Recommended English Books

[The Alternative Story]

Belle:

Hi TAS,


Are Enid Blyton Happy Days Series and Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew Series suitable for P1 students?

Helps with their writing?

Hi Belle,

All the books that you have described have interesting plots and
can get children interested in reading. However, for Enid Blyton
and Nancy Drew, children nowadays are not that interested in
those books as if your child is a reluctant reader, he or she
might not want to pick up a book from that series. As for
helping them write well, I think the descriptions used are
adequate but not fantastic.

The Magic Treehouse series has better descriptions and
children seemed to like them better.

Here is a brief write-up of the series:


Magic Treehouse series

In this series, 2 children will travel to different parts of the
world.
Most of the time they will travel back to the past, at times,
they do travel to the future. They travel usually to solve
certain mysteries. They will go to a magic treehouse and
that is their portal to travel to other periods of times. The
vocabulary used in this book is descriptive and can help
children to use more descriptive imagery to describe scenes.

TAS

[The Alternative Story]

Hifive:

Hi TAS


My boy is P6 and he is looking for storybooks with contents like the investigating team study the people's body language to aid them in solving crimes / mystery. Any recommendation? Thanks in advance.

Hi Hifive,

Not that we have come across. The closest to what you are describing
would be books by Anthony Horowitz and Agent 21 by Chris Ryan.

In Agent 21, a young boy loses his family in another country.
His parents die due to a strange illness and so do everyone else
at the restaurant in their hotel that day. The boy finds
inconsistencies in the story and one day he realizes that there
is a strange man following him and the man gives him a
challenge that is hard to refuse: work undercover for the man
and have a chance to find out the real reason for his parents'
deaths.

TAS

[The Alternative Story]

Champion:

Hi TAS,

Thanks for all the recommendation of books; really appreciate the effort! :celebrate:

My DD1 is in P3 this year and I have borrowed those books that you recommended suitable for her reading. But, so far that I can remember of, her favorite are the following 2 books:-

1) Flat Stanley - The Amazing American Secret
2) Ctrl Z by Andrew Norris (hope my spelling is correct)

I am trying her to expose to more story books to help in her EL Compo but she is very :scared: to read those mystery books that have interesting plots

Can you recommend any books that is suitable for P3 readers that is not too horrify :nailbite: ? :thankyou:

Hi Champion,

No problem Glad to be of help.

Have she read other books by Andrew Norris? They are all good.

How about 39 clues? Below is a short description of
the 39 clues series:

39 Clues

2 children are left with a strange will at the death of their relative.
They have to travel around the world to collect 39 clues to help
them solve a mysterious puzzle that will give them great power,
they also need to make sure their scheming relatives do not get
the clues first. Each book comes with cards that act as clues,
children can go to the website online to find out what they can
do with the cards.

TAS

[Hifive]

The Alternative Story:

Hifive:

Hi TAS


My boy is P6 and he is looking for storybooks with contents like the investigating team study the people's body language to aid them in solving crimes / mystery. Any recommendation? Thanks in advance.

Hi Hifive,

Not that we have come across. The closest to what you are describing
would be books by Anthony Horowitz and Agent 21 by Chris Ryan.

In Agent 21, a young boy loses his family in another country.
His parents die due to a strange illness and so do everyone else
at the restaurant in their hotel that day. The boy finds
inconsistencies in the story and one day he realizes that there
is a strange man following him and the man gives him a
challenge that is hard to refuse: work undercover for the man
and have a chance to find out the real reason for his parents'
deaths.

TAS

Hi TAS

Thanks for your reply. Will get those books you've mentioned.

[The Alternative Story]

The Alternative Story:

Hi parents,


We are having a book sale offer from now till end June 2011.

Anyone who buys $150 worth of books in one receipt will get
a chance to attend a FREE creative writing workshop for children
held in June. In this 2 hour workshop, the children will be
taught how to apply creative writing techniques to create
tension in a story and to learn how to use metaphorical
language in any context. More details of this workshop will
be out within the next few days. However the number of
spaces of the workshop is limited and hence it is on a first
come first serve basis. Once there are no more seats
left, we will inform you about it.

