K-12 Reading Poll

[author_by_night]

Okay. I'm going to attempt a cut yet again.

This poll is on what books you read between preschool and grade twelve - if you're unfamiliar with the American School system, that's age three through age seventeen/eighteen.

I didn't include grade level. Well, they are in order with some grade level/age in mind, but truthfully, everyone reads books at a different rate, and everyone's version of "grade level" differs. I know people who thought I was very mature for reading Baby-Sitter's club at eight years old; I know others who stopped reading them at seven years old. Same with Harry Potter - I've seen reading lists with Harry Potter for third graders and lists with Harry Potter for sixth graders.

I got some of these books out of memory, and some from lists. I tried to keep it as not-exclusively-American as possible, but some of these books are not too specific with their location (such as The Giver), and others, I have no idea what they are about, let alone where they come from. Plus, I used to live in Europe, and I read a lot of these American books.

Please do share other books you've read - my aim is to see what books kids read, and when. I was well read when I was younger, yet I never once touched most of the books I see on the book lists. (I keep seeing books that I've never heard of, and don't know if I don't remember them, or if they were never read to me, or if they were published when I'd outgrown that level).

ETA: You can pick a book you read then, or one you've read recently.

Okay, pray the cut works.


[Poll #772446]

Comments

[partly-bouncy.livejournal.com]

First question a bit difficult as I connect with the 1980s mostly but not the 1990s and not the 1970s.

And Sleepover Friends! by Susan Saunders were my favorite in about 5th grade. I loved them and read them much more than the Babysitters Club.

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

Sleepver friends! Man, I remember them. I wasn't really into those books, but I think I read at least two of them.

And yeah, that question is a bit hard, but I guess just to be general.

[ehnel.livejournal.com]

Have a sudden worry I've messed up the poll - I ticked Cinderella/Sleeping Beauty/etc because I assumed you meant just the fairy tales - in Grimms - but now it occurs to me maybe you meant some individual books or something.

Re: classic books ... I read what I like, really - I don't much care if it's considered classic or not.


I didn't include grade level. Well, they are in order with some grade level/age in mind, but truthfully, everyone reads books at a different rate, and everyone's version of "grade level" differs.

Absolutely. Everyone reads at their own rate, and should be allowed to do so. It used to be one of the things I hated most of all about being a kid - people telling me I was "too young" for a particular book. They didn't manage to stop me, though - I'd just pick up the book whenever they weren't around, and read it anyway. I read some very odd things when I was a child. Robert Heilein and L Ron Hubbard, for example. *snort*

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

Re: Fairy tales - meh, I more meant individual books, but the Grimm Tales count.

[godricgal.livejournal.com]

Before I complete the poll, do you mean books that we had to read in school or just books of our own choice?

You really have a problem with those cuts, do you, it must be so frustrating, have you submitted a support request to LJ?

[a-t-rain.livejournal.com]

I'd like to know that, too, and another question: Do we count books that we read for the first time as adults (either because they weren't published yet when we were kids or because we hadn't gotten around to it), or just ones we read as kids?

[swatkat24.livejournal.com]

I'm not familiar with a lot of these American titles, but some of my absolute favourites in my childhood were Hans Andersen's fairytales and Enid Blyton's books - all of them. I also read a LOT of classics, not just Austen.

[gileonnen.livejournal.com]

Did you mean the Pat Conroy The Water Is Wide, or some other version? And I only clicked books I finished; I started most of the ones on that list.

[gileonnen.livejournal.com]

Additionally, my parents didn't feed me classics, but I did read a lot at a very early age. I exhausted our children's books too quickly, and they were just lying around . . .

[pennswoods.livejournal.com]

Just a list of more books that I couldn't fill in for the last bit:

The Sound and the Fury, The Old Man and the Sea, A Day no Pigs Would Die, 1984, Animal Farm, The Prince, The Yearling, (Heaps of Judy Blume books), The Westing Game, The Mysterious Disappearance of LEON, I mean NOEL, The Famous Stanley Kidnapping Case, The Witches of Worm, Where the Red Fern Grows, Heart of Darkness, The Three Investigators Series...

