Posted on: 01/02/2015
In the last few years there has been a revolution in children’s publishing which has meant the choice of attractive books is wider than ever before. Illustrated novels are now commonplace, understanding the need for books which give visual representations of characters and settings and hold the attention of readers with less stamina. The authors of modern fiction have also done well to capture the need for more colourful and humourous characters (Phillip Ardagh, Laura Dockrill and David Walliams) and to also grapple with some of the serious issues (Phil Earle, John Boyne and Patrick Ness) that are present in our modern lives. Those that children need exposure to in order to clarify and support their own thinking when dealing with the real issues that face them. Many of these will become classics in their own right – books that stand the test of time – and will be extracted from and bought for younger generations, long after their original readers have grown up. However, amongst all of these new shiny books that are now on offer, lie the classics, many of which have been revisited, retold or abridged with new illustrations that were not on offer in the original, smaller printed, denser versions. Many now have new covers and special editions which make them excellent gifts. Some of these books now on offer have long been regarded as classics; The Secret Garden still appeals today as does The Wolves of Willoughby Chase and neither of these would we want to see altered, or abridged in any form.
Why then should we encourage children to read books, especially at primary level, that are considered to be ‘old’? With everything on offer now it could seem as if they are irrelevant to a new generation of readers. These are the books that our children may not want to choose initially; the front covers may not be glittery enough or feature a pair of comedy pants, or even be in diary format, but once children have been exposed to a true classic, these are the books that stay with them for life and the advantages are far reaching, only a few of which we lay out below:
Reading classic books gives children exposure to writers that often use what is now considered to be ‘standard English’. There is a sense of formality with many of these, however these are the books which are often quoted and extracted from, and the structure of these sentences support children with their own understanding of composition.
Classic books are often set in a particular time period. Many of the books which we refer to in our list are set in a very distinctive time period; a war, perhaps or Victorian times. This gives the reader an insight into the life and times and the mind of someone who may be living in that period as well a sense of history.
Reading classics will introduce new and activate dormant vocabulary. Given that these books have often been written a while ago, there will be many words that children would be exposed to that they might not hear otherwise. Vitally, these are placed in sentences which are often structured in different way to what they are used to orally, and so grammatically and structurally they can place the words in context
Classic books introduce children to ‘themes’ The best books, we are often heard to say on training, ask more questions than give answers. With a ‘classic’ text the plot is often intricate, with a sub-text which can often be interpreted by identifying the bigger theme which is presented. This makes for useful discussions as children can easily compare and contrast books. The clues which they infer as they read can often provide a ‘eureka’ moment when they are all gathered together to reveal the bigger picture. Themes and plots such as separation from parents, good residing over evil, a secret or fantasy place that only children can see/go/visit are commonplace in older books, but provide an important hook and ultimately a vital message to the reader; your imagination is safe here and anything is possible.
We have geared this list towards KS2, though we are aware that many exist for our KS1 children. And please forgive us, but many of them are quite old, but we do feel a blog – and a list -of modern classics coming on…
Carrie's War by Nina Bawden
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken
Stig of the Dump by Clive King
Goodnight Mr Tom by Michelle Magorian
The Borrowers by Mary Norton
Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Charlotte's Web by EB White
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis
Special mention as well for all the excellent books in The Candlewick Illustrated Classics series, such as –
Gulliver retold by Martin Jenkins and illustrated by Chris Riddell
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame and Inga Moore
The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling and Nicola Bayley
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson and John Lawrence
Our text-based teaching sequence for 'Gulliver' retold by Martin Jenkins and illustrated by Chris Riddell is available here.
