Treasure Island for sixth graders

[Anonymous]

I just finished reading Treasure Island with my sixth grade son, and we both just love the book. I agree with Michael about having a dictionary handy. We marked words we didn't know or understand and went back after checking them to figure out what was being said. I do believe Treasure Island is a bit difficult for a sixth grader, but with some help, they can get through it with pleasure and the appetite for more of Stevenson's work. His project was a comparative analysis of Treasure Island (the book) to a film version. We chose Disney's 1950's Treasure Island. Indeed, much of the dialogue was exactly as written by Stevenson, but important parts of the story were left out as typically happens when a book is translated into film. My son's favorite character is Jim Hawkins, and this is because he can relate to Jim as a child who aspires to have adult adventures. He also enjoys the adults treating Jim as a peer as opposed to talking down to him--even when there is some pretense on the part of the adult addressing Jim as with Long John Silver on a number of occasions. My son now walks around quoting excerpts from the book and has picked up "pirate" vernacular, which is very funny to hear spicing up his conversations.<br><br>If you have a child who is a strong reader and shows interest in this book, please encourage and help them with a dictionary to get through it. The effort will be worth the fun you'll have sorting out the story together. I also agree with another submission that Lord of the Flies is an excellent book, but like many things, depth and perspective can evolve when using an earlier work for a platform. I wouldn't want to take away from Stevenson's work by comparing it to Lord of the Flies.

[Rosie Cotton]

I do like the Disney "Treasure Island." Some differences, but they stuck to the initial story well enough. I don't think it's too hard for a sixth grader. I read it when I was in seventh grade in one Saturday. My sister read it in her seventh grade Honors English though, so I don't know.

[Charles Darnay]

I also read it in seventh grade.... it's great to hear that people are still pushing their children into the classics. When I have kids, they won't know of any books (outside of the children's books they read until about nine), written before the last half of the 20th century.