Read Alouds, Part 2

Greetings,

I got responses from a few of you enjoying the read alouds I told about last week. Since I didn’t nearly finish my own favorites, I will again continue that same thread. But first . . .

Karen wrote that she likes to read Secret of the Cave by Maxwell. Most of you probably know that this is by an Adventist author and that there is a DVD movie of the book that was made by students at Southern Adventist University a few years ago. Note: I bought the DVD and began to show it to my library club members 15 minutes at a time during our lunch time. I told them that we were previewing it to see what ages it would be best for. My library club members are usually in 5th grade or above. After the first ‘episode’ one girl asked if she had to watch the rest because it was so scary. I didn’t think it was scary, but you can judge for yourself.

If you have students who want to read an adventure book, or an exciting story, just send them to Will Hobbs. He writes adventure stories and I have never seen any language issues in his books. Many of his books are historical fiction, but all are good reads. Jason’s Gold is a survival story about a young man who stows away to find gold in Alaska and gets a little help from a guy named Jack London. I happened upon this book in our local public library a number of years ago, read it, then went back to the library and proceeded to read every Will Hobbs book they had. Then I ordered a bunch for our school library.

Continuing the adventure theme we go to Stone Fox by John R. Gardiner. Take a young boy, money problems, a sled dog race and you are set for adventure. This book is also only 96 pages so is not as intimidating. It would be a good book to read before the beginning of the Iditarod, and then follow the race via the internet. Talk about bringing the book to life! There is also a movie of the book for those who are interested.

Since we are on an adventure theme, don’t forget Swift Arrow by Josephine Cunnington Edwards. This is an old favorite of many of us. If you haven’t pulled it out in a while, go find it and start reading it to the students. Then, when you have finished, pull out Spotted Boy and the Comanches by Mabel Earp Cason. Both of these books are about white boys taken by Indians and how they were able to make their way home again. As a child, I used to imagine what it would be like to be captured by Indians.

I now see that I have a theme of historical adventure and they are all about boys. So balance that out a little by including Caddie Woodlawn, a feisty redhaired girl back at the turn of the century. She makes friends with the Indians and has other adventures that are really interesting. Carol Ryrie Brink writes this true story about her grandmother who was the real Caddie Woodlawn. If you enjoy this book, try the second one called Magical Melons. (Spoiler alert: The watermelons had been hidden in sawdust to be saved for later and not knowing this, the children happened to discover them and decided it must be magic. There are no magical or supernatural things in these books.)

One more adventure story to read aloud is The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare. Thirteen-year-old Matt and his father journey to their claim and begin to build a cabin. Father leaves Matt to finish the cabin and guard it while he returns to bring back the rest of the family. As problems arise, Matt learns some much needed survival skills from the Beaver clan of Indians nearby. Matt teaches Attean to read and Attean teaches Matt much more. Elizabeth George Speare only wrote four books, but those four are stellar. The other three are The Witch of Blackbird Pond (NOT about a witch and in my top ten children's books of all time),Calico Captive (about a girl captured by Indians), and The Bronze Bow (a young man bent on revenge in Roman times, and learns some lessons about love and forgiveness from the carpenter Jesus of Nazareth.)

Have a great week!

Audrey