What do you think of my Read-Alouds for my six year old?

[mackysmama]

I am making my list of read-alouds for my six year old boy. I am hoping some of you can look through my list and give me your thoughts. My son is very sensitive, but more so to visual images than words. Do you think any of these books should be tabled for a few years? His comprehension is strong so I am more concerned with content than reading level. For example, we have read the first three Harry Potters and he was very frightened of Sirius Black and the warewolf. We won't read the others until he is much older. We tried to read the BFG but the description on the inside pocket was too much for him. He enjoyed Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as well as James and the Giant Peach. He was
sad when Charlotte died but comforted by all of her babies, though he is usually sensitive to the death of animals, especially at the hands of humans. He is currently enjoying the Henry series by Clearly. I hope that gives an idea of what his sensitivity level is. Here's my tentative list:

The Magic Pudding by Lindsay, Norman
Mr. Popper's Penguins by Atwater, Richard and Florence
The Water Horse by King-Smith, Dick
A Bear Called Paddington by Bond, Michael
Mrs. Piggle Wiggle by McDonald, Betty
Little House in the Big Woods by Wilder, Laura Ingalls
Pippi Longstocking by Lindgren, Astrid
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang by Fleming, Ian
The Wizard of Oz by Baum, L. Frank
The Jungle Book
Peter Pan
The Chronicles of Narnia (The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe)
Ramona The Pest (and other Ramona's)
The Wind in the Willows
The Secret Garden
The Cricket in Times Square
James Harriots Treasury for Children
The Littles
The Indian in the Cupboard
Homer Price
The Burgess Bird Book for Children
A Child's Garden of Verses
Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare (Nesbitt)
Tales from Shakespeare (Lamb)
The Reluctant Dragon
The Velveteen Rabit
Fifty Famous Stories Rerold – Baldwin
Harriet the Spy
Matilda
Danny the Champion of the World
Mary Poppins
The Shrinking of Treehorn
Arrabian Nights
Little Pear
Follow My Leader
Understood Betsy
Gooney Bird Green
Red Sails to Capri
The Twenty One Balloons
Sarah, Plain and Tall
The Saturdays
Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi

If you've made it this far, THANK YOU!

[elizawill]

we have read about 1/4 on your list & my dd enjoyed a lot of them. others we've not read yet, or i've not heard of. my dd is 6 too. we also loved "the boxcar children", and i didn't see that on your list.... but it's not scary & was great! hth

[MSings]

This is a great list. I personally have read most but not all of those books. I read about one half of them to to my son at age 6.

Specific concerns I would have are:
Arabian Nights- many of these are advanced folk tales in terms of violence. My ds age 7 loves them but we have worked up to them. I would start with other collections such as the Barefoot Books series. By the time we hit Arabian Nights we had read a lot of world literature and mythology.

Jungle Book-I have read only selected stories to my son. You may want to preview them in terms of natural violence

Lion Witch and the Wardrobe- I had to edit the ending of this because it seemed very cruel to me-I believe it is an allegory for the cruel death of Christ on the cross.

Some of those books have social themes that are more relevant to the older child. You can read them to your 6 year old-they are not frightening- but they deal with topics like social alienation that might have more meaning to him at an older age. A specific example might be Harriet the Spy.

Other series my ds loves are Wizard of Oz and sequels (far less frightening than the movie), Dr Doolittle and sequels, Alice in Wonderland and through the Looking Glass (thought your ds must love nonsense given some of the books on your list).

Have fun with your list!

[shaywyn]

:

[LeftField]

I am going to borrow some of your book ideas!

For your list, don't forget "Paddle to the Sea" by Holling C Holling. My 6 year old (and my husband) LOVED this book. It has gorgeous illustrations to go with the beautiful story it tells. It really captured my son's imagination.

For "A Cricket in Times Square", there are others in that series, but I think the reading level is lower in some of them. But we still enjoyed them as read-alouds.

I have wanted to get "Indian in the Cupboard" on multiple occasions, but I always hesitate due to the stereotyping in the book since it's old (thoughts? anyone?).

