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The Treasury of Read-Alouds
SHORT NOVELS page 2 of 3
These books represent a brief
portion of the hundreds
cited in the print edition of The-Read-Aloud Handbook.
Keeper of the Doves
by Betsy Byars Gr.
3-6 121 pages Viking,
2002
This could be among the best work of this
author's distinguished career. Like one of those old Kodak prints that
are remarkably sharp but tiny, Byars' novel is small in size (121 pages
and almost palm size), yet this 1897 family lives and breathes large
as life when enlarged into our minds by the author. The family (five
daughters, one son, mother, father, a maiden aunt, a liberated grandmother,
and one simple-minded recluse cared for by the father) is so believable
that when the book ends, you're inclined to protest, "Hey! Don’t
go. Come back, I'm still here. "
The bulk of the tale
focuses on a precocious girl named Amen (the last of the five daughters),
and follows her from birth to age eight. There is much humor, thanks
to the mischievous twins assigned to "raise" Amen. They
are just two years older and prone to exaggeration and great flights
of fancy. Always lurking in the background is the mysterious Mr. Tominski,
the wild-eyed recluse who saved Amen's father's life when the latter
was a boy, thus earning him a place of refuge with the family but
not an exemption from the torment of the twins. And when their ill-considered
words about him possibly cause his accidental death, Amen and the
reader have much to think about: how little we really know about the
people we talk about and how easy it is for wordes to be transformed
from "blessings" into "weapons."
A Lion to Guard Us
by Clyde Robert Bulla K–4 117
pages Crowell, 1981
In a simple prose style that is rich
in character and drama, one of America’s best historical writers
for children offers a poignant tale of the founding fathers of the
Jamestown colony and the families they left behind in England. Here
we meet a plucky heroine named Amanda who is determined to hold fast
to her brother and sister despite the grim agonies of their mother’s
death, poverty and shipwreck. All the while she clings to the dream
that someday she will find the father who left them all behind. Also
by the author: The Chalk Box Kid; Ghost Town Treasure; Pirate’s
Promise; The Poppy Seeds; and Shoeshine
Girl.
Mick Harte
Was Here
by Barbara Park Gr.
3–5 88pages Knopf,
1995
This is Barbara Park at her serious
best. Told through the eyes of an angry, grieving,
yet plucky and funny thirteen-year-old sister, it’s the story
of her younger brother’s death from a bike accident, which would
have ended otherwise had he been wearing a helmet.
Park fills it with warm and often hysterically funny
recollections of this terrific boy, who could unnerve
anyone with his creative antics. Far from maudlin,
it has won numerous children’s-choice
state awards. Also by the author: Skinnybones;
and the Junie
B. Jones series .
Minnie and Sophie: All Around the Town
by Miriam Cohen; Thomas F. Yezerski,
Illus. PreS-K 68
pages Farrar,
2004
In six anecdotal stories, we follow two
sisters (ages five and seven) through their Brooklyn
neighborhood during the Great Depression. These stories about an outing
to the amusement park, clothes, treasure hunts, and games with playmates
will strike universal cords with today’s children while offering
a gentle peek at a far tamer and gentler world of the 1930s. Prequel:
Minnie and Sophie.
 My Father’s Dragon (series)
by Ruth S. Gannett K–2 78 pages Knopf, 1948
This is the little
fantasy novel that has stood the test of time—surviving in print
for a half century. So it must be good! The three-volume
series is bursting with hair-raising escapes and evil
creatures. The tone is dramatic enough to be exciting
for even mature preschoolers but not enough to frighten
them. The narrator relates the tales as adventures that happened to
his father when he was a boy. This is an excellent transition series
for introducing children to longer stories with fewer pictures. The
rest of the series, in order: Elmer
and the Dragon and The
Dragons of Blueland. All three tales are combined in a single volume
for My
Father’s
Dragon: 50th Anniversary Edition. Related dragon books for young
readers: The
Best Pet of All by David LaRochelle; The
Book of Beasts by E. Nesbit,
abridged by Inga Moore; The Serpent Came to Gloucester by M.
T. Anderson; and The Reluctant Dragon (below).
The Reluctant Dragon
By Kenneth Graham, abridged & illustrated by
Inga Moore
Gr. 1-4 52 pages Candlewick,
2004
The author of the classic Wind
in the Willows gives us here a simple boy-and-dragon
story. The dragon is not a devouring dragon but a reluctant
one who wants nothing to do with violence. The boy is
something of a local scholar, well versed in dragon lore
and torn between his desire to view a battle between
the dragon and St. George and the desire to protect his
friend the dragon. Inga Moore has done a slight but sensitive
abridgement here of Graham’s
original text and she offers large and brilliantly colored
illustrations to compliment the tale. No one captures
the English countryside like Moore. The original version
is available from Holiday House publishers. Related books: The Book
of Beasts and The
Book of Dragons, both by E.
Nesbit; My Father’s
Dragon; Saint George and the Dragon, retold by Margaret
Hodges; and The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf.
The Rifle
by Gary Paulsen Gr.
6 and up 104 pages Harcourt, 1995
This short biography
of a weapon, from its artistic birth on the eve of the
Revolutionary War to the present time, offers a moving
portrait of the many people whose paths intersect with
the rifle during its 230-year history. Although the weapon
is always at the center of this tale, American history
shares much of the stage as the rifle’s
role changes with the social structures of the times.
Also by the author: see Hatchet . Related book: Gunstories:
Life-changing Experiences With Guns by S. Beth Atkin. For more
books by Paulsen and an author profile, see Paulsen here.
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| Novels: p.1 p.2 p.3 p.4 |
Anthologies: p.1 |
Fairy
& Folk Tales : p.1 |
Poetry: p.1 |
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