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Abridged/adapted books
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So, people say you should read the original versions of the classics not the watered down ones, so I was going through my bookshelves clearing out twaddle to replace with good books and from years past I have all these abridged kids classics(which I don’t think any of my kids have actually read). I was going to get rid of them but then started thinking where do my kids go after they get passed all those little readers. Is there plenty out there for them to read without using all the abridged versions?
There are plenty of unabridged twaddle-free lit. out there.
You can find them at Yesterday’s Classics;
1000 Great Books List and click according to reading level;
The Elson Readers (fropm Lost Classics or free online) and Reading-Lit. readers by H. Treadwell (free at BAldwin Project or from Yesterday’s Classics) -both have excellent collections of fine literature before the PC polioce got to them, as do The BookHouse books from Olivia Miller.
All through the Ages -using literature for history, is one big book of booklists at four age levels.
Ambleside ONline lists for year-by-year:http://www.amblesideonline.org/curriculum.shtml#years
Valerie’s Living Books (be carefull you can stay here forever):http://valerieslivingbooks.info/
Hope that gets you started.
For that in-between-period where they are reading, but not quite to chapter books, I do like some of the books I got from one list…. They are short picture books, but are not twaddle.
Danny and the Dinosaur – Sydney Hoff
Little Bear – Else Minarik
Burgess Animal Stories (various – not the Animal Book) – Thornton Burgess
Frog and Toad
The Boxcar Children (just the first few)
Mother West Wind’s Children – Burgess
Owl Moon – Jane Yolen
The Little House – Virginia Lee Burton
Madeline
Ferdinand – Munro Leaf
Corduroy – Don Freeman
The Story of Ping – Marjorie Flack
Harry the Dirty Dog – Gene Zion
Little Island – Golden Macdonald
We haven’t read all of these, and there are surely others – but I find they make a nice “bridge”….
I do like the AO lists….
I’m not a fan of abridged books, either, but I did find a use for one this year.
My oldest DS read two different books that both made reference to Robinson Crusoe and his plight. The classic itself by Defoe was way beyond his reading level, and even as a read-aloud would have been difficult. I did feel, though, like he should read that book so that he could more fully understand the references from the other authors. I had an abridged version on my Kindle from Yesterday’s Classics, so he read that.
I will have him read the original sometime when he is ready, but for now the abridged version filled that gap.
Yes, there are a few books I would use as abridged, too; and of those, older versions where possible and not usually literature. I think older authors (like the Robinson Crusoe written Anew) keep the flavor of the original better. Most literature is best waited for till they are mature enough for it, but there are a few.
Les Miserables
The Illiad, The Odyssey, Aeneid (I’m choosing the Rosemary Sutcliff versions this year, then either Alfred Church or Padraic Colum versions later)
A Plutarch starting at 10/11 (Our Young Folk’s Plutarch by Rosalie KAufman now then in high school, an advanced one)
Stories from Plato and other Classic Writers by Mary Burt
Beowulf adapted by H.E. MArshall
The Story of Roland by James Baldwin
Stories of Don Quixote by James Baldwin
The Story of Seigfried by James BAldwin
Beautiful Soties from Shakespeare by Nesbitt
Tales from Shakespeare by Charles and MAry Lamb
Aesop for Children by MIlo Winter
Herodutus history (one by Alfred Church)
Josephus history (one by Alfred Church)
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