Recommended English Books
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Thanks.My girl commented that its great books as she has read it before.
Should u have more recommendations, pls let us know.thanks again. -
Hi Joy,
It's great that your daughter has read through these books.
She must be an avid reader.
Here are more books for the upper primary that your daughter might like.
1) Switch by Anthony Horowitz
2) Burning up by Caroline B Cooney
3) The book of time by Guillaume Prevost
4) Bang, bang, you're dead by Narinder Dhami
5) Hunger (sequel of Gone) by Michael Grant
6) Among the hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix
Some information on a few of the books that are listed above:
1) Switch by Anthony Horowitz
2 boys who live very different lives - one poor and another rich but lonely - wish one day that they could live different lives. They wake up the next day and realise that they are no longer in their own bodies. They have switched bodies with one another. They do not know that at that point, just that the poor boy is now living as the rich and the rich one as the poor.
Later, the rich boy discovers some secrets about his family by living out his life as the poor boy. A very interesting read with great vocabulary as well.
Extract:
There was a full moon that night. As Finn and Tad crossed the empty square, their shadows raced ahead of them as if searching for somewhere to hide (great example of personification). It was a few minutes after midnight. Tad had heard the church bells toll the hour. They had seemed far away, almost in another world. Here, everything was pale and grey, the buildings like paper cutouts against the black night sky.
2) Burning up by Caroline B Cooney
In this story, a girl goes to visit her grandparents in an idyllic town. She loves the place and her grandparents. However, one day, she discovers that there was a fire that took place many years back when her grandparents were younger.
In that fire, the whole town watched the house of an African American teacher burn to the ground. Nobody lifted a finger to help him because of his race. The girl comes face to face with racism and she decides that she will not let this piece of history be forgotten, she wants to make things right. It is a thought-provoking story and one where the children can be taught to think of issues bigger than themselves.
3) The book of time by Guillanume Prevost
How is a statue, a coin and an old book linked together? Sam finds out when he slips the coin into the statue in his father's antique shop and finds himself transported back in time. He has to find his father who has gone back in history but for some reason or another has remained stuck back in time. Each time, he travels back to a particular time, he needs to find another similar coin so that he can make his way back to his own time. A riveting read!
Extract:
Sam fell to his knees, his guts in knots and his body racked with spasms. His arm still burned as he vomited painfully, uncontrollably, onto the thick green grass under his hands.
Wait a minute...Grass?
4) Bang, bang, you're dead! by Narinder Dhami
It seems like just another school day for Mia when everything goes wrong. The school is being evacuated. There is a rumour that there is a gunman in the school. Mia has a horrible feeling that it is her twin brother. He had recently been saying that he was going to do something to be noticed, to do something to make people notice the plight both siblings were in.
The story is a page-turner and there is a twist in the ending that is quite unexpected. This is really a good read.
Extract:
I climb to my feet with an effort, like a shaky old woman. I take one step towards the door and then freeze, immobile, as I hear footsteps running down the corridor outside. They echo loudly in the empty building.
A teacher checking that everyone has left?
The gunman?
Jamie?
How to get the books: Most are available at Borders. The Book of Time is available at Popular. We have Bang, Bang, You're dead and Hunger. Hunger should be available at the Library as well.
Hope your daughter will have a great time devouring these books!
TAS -
Hello TAS
My girl is done with the books u recommende and she enjoyed it except book by Caroline B Cooney as she says the character’s view point kept changing. May I know do u have more books to recommend?thanks alot…have to keep her occupy during this holidays…
cheers -
Hi, TAS
I've tried asking DS to read some of those books you recommended (he's in P3 now) but I think they're too difficult for him He told me there're too many words that he didn't understand and stop reading them altogether. Maybe his standard of English is just not there yet...
Ended up reading those books myself, and I must say there are really interesting :love:
Can you recommend some other books that is probably easier to read for P3? He doesn't really like to read and even if he does, he usually just sticks to one or two of his favourite titles (e.g. Beast Quest).
Thank you very much! -
Joy:
Hi Joy,Hello TAS
My girl is done with the books u recommende and she enjoyed it except book by Caroline B Cooney as she says the character's view point kept changing. May I know do u have more books to recommend?thanks alot...have to keep her occupy during this holidays...
cheers
Wow! That is fast! Your girl really loves books. :ugogirl:
These are further recommendations for the upper primary kids:
1) Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson
It is a haunting story about a slave girl whose mother has just died, leaving her sister and her at the mercy of the slave traders and masters. This book talks about her brave struggle against slavery, it is the first of a series of 3 books. It not only is gripping but it provides insight into a time where people's lives were valued a little more than animals.
2) Among the hidden is the first of a series on the shadow children. If your daughter likes the first one, she can go on to read the rest, they all start with the word 'Among'.
3) The Declaration & The Resistence by Gemma Malley
These 2 books talk about a time in the future where everyone wants to continue to look young. So people go for surgery and take pills to ensure their looks do not fade. Then one day, some scientists discover some technology that helps people to retain their looks and it works so well that they actually start to live on forever and remain looking the age that they did when they first started taking the 'pills'.
