What did you read in elementary school?

[Anonymous]

My kids read a lot of classic literature and rarely read junk. Some of it is the same stuff I read as a kid and other is newer.

I've built up trust with my kids that I tend to recommend good books so they are usually willing to try my recommendations. This started during Covid when it wasn't possible for them to browse a library in person. Now they do sometimes pick their own books, but they also appreciate really good books and are open to suggestions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of the books I read as a kid featured orphans as main characters, I’m now realizing. Boxcar kids. Secret Garden. BFG. Anne of Green Gables. Heidi. And on and on.

LOL - yes same. All of these. Or terrible parents -- Matilda.

It's a trope in children's lit for a reason. When the parents are dead, or so bad they aren't involved, or absent (see the many books where a parent is deployed during a war) then the children have reasons to do things your kids and mine probably wouldn't do: live in a Boxcar, spend summers between Hogwarts terms all over the place, live with crochety old relatives in the mountains, and so on. Parents make the world a safer place, and in literature kids want a chance to live a little more on the edge.

It's an interesting question if you can write a book where the parents are major players, but the kids still have crazy, just-scary-enough adventures.

My childhood favorite version of this was kids lost in the wilderness. Hatchet, Island of the Blue Dolphins, that kind of thing.

[Anonymous]

In school they read Roald Dahl James and the Giant Peach, Charlottes Webb, Holes, The Giver, Roll of Thunder Hear my Cry, Number the Stars, The Family Under the Bridge.

On their own my daughter likes graphic novels especially girly ones.

My son loves comic series like Dilbert, Garfield, Calvin and Hobbes, The Boondocks and has been reading them since 2nd grade. Can’t think of more recent ones.

Comic series like Calvin and Hobbes and others actually improve an elementary school reader’s vocabulary.

An article sampled some of the words used in Calvin and Hobbes. Some are repartee, vicarious, peripatetic, magnanimous, deferential, salubrious, arboreal, behemoth, annihilated, aspersions.

It’s easy for kids to read these over and over and just read random ones and eventually they learn the big words.

[Anonymous]

I use read aloud time in the evenings to expose my kids to good quality literature. It's my favorite part of the day. I let them pick whatever they want to read on their own. My nine year mostly chooses Diary of a Wimpy Kid and non-fiction books about football. As long as he's reading it's fine with me.

[Anonymous]

The hatred for Magic Treehouse is weird to me. Yes, the writing isn't great, but at least the reader is learning a bit about history. Similarly, my kids loved the I Survive books. Totally hokey, but also a good way to learn some (at times, obscure) history. Same with the Nathan Hale's extraordinary tales - they loved those!

I once tried to get a bunch of my favorite books for my kids to read - Harriet the Spy, Mixed up Files of Basil E. Frankweiler, Pippi Longstocking, Little House, Ramona Quimby, etc. None of them held up. Either super boring (Little House - looking at you!) or just too out of touch/date (so much smoking!)

[Anonymous]

For mine - some of the classics that have held up are Charlottes Web, all the Roald Dahl, Mrs Frisby and the rats of nimh, a wrinkle in time, roll of thunder hear my cry. Kate Dicamillo books feel like classics and are beloved by my children. Good literature from the 90s they have enjoyed - the giver, out of the dust, holes, hatchet, a lot of Katherine Paterson. Then there are a ton of great books from the 2000s. My mom and I have fun reading along with the kids - I feel like there has been an explosion of good literature (especially featuring girls and diverse voices) alongside the potty humor books

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In school they read Roald Dahl James and the Giant Peach, Charlottes Webb, Holes, The Giver, Roll of Thunder Hear my Cry, Number the Stars, The Family Under the Bridge.

On their own my daughter likes graphic novels especially girly ones.

My son loves comic series like Dilbert, Garfield, Calvin and Hobbes, The Boondocks and has been reading them since 2nd grade. Can’t think of more recent ones.

