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.

[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*

[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?

[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.

[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?

[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.

[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

[parsimonia.livejournal.com]

(last comment, I swear)

I should also mention that a lot of the books I checked off on the list aren't necessarily books I had to read for school.

[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 . . .

[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.

[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.

[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 ;)

[akashasheiress.livejournal.com]

I did read Curious George - forgot to click him.

[katieay.livejournal.com]

You wouldn't be Australian, would you?

[shalli.livejournal.com]

Who me? *grins* It wouldn't have been the stacks of Aussie titles that gave me away, would it? ...unless it was the Icon...

[shalli.livejournal.com]

Ah, nevermind... icons don't seem to show up on comments in this journal... how odd. Must have just been the titles.

[katieay.livejournal.com]

Hee, I didn't even look at your icon... I was busy being flashed back to Possum Magic, the Magic Pudding and Snugglepot and Cuddlepie. Oh, and Bridge to Terebithia (they're making the movie!).

Then there's Seven Little Australians... oh man. The memories.

[katieay.livejournal.com]

Hahaha, it does show up now, however, and is grand!

[pennswoods.livejournal.com]

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

[shalli.livejournal.com]

They're making a movie? I shall have to put that on my list of must see movies. Loved that book.

As for Seven Little Australians... I'm aware of it. I'm pretty sure I watched a movie of mini-series or something years and years ago. But I've never read it. (shh, don't let that get around. There's no telling what kind of thing will get you branded Unaustralian these days and I can't afford to be chucked out of the country just yet)

[jamc91.livejournal.com]

I love polls. The ticky boxes especially.

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

[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.

[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.