classic/great fiction for a reluctant reader

I personally just finished reading Robinson Cruso (RC), Kidnapped, and am reading Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates.  (I decided that Bookworm was right and I needed to read what I was going to expect my kiddos to read). And, I really enjoyed them.

RC should not be hard to read – aside from a few unfamiliar words – and is the story of a young man who is off to make his way in the world.  He is doing pretty well, and then the ship is wrecked and he is the sole survivior on an unknown island.  He’s pretty resourceful for 27 years and the story resolves with his rescue of a man from the cannibals (they don’t do details) and then the man in turn helps rescue him.  RC also learns to have faith in God after intitially not caring about Him.

Kidnapped is the story of a boy who loses his father, finds out his father has long been estranged from his rich brother, and goes to find him.  Turns out the father should’ve been the rich one – and so the rich uncle pays a ship captain to kidnap him and take him to sea.  While on the ship he mets a Scotman who is taking refuge in France for having served Bonnie Prince Charlie in Scotland’s Jacobite Rebellion – and the boy saves the Scotman from death aboard the ship in splendid warfare. =)  This story takes place about 6 years after the Rebellion was crushed by England, but the Scots are still being cruelly punished for their support of Prince Charlie (true history) – and the Scotsman is on his yearly pilgrimage to see his family.  They end up having a shipwreck off the Scots shore, and meeting up later to have true adventures all the way through Scotland and down to England, where the boy is able to claim his property and the Scotsman returns to service of the French King. The boy wavers between a young man’s dreams of adventure and riches to coming to understand that character matters more.  There will be a Scots accent in here and a few unfamiliar words to go with that accent, but are usually figured out within the context.

Hans Brinker is, so far, quite interesting.  He is the only son of a disabled father and mother who work hard to support them.  He has a little sister and best friend, Greta.  They are in Holland (learned some geographical and social traditions of Saint Nicholas) and have to help provide for the family.  The day the Dad was injured he had hidden a veritable treasure of the money they had worked so hard to save, and can’t tell the mother where it is.  I think that it is very readable for a 6th grader and would actually be a splendid read-aloud for your boys.  I am at the part where the village boys get to go skating up the canal for over 50 miles by themselves.  They stop to rest at a museum and the author records their visit and interest in which paintings they like (they skip the Rembrants, etc) to go study an ugly painting of a ship at war, another one they liked because the kid had smeared egg all over his face when he was eating it…typical boy likes. lol  It contains some fun historical facts and vivid descriptions of the towns.  This is as far as I have gotten.  Anyway, I plan on having my 6th grade dd read it soon. =)  My copy has asteriks by unfamiliar words or references explaining them, but doesn’t distract from the story.

Not sure what else to tell you to try – has he read the Sign of the Beaver, My Side of the Mountain, etc?

Sometimes I think that buying one or two books with newer covers to pique their interest is worth it.  Once they trust you know what you are talking about, older books probably won’t matter. =)

Well, I don’t know if these will count as “well written books” but they are enjoyable stories.  They are books that I’ve decided to allow in my home because they teach good morals, especially for boys, even though they are probably considered twaddle.  

In our home, we’ve had to find a balance of classic/living vs. twaddle.  My husband is much more tolerant of twaddle because he just wants them to read (comics, junk books like Pokemon, anything that isn’t immoral).  I want them reading the BEST.  But sometimes they won’t.  So I read them the best books I can (bedtime, schooltime, etc), assign them to read some of the best books I can, and allow only those twaddle books that I’ve read and think teach the morals and characteristics that I want in our home.  And let’s face it, we all like to read brain candy once in a while.  As long as that’s not the only thing they’re reading I try to allow them the same leeway I allow myself – lots of great books with an occassional dip into fun/twaddle.

YES, the Chronicles of Narnia are wonderful (we’ve read them out loud and they’ve read it themselves)

the Fablehaven series by Brandon Mull

Leven Thumps series by Obert Skye

Ranger’s Apprentice series by John Flanagan

Adventurers Wanted series by Mark Forman

some people will not agree with this one, but we loved the Percy Jackson & Heroes of Olympus series by Rick Riordan (not so much the Egyptian one)

The Mysterious Benedict Society books by Trenton Lee Stewart (mystery and brain teasers with action/adventure)

Great Brain series by John D. Fitzgerald (sometimes Tom is a bit mercenary)

also, an older book that one boy LOVED was John Paul Jones by Iris Vinton

Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling

Guardians of Childhood series by William Joyce

perhaps the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, but I’m not sure of their ages…mine like to listen to them but not read them yet

While a bit crass at times, the How to Train Your Dragon series lit the reading fire in one boy.  He read them all very quickly and easily moved into much harder books….he just needed something to show him that books are great.  Having a long series meant that he kept reading and reading and reading and pretty much hasn’t stopped.

Sometimes we’ll start reading an older “classic” type book aloud and the older boys will get so frustrated with the pace that they grab it later in the day to finish it.  The G.A. Henty books and Ballantyne work well for this….but can be HARD to understand until you have more experience reading the ‘older’ language.  Treasure Island, Swiss Family Robinson, same thing.  Listening to audio books does this too….they grab the physical book and read it as quickly as they can.

Hope that helps!

Heather