We borrowed this book from the library and tried to read it. It's lenghty sentenses in a old english/shakespear type talk. Maybe someone could clarify for the type of writing. I could bearly read this to my DS9. On the inside cover it says for all ages. The illustrations are beautiful. On the sentences that I could interpret we ended up laughing. I would read this long sentence and then give my short version. I almost felt like we were disrespecting the book. Anybody have some insight to how one would even begin to understand this book. It just amazed me. I think usborne books has a shorter version of this that we may try.

Which version were you reading?

Robin Hood
Creswick, Paul, 1866-1947.
New York : Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 1984.

Illustrations by nc Wyeth
Orange cover

Okay. That's modern English, just poorly written. I'd actually recommend the Howard Pyle version, even though it was written around the same time, because I think it's just more readable. Check it out at Project Gutenberg and see if it seems better. If not, don't feel bad about choosing a more modern version. This story has been told & retold and written & rewritten for hundreds of years now.

Thank you. I will try the other version. Do you think this is good for DS9 who is sensitive? He frequently reads 2-3 yrs above grade level. But I try to watch content. I do lots of searching for books and I thought we should try some classics.

Here is the Creswick version online for anyone who wants to look:
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/28700

It was first published in 1917, but it does use somewhat archaic language, probably to fit the setting. It can take a while to get used to that kind of language. If you keep with it you may find that it gets better as you go. One of my college classmates ages ago said that reading Shakespeare was "like walking through cement" at first, but it absolutely did get easier over time. Reading it aloud helped a lot. Of course we also had a professor right there to explain things. <grin>

There are any number of Robin Hood stories out there. I found another public domain one with much simpler language here: http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=marshall&book=robin&story=_contents

And another, with more complex language but maybe closer to modern speech than the Creswick text: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/964
Also available as an audio recording here: http://librivox.org/the-merry-adventures-of-robin-hood-by-howard-pyle/
(edited to add: Crossposted. This is the Howard Pyle version mentioned a couple of posts up.)

Of course these online texts aren't the same as holding a real book, but there they are in case that helps you.

Project Gutenberg is amazingly better but I will miss the illustrations. I was very please when I talked to my DS9 about the Wyeth illustration how he enjoyed the details. It's the little things like this that let me know how special he is. I think I will look for another version. Does anyone want to recommend a series for the classics like this?