I am takinmg a children's lit course this semester, and we have to introduce a children's book to the class. What I want to know is, is this book one of those enduring classics like Black Beauty or Old Yeller? I would appreciate any help anyone can lend.
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I do not think "Lassie Come Home" is quite on that level, and I think he movie more of a success rather than Eric knight's nove....if I were you, I would pick "The Yearling" by Marjorie Kinnon Rawlings...what grades are you dealing with in your children's lit class? I am an elem. teacher, K to 5, if i can help with your selections, do not hesitate to ask.
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I am a college student, and English Lit is my major, and one of the required courses is Children's Lit. The book for the book talk has to be a novel, but it can be on any level, from beginning on up to high school.
My teacher said she hasn't read it herself, and was wondering if kids would still like it or if it would seem too out-dated. I have until November before I have to do my book talk, so I still have time to find another book to do.
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How nice to be taking a children's lit. course...then I would definitely select "The Yearling" by Majorie Kinnon Rawlings...more meat there, a true coming of age story, and a great read...I think "Lassie Come Home" just lacks "the meat" necessary for a college level course..."The Yearling" is up there with all the American classics...you will love it, very regional (the Florida Everglades in the mid 1800's) the dialect it wonderful...a real gem....it is not short, however, so keep that in mind....keep me posted, and good luck! Also there is a wonderful film version with Gregory Peck/Jane Wyman and another film with Mary Steenbergen about the writer, Marjorie Kinnon Rawlings, and what it took to not only write the novel, but get it published!
shareI've watched the movie on TCM, and I've already read the book, so I can't do that one. We aree supposed to read a children's book that is new to us. I have not read Lassie Come Home, although I am very familliar with the original movie version with Elizabeth Taylor (I love the film; it makes me cry several times every time I watch it).
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Okay, I get it.
How about "Charlotte's Web" by E.B. White...you will read this very quickly, and all my students (Grades k to 5)just LOVE this small novella...great themes/great life lessons for children, and many teaching materials should you decide to teach...Notice I am squashing "Lassie Come Home", although that is a movie I love... I always cry too, and I am much older than you! Anyhow,I think "Homeward Bound" is the same story as "Lassie Come Home" but updated, and involves several more animals .. But seriously consider "Charlotte's Web"..a classic story, wonderful and moving...there are two movie versions, one as a musical in 1971/72 and the most recent last year with Julia Roberts as Charlotte (the spider) and Dakota Fanning as Fern (owner of Wilbur, the pig, the major character) ... keep me posted
It's on our reading list. It was the first one we had to read, in fact. I loved it, and I absolutely love the 1973 animated version, and I thought the new one was very well-done too, even though I still like the animated a little better. I thought Fern was really cute as Dakota Fannig, and I thought Julia Roberts's vocal performance was great. Homeward Bound was based on Shiela Burnford's The Incredible Journey. I love that movie too, and that is another one that makes me cry! I think Disney did an excellent job with it.
By the way, the most recent book for someone did as their book talk was Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, and one of the things mentioned was that if any of us would ever try to read the book as a teacher to our students, we should maybe read it aloud or have kids practice the dialogue, because there are parts where the dialect might be somewhat hard for a young reader. I know the same problem might occur with Lassie Come Home, as much of the dialogue is different European dialects. My 9th grade sister had to read The Secret Garden for school, and she had not the faintest idea of how the Yorkshire dialogue should sound, or even the "real words" being used. Granted, she is not the best reader, nor a very avid one, though she does somewhat enjoy reading certain types of books. Me, on the other hand, I have always enoyed all kinds of books. By the time I chose to read The Secret Garden for pleasure somewhere around 9th grade, I may not have been 100% accurate in placing the sound of the dialect, but I knew what they were saying. Now, of course, I can rattle of the dialect the way it really should sound. I pick up on accents and languages fairly easy.
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Okay, then how about one of the Roaold Dahl (sp?) novels such as "James and the Giant Peach" or "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" ...? Again, fun "reads" for children as well as adults, and both made into excellent films...I have students, Grades K to 5 who just love the drama/dialects I employ when I open class with a "read-a-loud" ... you have to "hook" them through more than the words written, and I find drama the key to leading them into reading, you have to make the story come alive...I also use props wherever I can, especially for the little ones. Example: if I am reading "The Gingerbread Man", I make/buy gingerbread for the class. Today, with Halloween on the way, I read "The Littlest Pumpkin" so I paid 39 cents for the smallest pumpkin I could find to be the pumpkin in the story......btw, remember your audience...my kids in the South Bronx would have no patience/nor interest (unfortunately) in "Treasure Island" (too "real" for them) but something like "James and the Giant Peach" with its NYC destination and fantasy elements, surely appeals to them.
Keep me posted on what you finally decide to do....
I have not read either of those books, although I've seen the movies. I actually like the musical version of Chocolate Factory with Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka, as opposed to the more recent version with Johnny Depp, although I do really like Freddie Highmore a lot. I think he is such an adorable little boy!
On our reading list for this week, however, is The Witches by Roald Dahl. But there was someone else who did a book by the same author as one on our list. The author was Lisa Yee, and on our list is Millicent Min, Girl Genius, and he chose to do a companion book to it, Stanford Wong.
I'm not sure yet what I'll do, but I'll figure something out. What do you think of Sarah, Plain and Tall?
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"Sarah, Plain and Tall" is a nice choice, but perhaps a bit mature for children as the subject is a semi "arranged marriage", and I am not sure kids will understand that was the way it was way back when...