Comic series like Calvin and Hobbes and others actually improve an elementary school reader’s vocabulary.

An article sampled some of the words used in Calvin and Hobbes. Some are repartee, vicarious, peripatetic, magnanimous, deferential, salubrious, arboreal, behemoth, annihilated, aspersions.

It’s easy for kids to read these over and over and just read random ones and eventually they learn the big words.

My kids adore Calvin and Hobbes. There are also "comic" (they'd probably be called graphic novel if they were published today, but they weren't) versions of various world myths by Marcia Williams that are really interested. I agree that comics can truly be quality literature. Not like the ones you buy at checkout at a grocery store, but the ones that run in newspapers.

[Anonymous]

I’m 42 and read a lot as a kid. I’m not sure BSC counts as quality lit but my mom didn’t complain about it and I don’t complain about what my kids choose to read on their own.

I read to my kids every night thru ES which is thru 6th grade here. I have read aloud some Captain Underwear books & then said - I don’t want read any more of these aloud. You can read them on your own. But I am happy to share books my kids read mostly- you can’t knock it til you’ve tried it. People complain about Dog Man but there are high level words in there like telekinesis.

[Anonymous]

[mastodon]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids like repetitive books. I remember Goosebumps and the My Teacher Is An Alien and Babysitter Little Sister and American Girl books being obsessively read in my elementary school. Get them hooked on stuff you like, but if you can find something with a long slightly repetitive series you’ll have better luck displacing the magic treehouses of the world.

I distinctly remember the age where I realized all the Redwall books I adored were actually virtually identical books. I try to read my kid Good Books, but I also don't begrudge her her crap. Older generations had their formulaic Hardy Boys and Happy Hollisters and this generation has Dogman. Most adults don't read only great literature either.

+1. I remember reading Happy Hollisters as a kid and loving it (I'm not actually that old, we found it in some used bookstore somewhere). My mom gave it to me and I looked through it again and was pretty horrified. The kids were so mean! It was so poorly written!

I actually mentioned the Happy Hollisters specifically because my husband's mother loved them, then he loved them, and now our kid is reading them. Three generations, loving the same pablum!

I remember rereading all the black stallion books (that I LOVED as an elementary schooler) in high school and being horribly disappointed in them. They were terrible! But 8 year old me thought they were the absolute greatest. Also Trixie Belden which my mother passed on to me — the first one isn’t terrible on reread but I only want one not the hundreds there are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:[mastodon]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids like repetitive books. I remember Goosebumps and the My Teacher Is An Alien and Babysitter Little Sister and American Girl books being obsessively read in my elementary school. Get them hooked on stuff you like, but if you can find something with a long slightly repetitive series you’ll have better luck displacing the magic treehouses of the world.

I distinctly remember the age where I realized all the Redwall books I adored were actually virtually identical books. I try to read my kid Good Books, but I also don't begrudge her her crap. Older generations had their formulaic Hardy Boys and Happy Hollisters and this generation has Dogman. Most adults don't read only great literature either.

+1. I remember reading Happy Hollisters as a kid and loving it (I'm not actually that old, we found it in some used bookstore somewhere). My mom gave it to me and I looked through it again and was pretty horrified. The kids were so mean! It was so poorly written!

I actually mentioned the Happy Hollisters specifically because my husband's mother loved them, then he loved them, and now our kid is reading them. Three generations, loving the same pablum!

I remember rereading all the black stallion books (that I LOVED as an elementary schooler) in high school and being horribly disappointed in them. They were terrible! But 8 year old me thought they were the absolute greatest. Also Trixie Belden which my mother passed on to me — the first one isn’t terrible on reread but I only want one not the hundreds there are.

Black Beauty, Boxcar Children, even Babysitters’ Club is great lit compared to today’s “kid lit.” Bob Shea, Dog Man, Captain Underpants, all the picture books that just have random things shouted aloud. Ugh.