I can't remember if it's on your list or not, but someone recommended Enid Blyton (my husband read them as a child), but I really want the British versions so I'm holding out for a bit longer.

This might be too low-brow for you but my kids have loved Judy Blume's Fudge books. And it was a walk down Memory Lane for me. It did teach my 4 year old to say, "Bonjour, Stupid!".

We also loved Beverly Cleary's Henry Huggins books, although we had to do some language editing ("You're just a dumb girl!"). Henry is so sweet otherwise and he was a very popular read for my 6 year.

Edited: We also LOVED "The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark" by Jill Tomlinson. We have the British version so I can't speak for any differences in the American version. But it was so well-written and very sweet. Sorry! I just see that your son has read the Henrys. I missed that the first time around.

My son is also very sensitive, so I appreciate where you're coming from on that. He bawled at the ending of "A Cricket in Times Square" on audio tape, because the good-bye sequence was too sad. I have to skip books that I love because I think they might be too much for him. I'm desperate to read the Chronicles of Narnia to him, but I think that many of them are too much right now. Some are fine, but some are hard to read without the context of the earlier books.

[onlyzombiecat]

I might re-think The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe if your ds is terribly sensitive.

My dd really enjoyed The Mouse And the Motorcycle.

[dharmamama]

Originally Posted by mackysmama

The Water Horse by King-Smith, Dick

My kids, 6 and 5, LOVED this one. Stay away from the movie, though. It COMPLETELY ruins the story.

A Bear Called Paddington by Bond, Michael

I tried to read this one to the kids but the language is very odd and they were not interested at all.

Pippi Longstocking by Lindgren, Astrid

A favorite!

The Jungle Book

My kids love to listen to this on tape, but be prepared for violence and dated language.

Peter Pan

My kids were bored stiff by this. It's really wordy and long-winded and not very exciting.

Ramona The Pest (and other Ramona's

Perennial favorites

The Wind in the Willows
The Secret Garden
The Cricket in Times Square

My kids loved all of these.

The Indian in the Cupboard

This is on Oyate's list of books you shouldn't read to kids due to negative stereotypes about Native Americans.

Homer Price

My kids were bored.

Matilda

You might also want to try George's Marvelous Medicine. The whole family read it together and we were ROTFL.

Understood Betsy

I read this with my oldest when she was 12. I wouldn't do it with a six year old. There is nothing inappropriate in it, I just think it would be over a younger child's head.

Sarah, Plain and Tall

My kids loved this but lost interest in the sequels.

I'd also recommend All-of-a-Kind Family, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, and Stuart Little.

dm

[PumpkinSeeds]

The Reluctant Dragon is sweet both of my boys loved it.

The Velveteen Rabbit audiobook read by Meryl Streep is unbelievably good but very sad even though it has a happy ending.

[mackysmama]

Thank you all so much. This was exactly the kind of feedback I was hoping for; please keep it coming. And I am adding all of the suggestions to our list; keep those coming too!

[MSings]

Re Indian in the Cupboard I read in one source (Read Aloud Handbook-latest edition?) that it was not that objectionable to some Native Americans. The Indian has dignity and is from the Iroquois Nation and is in part historically accurate. Obviously others feel differently. The stereotype Indian-cowboy fighting I found objectionable and I edited it. My son at 7 did not enjoy this book enough to ask for it so I put it away unfinished.

A lot of likes and dislikes will vary from child to child. My son loves Paddington (the Stephen Fry audios are particularly good) and Homer Price but Wind in the Willows does not capture his attention.

Re Enid Blyton She wrote hundreds of books across a wide age range. In the younger ages Wishing Chair and the Faraway Tree Collections are perfect for under 8s- I found them somewhat boring but my son adored them. They are available on Amazon hardcover for under $10.

[LeftField]

Originally Posted by MSings

My son loves Paddington (the Stephen Fry audios are particularly good)

My kids love Paddington too, but their father is British and I wonder if that has anything to do with it. The language isn't that odd to them, just kind of dated.

[zeldamomma]

What a great list!

For the Wizard of Oz, you might want to read the chapter about how the tin man came to be on your own, and perhaps skip it-- it's very dark. Aside from that, we have really enjoyed the series all the Oz books we've read so far.