[parsimonia.livejournal.com]

Born in '85, so my memory's a little hazy as to what I read back then, but I think the things I checked off are pretty acurate.

I distinctly remember, though, that when I was in grade two, a lot of people were reading Amelia Bedelia, and for some reason I decided I didn't like those books and refused to read them. lol

As for the last question, I think I've had a sampling of classic books, but haven't read enough. Partly because I wasn't 'forced' to in school, partly because my parents often forget that I don't absorb all their knowledge by osmosis and that I would actually need to read these books myself! lol.

I think a lot of what you end up reading in school depends and varies on the whims of the teacher sometimes.

[parsimonia.livejournal.com]

OH! And another book, which I had to read in grade five AND six (much to my annoyance) was Luke Baldwin's Vow. It was set in Collingwood, Ontario, so it may not be on any American curriculums...I'm not sure. All I know is that it was about a kid whose parents died and he had to go live with his uncle who was no fun and insisted that everything in life be 'practical' and 'sensible', and blah blah blah, the kid just wanted to play with his dog and pretend to be a pirate. Can you sense the bitterness I have about that book? lol

[ani-bester.livejournal.com]

You left out Mark Twain 0.o

I was also reading Stark Trek and Star Wars and Pern and some other fantasy Sc-fi stuff that aren't classics but sure were fun.

Also the Demolished Man by Alfred Bester and many short stories, and anything by Ray Bradbury I could get my hands on!

My dad owned a book/comic store so I pretty much would jsut go on and grab the shiny, but also mom took us to the library a lot.

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

You left out Mark Twain 0.o

...

I...

Did.

*Headdesk*

[stmargarets.livejournal.com]

I don't know if this will impact your poll, but one of the great things about being a parent is getting to read all the old children's books and all the new ones that were written since you were a kid. I'm guessing my reading lapse would be titles written in the 80's since my kid was born in 1998 and his school library doesn't go that far back.

I read alot as a kid in the seventies.

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

Yeah... I'm not a parent, but I am part of a Summer Reading project at work, and it's great, some of the books the kids read. So far I haven't seen any that I've read, but I saw one book that, judging by the description, is probably the sort of book I would've read. ("Molly McGitty Had a Really Good Day", apparently about a middle schooler who has all these embarassing moments. The sort of stuff I read.)

[shalli.livejournal.com]

Only mentioned one book in that option to give more, and feel like adding more that I can recall from those years (should note that in the survey itself, I ticked a few that I have read which came out after I finished high school)

The Very Hungry Caterpillar;
Possum Magic;
A Walk in the Jungle;
The Pound Puppy books;
Mrs Wishy-Washy;
Bridge to Terabithia;
Tall Tales of the Speewah;
I Am David;
Snugglepot and Cuddlepie;
Blinky Bill;
The Magic Pudding;
The Song of the Lioness Quartet;
The Immortals Quartet;
Discworld;
The Lost Prince (anyone else read this one? It's by Frances Hodgson Burnett, author of The Secret Garden);
Morris Glitzman's books;
far, far, far too many others to continue on ;)

[katieay.livejournal.com]

You wouldn't be Australian, would you?

[akashasheiress.livejournal.com]

I did read Curious George - forgot to click him.

[pennswoods.livejournal.com]

And oh, where's my head? The Anne of Green Gables series of course.

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

Shoot. I meant, honestly meant, to include that. But I couldn't even figure out what age group it'd go into - I've never really read it, and I've known so many people who read it at about five different ages. I think it's sort of like Harry Potter, and very age group open.

[jamc91.livejournal.com]

I love polls. The ticky boxes especially.

I tried reading Jane Austen and I couldn't. No, really.

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

Me either, to be truthful. I may try Pride & Prejudice, but Sense & Sensibility didn't do much for me.

[raggedass-road.livejournal.com]

THE BUTTER BATTLE BOOK! aaah! I loved that thing! It was so weird and goofy and full of strange grown-up meaning!

Man, I can smell the nostalgia from here.

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

Yes, wasn't it?

My Dad and I read it together when I was seven. I remember my Dad asking his usual question - "what was the moral of this story?"

I remember sort of staring at him, and Dad was like, "Sara's your best friend, right? Would you stop talking to her if she put her butter on the wrong way?"

