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Hi! I am travelling at the moment and would like to make an audio book for my niece for her 9th birthday. Any recommendations for good books to read aloud for this age group? She is very bright and it doesn't have to be modern; in fact a classic would be nice. She isn't a girly girl. Thanks!
By the way, I have a kindle with me, so should be able to access most books.
I found the recording of To Kill a Mockingbird fantastic.
My Family and Other Animals is another good one.
"Wind in the Willows" and "Alice in Wonderland" are children's classics that are meant to be read aloud.
A problem, however, with an audio book of a classic is that there would be quite a lot of references that would be incomprehensible to today's nine-year old. Simple everyday things like the boot scraper outside Mr Badger's front door, that were commonplace when the book was written, now need a lot of explanation. Maybe it would be better to record a more modern book where the everyday in the book corresponds to the listener's experience and exotic or historical things are explained within the book. For English children, stuff by Jacqueline Wilson or Michael Morpurgo might work better than Nesbit or Kipling or Stephenson.
I would suggest, As Simple as Snow (Alex Award Winner), by Gregory Galloway
It's YA fiction, but nothing all that troubling or objectionable for a bright 9 year old.
Oh heck, you should really expand her horizons (and piss her parents off), and have fun narrating Fifty Shades of Grey.:)
Comet in Moominland or Finn Family Moomintroll would both be excellent.
Anything by Roald Dahl, probably the BFG would be a good choice.
Thanks, these are great suggestions! (Apart from 50 shades...!)I am rediscovering the Secret Garden at the moment, it is very entertaining, it might end up on the short list! As simple as snow sounds interesting. Jacqueline Wilson would be an excellent choice if she hadn't read them all already!
If you go with As Simple as Snow, you should know the story is told from the Unreliable Narrator point-of-view, a thirteen or fourteen year old boy whose recollections and observations are somewhat compromised by youth and inexperience, and love; so you would need to explain that style of narration to your niece, and let her also know that it requires reader participation. Your niece would have to fill in the blanks of the story herself, and come to her own conclusions. The 'unreliable narrator' POV is very tricky for a writer to carry off, and As Simple as Snow does it better than anything I've ever read, including the classics I've read that use that form of narration. Also, the book has a very strong female character, one Anna Cayne who the story revolves around.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lillifen
Heh heh. SHAME ON YOU! :-DQuote:
Originally Posted by Iain Sparrow