Great books for boys (and how NOT to choose them...)

[hadassahchana[$]]

This week, we finally did it - our family started homeschooling. I planned throughout the entire summer, bought books, made lesson plans...

Which brings us up to yesterday. I told #2 (my second son out of four) what he would be reading for English. I chose 'Anne Of Green Gables', 'Misty Of Chincoteague', and the centrepiece of our year, all of the 'Little House' books- to be followed by soap- and candlemaking and wool-dyeing.

6 seconds later, this child was jumping, screaming, sobbing, pulling his hair and demanding to be allowed to use the phone- so that he could call the police, who were to make me take him to a 'real' school.


I went upstairs, got online and just happened to be lucky enough to catch Curtis Edmonds online, too. He quite kindly pointed out that I had picekd all the wrong sorts of books- and made the beginnings of a good list, just for boys.

After I finished with my new amazon.com order, #2 was all smiles, and announced that I was the best Mom in the world. Of course, he also said that Curtis was a genius- but I wasn't. That's ok, I have a strong ego, I can handle this...


Anyway, I want Curtis to continue his list here so that I can stay ahead of my boys, and so that you all can either benefit from it or add to it .



Cindy

[CurtisEdmonds]

Well, I can't say I'm a genius. I was a boy, though, and the better part of me still is. And the very idea of asking a boy to read a girl's book is just frightening. (One of the nice things about the Harry Potter series is that it's a boy's book that doesn't leave out girls.)

Here's a partial list.

* Narnia Chronicles, of course.

* The Prydain books by Lloyd Alexander.

* I grew up liking the juvenile-market science fiction of Robert Heinlein (Rocket Ship Galileo, Have Space Suit, Will Travel, Podkayne of Mars, etc.) Not all Heinlein is appropriate for younger readers, take care. (And make sure they read the Starship Troopers book and NOT the movie.)

* The Lemony Snicket books that I have read are quite good but short.

* The first book I ever bought myself was "This Hallowed Ground" by Bruce Catton about the Civil War. (Catton is a sterling historian but a Yankee.)

* Anything Arthurian; "The Once and Future King" et.al.

* The Hobbit, and the Lord of the Rings when the time comes for more serious action. (Again, the book before the movie, although I don't know how good the movie will be.)

* I am looking right now at the Newberry Award winners (my aunt the librarian believed strongly in them) from when I was growing up. (I have no clue about newer works, although I bet you a nickel that the multiculturalist police have taken over the ALA.) Here are some choice picks.
- Johnny Tremain, naturally
- The Matchlock Gun by my main man Walter Edmonds (no relation that I know of, and you want to pick up Guns Along the Mohawk)
- The Westing Game, which i have reviewed somewhere else
- A Wrinkle in Time, which I read again lately and was not as good as I remembered (not as good as the CS Lewis space trilogy, which I don't recommend for very young readers)
- Carry On, Mr. Bowditch (a good start, but remember to introduce them to Forester and O'Brian later)

http://www.ala.org/alsc/nquick.html

* What I read a lot of when I was very young were these very thin Weekly Reader books in a series called "The Story of America" that were just fabulous. "The Story of Pearl Harbor", "The Story of Arlington National Cemetery", "The Story of Old Glory". Very patriotic and nationalistic and such, but they were very good and fairly accurate and I still have the entire set and none of you are getting your dirty little hands on them.

I am sure there are other good choices, this is just a small sampling of what's out there.

[tipu]

I will second, and triple and quadruple any recommendations of the Prydain Chronicles.

And throw in The Earthsea Trilogy (haven't read the fourth) and The Dark Is Rising series into the mix.

I dunno the age of #2 Cindy, but if under 11 or so, I'd take a look at the works of Michael Bond, Enid Blyton... not literature but immensely pleasurable in the days I was still a bit innocent.

Ummm... boystuff... the Bruno and Boots series from Gordon Korman, though I always preferred Rudy Miller.

Definitely F. S. Fitzgerald's The Great Brain series. It's got everything a growing boy needs, with perhaps Tom Sawyer for dessert.

Dahl's got some boyish books (Danny the Champion...), but stay away from his tales from adults or he'll grow up dementedly twisted (now you know one of the reasons I ended up this way...).

S. E. Hinton for freshly pimpled teens.

Just looked at the Newberry winners Curtis threw up, and was reminded of The Trumpeter of Krakow...

... possibly more universal: The Secret of NIMH and Watership Down... E. B. White...


