Miss Grainger Suggests (TM)

[binkie]

Following on from masses of threads about book recommendations for particular kinds of children, and the depressingness of school library resources: a suggestion: we pool our knowledge and put together a range of booklists.

First step is to decide what categories to cover. Suggestions that I can remember so far are:

• a very advanced early reader (so 4/5/6 - reception/year 1)
  
  
• a reluctant older reader (let's say 8-9)
  
  
• an advanced older reader (8/9/10) not yet ready for "teen" or "worldly-wise" books. Would split this one into girls and boys, I think
  
  
• we could do thematic - like horse-mad, ballet shoes, dungeons & dragons, funny.
  
  Any others? (And votes as to whether the above are good?)
  
  (And PS, I know there's a Mumsnet Best for books, but that's a Top Ten For Everyone sort of list. Idea of this is that it's targeted.)

[Marina]

All good ideas with which I heartily agree and would like to add Award-Winners down the years - would be nice to provide Mners with a handy list of Carnegie and Greenaway winners and nominees.

I also think a recommended list of resources that we have found good for parents wanting to help their child to read might be handy.

I am thinking here, for example, of Nicholas Tucker's excellent Rough Guides to Children's Literature.

Miss Grainger would be proud of you Binkie, looking on from that great Bookstack in the Sky...

[Wallace]

Also recommendations for books to read to children would be good. There have been lots of thread asking whichbooks are best to read to 5 yearolds

[Issymum]

Fantastic idea. I too would like to see a category covering books to read to children in and around the Reception year. Something to take them over that hump from 'picture books' (although some of those can be extremely sophisticated and quite demanding cf The Snow Dragon) to the first chapter books.

It would also be nice to have a 'Your Generation' category. Books that we enjoyed as children, that we've recently re-read (to ensure that there are no absolute howlers in them) and our children would enjoy.

I think I'm developing a crush on Miss Grainger already.....

[roisin]

Great idea binkie. How about some subsections/special categories too:

Advanced early reader - who doesn't like anything remotely scary

Another category I would put between your advanced early/older readers [I'm not very coherent tonight] but you need "books I couldn't put down" to get children over the hurdle of reading longer books, books with smaller typefaces, books with fewer pictures, etc.

Other themes - magic, fantasy, etc.

[frogs]

Great, binkie! Maybe we could have a small b or g next to books that are particularly suitable for boys or girls respectively. Not that gender stereotyping is a good idea, but there do seem to be differences in what they go for.

We could also split the 'early readers' category into 'newly fluent' (bigger print, pics, Horrid H, Dick K-S etc.) and 'fluent' (ready to move onto Roald Dahl etc). Might be best to categorise according to reading stage rather than age, since it does vary so hugely.

[frannyandzooey]

Another suggestion - something for advanced readers (11 / 12 /13) who are not quite ready for adult fiction, but are growing out of children's / teen books. I have always been a voracious reader but more or lessstopped reading for a couple of years around this age, as I couldn't find anything much that I liked. Took me till age 13 to get to grips with adult fiction.

[roisin]

In our 'database' [it's getting more complex by the minute!] can we include the number of pages. Quite a few children go through a stage of refusing to pick up anything longer than, say, 100 pages.

[aloha]

Any books on here yet or only categories

OK, here's my offering

For advanced, fluent girl readers 13+ that you don't want reading sleaze....I Capture The Castle, Cold Comfort Farm, all John Wyndham science fiction, and....dare I say it....Agatha Christie and PG Wodehouse.
Plus the Phillipa Gregory historical novels eg The Other Boleyn Girl (historical sleaze only)

[Stilltrue]

Frannyandzooey - I was about to suggest the same, with ds1 (12) in mind. I need some genuine adult fiction for him that's not smutty.

[aloha]

Has he read Lord of The Flies? Day of the Triffids (and all the other John Wyndhams?

[roisin]

What do you think about categories? I was thinking about teenagers, and Sci Fi, because some people hate Sci Fi. But then surely isn't Wyndham accessible to everyone, and putting it in a Sci Fi category might put them off.

How about as a format, nicking some ideas from The Children's Good Book Guide, or whatever it is. So we agree a category, and choose (vote on?) the top book in this field. Then an additional list of "If you enjoyed this book, then try these?"

