Children's Literature

[moselle]

As many of you know, I've been accepted to the Museum Education program at Bank Street College of Education in NYC. I'm moving to New York later this month and will begin classes in July

Comments

[tsubasa]

In the fourth grade I had one of my favorite teachers of my entire educational career - Mr. Emmanuel. He was Greek (I think) and had this great black hair and huge hooked nose. This was in Lynchburg, VA, at the GO Center (Gifted Oportunities - for 4th and 5th graders only, but still public school) and he gave us books to read like Where the Red Fern Grows, Call of the Wild, White Fang, and many others. I remember it was a huge leap for me, between what I had been reading in the 3rd grade (and honestly, I can't really remember anything in particular) to what we read in the 4th grade. In the 5th grade we moved to NC, and English class turned back into Spelling, and it wasn't until I went to middle school that teachers began assigning books to read again (and even then when I think about it I can't really recall anything I read in middle school for class that really impressed me

[kendellsquare]

I was a voracious reader as a kid. In 6th grade, we had to keep track and I read 120 books during the school year. Here are a few off the top of my head from my childhood - most of these I read multiple times during the 3rd-6th grade range

[rowena_zane]

There are a handful of books that really shaped things for me, in the way of art, literature and history. I've reread these several times.

D'laires' Greek Mythology
Anne of Green Gables books by LM Montgomery
Behind the Attic Wall by Sylvia Cassedy
Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'engle
Ramona books by Beverly Cleary
The Thing at the Foot of the Bed by Maria Leach
Bellairs' horror books (the ones with Edward Gorey illustrations, please)

They're kind of a hodgepodge, looking over it. Not really earth-shattering literature, but they stuck with me because the stories were just so fun. And I think most girls my age wanted to think of themselves as Annes, with all the innocent wonder of getting lost in a daydream, when in reality we were probably more like Ramonas.

[uzbradistan]

Oh, man, the Ramona books. I recently did a meme on Facebook in which you listed 15 favorite books in 15 minutes, or something like that, and I mostly thought of the sci-fi and fantasy I read from ages 12 to 18, but I totally forgot about Ramona.

And all those other great Beverly Cleary books, too: Henry Huggins, and Ribsy, and the mouse on a motorcycle... man.

Which in turn makes me think of Harry Selden and the cricket in Times Square series.

And why am I now suddenly remembering the "Choose Your Own Adventure" series?

Ooh, let's not forget Sideways Stories from Wayside School. Best kids' book about school, ever.

I'm currently rereading with Kendell The Book of Three, the first in the Chronicles of Prydain series. I recently reread with her Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising series as well. I'm also a big fan of Ursula K. LeGuin's Wizard of Earthsea series.

So there you go, Moselle, a random (though not exhaustive) list of my beloved childhood books.

My favorites

[starwidget1]

In about the 5th grade I read "The Thief of Always" by Clive Barker and loved it. I read it periodically. I also just finished reading "Holes" by Louis Sachar, and I'm sad I didn't discover it earlier. Um... let's see... I read "Because of Winn Dixie" to my kids this year (3rd grade) and they liked it. It was a bit heavy on religion, but not incredibly so. It deals with some things that are hard for some kids and that many can relate to (a parent leaving them, alcoholism, moving to a new place, meeting new people, etc