And you just cannot be called a 'cool mommy' until you've introduced the little ones to Bill Watterson. It's ethically impossible.
*

[jenninca]

Add Louis Sachar and Jerry Spinelli to that list!

[CurtisEdmonds]

Watership Down, unreservedly. And Adams wrote "Traveler", a paean to R.E. Lee's horse.

Which in turn reminds me of Hitchhiker's Guide. And the Asimov books; the Foundation books to start off with. And the Piers Anthony Xanth books.

I would also check out Philip Pullman; the His Dark Materials books are probably young-teenager age level but I understand that there are several of his books for younger teenagers.

The Great Brain books are very good if you can find them; if memory serves they are about a Catholic family living in Mormon Utah.

[jgibson2[$]]

Cindy,
Thanks for starting this thread! Curtis, I'm so glad you were on-line when Cindy needed you. I was never a boy, but this list is starting to have some of my very favorite books on it. My older sons very enthusiastically read many of the books you've listed.

I have a few to add myself. I realize that this is suspect, due to my gender, but we've had a blast reading E.B. White's Trumpet of the Swan and Stuart Little I haven't seen the Swan movie, and I didn't much care for Stuart Little, the movie but Matthew loved both books (he's 6). Then there's Tom Sawyer , Huckleberry Finn, and all of Twain's short stories. Let's not forget Rudyard Kipling, either with his Just So Stories and The Jungle Books

If you want poetry for boys, it's hard to beat Jack Prelutsky.
Homework, oh homework I hate you, you stink
I wish I could wash you away in the sink.
I'd rather take a bath with a man-eating shark
Or wrestle a tiger alone in the dark

It goes on, but you get the idea. There's even a book of disgusting poems just for boys. I know I'm sick, but I roared all the way through it.

Judy

[quasar]

Originally posted by CurtisEdmonds
Here's a partial list.

Okay, I liked every single book you listed. Does that mean I have more testosterone than I previously thought?

Janice

PS If you go with A Wrinkle in Time read all three books in the original trilogy. The third book (A Swiftly Tilting Planet) is by far the best IMNSHO, and to this day is still one of my all-time favorite books.

[tipu]

'ey, can we do Adams here? If yer gunna throw in THHGTTG, then we also gotta deal in Pratchett's Discworld, and Cindy'll have a supremely cynical young un e'en before he hits his teens...

Curtis... don't remember if the Fitzgeralds were Catholic, but yeh, the Great Brain series does take place in Salt Lake City...


Ack, I dunno how AWIT slipped my mind! The farandolae in A Wind in the Door always remind me of a part of Adams's Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, when they 'travel' to the spaceship...


Hey Cindy, you sorry you axed yet?


Throw in Juster's A Phantom Tollbooth, and you can even be called semi-cool if you can track down any of Daniel Pinkwater's Snarkout Boys books... The Avocado of Death for example...

... n you might wanna take a look at jrk's Bastille Day entry...
*

[hadassahchana[$]]

And you just cannot be called a 'cool mommy' until you've introduced the little ones to Bill Watterson. It's ethically impossible.

Whew! Luckily, I already passed this test. I even got the call from school when Levi Yitzhak (who has decided that he doesn't want to be called #2 in this thread ) told his teacher that if he received a chain saw for his eighth birthday, he'd bring it to school to show everyone.

Hey Cindy, you sorry you axed yet?

Good heavens, no! In fact, I feel as though I've just won the Lottery! We're off to the library this afternoon and I have lists already written out for each boy.

Now- everyone keep on with this. I am just so pleased to have gotten so much help! Thanks, guys.

Cindy

[hadassahchana[$]]

Oh- here are the ages of The Four Horsemen, which might make suggesting books just a bit easier:

Avraham Chaim, 14
Levi Yitzhak, 9
Moshe Yaakov, 6
Shlomo Yehudah, 4


Cindy

[Redlass]

A friend of mine has three boys (ages 5, 8, & 10). She recommends these books:

The Time Warp Trio series (by Jon Scieska -sp?)
The Captain Underpants books (by Dav Pilkey)
The King’s Swift Rider
Any folk tales by Robert de San Souci
For the younger ones, the Henry and Mudge books by Cynthia Rylant (likewise, her Mr. Putter and Tabby books)
The “Dear America” series (which has diary-style stories of children, both boys and girls, at various points in American history)
The Shiloh books
Where the Red Fern Grows
My Side of the Mountain
Treasure Island
Kidnapped (and anything else by Robert Louis Stevenson)
If they like sports, an author name Matt Christopher writes stories that revolve around sports like baseball, football and soccer
The Door in the Wall and The Black Fox of Lorne, both by Marguerite de Angeli
Encyclopedia Brown books

[mshawpyle]

Hmmmm....

