, over the summer. While I am perfectly aware that it _is_ a classic, and that it was written for an era long, long ago, I’m not sure it’s really appropriate for a child that age in the 21st century. Much of the vocabulary is so outdated that I had to interpret a lot of the text for him, and there are so many outdated concepts in the book that I’m not sure he understood many of the major plot themes. [/QUOTE] What concepts are those? I remember reading and liking _Tom Sawyer_ when I was a kid, though, granted, that was last century. There’s a lot of great stuff in there. Come on—being lost in a cave with a cute girl while there’s a murderer lurking about? Camping out on an island with other boys, then coming back and crashing your own funeral? What’s not to love? (Then I tried the sequel, _Huckleberry Finn_, and that _was_ way too much for me at that age!) [QUOTE=garygnu] I can’t believe nobody has recommended \*Johnny Tremain \* by Esther Forbes. (Note: US children especially.) [/QUOTE] [QUOTE=The Simpsons] Marge: Bart, I’d like you to read this copy of “Johnny Tremain.” It’s a book I read as a girl. Bart: A book!? Pfffft. Marge: I think you might like this. It’s about a boy who goes to war. His hand is deformed in an accident. Bart: Deformed? Why didn’t you say so! They should call this book “Johnny Deformed”! [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-childrens-classics-for-summer-out-loud-reading/353528/74 "2006-04-26T13:49:43Z")
_A Secret Garden_ is a goodie. _The Little Princess_, more for your daughter, but it’s a nice tale anyway. There was one book that I loved as a kid, but that I can’t now remember the name of - it involved our protagonist, who wakes up one night and hears the grandfather clock strike 13 (13?!). He (or she, I forget) goes downstairs to a magical world and good adventures. He’s afraid that it’ll never happen again, but lo and behold, it does, some time later. And more adventures. Since it’s got just enough of a magical element, I loved it. Had a red spine. Can’t for the life of me remember the name, but perhaps someone else will. And Prydain’s awesome. ---
**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-childrens-classics-for-summer-out-loud-reading/353528/75 "2006-04-26T14:00:08Z")
[QUOTE=Snickers] There was one book that I loved as a kid, but that I can’t now remember the name of - it involved our protagonist, who wakes up one night and hears the grandfather clock strike 13 (13?!). He (or she, I forget) goes downstairs to a magical world and good adventures. He’s afraid that it’ll never happen again, but lo and behold, it does, some time later. And more adventures. Since it’s got just enough of a magical element, I loved it. Had a red spine. Can’t for the life of me remember the name, but perhaps someone else will. [/QUOTE] It could be [Tom’s Midnight Garden](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0064404455/104-9551633-6675901?v=glance&n=283155) , tho’ I don’t remember Peter and Hattie. But the title seemed instantly “right,” if you know what I mean. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-childrens-classics-for-summer-out-loud-reading/353528/76 "2006-04-26T14:08:36Z")
I am at the library right now and going to look for these books. I love this place. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-childrens-classics-for-summer-out-loud-reading/353528/77 "2006-04-26T14:09:56Z")
[QUOTE=Snickers] It could be [Tom’s Midnight Garden](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0064404455/104-9551633-6675901?v=glance&n=283155) , tho’ I don’t remember Peter and Hattie. But the title seemed instantly “right,” if you know what I mean. [/QUOTE] I’m glad you remembered it, I was trying to figure it out with no luck. Sounds good! ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-childrens-classics-for-summer-out-loud-reading/353528/78 "2006-04-26T15:30:43Z")
[QUOTE=Shirley Ujest] I am at the library right now and going to look for these books. I love this place. [/QUOTE] What, the library, or the SDMB? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Lissla\_Lissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-childrens-classics-for-summer-out-loud-reading/353528/79 "2006-04-26T18:23:37Z")
> [@](#): > > [QUOTE=Doctor Who] > > I’ll also throw in Watership Down. For a six-year-old? What kind of evil sadist are you? Seriously, Watership Down is one of my all-tie favorite books, but many animals are killed over the course of the book, often in fairly gruesome fashions. There’s a death cult in the book There are prophetic nightmares of genocide in the book. You do NOT want to read this book to a six-year-old; I’d hesitate before giving it to a nine-year-old to read. [/QUOTE] I tried to read _Watership Down_ aloud to my husband a few years ago. I recommend against it. There are thousands of pages of description and the writing isn’t paced for reading out loud. It’s also dark and quite scary. Has anyone recommended _The Dark Is Rising_ yet? _Sarah, Plain and Tall_ _The Search for Delicious_- Natalie Babbit _Warrior Scarlet_- Rosemary Sutcliff (maybe in a year or two, rather than right now) ---
**Author:** ![ninevah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/46a35a/32.png) [@ninevah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ninevah)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-childrens-classics-for-summer-out-loud-reading/353528/80 "2006-04-26T23:40:01Z")
Ok, I’m late to the party but I’ll throw in some Australian-flavoured suggestions: (these are all classics) Snugglepot & Cuddlepie by May Gibbs The Magic Pudding by Norman Lindsay the Blinky Bill stories by Dorothy Wall And some contempory Aussie suggestions: anything by [Paul Jennings](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Jennings_%28Australian_author%29) For older readers, try books by [John Marsden](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Marsden_%28writer%29) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-childrens-classics-for-summer-out-loud-reading/353528.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-childrens-classics-for-summer-out-loud-reading/353528.md?page=5)