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.
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.
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 :laugh: 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.
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.
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,
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) 8)
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!
wonderful suggestion Mandabplus3 ! , I see that most of the reviews were for ages above 3 . Would like to know all of your suggestions for 2 year old please ! , we read thru Dr.Seuss books for stories but now looking for a difference…, awaiting your opinions ! , thanks to all moms ! 8)
The first classics to try of you are looking for a chapter book are the fairy books by Andrew Lang.
Their are quite a few of them. The Red fairy Book. The Blue Fairy book. The yellow Fairy book. Etc. these books are all the traditional fairy stories we all heard as kids from Cinderella to Rose Red in their original style. Beautiful books and one of my daughters favourites. They are all available free to download from guttenburg. These are ages 2 and up or a 1 year old who is a good listener perhaps they do contain some graphic bits and lots of morals. Remember in the original fairy tales the good guys often eat the big bad wolf and such. A preread might be worth it for more sensitive kids. I think some of the books have more basic stories in them, sort of like levelled stories but I can confirm just now.
Also We REALLY loved the Magic Faraway Tree series. Get the large hard cover books which has full colour pictures on almost every page. Each chapter is a story in its own so its great for the youngest crowd. These are for age 0 to 11 and I don’t remember any religious comments.
Thank you Mandabplus3 ! for wonderful suggestions . well said on the pre read note my kid is so sensitive for that matter , Here i come Magic Faraway Tree…
Minimum age, would be a great story to read aloud starting a birth, the death can be glossed over until a child is ready.
Max age, adult, I enjoyed it.
My daughter read a few abridged versions starting at age 4, which I think helped make the full text easier for her to grasp and read a year later.
Basic story of 4 girls growing up. One death, but it isn’t graphic, and isn’t dwelled upon.
Excellent vocab and sentence structure. Has some historical content. Follows a little bit of the fairy tale idea of girl grows up, meets boy, lives happily ever after, but still has lots of other ideas to make it worth the read.
When struggling to find age appropriate content - that is find a book that is challenging for a 6 year old to read that has age appropriate content - Little Women is a very reasonable choice.
1001 Arabian Nights - the newest translations in 4 books
Minimum Age - at least 12 and I might recommend older. These books are an amazing adult read, impressive vocab, incredible sentence structure, and the stories are an impressive array of ideas. These books will challenge you and keep you very entertained. However, be warned they are very very graphic, gruesome, and sexual. For the most part, the original translations are NOT kid stories. I also would not suggest reading them aloud to a child, there are just way too many words and ideas which need to be changed and skimmed over, that it makes the difficult for a child to follow along (I tried, but I just couldn’t do it!).
If your child is requesting to read these, make sure you find a child’s version, and even then be careful. I found an older Children’s Companion Arabain Nights, and it still included the words fornication, behead, and sodomy within the first few pages.
, I see that most of the reviews were for ages above 3 . Would like to know all of your suggestions for 2 year old please ! , we read thru Dr.Seuss books for stories but now looking for a difference…, awaiting your opinions ! , thanks to all moms ! 8)
they do contain some graphic bits and lots of morals. Remember in the original fairy tales the good guys often eat the big bad wolf and such. A preread might be worth it for more sensitive kids. I think some of the books have more basic stories in them, sort of like levelled stories but I can confirm just now.