My folks didn't believe in the concept of the 'boy's' book anymore than in the concept of the 'kid's' book. I was reading the Hornblower saga, and Sherlockiana, at the same time I was reading Ingalls Wilder, per Mumsie's recommendation. And look, ahem, at how I turned out: a gruff, bass-voiced military historian.... (You may now laugh.)

Equally, I'm not inclined to assign age levels to books. I will say that by the time any young person, boy or girl, reaches young Avi's age, he or she had best been exposed to most of the works so far listed.

And to others. Ahem.

Johnny Texas, Carol Hoff. Back in print. My father teethed on this one. Boys will lap it up.

The opera omnia of Robert Lawson, from Rabbit Hill to Ben and Me.

Joel Chandler Harris's Uncle Remus saga, in toto, unabridged.

The Prisoner of Zenda, Anthony Hope. Dashing derring-do.

All the work of E. Phillips Oppenheim, especially The Great Impersonation.

Manning Coles's sly, witty spy novels starring the British schoolmaster turned intel officer, Tommy Hambledon.

The whole corpus Sherlockiana, of course.

(I here pause to regret that, for fairly evident reasons, some Victorian - Edwardian classics are simply a no-go, including Chesterton and John Buchan.)

All of Elwyn Brooks White ? not just the kiddie stuff, but the collections of essays ('Death of a Pig,' for one). Also as much Thurber and Benchley as humanly possible. And S. J. Perelman. The joys of language should be early taught (Ed Newman and Bill Safire and Richard Lederer come also to mind).

The Phantom Tollbooth.

The Wind in the Willows. My goal is still to be Mr Badger when I grow up.

All the Kipling you can find: not just both (yes, both) Jungle Books, not merely Kim and Captains Courageous (neither of which I cared for), but The Just So Stories, Soldiers Three, and so on.

Twain. Heaping quantities of Twain. Including the shorts ('The Literary Sins of Fenimore Cooper' and the one about the conductor ['Punch, brethren, punch with care / Punch the ticket of the passen-gaire']) and Life On the Mississippi.

Sir Walter Scott.

Carroll. (Perhaps as annotated by Martin Gardner.)

All the Hank the Cowdog tales. Nice to know classics are still being created. Similarly, Ben K. Green and maybe some Louis L'Amour.

Walter R. Brook's Freddy the Pig series. Both Dwight 'Counsel' Moody and I turn out to have grown up on these.

To Kill a Mockingbird.

Edwin Way Teale, Aldo Leopold, and John Muir.

A good life of TR (perhaps Mornings on Horseback). Any story of how a sickly, asthmatic youth living in a brownstone could become, by sheer willpower, the Great Outdoorsman, the Conservation President, the Hero of San Juan Hill, &c, is a sure hit with boys.

In that context, such sets as Rookie Biographies and/or the Leaders in Action Series, which ranges from R. E. Lee to Patrick Henry to Booker T. Washington (all Virginians, I pause to note), may be of some interest, though these would not be my first or even five-hundredth choice. Too Prot and too Livian. (Ave, Asinius Pollio!)

Instead, it is not too early for serious biography. It's what I got in my day, after all. One-volume abridgments, as of Southall Freeman on St Bob, are OK, mind you. And be eclectic: I was. By the time I was Levi Yitzhak's age (word to Number Two Son: he shares his prænomen with a grandfather of mine, whose middle name was Levi), I'd read bios of Lee, yes, but also of Lincoln, of TR and of Winston, of the great scientist Charles Proteus Steinmetz, and so on. A classic example of a bio suitable for a young man of those years is Marquis James's The Raven, about the remarkable Sam Houston.

By the way, I trust that young Shlomo Yehudah has already been made free of the Hundred Acre Wood, for - although there will usually be a period from about Avraham Chaim's age to, oh, 25 or so, when one tries to be sophisticated - the fact is, no matter how old one gets, there is always a clearing somewhere 'in which a small boy and his bear are forever playing.'

I'm also sure, by the way, that such virtues and principles as I possess owe something at least to early encounters with Sewell's Black Beauty, the world of Kingsley's Water Babies, Sir Percy Blakeney, Bart. - The Scarlet Pimpernel - and the works of George Macdonald. (One caution on Orczy's classic. There is one scene that is unpardonable. In a home setting, it can be dealt with.)

