Never underestimate the ability of children to understand books: a 4th Grade class in Brooklawn PA has been reading Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, and the kids love it. Parents and educators alike lament kids being raised by television, but offer little alternatives. While books don't necessarily promote such great ideals either (I hope the PA teacher doesn't follow up with Naked Lunch), it's destructive to assume that kids can't take a long book, read it for a couple weeks, and get something out of it. Destiny is getting to the point where she can follow a storyline even with breaks between readings, so I've been keeping a mental list of what she should start on...
i wouldn't have thought of
hemingway, but r l
stevenson's treasure island
is a sure crowd pleasure.
--skippy, 
3/7/2003 23:24:22
Ah, that's a good one --
Treasure Island was the first
long book I remember reading,
probably 2nd grade (I was an
advanced reader), and I was
very impressed. I mean, kid
hero, swords, trechery,
treasure, crazy hermits?
That's gradeschool gold! :)
Especially with Disney's
_Treasure Planet_ recently,
there'd be some interest from
kids.
My brother emailed me about
this, saying how his 4th
grade teacher read _Lord of
the Rings_ to his class, and
I did some checking, and a
Google search for "fourth
grade reading list" pulls up
a bunch of books written for
fourth graders, not
neccesarily quality books
with a 4th grade reading
level. Beverly Cleary and
Judy Blume dominated the
lists.
--Derek, 3/8/2003 06:18:51
Actually, the teacher didn't read it to us. We read
it by ourselves as an assignment. With some
reading aloud by each student.
--FrAnKiE, 3/21/2003 07:37:12
