BOOK REVIEW reviewing children's classics from an EL point of view

[Mandabplus3]

Oh I am loving this! Thank you SOOOO much for pitching in with reviews. They are helping me immensely! I have twice reviewed my children's reading order thanks to the reviews!
Wolfwind I climbed into the rafters to eat sausages as a child and I got a "lickin" for it too!  I also used to through my broccoli up into the open rafters hoping it wouldn't come down so I didn't have to eat it! 

[Mandabplus3]

The Railway Children
I confess I read this without my children    I thought I was reading the same book as my daughter only to finish it and discover she was reading the Box Car Children! 
Anyway I loved it. It's a great story. It is full of the highest standard of morals. Much higher than any of us hold today. It's a story of some children who's wealthy lifestyle is lost when dad is sent to Jail ( for something he didn't do) they move to the country to live the simple life and the children fall in love with the railway and all it entails. Put it top on your list if you have a boy who loves trains. The children are adventurous,  they live the life we wish our kids could have if it was safe. Sigh. They make lots of adult friends, do a few rescues, show lots of bravery, and there is a happy ending.
There is a very very small amount of religion and one page of conversation that was racist enough to make me uncomfortable. Reading aloud it would be easy to edit and a child reading probably wouldn't take much of it in anyway in the context of the story.
Recommended for ages 3 to 11. Maximum benefit age 6-9. This age group will love it.
Off to read the boxcar book now! 

[Mandabplus3]

The Box Car Children
Oh gosh I need to review more often, I have forgotten quite a bit of this and had to skim it to get the plot back in my head. 
Anyway it is a firm favourite in this house. My daughter and I were actually racing to read it to the end, having some problems because it was only loaded on ONE iPad! ( yes I am a good sharer honest )
It is a collection of books we have, and I recently found out that there are more in the series. This is the book to turn to when you have a voracious reader who has just discovered books come in a series.
Minimum age 4 maximum at least 35 a younger child could read it with no objectionable content but would miss much of the point by not understanding the boundaries these kids stretch. As a read aloud it would be delightful to a 4-10 audience.
Content- There are some native human bones found and some very mild Christianity. Good moral values are reinforced throughout he story. It will promote creative play of a camping style. The writing is high quality but easy enough for beginning novel readers to tackle, with some help from parents in explaining some word meanings or accession all comprehension checkups.
We give this one a 5/5. Kids will learn enough to make it worth their time and will love the adventure. We will be getting more of the series.

[Mandabplus3]

THE LITTLE PRINCESS by Francis Hodgson Burnett
We listened to this one on audio and I swear to you all, twice we were late because none of us would get out of the car until the chapter ended! They even asked if we could go for a drive just to hear the end of the story!  I think the copy I have may be abridged but I honestly can't tell its done so well. The language is rich, beautiful and so accessible to children  it will reflect in your kids speech quite quickly. This one is great for vocabulary development and as such I suggest it be a read aloud. Any child particularly girls from age 3 up will enjoy this but this would be an absolute treat for a 5 or 6 year old girls birthday gift!
The main character is a precocious reader, who is clearly gifted, self studies and knows more about world history than I do! She is born into money, descends into poverty and I am not telling you the ending her character is impeccable, she self questions her beliefs, actions, attitudes and that of others. She has an imagination that we all dream of our children developing and it infects all those around her. It is based maybe 100 years ago ( its hard for me to tell exactly) with good historical ideas and ways of life. The version I have has no racism which is why I think it may be abridged...the book leaves room for racism in terms of black and white and levels of society are definitely present. It's presented harmlessly and the plot of the story is wound heavily around the luck and fortune of different families and their place in society. A gentle introduction to fairness.
To be perfectly honest this book reads like it was written for our EL children!    think Matilda and you get close to the central character.
My 7 year old is going to read it to me for our bed time reading now as she liked it so much.
 I can't recommend this one highly enough.
Although it is definitely more suited to girls, my son was also requesting it and he is only 5. He asked many questions of the vocabulary as the story went along (much to the annoyance of the girls  ) so you will probably need a pause button at times.

