Harry Potter - Popular, but never to be a Classic

[maddz]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I have a box set of the Little House books and Narnia (the ones with the cool art deco covers), Stroud's Bartimaeus trilogy as well as Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. But I think those are all a little too serious for her yet.

Who's the publisher of the Narnia books? I'm always on the look-out for nice covers for my ebooks. (Some of the ones that come with the book are dreadful or an appalling stock cover - PG, I'm looking at you.)

[Gandulf]

Harper Collins

[issybird]

One reason I specifically asked how she handled dated books is that there are charming books about magic written in the 1950s by Edward Eager, and the first of them, Half Magic, is set in the 1920s. They are light reading both in terms of difficulty and content; no dark magic. Kids still like them and they’re available as ebooks.

[gweeks]

I'd recommend the children's fantasies of Zilpha Keatley Snyder. Black and Blue Magic and Below the Root are the two that I remember. They're available as ebooks. My library even has some of them as ebooks.

Greg

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Paperbackstash

She was dyslexic and always considered reading a chore instead of "fun", but she says she wishes she did enjoy reading and finds it a good hobby to have, so I lucked out there.

Try something to see if it helps. Change the colors. In some cases, the color of the text/background can help someone with dyslexia to read easier. I used to know someone who found green text on a black background worked pretty well.

But that would mean reading would have to be done on an LCD screen.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

She's nine.

How about Harry Potter?

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

How about Harry Potter?

Did you read post #120?

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by maddz

Who's the publisher of the Narnia books? I'm always on the look-out for nice covers for my ebooks. (Some of the ones that come with the book are dreadful or an appalling stock cover - PG, I'm looking at you.)

Here's a couple of the covers I was talking about. If you search '70's Narnia Covers' you'll find lots of scans. Most of them were too big to post here.



To me, these are the best Narnia covers, though I might be prejudiced.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by issybird

One reason I specifically asked how she handled dated books is that there are charming books about magic written in the 1950s by Edward Eager, and the first of them, Half Magic, is set in the 1920s. They are light reading both in terms of difficulty and content; no dark magic. Kids still like them and they’re available as ebooks.

Originally Posted by gweeks

I'd recommend the children's fantasies of Zilpha Keatley Snyder. Black and Blue Magic and Below the Root are the two that I remember. They're available as ebooks. My library even has some of them as ebooks.

Greg

Thanks guys. I'll check them. They do sound interesting.

I was also thinking of Diana Wynn Jones' Howl's Moving Castle.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

How about Harry Potter?

I tried Harry Potter. She had no trouble reading it. But she got bored wondering why she kept having to hear about the Dursleys.

My brother-in-law gave me his box of 100 Goosebumps books. We showed her an episode of the series on Netflix which she loved. But then when we tried reading the book the episode was adapted from, she was mostly bored.

She can read very well, but since she wasn't a reader before she came, right now she needs things to start happening PDQ.

Like I mentioned, when she first got here, we had to start her with picture books and we're slowly expanding her reading attention.

[PeterT]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Here's a couple of the covers I was talking about. If you search '70's Narnia Covers' you'll find lots of scans. Most of them were too big to post here.



To me, these are the best Narnia covers, though I might be prejudiced.

I remember buying the Narnia books one by one (as I could afford them) at the Children's Bookstore by Banbury Cross. When I had them all I was disappointed because I didn't have the cardboard box I would have received if I'd bought the boxset. Kindly they gave me one.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Like I mentioned, when she first got here, we had to start her with picture books and we're slowly expanding her reading attention.

I wonder if she would enjoy Kipling's Just So stories? For children but definitely not condescending,. Not overlong, and with a self-aware humor that's quite modern in some ways, I think.

[maddz]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Here's a couple of the covers I was talking about. If you search '70's Narnia Covers' you'll find lots of scans. Most of them were too big to post here.



To me, these are the best Narnia covers, though I might be prejudiced.

Not bad, although my covers were the Pauline Baynes ones from Puffin. The trouble I find with ebooks is that often the print cover is used and looks bad on an e-ink device.

[issybird]

Another oldie: the Great Brain books. Boys, but she doesn’t have an issue with that.

[hildea]

You could try comics books. I haven't read this one https://shannonhale.com/books/diana but I've liked other books by the Shannon Hale, and I've heard good things about this.

"Princess Academy" by Hale is also very good. It's a fairy tale type of book: When the prince of the realm is old enough to marry, the priests consult various omens, and decide where in the kingdom the new queen shall come from. Normally the prince goes there, attends a few balls, and picks some suitable noblewoman, but this time the priests have chosen a really poor, remote village. So a tutor goes there to teach all the unmarried girls the basics needed to qualify for princess: Dancing, deportment, conversation... and also reading, diplomacy, economics. It turns out it's not a book about a poor girl marrying a prince, it's about poor girls getting an education, and how that affects the whole village. I liked it a lot.