Recommended English Books
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The Alternative Story:
Hi TAS, I just chanced upon this thread. Do you have any Mystery and Adventure books to recommend for 9/10 year olds? My DD loves such books and I am trying to get such books to encourage her to love reading. Thanks so much.Hi parents,
Since there are some parents that want to know which books are good to get for their children, we thought we would recommend some here. The books that we recommend have 3 main ingredients: Interesting plots and good vocabulary usage as well as varied sentence structures. The plots will help engage the child and make him want to read more. The vocabulary and varied sentence structure will hopefully translate to better writing for the children.
These are some of the books that we find have these 3 ingredients. (These books are for upper primary children, we will do another recommendation soon for lower primary children)
1) Gone by Micheal Grant
It is about a town that experiences a very strange phenomena. One day, in class while the main character (Sam) was having his lessons, the teacher disappeared. Of course, everyone was rejoicing at first. However, panic struck the children when they realised that every teacher was gone and that their parents could not be contacted. Later on, they found out that everyone above the age of 14 was gone. They had to help rescue some of the babies and children who were crying at home. There was instances of accidents that occurred when the drivers disappeared. Later on, 2 main leaders emerge to help the rest make sense of their world that had gone horribly wrong.
This book is very gripping and interesting especially for upper primary kids.
Extract from the book:
One minute the teacher was talking about the Civil War. And the next minute he was gone.
There.
Gone.
No 'poof'. No flash of light. No explosion.
Sam Temple was sitting in third-period history class staring blankly at the blackboard but far away in his head. In his head, he was down at the beach, he and Quinn. Down at the beach with their boards, yelling, bracing for that first plunge into cold Pacific water.
For a moment, he thought he had imagine it, the teacher disappearing...
2) Survival by Chris Ryan (He has a whole series on the group of teenagers who battle problems together)
This book is about 5 children who are on board a sailing ship however, they get marooned on an island and have to battle komodo dragons and other dangers to stay alive. It is both gripping and also full of great vocabulary. :lol:
Extract from book:
Even under the water, Alex was overwhelmed by the impact. The breaker slammed him down and knocked all the air out of him with a casual efficiency that reminded him of his mother kneading dough.
3) Ark Angel by Anthony Horowitz (He has a whole series on Alex Rider, the main character in Ark Angel)
Alex Rider is a 14 year old spy. In this story, he is supposed to save a boy whose father is one of the richest man on Earth. The boy's father has been targetted by Force 3, a group of eco-terrorists who claim his project- Ark Angel - the first luxury hotel outer space- is a danger to the environment.
Alex needs to stop them before they bomb Ark Angel and kill millions of lives. The book is a page-turner. Both girls and boys will like it. It has been made into a movie as well.
Extract from book:
The corridor on the other side was well alight. There were brilliant red and orange flames tearing into the walls, leaping up through the floor, devouring everything in their path. Alex was shocked by their speed and elemental strength.
There are many other books that are good, we will recommend them soon.
Where to get them: Anthony Horowitz books can be gotten from most bookstores, Chris Ryan from MPH (few copies left) and for Gone, you could order it online. We also sell these books at a discount and we extract out the good vocabulary phrases from the books that we will give to you when you get the book.
Will get back soon on other books
TAS -
plum-cake:
Yes, I would also like more booksales..have you thought of opening a bookshop or an online shop?
me too...quirkymum:
Hi TAS,
Can you do your bookfairs or book events more often? I tried to get a place but was not successful, my colleague also could not get a place. Maybe if you could have another one in late February or March, I am sure many parents would sign up. So far, I have not heard of bookstores offering creative writing phrases or vocab booklets to go along with the books so I know many of us want to get the books from you, just that when we go down to the AMK branch, there isn't much time to look at the books or there isn't the variety that you would have probably at a bookfair. Hope you can consider this.
I missed it and am in AMK. Your teachers and staff know books very well, when we go to bookshops, the sales people do not know how to recommend and of course they have no phrases. So I think many more people will get books from you if they know about you through a bookshop? :? Just a suggestion cos I think you have a unique thing here.
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Hi parents,
We will get back to you on the queries on books and booksales soon
TAS -
The Alternative Story:
Hi TAS,Hi parents,
We will get back to you on the queries on books and booksales soon
TAS
I would like to suggest that teachers recommend a book to the students every week during lesson so as to encourage them to read and I think they will like the teacher's recommendation. Any comments? -
quirkymum:
Hi quirkymum and plum-cake,Hi TAS,
Can you do your bookfairs or book events more often? I tried to get a place but was not successful, my colleague also could not get a place. Maybe if you could have another one in late February or March, I am sure many parents would sign up. So far, I have not heard of bookstores offering creative writing phrases or vocab booklets to go along with the books so I know many of us want to get the books from you, just that when we go down to the AMK branch, there isn't much time to look at the books or there isn't the variety that you would have probably at a bookfair. Hope you can consider this.
