Recommended English Books
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Hi TAS
Thank you for your valuable feedback.
I happened flip through this book and notice it come with close and numerous words almost in every page. DD has finished reading and seems that she quite enjoy with it.
Wish you a nice day. :lol: -
Hi Brenda,
No problem
TAS -
Hi parents,
There is an author that we want to recommend here.
The author is Andrew Norriss and he won the Whitbread Award
for one his books-Aquila.
This is his website that you can show your children,
http://www.andrewnorriss.co.uk/
here he talks about his favourite books and shows pictures of his family,
it helps when children know more about the author, it can help make a
child want to read the book more.
His writing is very engaging. His characters are very likable and
each character is different and you get pulled into the story by them.
There is a slight comic touch to his writing as some of his
characters can be funny. You can do quite a bit on character study for
the characters in his books.
We want to introduce one book of his here.
The Portal
- The plot is very different and interesting. 2 boys come home to find
their parents gone. Their closest neighbour and their father's work
supervisor who seems to pop out of nowhere assures them that
all is fine. Daniel, the younger brother, takes it all in his stride, and
seems to take it as a kind of holiday where he can do whatever
he wants. William who is 13 and is 5 years older than Daniel is not so
sure.
There are a few things that do not add up. Uncle Larry (the supervisor)
does not seem to know how to operate their father's car. He seems
to know nothing of food and how to prepare them. They get postcards
from their parents saying they have decided to take a short holiday
in France but William knows that their parent's clothes are still in their cupboards.
Later on when he confronts Uncle Larry with all this discrepancies, Uncle
Larry reveals to him that underneath their house, they actually have a
secret portal which allows for intergalactic travel. William's
father's job is to man the portal but now he and his mother seemed to
have disappeared. Uncle Larry then tells William that he would travel
into other galaxies to find their parents but William must help man
the portal as they are expecting guests from other planets to come through.
Besides the storyline, the depth of the characterization really makes this
story different from others. Here, you will see that Daniel, although,
happy at first that he can eat whatever he wants, starts to get
very mad easily. He gets into many a shouting match with Mrs Duggan,
their neighbour, who is looking after them. Later on, William, finds out
from a General, who is travelling through the portal, how to handle
his brother.
The general gives him insight to how little kids think and feel. He shows
William that, although Daniel was young, he could sense that things
were not going on well and was starting to panic and worry but did not
know how to express his fears and hence would express those fears by losing his temper very often.
He tells William that if he explained things to Daniel and then gave him
tasks to do, to show him that he was important, it would help. He told
William that the key was to help Daniel see that his strengths- he was
crazy about nature and animals- could be put to good use as the
intergalactic guests loved going on field trips to explore the Earth's
animals and plants.
Most of the characters- even those travelling through the portal- are not
one -dimensional. They help give insight to the human nature.
This book is suitable for most kids aged from 9 to 12.
For this book, we are also doing a 'Think deeper' worksheet
that will focus a lot on the different characters and how William and
Daniel mature through this misadventure that they have.
Information on \"The Portal\" can be found at this link:
http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?p=226873#226873
TAS -
Hi TAS,
My child loves to read and I think he reads at a rather fast rate. At P1 now, he’s reading most of the Puffin classics(complete & unabridged) eg Journey to the Centre of the Earth, etc. He loves CS Lewis books and have finished reading all the volumes in Chronicles of Narnia. I was at first doubtful if he does understands the plot. So i took to quizing him each time he finishes a title and he can narrate the story to me and showed gd understanding and he’s also able to explain the meaning of certain words not seen before according to the context. At times, he will pick history/science encyclopedias and read any topic that is of interest to him.However my concern is since i can’t read as fast as him (no time), it’s almost impossible for me to really go deeper into analysing the stories with him. Do you have any advice on what i can do with him? How best can i tap onto his love for print? Or just let him carry on reading?
What other titles do u recommend for his case? He loves those G. Stilton books but i limit his reading of such bks for certain reasons.
