Classic Books for Kids

[Anonymous]

Recommendations for classic books for a 6 year old who is an advanced reader? By advanced I mean that she can basically read anything you put in front of her.

Already read/on my list: A Secret Garden, the Chronicles of Narnia, Anne of Green Gables, Betsy-Tacy, Little House on the Prairie

[Anonymous]

Black Beauty.

[Anonymous]

Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle series
Pippi Longstocking
Boxcar Children series
Encyclopedia Brown series
Beverly Cleary
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Charlotte’s Web (sad ending)
Where the Sidewalk Ends (quirky poetry)

Not really classics, but recommend:
Princess Tales by Gail-Carson Levine
Secrets of Droon (great fantasy series but special editions might be too intense for a 6 year old)
Flat Stanley

Recommend reading to her:
Just-So Stories by Kipling - I understand her reading is advanced, but the prose is both incredibly dense and beautiful. It is worth reading aloud just to appreciate the language.

[Anonymous]

Lynne Reid Banks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lynne Reid Banks

Specifically The Farthest Away Mountain and The Fairy Rebel.

Sadly I think the Indian in the Cupboard might have to stay on the shelf. I haven’t gone back and read it but I know it has a lot of stereotypes.

[Anonymous]

I haven’t read them all, so I can’t be sure they’re all appropriate (some original fairy tales might not always be considered appropriate for a 6 year old), but you might try Andrew Lang’s Fairy Book series.

[Anonymous]

The Borrowers
A Cricket in Times Square
The Incredible Journey
Charlotte's Web
The Moomintroll books
Pippi Longstocking

[Anonymous]

I was totally against the Roald Dahl censorship stuff and I don't think the Secret Garden should be censored but I was really cringing at some of the stuff in that one recently. I personally would read that one aloud to discuss some of the characterizations.

Otherwise I agree on Charlotte's Web, Chronicles of Narnia, Little House on the Prarie. Do we consider the Roald Dahl books classics these days? If so, I like all of those too.

[Anonymous]

A lot of “classic” books have a huge amount of misogyny and racism. We have shifted culturally so fast that even one’s I think of as dear are actually pretty cringe.

What’s wrong with more modern stories? Where the Mountain Meets the Moon is recent one I loved reading with my kid.

[Anonymous]

Wind in the Willows. Not sure if it counts as a "classic" but Phantom Tollbooth is also great.

[Anonymous]

Tuesdays at the Castle was a fun read.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle series
Pippi Longstocking
Boxcar Children series
Encyclopedia Brown series
Beverly Cleary
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Charlotte’s Web (sad ending)
Where the Sidewalk Ends (quirky poetry)

Not really classics, but recommend:
Princess Tales by Gail-Carson Levine
Secrets of Droon (great fantasy series but special editions might be too intense for a 6 year old)
Flat Stanley

Recommend reading to her:
Just-So Stories by Kipling - I understand her reading is advanced, but the prose is both incredibly dense and beautiful. It is worth reading aloud just to appreciate the language.

Have you re-read the original boxcar children series lately? The girl does chores while the oldest brother gets a job doing manly things - terrible gender messaging. Totally ruined it for me.

[Anonymous]

Frog and Toad
The Railway Children
The Hobbit
If she ends up liking Little House, maybe try Prairie Lotus for a similar vibe but with better addressed racism?
Not a classic, but I really like the American Girl books as early elementary appropriate content
Alice in Wonderland/Alice Through the Looking Glass
Snugglepot and Cuddlepie

[Anonymous]

I have a kid like this. I am going to start some classics too.

Here's what I told him

Treasure Island
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
Around the world in 80 days
The three musketeers
Basically anything and everything by Jules Verne

[Anonymous]

Just a heads up that there is some racist stuff in the Little House on the Prairie books.

https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/what-should-be-done-about-racist-depictions-in-the-little-house-books/16587/

In one passage in “Little House on the Prairie,” Wilder wrote, “There were no people; only Indians lived there,” while in another, one of the characters, Pa, says, “the only good Indian is a dead Indian.” In “Little Town on the Prairie,” Pa appears in a minstrel show and sings a racist song — an anecdote accompanied by an illustration of the characters in blackface.