We will want to do more book events as well, however, we are still
looking into how we can do that from a logistics point of view.
We will update you here if there are more book events.
TAS -
Happy Mama:
May I ask what is BTSC? :? Thanks.[/quote]Happy Mama...you very blur lei.....Bukit Timah Shopping Centre.....
Hi Jennifer,The Alternative Story:
[quote=\"Jennifer\"]I would like to feedback on the hols creative writing prog my boy attended recently at the BTSC branch.
From what I gathered from my boy, I know he has enjoyed the lessons (which focused on how to write abt a scene on fire and another on drowning).
He was able to remember the model sentences and phrases almost to the T as he has good memory skills. He also enjoyed the memory skills the teacher taught.
I think the way to award points for class behaviour is good. However, I believe it might be better to use smaller numbers since some children get confused in adding up bigger numbers. My competitive boy got into an argument with another boy who miscalculated his pts. Luckily I was in time to hold back my boy from getting into more trouble.
I understand from my boy that the students with the high score were awarded with a toy while the others got a pkt of titbits. Can I suggest a healthier choice of titbits? While I was waiting for the P3/P4 class to be dismissed, the other P1/P2 class was released and I saw a maid forbiding her employer's daughter to eat the titbit. I also do not allow such titbits at home.
As the BTSC branch is small, there is not much walking space or waiting area in the centre itself. I think your staff should hv asked the children to wait inside the classroom for their parents or cargivers to fetch them, instead of the children either standing or sitting on the floor in front of the reception counter.
I would also recommend that the timings for two classes not to be start/dismiss concurrently, at least hv a 15 mins difference in order to more properly handle traffic in the space constrainted area.
Thanks for your feedback Glad to hear your son enjoyed his
lessons.
We have also taken what you have suggested into consideration
and will implement some of them.
Points:
For the younger kids (P1-P4), we would probably give them
points in smaller numbers so as not to confuse them
with the calculation of the bigger numbers.
Snacks:
We usually give away a variety of gifts, ranging from toys to books
to stationary to snacks. We understand your stance that snacks
are unhealthy for children and you do not want your child to
take them. What we will do is to give out a greater variety of
prizes next time so that the children have a chance to choose
other things besides snacks.
Children waiting inside classrooms:
As for children waiting inside the classrooms for parents, most
of the time, we have classes back to back and hence we cannot
do that. However, for holiday classes if we do not have back to
back classes, your suggestion of having them wait inside the
classrooms is a good one and we will implement that.
15 min difference in timing for classes:
For our regular classes, our timetable has already been fixed so
we are not changing the timings for the classes. However for
holiday classes, if we are able to, we would try to arrange the
timings with some time difference between them.
Thank you for taking the time to pen down your suggestions.
You have given us greater insight into how parents think and
feel.
TAS -
Happy Mama:
Hi Happy Mama,
May I ask what is BTSC? :? Thanks.
BTSC stands for Bukit Timah Shopping Centre.
These are some of the links you can go to, we have
recommended storybooks suitable for your child's age at
these links:
http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11428&start=330
http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11428&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=290
http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11428&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=20
TAS -
Hi parents,
For the rest of the book queries, we will get back to you latest by next
week.
TAS -
24hrsmum:
Hi 24hrsmum,
Hi TAS,The Alternative Story:
Hi parents,
We will get back to you on the queries on books and booksales soon
TAS
I would like to suggest that teachers recommend a book to the students every week during lesson so as to encourage them to read and I think they will like the teacher's recommendation. Any comments?
Yes, we truly agree with you. In fact that is what we used to do at
our Yishun branch but now that we have just moved to AMK branch
we will start once our library system is properly set up.
We will start doing this by next week. Every child can borrow 1 book
per week.
TAS -
The Alternative Story:
Hi 24hrsmum,
Hi TAS,24hrsmum:
[quote=\"The Alternative Story\"]Hi parents,
We will get back to you on the queries on books and booksales soon
TAS
I would like to suggest that teachers recommend a book to the students every week during lesson so as to encourage them to read and I think they will like the teacher's recommendation. Any comments?
Yes, we truly agree with you. In fact that is what we used to do at
our Yishun branch but now that we have just moved to AMK branch
we will start once our library system is properly set up.
We will start doing this by next week. Every child can borrow 1 book
per week.
TAS[/quote]Hi TAS,
What about your East branch? My dd is in P3 class.
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