Recommended English Books

[The Alternative Story]

sgkliew:

Hi TAS


What are the types of books you will recommend for a 6 year old boy?
His aunt gave him an Avatar book to read (thin paperpack, not thick book with small words) and he seems to enjoy reading it. What are the types of questions i should ask him to ensure that he knows what the story is about, or rather to get him to tell me more about the storybook that he read.

Thanks!

Hi sgkliew,

Do you mean it is a book based on the movie 'Avatar' or something
else altogether?

What is his reading ability like? For most 6 year olds, they will
like the Usborne Young Reading series or Usborne First Readers
series. Have you heard about them?

Before you ask the questions, you could look through parts
of the book, and ask him 2 main types of questions:

1) Literal

These are just questions to check if he can understand the story
at a basic level.

Eg: 'They all lived in Cauldron Woods, deep in Magic Wood'.
taken from The Three Little Witches by Georgie Adams

Qn: Where did they live?

2) Inferential

Qn: Why do you think they live in Magic Wood?

Possible Ans: They are witches and witches use magic.

This helps him to think deeper and make connections between
2 ideas at a young age.

TAS

[The Alternative Story]

jasmineong:

Hi TAS,


Do you have any recommendation for books that can make my kids think, as in that they can read and reflect kind..but not as profound or difficult as Genesis haha I think my kids would not get it..

Hi jasmineong,

'The boy in the striped pajamas' is a good book to get children to think.

We have recommended this book before, this is what we wrote
about the book:

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. The ending is
very poignant.

Issues to think about:

1) Do you think Jews deserve to be treated in this way?

2) How does racism affect people?

Possible answers: It makes people blind to the individual traits
the a person has. It breeds hatred in a community.

You can share with your child about the consequences of the
Holocaust.

TAS

[pixiedust]

TAS,


These are surely still very cheemmmmm for me ! :?

Anyway, I would like to know if your programmes are for up to P6 only ? Do you run classes for secondary 1 or 2, English/GP/literature ?

[sgkliew]

Hi TAS


Thanks for your reply.
I believe he should be able to read Usborne Young Readers Series 1 or 2. Where can i get those books from?
Do you sell books / worksheets? Please keep me posted too.

[The Alternative Story]

sgkliew:

Hi TAS


Thanks for your reply.
I believe he should be able to read Usborne Young Readers Series 1 or 2. Where can i get those books from?
Do you sell books / worksheets? Please keep me posted too.

Hi sgkliew,

No problem We do sell books, and we carry some of the Usborne
series as well. For the worksheets, we have creative writing
phrases extracted from the storybooks and we give them
free together with the storybooks so the children can
use these phrases that come from the storybooks in their writing.

However, for the Usborne Young Readers series, we do not
have creative writing worksheets because the writing in the
book is more simple so they do not have a lot of
creative writing phrases. But they are suitable for
younger children.

You can look at our booklist at this link:
http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7586&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=20

TAS

[The Alternative Story]

pixiedust:

TAS,


These are surely still very cheemmmmm for me ! :?

Anyway, I would like to know if your programmes are for up to P6 only ? Do you run classes for secondary 1 or 2, English/GP/literature ?

Hi pixiedust,

Oh, but the book-Boy with The Striped Pajamas is all right,
not so cheem, maybe the discussion points are but not
the book itself

We have programmes till Secondary 4. For GP, we do not have
classes now but are working on content structure. But even
if we do GP, it will be in the future. We are focusing
on Primary and Secondary English as of now. We are not
doing Literature.

TAS

[jasmineong]

Hi TAS,


Do you sell this book that you mentioned- the boy with the striped pajamas cos I cant find it in your booklist..also do you have other books that are like this, where real life issues can be brought up to teach our kids?

[jeestan]

Hi TAS,


I have a question- see if you think it is feasible?

I have a few friends who stay near each other, we all are interested
to buy your story books with the phrases, if we could arrange a get-together
at one place, you think you could come down and sell your books to us?
This will be quite inconvenient for you but if you can gather about 20 parents,
you think this could be worth your while? (we all will buy a lot :love: )

[The Alternative Story]

jasmineong:

Hi TAS,


Do you sell this book that you mentioned- the boy with the striped pajamas cos I cant find it in your booklist..also do you have other books that are like this, where real life issues can be brought up to teach our kids?

Hi Jasmine,

Yes, we do but it will only arrive in a few days' time so when it is here,
we will put up the pricing.

Some other books which you can use to teach values:

1) Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson

This book is about a slave girl, Isabel, who is sold off to another
family when her mother dies. Her younger sister who is a special
needs child goes with her. In the new family, the mistress
is cruel and unkind to both girls. Isabel meets another
slave, Cuzon, who tells her that the best way out of slavery is
to report on her Loyalist masters (they support the king and
England) to the Patriots (they want freedom for America)

She cannot decide until one day her mistress sells her younger
sister off to another family because the sister has fits and the
mistress thinks it is bad luck to have her around. She then begins
to spy on her Loyalists masters for the Patriots.

At first, the Patriots seem to be winning the battle but then the
British soldiers arrive in America and then the Loyalists gain
the upper hand and it is discovered that Isabel was helping
the Patriots. Her mistress then takes her to court and demands
that her punishment be that a letter be branded by fire
onto her face. The patriots do nothing to help her.

Isabel nearly dies because of the infection. Cuzon manages to
save her. Later, she and Cuzon have to escape on their own and
find Isabel's younger sister and they set off for a place where
they can truly find freedom. That would be the sequel for Chains.

Issues to talk about:

- Slavery: Why it is wrong, how it started etc. Can talk about Martin
Luther King fighting for equality for the blacks. Most of the African
Americans came to America because they were brought in as slaves.

- The Revolutionary War: Although the Patriots believed strongly
in freedom, they failed to free the slaves. Why? They did not
see the slaves as people, they saw them as tools they could use
to gain the upper hand in the war as they knew the slaves
hated the Loyalists.

The book is also very engaging and the child will want to read in at
one go.


Where to get Chains:
http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7586&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=20

TAS

[The Alternative Story]

jeestan:

Hi TAS,


I have a question- see if you think it is feasible?

I have a few friends who stay near each other, we all are interested
to buy your story books with the phrases, if we could arrange a get-together
at one place, you think you could come down and sell your books to us?
This will be quite inconvenient for you but if you can gather about 20 parents,
you think this could be worth your while? (we all will buy a lot :love: )

Hi jeestan,

Sorry but we do not do this. We do not have the manpower to bring books
to various locations but now that we have more locations,- Yishun,
Bukit Timah, Paya Lebar- it should be easier to pick up the books

TAS