"The farmer dude is awesome!" or, "Girls' Commentary on Emma, by Jane Austen"

My daughter had her birthday sleepover last night. We went swimming, out to eat, painted nails and watched a movie. The movie was the main event, anticipated greatly by at least one of us.

Me.

You see, this was the first time I allowed my daughter to experience Jane Austen. I have protected Jane  from the offense of being read by to young-a-girl, of being blown off, misunderstood, or haphazardly compared to any other romantic girl-in-pretty-dress period movie or book that they may have seen or read.  I wanted to make sure that Emelie would be old enough to truly appreciate Jane.

I chose Emma, the 2009 BBC version for the movie selection. Emma is the most comedic of Jane Austen's works, and Emma herself is a very realistic character, with serious flaws, who makes real mistakes. The BBC version of the movie is 4 hours long and stays very true to the novel.

I had a fear that they wouldn't like it. That they'd think it was boring, slow, old-fashioned or too complex. If that had been the case, I'm not sure what I would have done. Go cry in my room. Offer my kids up for adoption... I just don't know. But, I didn't have to find out because they all loved it. (See video at the end of this post) At 11:35, when we were just half way through, they tried to predict the ending, and then insisted that we watch it all the way through, right then, and not wait till morning as was the plan. I obliged and we finally went to bed at 2 AM.

It was worth every minute - listening to them groan at Mr. Elton, feel sorry for poor Harriet, complain about snooty Emma, swoon over Frank Churchill and plead with Mr. Knightley to just "get down on one knee already!"

As Emelie said half way through, "Frank is nice and cute, but he always seems to get Emma into trouble. Then, Mr. Knightley is there to pull her out. I think I like him best." They were won over 100%. Jane Austen has been successfully passed down to another generation just as she has been for these past 200 years!

"(Jane Austen's novels) appear to be compact of abject truth. Their events are excruciatingly unimportant; and yet, with Robinson Crusoe, they will probably outlast all Fielding, Scott, George Elliot, Thackeray, and Dickens. The art is so consummate that the secret is hidden; peer at them as hard as one may; shake them; take them apart; one cannot see how it is done."

Thornton Wilder, 1938

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Great Books for Children

UPDATED 4/27/12

I’ve compiled a list of our favorite children’s books. This list is for a true reader. I have not included any little children's books or beginner reader books. There are just so many fabulous books out there, so I stayed in the land that I know well – Children’s Literature 2nd – 11th  grade (give or take). I haven't had time to organize the books by order of difficulty.

Here are a few tips to help grow fervent readers:

• Make them read books! Turn off the TV. Have a set “reading time” during the day.
• Have them see you read. A lot.
• Talk about books that you love.
• Talk about your memories of books - who gave them to you, the first book you loved, what books your teachers read to you, etc...
• Go to book stores.
• Meet an author.
• Read aloud to your children. Even the older ones.
• Give them books to read of your choosing. For my older children, we take turns. A book that they choose and then a book that I choose. That’s just the way it is, and they know there's no getting around it. But, soon they realize that Mom's books aren't really all that bad! :) And, the books that they choose do have to be approved.
• Make them re-read books a year or two later. It’s amazing how a book a child thinks is unimpressive or boring one year can be a life-changing experience 2 years later.  Don’t feel bad about pulling out old books from the shelf and having them re-read. There’s something very comforting about reading a book that you ‘know’.
• Read children’s literature yourself so that you know what is out there and what will touch their hearts. And, face it, most common adult books are written on a grade school reading level anyway, so you don’t have to feel that your belittling yourself by reading children’s literature!
• Start a book club. I’ve always wanted to do this... over the summer with a few girls and/or boys.
• Don’t be a slave to A/R reading lists. They’re nice motivation. Points and prizes are great. But, if the book selection is poor, as it often is, let it go. Get a good book list and head to the library. I gave myself a lot of freedom when I abandoned the A/R lists.