Do u hv creative writing classes for P1 level? -
googaga:
Hi googaga,Hi TAS,
My child loves to read and I think he reads at a rather fast rate. At P1 now, he's reading most of the Puffin classics(complete & unabridged) eg Journey to the Centre of the Earth, etc. He loves CS Lewis books and have finished reading all the volumes in Chronicles of Narnia. I was at first doubtful if he does understands the plot. So i took to quizing him each time he finishes a title and he can narrate the story to me and showed gd understanding and he's also able to explain the meaning of certain words not seen before according to the context. At times, he will pick history/science encyclopedias and read any topic that is of interest to him.However my concern is since i can't read as fast as him (no time), it's almost impossible for me to really go deeper into analysing the stories with him. Do you have any advice on what i can do with him? How best can i tap onto his love for print? Or just let him carry on reading?
What other titles do u recommend for his case? He loves those G. Stilton books but i limit his reading of such bks for certain reasons.
Do u hv creative writing classes for P1 level?
I think it is impressive that your son at Primary 1 can read all those
books that you mentioned.
Since he is such a voracious reader, let him continue to keep reading
as it will be a habit he will keep for life.
It would be difficult to keep up with all your child's reading, what you can
do is to read just a few pages from the beginning and end of the
book and to also read the reviews on the internet to know
what the book is about and from there, you can ask him questions.
You do not have to ask him questions about the plot of the book
since he has shown that he is indeed able to read and comprehend
all the books he is reading. As he has already cultivated a love
for reading, now you want to help him to be able to think at a
deeper level by using what he has read.
You could ask him questions that allows him to think at a
deeper level.
For example for Narnia, you could make him think deeper about
the battle between good and evil that is depicted in the books.
You could ask him questions like:
1) Do you think there is a battle going on like this in the world?
2) Why do you think people want to get into war? (from here,
you can share about how it is greed and selfishness that makes
people want to fight and how people are not satisfied with what
they have and that often results in war)
3) Who do you think suffers the most in the war?
4) If you were in Narnia, would you choose to help the Lion Aslan
in his fight or would you rather sit back and watch the fight?
You do not need to read the whole book to ask him questions like
that, you just need to get a rough idea of the plot and you can
ask him questions like that to get him to see the metaphors
that are used in the book to describe what is happening in the
real world and to help him to see how these issues can affect him.
For his reading level, I would recommend books by:
- Andrew Norriss
(his books are mainly on time travel, intergalactic travel, special
machines that can do amazing things..his books are very good
for character studies)
- Magaret Peterson Haddix
(she has a series called 'The Shadow Children' which talks
about children who grow up in a world where the third child must be
killed so that there is no food shortage, this series follows several
children who are born third as they struggle to find justice in such a world)
(she has another series called Found, where the main characters are adopted and one day, one of them receives a letter saying,
'You are one of the missing.', It is followed by a second letter
warning them to be careful. It's a very intriguing mystery that
involves the FBI, a huge smuggling operation, an airplane that
appears out of nowhere—and people who seem to appear and disappear.)
- Elizabeth Kay
(she has this series which talks about an imaginary world where
this boy who falls into, it is a world where mythical beings are real and
human beings are seen as mythical. This boy has a serious heart
defect and in this world he has a chance of getting healed but can
he get out alive before some mythical beings kill him?)
What you can do to further encourage his love for reading would
be to bring him to any book-related events, bring him often to the
library, to bookstores. You can also get him to compare movie versions
of the books that he has read and show him how often the book version
is better as it is richer and the plot is more fully developed.
We do have creative writing classes for Primary 1. We do not group the
children by their age but by their ability so we do assess the child first
before giving a recommendation for the appropriate class he should go
to. If your child is advanced for his age, he would go to a class that
is more advanced to stretch him further. You can contact us by emailing
us or calling us for more information.