Now speaking of way back when, you mentioned Freddy Highmore and you set something off in my brain...why not the original James Barrie "Peter Pan"...a great read that few have read! Everyone thinks they read it,because we have seen "umteenth" movie versions, which are quite sanitized for a children's audience...However, the original Barrie novel is amazingly clever, and has a definite dark side, especially in Peter's attitude towards "parents" and adults in general i.e the boy who refuses to grow up...this novel was quite a surprise, not at all what you would expect...take a look, it's a short/fast read.
Someone else is doing Peter Pan already. I have never read the book, but I've seen the Disney movie I don't know how many times, and I've seen the live-action film done a few years ago, and I've even seen a performance of the play that the theatre at my university did. I love the Disney movie, and I loved the play. I did not like the live-action version as much as these, but still enjoyed it.
As for maturity, like I mentioned, the intended audience range can be anywhere from young elementary all the way through high school. Someone did Twilight a couple weeks ago, and said that would be for middle/high school audience.
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Trust me, there is another side to the novel "PeterPan" ... Disney sanitizes their films to suit their young audience, and will downplay anything "not nice"...Hence, the dark side of Peter Pan (just think about it, a boy who refuses to grow up?!) is not presented...
Anyhow, I still think you should consider "James and the Giant Peach" ... or any other Raoal Dahl novel..a great read for kids....
Have you thought about any of the" Oz " books? i.e "The Wizard of Oz" or "Return to Oz" etc. etc. by Frank L. Baum? Frank L. Baum has a book of "American Fairy Tales", a collection of about 7 stories, and they are longer than your ususal fairy tale, which are terrific reads, different from Grimms Fairy Tales, much meatier, better written... would you be allowed to do a collection of fairy tales? You could discuss what makes them uniquely "American" etc. I purchased this collection of Frank L. Baum "American Fariy Tales" from Dover Publications website, they were very inexpensive, should you not find them at a local library...they were charming, and so entertaining...most people always thank of Baum as the author of "The Wizard of Oz" ... there is so much more that he wrote.
"You are running out of time!! When all else fails, fall back on "Lassie Come Home"! Keep me posted.
I am not above reading Peter Pan for pleasure whenever I might have time. I suppose I could do James and the Giant Peach. Someone today just presented another book by one of the authors on our reading list--The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary. Our assigned book was Ramona the Pest. This week we have actually been discussing The Witches by Roald Dahl. I have read a few of the "Oz" sequals, but actually not the first one. I was curious to see what kind of other adventures Dorathy had in Oz beyond what the movie presents. I probably could do fairy tales, it's just a matter of finding a nice collection in the library. I present my book on November 11. I actually thought of another book I might be interested in: The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White. I loved reading Charlotte's Web, so I'm sure I'd like The Trumpet of the Swan. Going back to Lassie, I could talk about how the book inspired the first movie, and then that movie inspired so many other Lassie movies, and indeed a whole Lassie franchise. They even did a remake of Lassie Come Home in like 2004, so there's even a Lassie movie for today's generation of animal lovers.
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So many possibilities ... so little time!! Life's ultimate dilemma...that is why it is so important to start learning how to read as early as possible, the younger the better... there is so much out there to read!
I was just looking at "The Trumpet of the Swan" about an hour ago at the local Library! There is a children's movie version, this is a chapter book I have not done with my classs but...good idea for you... I do like the "Lassie" spin you just explained...I grew up with the TV series, this came way after the movie, which I just loved ... iconic ... for every generation....
Another idea ... are you familiar with "Wishbone" , the PBS series in which an adorable Jack Russell Terrier named "Wishbone" does all the classics i.e. they dress him in costume to work within the classic novels they are presenting... my favorite was Wishbone in Dickens's "A Tale of Two Cities" and as Ichabod Crane in Washington Irving's "Tale of Sleepy Hollow"... I think Wishbone is today's "Lassie" of yesterday! Present that in your presentation should you choose to go with "Lassie Come Home"....
I used to watch that all the time when I was a kid! It combined two great things I have always loved: It has a dog that tells stories. What's not to like? The Sleepy Hollow one must've been when the kids were older in high school, because those are the ones I don't remember. They didn't show them very long. They went back to the old ones for a short while before they took it off the air, at least where I lived then.
As for The Trumpet of the Swan, we are doing another project in Children's Lit where we are supposed to do a sort of author presentation, and I chose E. B. White. We are to have a partner, and each of us must read another book by the author, so The Trumpet of the Swan would be good for that.
I was hooked on reading and books since before I could read by myself. My parents tell me I always had a book with me, and I was constantly asking them to read to me. My mom still remembers most of the books we read almost verbatim. She says she read to me enough that she memorized the book, and so she could watch tv while I was listening to her "read" the books. Well, now I can read by myself, but I still always have a book with me.
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I'm not sure that you guys get it in the states..i had heard that the author was banned...
but, when I was in grade 5, I had to read a book called owls in the family.....
it was hilarious from start to finish...
and it's by Farley mowatt....
a couple of his later books, lost in the barrens..(once again, not sure if you guys got that movie)...and its sequel.....don't remember the name....are also great reads..
and you had one of his other books in theatres...in 82, I think it was, never cry wolf...that's a book that I had to read when I think I was in grade 9...as well as lost in the barrens...
those are books that I'd recommend...
but, kids might be disappointed by Charlie and the chocolate factory......because of the two movies.......that were made from it.....I'm sure that the books are nothing like the first movie, willy wonka....and I've never seen this latest verstion..but..
susan
and wouldn't sarah plain and tall be a bit too old, for kids at this age range.....
I did decide to do Lassie Come Home after all. I think it would be unteresting to maybe offer it as an option for those kids who really love Lassie movies. I can mention how widespread the Lassie franchise has come to be, all from the original film based on Eric Knight's book.
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