These lists are divided up into a few categories. Classics, Series, Favorites, Emelie’s Recommendations (6th grader with a 12 + reading level) and Jonathan’s Recommendations (4th grader with a 8th grade reading level). Then, I give you some of my favorite book lists, so you can do even more research if you'd like.

We love all of these books, but have marked a few for you:
*  Great Family Read-Aloud Books
** Lauren’s Favorites

Classics:
Betsy-Tacy Series - Maud Heart Lovelace
Anne of Green Gables Series - L.M. Montgomery
Little Women - Louisa May Alcott
The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
An Old Fashioned Girl - Louisa May Alcott
Pollyanna - Eleanor Hodgman Porter
Heidi* ** - Johanna Spyri
Arabian Nights
The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew* - Margaret Sidney
The Little Princess* ** - Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Jungle Book – Rudyard Kipling
The Space Trilogy - C.S. Lewis

Series:
Anne of Green Gables ** – L.M Montgomery
Little House on the Prairie  **– Laura Ingalls Wilder
Little Women, Jo’s Boys, Little Men ** - Louisa May Alcott
The Borrowers – Mary Norton
Nancy Drew
Hardy Boys
The Chronicles of Narnia – C.S. Lewis
The Lord of the Rings – J.R.R. Tolkien         
All of a Kind Family – Sydney Taylor
The Box Car Children – Gertrude Chandler Warner
Trixie Belden – Jule Campbell
My Side of the Mountain Trilogy -  Jean Craighead George
Tomie De Paola Chapter Book Series.
Little Britches * - Ralph Moody
Wrinkle in Time Series – Madeleine L’Engle

Favorites:
Eight Cousins and it's sequel, Rose in Bloom ** – Lousia May Alcott
All Creatures Great and Small **- James Harriot
The Singing Tree - Kate Seredy
Adam of the Road - Elizabeth Janet Gray
Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain
Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain
The Railway Children – E. Nesbit
Arabian Nights - Anonymous
Homesick ** – Jean Fritz
Where the Red Fern Grows – Wilson Rawls
Cheaper by the Dozen ** – Frank and Ernestine Gilbreth
Con of Misty Mountain – Mary Theresa Waggaman
Heidi * ** - Johanna Spyri
The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew * ** – Margaret Sydney
Turn Homeward, Hannalee – Patricia Beatty
The Westing Game - Ellen Raskin
Thimble Summer -  Elizabeth Enright
Gone Away Lake -  Elizabeth Enright
Sing Down the Moon - Scott O’Dell
Just David ** - Eleanor Porter
The Hobbit – J. R. R. Tolkien
Tomie de Paola Series
Pippi Longstocking – Astrid Lindgren
The Bronze Bow – Elizabeth George Speare
The Corn Grows Ripe – Dorothy Rhoads
The Good Master – Kate Seredy
Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry ** - Mildred Taylor
My Side of the Mountain - Jean Craighead George
Island of the Blue Dolphins **  - Scott O’Dell
The Endless Steppe  - Esther Rudomin Hautzig
Caddie Woodlawn – Carol Ryrie Brink
Sarah Plain and Tall – Patricia MacLachlan
Little House Series * (read aloud, especially Farmer Boy) – Laura Ingalls Wilder
Carry on Mr. Bowditch – Jean Lee Latham
A Lion to Guard Us * - Clyde Robert Bulla
The Courage of Sarah Noble -  Alice Dalgliesh
Sarah Whitcher's Story – Elizabeth Yates
The Borrowers  – Mary Norton
Julie of the Wolves – Jean Craighead George
The Indian in the Cupboard -  Lynne Reid Banks
The Sign of the Beaver ** – Elizabeth George Speare
Johnny Tremain – Esther Forbes
The Cabin Faced West ** - Jean Fritz
Walk the World's Rim – Betty Baker
Shiloh – Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Our Only May Amelia ** - Jennifer Holm
A String in the Harp – Nancy Bond
A Single Shard – Linda Sue Park
The Kitchen Madonna** - Rumer Godden
The Diddakoi (The Gypsy Girl)** - Rumer Godden
An Episode of Sparrows ** Rumer Godden
The Dolls' House - Rumer Godden.
The Winged Watchman * **  Hilda Van Stockum
The Borrowed House ** - Hilda Van Stockum
Little Britches: Father and I Were Ranchers ** * – Ralph Moody
Shadow Spinner (for olders girls) – Susan Fletcher
Island of the Blue Dolphins – Scott O’Dell
The Great Gilly Hopkins – Katherine Patterson
The Good Master – Kate Seredy
Just So Stories * Rudyard Kipling
The Incredible Journey * - Sheila Burnford
The Master Puppeteer ** (A Japanese Robinhood Story) – Katherine Patterson
Little Lord Fauntleroy - Frances Hodgson Burnett
Mrs. Mike** - Nancy and Benedict Freedman
Mama's Bank Account** - Kathryn Forbes

