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Author Topic: Good short stories for kids?  (Read 2371 times)

Sappho

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Good short stories for kids?
« on: March 26, 2014, 01:46:38 pm »

I need some material for my English lessons with a 12-year-old girl. Her spoken English is pretty good, and she loves to read, but her level isn't as good in English as it is in Czech. She's very creative, and we've been working on world building and writing short stories, but it would be useful to give her some good short stories to read for homework, for us to discuss during lessons.

There are loads of short stories web sites out there, but the problem is, most of it is garbage. Usually, anyone can submit a story to these sites, and a quick glance at some of the top-rated ones reveals a horrifying lack of writing skill and far too many spelling and grammatical errors for me to give this to her as an example. I know there are loads of really GOOD stories out there, but I don't know how to find them.

So, does anyone have any recommendations? The subject matter isn't terribly important. I just need to find some stories for her that are no more than a few pages long, not at a difficult level (she can read English about as well as a typical 7-8-year-old native speaker), and well-written.

I've got a skype lesson with her in 15 minutes. If I could find something for tonight, that would be excellent. If not, then something for next week and future lessons would be great as well.
« Last Edit: March 27, 2014, 02:14:46 am by Sappho »
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Draignean

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Re: Good short stories for kids (early teens)?
« Reply #1 on: March 26, 2014, 01:56:45 pm »

I recommend...

The Color Out of Space (Classic Old Style Horror)
Harrison Bergeron (very short and easy reading, but deep)

PS: I realize may tastes might be a little odd for the age group, but those were three of my favorites at the time.
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Meph

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Re: Good short stories for kids (early teens)?
« Reply #2 on: March 26, 2014, 02:23:08 pm »

8-10 year old english speakers might find the 80 years old lovecraftian horror stories a bit... odd, as you said.

I would more lean towards the Little Prince, The Alchemist, or the Giving Tree, although they are more novelles than short stories.
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Vector

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Re: Good short stories for kids (early teens)?
« Reply #3 on: March 26, 2014, 02:25:33 pm »

I agree with Meph.  There's also the O'Henry short stories, I think?  Might be a bit too advanced... they were in our middle school books, but with a dictionary for a couple of words I think it could be okay.
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Sappho

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Re: Good short stories for kids (early teens)?
« Reply #4 on: March 26, 2014, 03:18:06 pm »

Anything more than 50 years old is pretty much out of the question, since she only knows modern words. Remember that she's not a native speaker, lives in a country where most people do not speak fluent English (and television and films are all dubbed), and her vocabulary is limited - I'm trying to strengthen her vocabulary and grammar, which wouldn't work well if I'm giving her writing that uses archaic language. While I am grateful for the suggestions, Draignean, that stuff is WAY to hard for her, I'm afraid.

We've actually just agreed that she will try a novel. She read one of the Boxcar Children novels already and understood it quite well. I asked if she was familiar with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and she said she had read it in Czech. So she's going to try that one in English, one chapter per week or so for homework. Since she knows the story already, the more old-fashioned English won't be as much of a problem, and it's not too archaic-sounding anyway.

She's read one Harry Potter book in Czech, and I'd like to work up to that in English eventually. At the moment it would still be a bit on the difficult side for her, though, and the length of the books is intimidating, especially since she's in music school with a very demanding schedule. We'll start with shorter stuff for now.

However, I'd still be interested in hearing if anyone else knows of any more short stories at about this level. I'll have a look at O'Henry stories, I'm not familiar with those.

Vector

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Re: Good short stories for kids (early teens)?
« Reply #5 on: March 26, 2014, 03:23:37 pm »

Ah, those would probably also be too old, but the story ideas are simple and the language is--if I remember correctly--not too bad.

I was going to recommend Boxcar Children, actually!  That's probably perfect.
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Pnx

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Re: Good short stories for kids (early teens)?
« Reply #6 on: March 26, 2014, 05:49:22 pm »

So you want something short, something that's not too advanced in language, but something that's not going to bore them to tears either.

It sounds like you might want something less short stories and more light novels. I guess maybe the Goosebumps books or Animorphs? Those are basically targeted at exactly her demographic, minus the English as a second language part, though I don't know if she'd like them.

