Classics, Nonfiction, and Children's Literature
A Lion to Guard Us by Clyde Robert Bulla (published 1981) is a short early chapter book ideal for introducing the concept of colonizing America through exciting historical fiction. It highlights one family of three children as they navigate 16th century London, cross the Atlantic Ocean, and seek out their father in the struggling colony
The historical fiction Newbery Honor book Clearing Weather by Cornelia Meigs (published 1928) tells of a financially destroyed town during the 1780s, the years after the Revolutionary War and before the establishment of the United States Republic. Because of the war, Branscomb’s elderly ship-builder, Thomas Drury, no longer has the means to continue building, especially
The Dark Frigate by Charles Hawes (originally published 1923) features pirate action as well as a slightly multifaceted adversary in the pirate leader Tom Jordon, with much the same attitude I found in Treasure Island, but a passionless main character and a series of bloody battles gave the overall book a jolt of boring reality
The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting (published 1922) continues the story of the special doctor that talks to animals, John Dolittle, but this time with a different tone and child’s perspective. In this volume, the doctor travels across the ocean to the coast of Brazil to find his naturalist friend on his floating
The children’s novel The Great Quest by Charles Boardman Hawes (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1921) has a nice beginning, with an adventurous tone similar to that in Treasure Island. But for the modern reader, that wholesome, adventurous spirit becomes much more sinister about a quarter of the way through the book, with a tone that feels
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson transferred me to a world of pirates and sea-life, but best of all the boy protagonist drove the action. Because he was in the right place at the right time and made great choices, he was able to “save the day.” I think it’s perfect for a child to
I thought I understood satire when I read Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal.” But reading Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels solidified the meaning of satire for me. The two works seemed to illustrate the difference between telling and showing. Reading “A Modest Proposal” was like reading a textbook example of satire, while experiencing the nuances and humor
Page [tcb_pagination_current_page] of [tcb_pagination_total_pages]