Oh - and leave us not forget my old friend Paddington Bear.

Fact is, for the longest time, princes and prelates were none too proud to admit a familiarity with fables. Æsop is yet a must for any educated person, especially if the lads are to have the great advantage of a Classical education. When it's time to start them on Greek, there you have it to hand; and an early Latin text should be Winnie Ille Pu.

Your eldest is certainly ready to make the acquaintance of one Peter Death Bredon Wimsey, probably via the short stories.

Oh. And Poe.

Have we mentioned Jules Verne yet? After the English translations are internalized, start the lads off in French. See also Asterix and the Tintin volumes.

Dumas is an imperative. No boy can resist the gallant Musketeers and M le Comte de Monte Cristo.

Charles Lamb's Essays of Elia and your selections of suitable essays by Montaigne should be on the horizon by now, too.

Selected Jack London, perhaps? There was a period in my life when I gorged, briefly, on Albert Payson Terhune, too, but from a literary standpoint, not even my love for dogs could long justify such soggy prose.

It's never too early for The Iliad, The Odyssey, and The Æneid.

Same goes for spoonfed bits of Boswell's Life of Johnson.

I know you've some Jerome K. Jerome about the house.

Sholem Aleichem is a no-brainer, of course. What lapidary short stories he could write.

Steve Raymond on trout, Havilah Babcock (with judicious guidance from y'all) on hunting and fishing, and Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek are about right for your eldest now.

I regret that the old American tales are dumbed-down these days. Comb used books for the old, uncompromisingly-written volumes on the Paul Bunyan cycle, &c (there was one in the 40s that had contributions from, inter alia, Robert Frost).

The Jack Tales are a must.

If you can find Franklin Russell on nature, grab it.

Dobie. Yeehaw. And John Graves. Never too early.

The WPA did a 'Rivers of America' series in the Depression. Great stuff.

The Hoovers's A Place in the Woods is a treasure.

I'll stop now. Arbitrarily. Because otherwise, I never will (shades of Tristram Shandy!). Still. These were all in my hands by Avraham Chaim's age (bar those not then yet published, in which case similar works served). Not that I'm normal.

Have fun and keep us posted.

[quasar]

Originally posted by mshawpyle
The opera omnia of Robert Lawson, from Rabbit Hill to Ben and Me.

Yes, you must get them Robert Lawson. Ben and Me and Mr. Revere's Horse particularly are absolutely incredible, and an excellent way to learn about history.

I also concur with the Johnny Tremain recommendation.

IMO, Avraham is at a point where "children's books" are no longer the thing to look for (not that he can't still read them, but certainly he should be able to handle most books by that age. Of course, I started reading Dickens when I was 6 so what do I know )

How about some Ogden Nash for the younger ones? Quirky and funny enough to keep anyone's attention. You may have to help with a few of the words, but I bet they'd like him.

And I just thought of a must have for all children big or small - D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths. It's bright, colorful, large print, with a page devoted to each myth/god. It was one of my favorites for years and years.

Probably any mythology would go over well. I was particularly fond of Norse and Egyptian mythology as a youngster.

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankenweiler is an excellent book that would probably go well with a museum visit of some sort.

Little Lord Fauntleroy would probably go over well. The Story of Ferdinand the Bull would probably work well for the smallest two as would The Velveteen Rabbit. Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories also.

How about Lyle the Crocodile? Fantastic Mr. Fox (my favorite Dahl). For the older ones, maybe Tom Swift and Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh (a personal favorite).

I'm not sure if the goal is just to get them reading or to find really educational books they won't mind reading, so I don't know if all of these fit your needs.

Janice

[CurtisEdmonds]

Lonely and forgotten,
I'd never thought she'd look my way
And she smiled at me and held me just like she used to do
Like she loved me
When she loved me

-- R. Newman

This is as good a time as any -- without dipping into schmaltz -- to point out something. The problem with this thread is that it's a memory-jogger -- I was sitting here a second ago, for no particular reason, and for no particular reason said "The Cricket in Times Square!" Hadn't thought about it in years.

My point -- and I do have one -- is that all of us owe a great an incalculable debt to the books we read, the Friends of our Youth, one that can't be adequately measured, and one that is all too often taken for granted. These are relationships that, like all relationships, need to be renewed from time to time. It is good to have that opportunity here.

If MSP is going to bring up Hornblower then I am going to bring up O'Brian, although I do not know at what age that would be appropriate. (The Flashman books, of course, are unthinkable.)