TAS -
Hi TAS,
Do you have the book ’ The Giving Tree’ ? I have been looking for this book. Also, if you do have this book, do you have anything similar to it?
I’m wondering whether you could make some recommendations of books for lower pri students and upper pri students. What kind of books will be suitable for them? Are there any books with an exciting story plot and probably probably some mysterious element in it? -
The Alternative Story:
2) Andrew Lost series.
In this series, the main character, Andrew gets lost in a
person's intestines, stomach etc and from there the child
will also get to learn about the digestive system.
Andrew Lost gets lost in many different situations, like at the Great
Barrier Reef, in the skin of a person (after he shrinks to microscopic
size), in the kitchen etc.
This book combines both English and Science learning together.
How about 3) A-Z mysteries? 4) Charlie Small
is also another series that has quite good vocabulary, however
Charlie Small is mostly on pirates and the setting is in the past which I know, not many kids may like.
[b]
TAS
Hi TAS,
Thanks for the recommendation. My son has finished reading the Andrew Lost series and the first 2 books of Charlie Small.
Just to check - are there two series of Charlie Small Journals - one by Nick Ward and the other by Charlie Small? I checked on the internet and found it quite confusing. The first 2 books he read were Gorilla City and the Puppet Master. But I noticed that there is another book called The Puppet Master's Prison. Is it the same as Puppet Master? -
[quote]Hi TAS,
Do you have the book ' The Giving Tree' ? I have been looking for this book. Also, if you do have this book, do you have anything similar to it? [/quote]Hi Jasmine,
Yes we do have The Giving Tree. The version that we have comes with
a CD so the child can listen to the story come alive through the audio
story-telling. It is worth $31 (retail price). We are selling it at a
discounted price.
You can visit this link for more information on our prices:
http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7586&start=20
There are other books that also talk about giving or love.
Stories with a message- suitable for K1-K2 kids
1) Love you forever by Robert Munsch
This story follows a mother's journey as she sings to her baby..
\"I'll love you forever / I'll love you for always / As long as I'm living /
My baby you'll be.\" She still sings the same song when her baby
becomes a naughty 2 year old, an active and untidy 9 year old and
a rebellious teenager. Her love does not waver.
Then her boy grows up and he moves out to get his own house. She
drives across town and climbs up a ladder and rocks the sleeping man
to sleep and sings to him. Later on, she grows old and is no longer
capable of holding him. The roles are then reversed, her son then
holds her and sings to her as she sleeps.
A very touching but at times humorous story. In the same way with
The Giving Tree, this book can be used to teach children about
loving and giving to their parents and not always expecting their
parents to be the ones giving
2) Tell me again about the night I was born by Jamie Lee Curtis
This is a very good book to read with kids who are adopted.
It shows how much the kid is loved although he or she is adopted.
The story is about a child wanting to hear about his birth- (\"Tell me
again how you carried me like a china doll all the way home and
how you glared at anyone who sneezed\") and (\"Tell me again how
you couldn't grow a baby in your tummy, so another woman who was
too young to take care of me was growing me\"). The issue of
adoption is written in a matter-of-fact manner that at the same time
makes a child feel assured and loved.
3) The Wednesday Surprise by Eve Bunting (suitable for pri
1/2 also)
Winner of these awards:
- A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year
- An American Bookseller \"Pick of the Lists\"
- An ALA Notable Children's Book
Eve Buntings books are also heartfelt and they have the emotional
depth of longer stories. So children who are not able to read longer
stories are able to read her books and still get the satisfaction of
reading a very good piece of literature. The words that she uses in
her books are also chosen very precisely for their meaning, sound
and rhythm.
In this story, 7 year old Anna and her grandmother have been
secretly reading together so that she can teach her grandmother
to read to as a surprise gift for Anna's dad's birthday. This is a good
book to use to show how the younger generation reaches out to and
loves the older one.
[quote]I'm wondering whether you could make some recommendations of books for lower pri students and upper pri students. What kind of books will be suitable for them? Are there any books with an exciting story plot and probably probably some mysterious element in it?[/quote]Sure, will get back to you on Upper primary books soon.