Emelie Recommends (with her own parental notes in parentheses):
From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankwielder -  E. L. Klonigsburg
Indian Captive  (Indians kill her family) – Lois Lowry
A Lion to Guard Us  - Clyde Robert Bulla
Watership Down ** (hard to read and some killing of rabbits)  - Richard Adams
A Single Shard – Linda Sue Park
The Endless Steppe  - Esther Rudomin Hautzig
Kira Kira (sister dies and she was really sweet) – Cynthia Kadohata
Walk Two Moons ** (book is about her mother leaving) – Sharon Creech            
Ruby Holler  - Sharon Creech
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle # (murder mystery) - Avi
Eight Cousins ** – Louisa May Alcott
An Old Fashioned Girl ** – Louisa May Alcott
Secret Garden ** – Frances Hodgson Burnett
Matilda – Roald Dahl
Tale of Despereaux – Kate DiCamillo
Arabian Nights *
Around the World in 80 Days – Jules Verne
Journey to the Center of the Earth – Jules Verne
The Chronicles of Narnia Series – C.S. Lewis
A View From Saturday  - E.L. Klonisburg
Mara, Daughter of the Nile – Eloise J. McGraw
The Golden Goblet– Eloise J. McGraw

(The difficult thing about having advanced readers is finding challenging books that are appropriate for a younger child. That's where the classics will save you. There are so many wonderful, exciting classic stories out there that are on a challenging reading level. They may have been written 100 years ago, but no worries. They'll fall in love with timeless favorites!)

Jonathan Recommends:
The Trumpet of the Swan * - E. B. White
Along Came a Dog – Meindert DeJong
Twenty-One Balloons – William Penne Du Bois
The Borrowers Series *  - Mary Norton
The Phantom Tollbooth – Norton Juster
My Side of the Mountain * - Jean Craighead George
Shadrach – Meindert DeJong
Robinson Crusoe * – Daniel DeFoe
The Castle in the Attic – Elizabeth Winthrop
No Talking – Andrew Clements
White Fang – Jack London
Hardy Boys Series
Castle in the Attic and Battle of the Castle - Elizabeth Winthrop
The Adventures of TinTin
Robin Hood - Roger Lancelyn Green
(He really likes the Puffin Classics Series - has many of the books lined up neatly on his shelf.) 


Other Great Reading Lists, Articles and Links:

• My Pinterest Page on “Books That Formed Me”
• Satori Smiles Children's Literature List
• Great reading lists from KOR Education School:
• Recommended book websites from our school:
• Like Mother, Like Daughter's "What you need to teach a child to read" series of posts are so informative, funny and encouraging. Check it out.
• Another one from Like Mother, Like Daughter
• This list has been recommended numerous times: A Mother's List of Books costs just $7.25
• Ambleside book lists:
• Sonlight Readers (see list on right side of page) :
• Sonlight Read-Alouds (see list on right side of page) (these don't have to be read aloud, just check the reading levels. They have both a read-aloud level and a reading level posted for each book)
• List combines Sonlight and Well-Trained Mind:
• I love The Well-Trained Mind: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/
• Simcha Fisher's Post on 'Good Fiction for Young Adults'

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