[frogs]

Please, Miss binkie, shall I email you my list of sub-adult fiction suitable for 10+? I spent ages compiling it, so that I could suggest to people what do get dd1 for christmas. Or are we going to collate suggestions by posting here?

Offline might be better; to ask a group of over-educated women with powerful opinions to discuss the relative merits of Milly Molly Mandy and My Naughty Little Sister is just inviting a virtual punch-up.

"What do you mean, Harry Potter is derivative?"
"Everybody knows that CS Lewis and JK Rowling just ripped off Tolkien."
"Right, outside now."

It'd be bookbags at dawn.

[roisin]

Stilltrue, Malorie Blackman: Noughts and Crosses is superb. I wouldn't recommend it to under 12s as it's very powerful stuff (about racism), but it's an amazing book. I've recommended it to several teenagers, and a couple of them have told me it's the best book they have ever read.

[roisin]

Frogs, can you email me your list please?

[PrincessSmartyPants]

Books rich in story language which are good to read aloud for small ones could be another category

[nooka]

Great idea! Have to say I also quite like the book bags at dawn idea too! Seriously, though there is going to be a huge variation in opinions, and that probably should be reflected. For example I only like Chocky of the John Wyndam's (and I am a Science Fiction/Fantasy fan). I like reading through the Amazon reviews, but it's even better when you can find someone with similar views on books, so I could try a recommendation by say binkie, but just know that a recommendation by say, roisin would be a difinate hit (iyswim?). Anyway, I'd like to contribute (if that's OK!)

[Ellbell]

Ooh, Aloha... you've taken me back to my youth. I read the whole of Agatha Christie aged about 13. Still like undemanding (though not too trashy) crime fiction to relax with...

[princesspeahead]

binkie can we add a category of newly confident reader - 6 - 7 year olds ie yrs 2 and 3? To me this is when most children really get into going to bed with books and reading to themselves. otherwise we have a bit of a gap between very advanced early readers and reluctant or advanced older readers. sort of enthusiastic competant 6-8 yr olds?

also I think we need a category of books for early teens with non adult content.

this is SUCH a good idea!

[frogs]

How about categories along these lines:

Newly fluent (first proper books, Mr Majeika, Dick K-S etc)
Confident younger readers (Roald Dahl, CS Lewis)
Confident older readers (The Hobbit, Cornelia Funke)
Reluctant older readers (? -- no experience of this category myself)
Advanced older readers (pre-teen/teenagers who are not emotionally ready for gritty teenage fiction) (Agatha Christie, Lord of the Flies etc)
Classics for younger readers (Greek myths etc)
Classics for older readers (Ditto, but more sophisticated)

Also themes would be good, such as:

Boys who need persuading to move from non-fiction to Fiction;
Horsy girls (although that's a pretty easy category really -- just think Pullein Thompson and Ruby Ferguson. Being dated doesn't seem to diminish their appeal IME).
Historical books
Detective stories
Pink sparkly little girls
Feisty 5yo girls with attitude
Magical worlds

And restrict to Decent Fiction -- no Captain Underpants or Goosebumps, please!

[roisin]

Hee hee! Who's going to be the final judge on "Decent Fiction"? Frogs? Binkie?

[nooka]

indeed. I think that anything by Enid Blyton is not "decent", but I am sure that many would disagree (and yes I did read some (well probably most of them - but not Famous Five in my youth ) Perhaps a separate category for easy reading, but not terrible (ie no pissing pineapples)? After all I'm sure most of us read trash occasionally - should we deny that pleasure to our children?

[frogs]

Oh yes, always happy to be judgmental!

Actually I think Enid Blyton is perfectly Decent Fiction (such a lovely jolly-hockeysticks word!), although I do keep an eye on total consumption and suggest other things when it gets excessive. What I wanted to exclude pointlessly puerile offerings put out to appeal to the lowest common denominator, in the knowledge that schools are undiscerning customers who will buy whatever the publishing houses market to them as suitable for reluctant readers.

[bee3]

Frogs - can I echo Princesspeahead and ask for a category of the best 'read together' picture books for under 3s? Especially ones with a repetitive text or rhyme that they can start joining in with/finishing the line and 'reading' to themselves?

This is a fantastic idea