Books for lower primary (pri 1-3) - With a
mysterious element
1) Secret Agent Jack Stalwart series
- The Escape of the Deadly Dinosaur*
In this action-packed series, nine-year old secret agent Jack
Stalwart travels around the world in search of his missing older
brother Max while solving international crimes for the Global
Protection Force.
In The Escape of the Deadly Dinosaur, Jack travels to New York
to solve the mystery of the missing Allosaurus toe. Jack's detection
takes him to the home of a school boy who is determined to win
the science fair with his experiment crossing his own dog with the
DNA from the bone of a dangerous, carnivorous dinosaur.
He is successful and soon the dog-dinosaur is terrorizing
New Yorkers and Jack needs to come up with creative ideas to stop
this creature.
2) Usborne Puzzle Adventures*
This series is perfect for reluctant readers. The main objective of
each short story is to figure out a puzzle on the page. The words
used to describe the story is good and even though the stories
are short, they manage to be suspenseful and at the same time
we are able to extract out good vocabulary phrases from them
to further help the child in his writing.
3) Aquila/Ctrl - Z by Andrew Norriss*
Aquila:
2 boys are on a field trip and they discover the skeleton of what
looks to be a Roman soldier. They also find a spacecraft next to him.
The word 'Aquila' is found on it. They then hide the spacecraft so
that they can come back on another day to take it back with them.
They then discover that the spacecraft has many functions, it can
become invisible and when they are inside, they also become invisible,
it can shoot out lazers, it can 'communicate' with them. As they
take the spacecraft out for adventures, their teachers in school
are trying to solve the mystery of how these 2 boys who are always
at the bottom of the class are now asking the teachers how to solve
speed-related questions, questions on history etc..They do not
understand how 2 boys who previously were struggling with their work
now so interested. They do not realize that the boys are asking all
these questions because they are related to solving problems regarding
Aquila.
In the end, the 2 boys discover the joy of learning and start to believe
that they can really do well in school.
A really wonderful book, very interesting, with lots of humour and also
with a message at the end.
Crtrl - Z:
Alex receives a present from his grandfather- a laptop that has this
mysterious function - control Z- and when Alex presses it, he realizes
that it can turn back time. And hence, Alex and his best friend now
think that they can make many mistakes and then simply turn back time
to erase them. However, later on, they discover the consequences of
doing so. As with most Andrew Norriss books, they books come with
a message.
4) Monsteroso by Charles Higson*
Charles Higson has written the Young James Bond series which
is very good for older kids (upper pri) but here with 'Monsteroso',
he has written a very interesting book for younger kids.
Oscar the main character is not looking forward to Grandad coming to
look after him at the weekend - he will have to play board games
and not be able to play his computer games.
But when he finds Dad's ancient laptop in the study, he can't resist
logging on to something called Project X - and he creates a live
warrior, which becomes part of his world, however there is
something wrong with this warrior that he created and now he
has to battle monsters and all kinds of monsters he has unleashed.
* All books with a * are those we have available.
TAS -
jesschan:
Hi Jess,
Hi TAS,
Thanks for the recommendation. My son has finished reading the Andrew Lost series and the first 2 books of Charlie Small.
Just to check - are there two series of Charlie Small Journals - one by Nick Ward and the other by Charlie Small? I checked on the internet and found it quite confusing. The first 2 books he read were Gorilla City and the Puppet Master. But I noticed that there is another book called The Puppet Master's Prison. Is it the same as Puppet Master?
The author of \"Charlie Small' is Nick Ward. Charlie Small is the main
character in the book. The Puppet Master's Prison is the same
book as 'The Puppet Master'. It was first published as
'The Puppet Master' and now it is published as 'The Puppet Master's
Prison'.
TAS -
Hi TAS, thanks for the recommendation n suggestions
Will try them out!
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