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

[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...

[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.

[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.

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

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

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

Oops, I'm sorry... either works!

And you know what, I probably will ask LJ support. It's getting annoying, because I know it must be clogging up people's friend's lists, and it definitely clogs up my LJ page. Gah.

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

Books you read then or recently, to make up for "lost time", so to speak.

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

I think Pat Conroy's...

And yeah, I was the opposite. Dad tried to get me to read classics, but I didn't read many.

[partly-bouncy.livejournal.com]

I read and owned them all and bought them at Walden Kids bookshop at my local mall. *sighs* I miss them. They were great. :)

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's fine. :)

And I was born in '85 too, so there's probably books I read and don't remember.

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

You left out Mark Twain 0.o

...

I...

Did.

*Headdesk*

[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.)

[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.

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

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

[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.

[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.

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

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

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

*Sigh* Yeah, most people know the movie. The book is excellent.

[pennswoods.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I think you're right. I think there are something like 7 or 8 books and they follow Anne from about age 12 or 13 right up until she gets married.

[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*

[zoepaleologa.livejournal.com]

No not his diary, and it would have helped if I'd spelled it correctly, as "Santa Claus in Summer". It's a children's novel. McKenzie took all the traditional nursery rhymes, one or two folk tales, put them in a jar, shook them up and the book is the result.

It centres on the village of Banbury Cross (where all nursery rhymes seem to exist) and where the children have become excessively well behaved. The story is a plot by Puck and Santa Claus to restore the status quo of mischievous children. There's a lot more plot to it, than that - Midsummer Night's Dream is in there, too. Sadly I do not have it, and it's out of print, too.

Hands down my all-time favourite children's book.

[jan-aq.livejournal.com]

I started reading Star Trek novels when I was 10.