I'm holding off on the Narnia books-- we tried reading them about a year ago, and my kids were not interested-- I think the story was too complicated, we aren't a political family.

We haven't been reading the Ramonas because there's so much out there that's better. I would probably save those for him to read to himself.

Dr Doolittle is a good read-aloud. It's a lot of fun, and if you're reading it, you can edit the racist parts.

ZM

[Daffodil]

As other people have mentioned, the Chronicles of Narnia and The Jungle Book have quite a bit of violence, and could be too scary for some kids. Same with Peter Pan. But I recently read all the Narnia books to my 5 year old and she loved them, and we're most of the way through Peter Pan, which she is also loving. (And so am I - it's even better than I remembered.) We haven't read all of The Jungle Book yet, but she's liked the stories we have read, and I loved it as a kid.

Another suggestion - the Moomintroll books by Tove Jansson. Comet in Moominland is the first one. DD and I absolutely loved them. There's one scary creature called the Groke, but she isn't all that terrible. (And she's not in the first book.)

[onlyzombiecat]

Originally Posted by LeftField

My kids love Paddington too, but their father is British and I wonder if that has anything to do with it. The language isn't that odd to them, just kind of dated.

My dd liked Paddington and didn't seem phased by the language. We are not British.

[tallanvor]

Instead of Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe, you might try Magicians' Nephew. It's the first book in the series.

These are some my daughter has really enjoyed
A Lion to Guard Us
All-of-a-Kind Family
Robert Fulton: Boy Craftsman (she was a little let down by the ending, though)
Igraine the Brave by Cornelia Funke (Dragon Rider might also be a good one -- been awhile since I've read it and my daughter hasn't yet -- I would avoid Thief Lord for now, though)
Magic Tree House (there is so little to these, but they are a hit in our house with the 7 and 5 yr old)
Mouse and the Motorcycle (this was actually one I just read to my 5 r old and he enjoyed it)
Boxcar Children books
Castle Diary (there are a couple others in the series but we've not read them yet)

[4evermom]

My ds saw Narnia, then we read the Magician's Nephew and the Horse and his Boy (the 1st and 3rd books, the movie being based on the 2nd). They have things I'd be cautious about reading to some kids. My ds is sensitive about some things but not others. Off the top of my head, in the Horse and his Boy, there is mention of slavery, people getting whipped, sword fighting. Ds thought the part where the boy could hear something breathing in the fog was scary. He asks the thing if he was something dead at which point my ds ducked under the covers. It turned out to be Aslan so that was ok. Also there was some mention of there maybe being ghouls at one point (though there weren't but it worried ds).

If you think your ds would be ok with the Little House books, he'd like the Great Brain series by Fitzgerald. It's a bit later in history, when indoor toilets were new, about a clever boy and his schemes. I'm planning on reading them when we are done with Narnia. But I haven't read them in years so there might be some iffy bits, like the Little House books probably have We're going to start Prince Caspian, tonight.

[PumpkinSeeds]

Originally Posted by 4evermom

he'd like the Great Brain series by Fitzgerald.

I absolutely loved this series when I was a kid. I can't wait to read these to my son. (He's in a non-fiction only phase)

[OakdaleMama]

I highly recommend . . .

The Sophie Stories (another by Dick King-Smith. Sophie is determined to be a lady farmer). Scroll down for the list of titles: http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/k/dick-king-smith/

Also Catwings and sequels: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/boo...SID=156569&z=y

We've really loved Ginger Pye and Pinky Pye by Eleanor Estes

Plus the Freddy books by Walter Brooks (about a pig and his farm adventures): http://www.amazon.com/Freddy-Detecti.../dp/0141312343

[MissinNYC]

I think Harriet the Spy is a little old for a 5-6 year old- I think of it as a very middle school experience book- I love the book, but I think you have to be older to get it.

No on Indian in the Cupboard. I wouldn't be comfortable with it.

[MSings]

Re Great Brain Series

I read the Great Brain recently with my 7 year old and found it had a lot of mean spiritedness and child to child cruelty-enough that I edited as I read. I think it would be better for older kids.