Children's Classics

I've decided to participate in this monthly "meme" from Jennifer at 5 Minutes for Books. (Thanks should go to my friend, Jen, who mentioned these blogs on her own blog.)

Anyway, the idea is to respond to this simple prompt:

• Would you recommend the book? To whom?
• If you wouldn't recommend it, why do you think it's been so popular?
• Has your child recently discovered a classic author? What is his or her perspective on the differences in classic and contemporary children's writing?
• Have you recently shared a childhood favorite with your own child? How did you each respond to it?

As always, picking just one book is really hard, so I've decided to pick two books. One of which was my absolute favorite as a child and the other one being a book that I have recently discovered and that has become an absolute favorite to share with my 4th grade class each year.



When I was a kid, I absolutely loved reading Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing by Judy Blume. In fact, I still have the original copy that I received as a gift when I was probably 8 years old. I keep it in my classroom and show the well-worn, much loved, tattered book to my students each year. They think its funny that a book they enjoy reading so much, along with its sequels, is a book that I enjoyed reading so very long ago. (I'm not really sure that at 27, I'm that old, but too them, me being 8 years old was soooo long ago).

I would definitely recommend this book to any child who is struggling to find a book that they can relate to. I really feel that there is something in this book for every kid. Most children, around 4th grade, are dealing with siblings, either older or younger. For me, I was dealing with older siblings and reading this book made me so thankful that I didn't have any younger siblings to deal with.

I do use this book, each year, as a read-aloud with my students, right at the beginning of the year. It is so much fun to listen to them laugh as I read the tales of Peter Hatcher and of course his little brother, Fudge. In the weeks following, they simply devour all of the sequels to this book. I can't keep them on the bookshelves of my classroom. My husband and I have talked about how we can't wait to be able to share this favorite of ours with our own little girl, when she is old enough. (Right now we just can't wait for her to make her appearance in October!)

While this isn't the most classic of literature, and it doesn't take a lot of work to read, this book is great just for introducing kids to larger chapter books and the great genre that is realistic fiction.

The other book, which I have just recently (a few years ago) discovered is The BFG by Roald Dahl. Oh My Word! Where was this book when I was a kid? Oh right, it's a fantasy book and when I was a kid, I hated anything that wasn't realistic fiction. Another teacher at my school suggested I read this book to my class. I wasn't really sure that it would be a good fit, as it is pretty lengthy and my class, at the time, suffered from ultra-short attention spans. But, I decided to give it a try, and boy, I was not disappointed. I'm not really sure who laughed more while we read it out loud, me or the kids?

As always, Roald Dahl does a fantastic job of weaving a story together. We learn about Sophie, a young orphan girl in London, who mistakenly witnesses a giant (The BFG) blowing dreams into a house across the street. Since giants aren't supposed to be seen by "human beans," as the BFG refers to them, he snatches her up and wisks her away to Giant Country. A dreary place where the BFG, along with 8 or 9 other giants live. We learn that the BFG is a rare giant, as he is kind and gentle. The other giants, well, let's just say they're less than "refined."

The challenge in reading this book comes in navigating the language of the giants. They speak English, but it certainly is confusing. For example, they don't say, "Am I right or wrong?" Instead they say, "Am I right or am I left?" The only food available to the giants are "snozzcumbers" and the only beverage would be "frobscottle," which causes "whizzpoppers." Needless to say, the kids got a kick out of this book, and each class I have shared it with since can't wait for read-aloud time. I even had one student, this past year, who after we read The BFG, was so into books by Roald Dahl, that by the time the year had ended, he had read all of Roald Dahl's books, including his autobiography, Boy.

If you're looking for other fantastic, middle-grade, chapter books, make sure to stop on over to 5 Minutes for Books, and check out the other great suggestions. Happy Reading!!!