[Anonymous]

Off the top of my head (I was an obsessive reader and remember a ton of books I read at this age)

Harry Potter
Roald Dahl
Mrs Piggle Wiggle
Sharon Creech - all of them
Roald Dahl - all of them
Sideways Stories
Boxcar Children
Nancy Drew
The Borrowers
Goosebumps
Animorphs
Babysitter's Club/Karen little sister spinoff
Beverly Cleary
Dear America
American girl doll books
Judy Blume - all of them
Secret Garden
The Little Prince
The Westing Game
Alex Rider series
Sweet Valley High
Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles
Frindle
The Phantom Tollbooth
The Watsons Go To Birmingham
Because of Winn-Dixie
A Wrinkle In Time
Fever 1973
Holes
The Face on the Milk Carton series
The Giver
Mixed up Files of Basil E Frankweiler
Tangerine
Esperanza Rising
The Mouse and the Motorcycle

[Anonymous]

Me again! Remembering more titles that I loved

Misty of Chicoteague
Rats of Nimh
Little House on the Prairie!!! I practically had every one memorized
Dollhouse Murders (early indication of my true crime and unresolved mysteries obsession)
Anne of Green Gables
Stargirl
Gentle Ben

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids read a lot of classic literature and rarely read junk. Some of it is the same stuff I read as a kid and other is newer.

I've built up trust with my kids that I tend to recommend good books so they are usually willing to try my recommendations. This started during Covid when it wasn't possible for them to browse a library in person. Now they do sometimes pick their own books, but they also appreciate really good books and are open to suggestions.

What are the newer things they read that aren’t junk?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Off the top of my head (I was an obsessive reader and remember a ton of books I read at this age)

Harry Potter
Roald Dahl
Mrs Piggle Wiggle
Sharon Creech - all of them
Roald Dahl - all of them
Sideways Stories
Boxcar Children
Nancy Drew
The Borrowers
Goosebumps
Animorphs
Babysitter's Club/Karen little sister spinoff
Beverly Cleary
Dear America
American girl doll books
Judy Blume - all of them
Secret Garden
The Little Prince
The Westing Game
Alex Rider series
Sweet Valley High
Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles
Frindle
The Phantom Tollbooth
The Watsons Go To Birmingham
Because of Winn-Dixie
A Wrinkle In Time
Fever 1973
Holes
The Face on the Milk Carton series
The Giver
Mixed up Files of Basil E Frankweiler
Tangerine
Esperanza Rising
The Mouse and the Motorcycle

This list brings back memories! Did you ever read Strider, Johnny Tremain, or Strawberry Girl?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In school they read Roald Dahl James and the Giant Peach, Charlottes Webb, Holes, The Giver, Roll of Thunder Hear my Cry, Number the Stars, The Family Under the Bridge.

On their own my daughter likes graphic novels especially girly ones.

My son loves comic series like Dilbert, Garfield, Calvin and Hobbes, The Boondocks and has been reading them since 2nd grade. Can’t think of more recent ones.

Comic series like Calvin and Hobbes and others actually improve an elementary school reader’s vocabulary.

An article sampled some of the words used in Calvin and Hobbes. Some are repartee, vicarious, peripatetic, magnanimous, deferential, salubrious, arboreal, behemoth, annihilated, aspersions.

It’s easy for kids to read these over and over and just read random ones and eventually they learn the big words.

My kids adore Calvin and Hobbes. There are also "comic" (they'd probably be called graphic novel if they were published today, but they weren't) versions of various world myths by Marcia Williams that are really interested. I agree that comics can truly be quality literature. Not like the ones you buy at checkout at a grocery store, but the ones that run in newspapers.

The snobby people who claim their children only read 100 year old literature should know that there’s a lot of positive things to be said about contemporary reading. The Calvin and Hobbes characters speak like adults and have expansive vocabularies which the kids pick up. And I forgot Foxtrot! Perfect for young kids.