[Mandabplus3]

The Secret Garden
It took my kids a while to get hooked on this story. The beginning is a bit slow ( and dark) and most of the interesting part of the plot is in the second half of the book. The book is worth persisting with though. The kids gave it a 4/5 but I would give it a 5/5 just for the beautiful descriptive language ( which is kind of the point of reading the classics anyway!)
It contains death, disease, mourning, some mild Christianity, a snippet at others cultures religious beliefs and at one point my kids were aghast that a little girl could be forgotten about and left all alone.
The language is wonderful, advanced and descriptive beyond even most children's classics.
We learnt about birds, what a Moore is, ways of life, plants, habitats....it would make a good home school book for a unit study!
Age- I will go a little older on this one 7 to maybe 16. Although I enjoyed it also. ( I never read it as a child) a younger child of 4/5 will enjoy it but there are others to read first so hold off or re read it again later for the deeper levels in the plot. As a group read 4-14 would be enthralled, with a small amount of discussion after each chapter.
It is wonderful in audio format too!

[Wolfwind]

THE WIZARD OF OZ by L Frank Baum

We read this aloud as a family and loved it.  Minimum age 2 or 3, max none.  It's a fun, classic story about the victory of good over evil and the potential in each person.  There is some death; Dorothy kills two wicked witches by accident (landing a house on one and throwing water at the other when the witch takes her shoe).  There are risky situations, but everyone gets out OK.  The Wizard is a humbug and a fraud; this doesn't bother me, but it might some people.  If you like this, there are sequels, though I've never read them.  The forward to my edition says that it was written to be a non-scary fairy tale, and that's what it was to me.  We really enjoyed it.

[Korrale4kq]

I love the wizard of Oz books and I used to own them all. I  plan to read them all to/with James. But I think that they aren't exactly conservative.... Not sure that is the right word. When I read one of The books I had a hard time processing the fact that unbeknownst, the boy character was really a girl character in disguise. Eventually it did become my favorite Oz book.

[Mandabplus3]

Robinson Crusoe
OK this one is definitely for an older crowd. Minimum age 9. It contains lots of violence, canabalism, is heavy with Christianity, pirates, loss, death...you name it its in there!
The language is advanced. It is considered a primary source ( written by those that actually went through it) and it has some of the most complex sentences we have come across yet.
In saying all that...my 5 year old boy loved it in audio! My 9 year old girl enjoyed the book and fortunately didn't understand all the canabalism parts    my girly girl didn't enjoy it nearly as much. If you have boys who like horrible histories this is a good challenge read for them.
Start with a children's version at age 6-8 and work up to the original at around age 12.
I am surprised my kids kept requesting it, I actually think it would be too much for most kids their age and was surprised they even wanted it at all.
I does contain lots of facts about life in that era and is valuable in a historical and moral way.

[srg]

Thank you Mandabplus3 for the sandman stories. Enjoying them with my 5 year old

[Mandabplus3]

Glad you like them. Try Jolly Robin next. There are 20 or so in the series all about different animals from the point of view of the animal. Great books.

[Mandabplus3]

Mary poppins
I had no idea this was ever a book! Let alone more than one book!
We got an audio from the library and I must say I highly recommend this story. It could be audio or read. The story is SOOOOO much better than the movie. I didn't get from the movie that Mary Poppins is vain and sometimes mean. Many of the best stories are left out. The book is set out as a story per chapter so it would make an excellent nightly read aloud.
It contains themes for ages 3-14 some will go over the younger ones heads but nothing is too violent or questionable for younger listeners.
There is some mention of God, not a lot so don't let that put you off the book.
I am enjoying this as much  as the kids and will get the other books too. 5 stars love it,

[Korrale4kq]

And it is written by an Aussie, a Queenslander to boot!

[srg]

Seeing the Bobbsey twins series being recommended as part of RC reading, brought back memories.
I remember reading most of their adventures ias hard copies from our mobile library van( 'twas the 80's)

[srg]

I enjoyed reading  the bobbsey twins  ages 8-9 thro12 , though can be enjoyed till much later. I just moved on to a different series

[derialc]

Great idea for a thread! My dd is only 1 right now so no classics for us just yet but I can see myself referring back here in the future! I hope this thread continues to grow!

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