Other than that I don't really know.
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Remuthra

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Re: Good short stories for kids (early teens)?
« Reply #7 on: March 26, 2014, 06:06:29 pm »

I recommend...
The Color Out of Space (Classic Old Style Horror)
This. Or, if you want something longer and more historically tied, try some of The King in Yellow. They both may be rather complicated, but they're certainly of high reward and caliber, and challenge is a good way to get better faster.

Tawa

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Re: Good short stories for kids (early teens)?
« Reply #8 on: March 26, 2014, 06:12:17 pm »

She may or may not have already read The Hobbit, but it's a classic that's satisfying to children. I never read it until I was about her age, but I liked it fine. I was in "advanced" reading group in sixth grade, mind you.

Just throwing it out there.
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Remuthra

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Re: Good short stories for kids (early teens)?
« Reply #9 on: March 26, 2014, 06:14:50 pm »

She may or may not have already read The Hobbit, but it's a classic that's satisfying to children. I never read it until I was about her age, but I liked it fine. I was in "advanced" reading group in sixth grade, mind you.

Just throwing it out there.
Personally, I hated the Lord of the Rings book series when I read it in sixth grade. That may have been in part due to foolishly choosing it for a book report project I had like two weeks to complete, though.

Tawa

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Re: Good short stories for kids (early teens)?
« Reply #10 on: March 26, 2014, 06:18:05 pm »

She may or may not have already read The Hobbit, but it's a classic that's satisfying to children. I never read it until I was about her age, but I liked it fine. I was in "advanced" reading group in sixth grade, mind you.

Just throwing it out there.
Personally, I hated the Lord of the Rings book series when I read it in sixth grade. That may have been in part due to foolishly choosing it for a book report project I had like two weeks to complete, though.

Really? Me too! Well, it was more like "fed up with" and I started a different fantasy series the year after, but, similar.

Anyway, The Hobbit is written at a lower level than LOTR and I always find it a more comfortable book to pull open when I want a book.
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nenjin

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Re: Good short stories for kids (early teens)?
« Reply #11 on: March 26, 2014, 06:23:11 pm »

I'd second Boxcar children. Man, forgot how much I enjoyed those.
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Remuthra

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Re: Good short stories for kids (early teens)?
« Reply #12 on: March 26, 2014, 06:25:37 pm »

I'm trying to strengthen her vocabulary and grammar, which wouldn't work well if I'm giving her writing that uses archaic language.
But archaic vocabulary is the best vocabulary :V.

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Re: Good short stories for kids (early teens)?
« Reply #13 on: March 26, 2014, 07:38:09 pm »

I'm trying to strengthen her vocabulary and grammar, which wouldn't work well if I'm giving her writing that uses archaic language.
But archaic vocabulary is the best vocabulary :V.
I read that kind of stuff in translations when I was 10-12, but only much later in the English original. For a 12 year old non-native speaker that's probably way too hard.

I'd rather try fairy tales or folk stories, there are often shortened editions of these that have a somewhat modernized language for use in schools specifically.
Since Roald Dahl was mentioned, didn't he write short stories too? I liked The Witches as a kid, but I don't know how hard that is in English.
I see Dahl's short stories are recommended for the 5th and 6th year of learning in German schools, so that might be too hard too I guess.
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Sappho

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Re: Good short stories for kids?
« Reply #14 on: March 27, 2014, 02:14:13 am »

Yeah, Roald Dahl seems to be optimal for now, especially since she's already read stuff in translation and liked it.

I'd like to work up to the Hobbit, but it's still a bit above her level. I don't know how many times I've read that one. Read it for the first time when I was 8, but I'm hyperlexic, started reading when I was 3, and I also read the Lord of the Rings when I was 8, so I can't base my judgments on my own interests at that age. I just re-read it again recently and while the level was not too high, it was still a bit high for her at the moment.

The girl is 12, in 6th grade, but her English reading level is really no higher than an average native speaking 7- or 8-year-old. Which is still impressive, but really, the old horror stories are just orders of magnitude too difficult for her.

I suppose I should change the title of this thread if I want more suggestions, since her reading level is really not up to "teen" level just yet.
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