We are currently reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. And by "we" I mean my husband is reading it aloud to my five-year-old son, William, and the rest of us occasionally listen.I asked Will if he likes reading the book with Daddy. "Yes." What do you like about it? "The good guys win." I'm not sure what prompted that response but I know he's begging to read the book every night after supper. That's always a good sign of an excellent book!
Just a word of caution that this book contains some language and themes (smoking!) that may not be suitable for young children. Joel mentioned to me that he's doing quite a bit of editing as he is reading, mainly for language, I think. It's a judgment call for parents to make.
William definitely does not understand everything in this book and has asked many questions as a result. We've had some good conversations about how Tom's actions are disobedient or how he isn't doing the "right" thing and what would be the "right" thing to do. We are comfortable with these kind of discussions at his age.
What about you? What classic characters have you introduced your children to?
6 comments:
That's awesome that you are all enjoying Tom Sawyer together. I've come across a few classics that are perfect for kids and their imaginations these days, but that would require a bit of editing while reading outloud. Yes, I agree with you that modern writing seriously dumbs down the english language, assuming the worst in children instead of the best.
Sounds like you are making excellent strides to overcome this in your own kids though.
Thanks for sharing.
My son is 5 as well, Tom Sawyer sounds like a great one to read to him. I have a hard time finding books that are appropriate for his age level and that will keep his interest. Looks like I'll add this to the list, with a note that editing will be required.
I definitely think books have been dumbed down for kids.
I read my kids an old children's Bible, and I have to edit out the other word for donkey because I don't want them saying it, even if they are talking about donkeys.
I have edited this post. I thought I had been a little harsh about the current quality of children's literature but now that I see the comments maybe I wasn't as harsh as I feared.
I edited before I realized there were comments. Please blame it on my poor sleep-deprived brain. I have a 4 week old infant and sleep is rare around here right now. I don't function well without 8 hours of continuous sleep!
The part I deleted basically said that today's children's literature seems to be less challenging to read. Specifically vocabulary is easier. I asked commentors if they had noticed the difference between classic lit. and today's literature.
One reason I love to read aloud is that you can edit for those kinds of things!
I edited some of The Spiderwick Chronicles when I read them to kiddo this summer (I wrote out my reasons on my blog) - that's one of the great things about reading aloud.
Recently I read a classic Jules Verne (The Mysterious Island) and kiddo - he's 6 - wanted me to summarize it for him every few days. I'll have to consider reading him Tom Sawyer - sounds like it's a hit a your house!
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