However, this means that the world's resources start to deplete fast as there are babies being born and yet hardly anyone dying. Hence, the world turns against the young. And people do not give birth anymore and those who have children have to send their children to a place where the children are brainwashed into thinking that they should be servants to the adults. These 2 books focus on 2 children's fight against such a system and how they discover that there is an underground network of adults who want to help these children. Among the adults are one of the children's parents. A very interesting read!
TAS -
[Editor's note: Topic selected & edited for http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/content/books-9-year-olds.]
Hi sakura_2009,
Yes, these books are more for upper primary kids. You could save them for your child when he gets to Pri 5 and above We personally love these books, they are of the 'cannot-put-down' variety we feel and thus
we recommend them to the kids.
For primary 3 children, these are some of the suggestions:
1) Magic Treehouse series
This is a very common series that talks about 2 children who go back in time to interesting events that happen in the past. For example: the volcanic eruption in Pompeii and how they try to solve some puzzle there or help someone during their travels.
2) Tremors
This series is very interesting. There are not many words so a reluctant
reader will find it easy to read and yet the plot is interesting. Sometimes
books that are thin have boring and simple plots so this series is good.
However, one warning- the stories can be a little eerie.
One story is about a boy who wakes up and finds that he is back in the past and he has to help a great grand uncle or some distant relative survive a storm. Some stories are on ponds/camps that are haunted but the ghost is not really scary. The stories always have a twist in them as well.
Most children are not scared when they read them but if your child has an active imagination, he might be. So it would be good to look through the books first. The words used are also good. (there are quite good descriptive phrases in them)
3) Magic Mischief by Anna Dale
The shop owner encounters a stench in his shop that somehow turns to magic and his shop becomes the breeding ground of much magical mischief (thus the title)
4) Destined to live by Ruth Gruener
This true story is about a girl who survives the Holocaust. It talks about how her world turns upside down when the Germans invade her town and how she has to flee for her life. She later settles down in America and has to adapt to the culture there.
It is a good book to introduce your child to history and to some of the atrocities that happened and to also share with your child on racism.
5) 39 clues
It is a series of books that follow 2 children as they travel from country to country to try to retrieve some clues to piece together a puzzle that their deceased aunt left for them. However there are many others on that same hunt and the other parties try to sabotage their hunt. It is something like a book version of 'Amazing Race' but a bit more deadly one. Interesting!
Where to get the books: Most of the books are available at most bookstores except Tremors. We do carry in Tremors but have sold out our last batch and are now waiting for the new batch to arrive. If you are interested, you can email us your orders.
TAS -
TAS,
since you have recommended some story books on history, do u know if 'the diary of anne frank ’ is available in singapore? My ds read biography of anne frank and was asking to read her diary. tks! -
Hi, TAS
:thankyou: for your recommendation. Really appreciate it -
Hi TAS,
any books to intro for P2 kids? probably those books which we could get at the libraries… -
pokemon:
Hi pokemon,TAS,
since you have recommended some story books on history, do u know if 'the diary of anne frank ' is available in singapore? My ds read biography of anne frank and was asking to read her diary. tks!
Yes it is, you can find it at the libraries and most bookstores.
Borders should have them, they have a biography section
at their kid's corner.
If your ds likes to read about history, namely about the Holocaust, there are 2 other books that are very good:
1) Number the stars by Lois Lowry
Lois Lowry is an award-winning author. In this story,
a Danish family decide to help their Jewish neighbour
by taking in their daughter, Annemarie Johansen. They
pretend she is part of the family but later have to explain
why she is not blond like the rest of their daughters to the
German soldiers who raid their apartment one night.
It traces the true story of how the Danish Resistance
manage to smuggle out almost the entire Jewish population
of 7000 in their country to safety. Even in the time of terror
and war, the Danish held on to their human decency and
triumphed over the war atrocities in the end. Powerful story!
2) The Boy with the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne
This story is written from the point of Bruno, a 8 year old boy
whose father is a high-ranking German official.
They live in a huge house in Berlin. However later
the whole family moves away to a place called Out-With
(which turns out to be Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz).
His father is one of the main officers running the camp.
Bruno does not know this. He has no friends his age to play with
and is always bored at his new home. He sees the concentration
camp from afar and sees people in 'pajamas'(striped uniforms
that the Jews wore in the concentration camps) inside the
enclosed area and thinks that he can find friends there.
Later on, he explores the woods and comes upon the fence
enclosing the concentration camp and he meets a Jewish boy
his age (Shmuel) on the other side of the fence. They become
friends and later on Bruno helps Shmuel to try to find his father.
(His father had been gassed to death). He puts on a
pair of striped pajamas that Shmuel lends him,
digs a hole under the fence and
goes over to the concentration camp.
Find out what happens to him
in the end in the book.
The story is a gripping and haunting one.
The book has also been made into a movie (title is the
same as the book title)
TAS
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