The dental hygienist looked doubtful when my daughter, then 12, informed her that she was studying fairy tales in home school: fairy tales at 12? Absolutely! Anyone who has read Bruno Bettelheim’s The Uses of Enchantment (1977) understands the importance of fairy tales to children, especially adolescents. They address subconscious anxieties about growing into adulthood. In fact, fairy tales are listed among the recommended reading selections for grades 5 through 8 in the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks.
Your state Department of Education likely provides a list of recommended reading according to grade level. Begin with your child’s interests before consulting the list. Last summer, Allegra expressed an interest in reading Edgar Allan Poe, Greek mythology, Homer’s Odyssey and the legend of King Arthur. These selections formed the basis of our 2010-2011 reading list, which includes many literary works suggested by the state curriculum frameworks:
Poetry:
A survey including the works of Anne Bradstreet, Gwendolyn Brooks, Lewis Carroll, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Sylvia Plath, Edgar Allan Poe, William Shakespeare, Phillis Wheatley, John Greenleaf Whittier
Short stories:
“The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” “The Story of the Bad Little Boy” and “A Fable” by Mark Twain
“The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe
“Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving
Plays:
“Electra” by Sophocles
Attended productions of “Once upon a Mattress” (comedic retelling of the “Princess and the Pea”) and “A Christmas Carol”
Other works:
Selected Grimm’s fairy tales and contemporary fairy-tale retellings:
“Cinderella” and Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
“Snow White” and Fairest by Gail Carson Levine
“The Goose Girl” and The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale
“Maid Maleen” and Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale
“The Princess and the Pea” by Hans Christian Andersen
Aesop’s fables
Greek, Roman and Norse myths; compared Greek myths to contemporary Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan
Homer’s Odyssey (Padraic Colum version)
Native American mythology: The Children of the Morning Light by Manitonquat (Wampanoag legends)
Fairy tales from around the world
Selections from Genesis
St. George and the Dragon
Beowulf
The Story of King Arthur and His Knights by Howard Pyle
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Your state Department of Education likely provides a list of recommended reading according to grade level. Begin with your child’s interests before consulting the list. Last summer, Allegra expressed an interest in reading Edgar Allan Poe, Greek mythology, Homer’s Odyssey and the legend of King Arthur. These selections formed the basis of our 2010-2011 reading list, which includes many literary works suggested by the state curriculum frameworks:
Poetry:
A survey including the works of Anne Bradstreet, Gwendolyn Brooks, Lewis Carroll, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Sylvia Plath, Edgar Allan Poe, William Shakespeare, Phillis Wheatley, John Greenleaf Whittier
Short stories:
“The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” “The Story of the Bad Little Boy” and “A Fable” by Mark Twain
“The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe
“Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving
Plays:
“Electra” by Sophocles
Attended productions of “Once upon a Mattress” (comedic retelling of the “Princess and the Pea”) and “A Christmas Carol”
Other works:
Selected Grimm’s fairy tales and contemporary fairy-tale retellings:
“Cinderella” and Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
“Snow White” and Fairest by Gail Carson Levine
“The Goose Girl” and The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale
“Maid Maleen” and Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale
“The Princess and the Pea” by Hans Christian Andersen
Aesop’s fables
Greek, Roman and Norse myths; compared Greek myths to contemporary Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan
Homer’s Odyssey (Padraic Colum version)
Native American mythology: The Children of the Morning Light by Manitonquat (Wampanoag legends)
Fairy tales from around the world
Selections from Genesis
St. George and the Dragon
Beowulf
The Story of King Arthur and His Knights by Howard Pyle
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