Both TAS and non-TAS parents can purchase these books
from our AMK and Bukit Timah branch. If you would like to
purchase the books from the East, please call us
to inform us first (at least 3 days in advance so we
can prepare the books and the phrases)

TAS parents who buy the books will get them at the booksale
prices (at least 5-10% off).

TAS

Hi parents,

For those who bought $150 and above worth of our books, our
holiday classes are almost full so it might be hard to fit you
into our current classes. Hence, once you spend that amount,
do email us your the receipt number and state you would like
to enjoy a 2 hour free creative writing class. We would have one
in the upcoming months and we will slot you in.

This above mentioned event is only for those who bought
books from us this June 2011.

TAS

[joelstar]

Hi there, do you all have any recommendations on books suitable for teenagers? I am looking for books which can help one improve their command of the English language. Thanks a lot and your input will be greatly appreciated!

[hopeful4future]

Hey there joelstar


This really differs from child to child... Fiction? Non-fiction? Historical or futuristic? Graphic novels or the classics? Oh, we're spoilt for choice in the book department! One of my teens loves war novels, for example... He was introduced to this genre by his tutor. It really jolted his imagination once he was exposed to the right stuff! You gotta let them run free and pick for themselves! And not all graphic novels are bad either - my boy is a great fan of tin tin!

[mum2b]

Hi TAS,

My daughter (K2 this year) has read all the Rainbow Magic fairy books by Daisy Meadows in the library. There must be about 100 books in that series. However, she is so enamoured with the fairies, she's reluctant to read other series, and only prefer to re-read the whole Rainbow Magic books again.. :faint: Recently asked her to read Daisy Dawson, but only read a few books then go back to the same old fairies again.

What other books suitable for her? She’s into fairies and magic, and scared of story that has ghost/wild animals (so timid.. sigh..). I tried Roald Dahl The Enormous Crocodile book, but she is scared of the crocodile.. :faint:
Please help to recommend, hopefully something that the library has.
Many thanks!

[The Alternative Story]

Hi mum2b,


Have you tried Homecoming by Michael Morpurgo? He wrote the book ‘Warhorse’ which has been made into a movie. He writes very beautiful and heartfelt stories
on animals and war. But he also has a range of books for younger kids like Homecoming.

You can also try Shel Silverstein books, he has a lot of compilations on poems that
are interesting and humorous.

TAS

[porcupine12trade]

Hi TAS,


I need your help, personally I am not a book lover, hence unable to intro good books to my P3 gal. She likes the Pellinor series (The gift, the singing etc) by Alison Groggon. Is this series good? she picked it out from her cousin's \"library\".

She has read most of the thriller books reco by you for all levels, I am running out of titles for her.

i find that she does not like books like oliver twist, great expectations, little women, kind of books...any cause for concern? I thought such books will give her more depth ... or are these books boring? she loves all books by cynthia kadohata, I like them too (unlike thrillers), they are \"light\" yet meaningful? what do you think of her books? any reco for such genre books (sorry how do you categorise them?), i hope my gal will read a wide genre of books and not just go for thriller.Thank you!

Btw i have a P1 who is not as avid reader as her sister, for now she reads enid blyton, mr gum, mr majeika, kate dicamillo (the kiddy ones), R Dahl, judy blume and other funny/ animals stories and she likes non-fiction too. She refuses to read anything fairies (like rainbow magic) or girlish. she has a bad habit of starting 2 books concurrently! what are some of the titles i shld intro to her base on her interest? She is kind of childish but \"reads well\". I hope she can read as much as her sister :).

I have a K1 too :p, what are the books suitable for him? He has read many Dr seuss, Ursbone readers and other single titles. is it too early to intro R Dahl? thank you so much!