Sherlock, yes. And Dame Agatha (which is what I grew up on, yep.)

The Edmund Morris bio of TR is excellent. So is the Manchester bio of Churchill.

The Little Prince!

MSP is right. This could go on forever and ever.

[emeleel]

Yep, the "The Great Brain" series is about a Catholic family living in Salt Lake City. But good heavens, Cindy, if your boys are the least bit gullible and/or inclined to do thing 'cuz we read it in this really cool book YOU bought us... then stay far, far away! LOL The Brain gets into so many schemes...think Tom Sawyer's fence painting scheme multiplied by a factor of 5. And a new scheme every week.

That being said, it is a hilarious series, and one I definitely want to invest in later. Much, much later, like maybe for my grandkids......

[tipu]

Originally posted by emeleel
But good heavens, Cindy, if your boys are the least bit gullible and/or inclined to do thing 'cuz we read it in this really cool book YOU bought us... then stay far, far away!

What utter nonsense Melanie! Tom and J. D. teach li'l ones vital life skills. I remember selling my brothers drawings they had drawn themselves...

Originally posted by mshawpyle
Oh. And Poe.

Have we mentioned Jules Verne yet? After the English translations are internalized, start the lads off in French. See also Asterix and the Tintin volumes.

Billions of blue bilious barnacles, Sir Pyle, you're e'en cooler than I thought! Poe & M. Verne for #1, perhaps supplemented by measured doses of O. Henry shorts.

#2 will have to fight off #s 1 & 3 long enough to get through the adventures of Captain Haddock, Professor Calculus, Snowy and Tintin. I remember Hergé also had another less known series involving a brother-sister pair and their pet (monkey?)...

... just like I prefer cherry vanilla to mint choc chip ice cream, I preferred the Uderzo & Goscinny creation to Tintin. The themes sometimes get a bit risqué for a 9-year-old (The Great Divide), and the cartooning sometimes seems stereotypical, but the Gauls are great fun, the names can be drop-to-the-ground-in-ball-of-lughter funny, and there's even a plot to all this!

(Both Tintin and Asterix owe much to their translators for gettings the jokes, puns and wordplays across.)



As Curtis mentioned, let's throw in a little of Dame Agatha for those reaching their teens. My faves of hers: Taken at the Flood, Dumb Witness, Curtain.


Poetry... I assisted a 1st grade teacher during a school year, and he'd get even the wildest child calmed down reading from and displaying Sidney Sheldon's work...


I'm drawing a big blank for #3 & #4—I went from Clifford the Big Red Dog and The Berenstein Bears to the Three Investigators and the Hardy Boys in a few months while learning English... but you may want to reread an epinion on Millions of Cats Cindy...


'Earth! Sounds like a belch!' • Hari Seldon :: Prelude to Foundation
*

[CurtisEdmonds]

I remember The Three Investigators; it was a series that involved Alfred Hitchcock, of all people, and when they would get stuck on a case they'd go visit him. I think.

[hadassahchana[$]]

Yep, the "The Great Brain" series is about a Catholic family living in Salt Lake City. But good heavens, Cindy, if your boys are the least bit gullible and/or inclined to do thing 'cuz we read it in this really cool book YOU bought us... then stay far, far away!

Of course my boys are like that- which is why we have a four year old who wants to be a fairy when he grows up- too much 'Iolanthe'. He briefly considered being the Queen Of The Night (better costume) until she met with a moderately unhappy end.

My boys use every available bit of info to get into trouble, and since we don't watch TV, I'd much rather they be literate troublemakers than sit in front of a Playstation clicking buttons. I'll take my chances- and besides, I loved 'The Great Brain' when I was little (and my mother survived! ).

I remember selling my brothers drawings they had drawn themselves...

I have a Large Hole in my back yard. The 6 year old dug it in order to catch a Heffalump. I only discovered that this had occurred when he came in to ask if jam might be the same as honey...

The older three boys found an old receipt. They managed to convince the youngest that it was his receipt, and now they could take him back to the store and get lots of money for him...

Levi Yitzhak still gives anyone who angers him a slip of paper with a Black Spot on it... He also posts proclamations ordering various family members, including kittens, to clear out by noon tomorrow, and signs it "The Sherif Of Notingham[sic]"

No matter what, kids are going to come up with things like this. As I mentnioned before, we don't watch TV. Therefore, Kevin and I derive hours of amusement and entertainment from watching the guys do these things to each other.

Cindy