Of course, imagining not liking my best friend(!) horrified me, so yes, I got the meaning. ;) And I plan on reading it someday.

[ghostlygrove.livejournal.com]

I'd checked a lot more than what I ended up leaving, 'cause I remembered you said "books from SCHOOL". Most of the books I'd checked (which weren't many to begin with) I read on my own.

I don't know if I've read classics or not. I know Hundred Years of Solitude is considered one (didn't make me like it ¬_¬ :S), but I don't know... I still consider myself very cut-off from literature.

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

Books you've read since sort of count. I m ore meant... well, that are for those age groups, going by grades.

[zoepaleologa.livejournal.com]

I'm fifty-one years old, and therefore many of the "school" readers are way later than me.

Here's what I read voraciously in the fifties, early sixties. First off, I taught myself to read at age three, by dint of my mother's reading to me endlessly.

Winnie-the-Pooh/The House at Pooh Corner
Fairy Tales (all sorts, Andersen, traditional and the complete Grimms - of which I had read everyone by the time I was seven. Some were damn scary).
Greek/Trojan and Norse Mythology (bowdlerised for the kiddies)
Paddington Bear
Mary Plain - another series of books about a smartarsed talking bear. I adored her.
Santa Clause in Summer, by Compton McKenzie (of Whisky Galore fame, it's his only children's book)
101 Dalmatians by Dodie Smith

When I was nine, I graduated to grown up stuff, mostly sci-fi (esp. John Wyndham) and at 11 I started reading Orwell. I was a precocious little show off. Plus the telly was crap in the sixties, AND we had no internet...

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

Santa Clause in the summer... was that his "diary"? It sounds vaguely familiar.

[frankieb-sq87.livejournal.com]

Oh, I lvoed the Egypt Game and Charlotte Doyle. . . might have to go and re-read those. ..

[starpaint.livejournal.com]

...I read 51 of the books on that list. Huh. That's vaguely terrifying.

I recognize a bunch of the books that people listed in the comments, but I wouldn't have thought of them on my own. Then again, my elementary school librarian loved me because I read absolutely everything she ever recommended to me. Have a few of those: The Dark is Rising and sequels, The Mennyms and sequels, and The Westing Game. Also have the Mary Poppins books; as far as I can tell, most people don't remember that there were books, but I loved them. All of those books go on this list by virtue of still being on my bookshelf for some reason or another.

[starpaint.livejournal.com]

Oh. Classics.

I've read a lot of them (and I think we've talked about this before)--blame my parents, my teachers, and my stubbornness.

[lady-sarai.livejournal.com]

Oh, squee!! Reading and books! =D See, when I go for my Masters, I want to get it in Literacy Education, so... =P I have read a lot of these even though they've been published recently and technically I'm "too old" for them. Phbbbbt! ;)

But, oh! Hug-a-Bunch!! Boxcar Children, Babysitters' Club (and Babysitter's little sister!), Sweet Valley... Roald Dahl! Wayside Stories! Anastasia Krupnik!! I read Frindle aloud to my second graders this fall and they LOVED it so much! =D

I was one of those children who read on the bus, at lunch, on the playground... My family would take my book away if they wanted to punish me. =D

Oh, my greatest love... BOOKS.

[sagacious-c.livejournal.com]

Ahhhh, this poll was so fun to take -- it led me down the reminiscing road. I heart summer reading, and well, reading in general!

[sixth-light.livejournal.com]

I listed a few you didn't mention, all Kiwi children's classics - but really there's too many to name. I'd discovered historical novels by the time I was six, much to my parents' dismay (they're almost as bad as Mills & Boone for softcore porn, though I didn't understand most of those bits 'till I was a little older) and when I was eleven I found the sci-fi/fantasy section at the library and didn't look back. I was also a devout reader of non-fiction as a child; among my favourites were Bill Bryson, Carl Sagan, and anything up-to-date on dinosaurs.

I remember that when I met my boyfriend I was horrified to discover he'd never read the Narnia books. I just didn't understand how someone could get to be twenty and have not encountered them. He's read them now, of course. *g*

[jan-aq.livejournal.com]

I started reading Star Trek novels when I was 10.