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My 2E second grader (just turned 8) has the opportunity to listen to high level audio books twice a day as part of her IEP. She recently had an assistive technology evaluation and I understand she is supposed to be getting an iPad but we haven't actually received the official report yet. In the meantime the school is using an old fashioned tape recorder and books on tape. Yes tape - not even cd. Apparently the school library still owns a collection of books on tape but we have never been offered the opportunity to see what they own so we can consult about which books she has already listened to or what we think may be appropriate. I send in long books, i.e. last week she finished Great Expectations and started The Little Princess. When the school has provided the books she gets short (i.e. one tape) Disney stories. Those may be fine to fill in between the longer, more advanced books but the neuropsych who suggested these breaks was clear that advanced vocabulary, complex plots and rich language were important for her.

I am looking for suggestions for high level (roughly 8th-9th grade level) that would be appropriate for her to listen to. When we listen together in the car we are able to skip over or explain certain inappropriate parts. For example we went for "classics" and listened to the original Dr. Dolittle and I was frankly shocked at the racist language and content. We were already well into the book and DD really wanted to listen to the rest of it. I was able to explain that the book was written a long time ago and we could only listen to the book if she understood that some of the ideas are just wrong and she is *never* to repeat some of the language she was hearing. (And she hasn't.) In school, though, she just sits and listens with headphones on her own so no one is there to have these types of discussions. This means I want to be very careful about selecting books that do not have content that would be inappropriately advanced (or just inappropriate as in the above example) but still have the high level text we are looking for.

Any suggestions? As examples she has already listened to

All 7 Harry Potter books
All 4 Mysterious Benedict Society books
Sherlock Holmes
A Wrinkle in Time
Most of The Sisters Grimm series
All of The Penderwicks
The Indian in the Cupboard
About half of the Anne of Green Gables series
As much Raoul Dahl as we have been able to find

She enjoyed Great Expectations so I am wondering about continuing with Dickens. I think I was in 7th and 8th grade when I read Jane Eyre, The House of 7 Gables and Lord of the Flies. I can't for the life of me remember the details, though, to know if these are appropriate. I also wonder if there are some more present day texts that would work. It is sad that no one at school is helping with this but as with so much about DD's situation they just don't get what she needs and expect that her square edges should be filed down to fit their round holes. Thus the short Disney stories...

Anyway I am eager to hear suggestions. For now our options may be limited to what we can still track down on cassette but hopefully soon we will have wider access to ebooks to download to her iPad. Thanks.

I have been looking for books for my 2nd grader too. Here is a list I am looking into (not going to do all of them).

Robinson Crusoe....Daniel Defoe
Gulliver's Travels...Jonathan Swift
Swiss Family Robinson...Johann Rudolf Wyss
Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle...Washington Irving
Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickelby, A Christmas Carol, Great Expectations, David Copperfield, A Tale of Two Cities...Charles Dickens
The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo... Alexander Dumas
Hans Christian Anderson
The King of the Golden River...John Ruskin
Jules Verne
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland...Lewis Carroll
A Dog of Flanders...Ouida
Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn...Mark Twain
Black Beauty...Anna Sewell
The Adventures of Pinnocchio...Carlo Collodi
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood...Howard Pyle
Treasure Island, Kidnapped...Robert Louis Stevenson
Heidi...Johanna Spyri
Litle Lord Fauntleroy, A little Princess, Secret Garden...Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Blue Fairy Book...Andrew Lang (Fairy books of many colors...all available online free see wikipedia for link)
The Jungle Book, Just So Stories...Rudyard Kipling
The story of the Treasure Seekers, Five Children and It, The Railway Children...E. Nesbit
Wizzard of Oz...L. Frank Baum
King Arthur and His Knights...Howard Pyle
Call of the Wild, Wild Fang...Jack London
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm...Kate Douglas Wiggin
Peter Pan...J.M. Barrie
Anne of Green Gables...Lucy Maud Montgomery
Wind in the Willows...Kenneth Grahame
The Lost World...Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Pollyanna...Elenor H. Porter
The Story of Doctor Dolittle...Hugh Lofting
Winnie-the Pooh...A. A. Milne
Emil and the Detectives...Erich Kästner
Swallows and Amazons...Arthur Ransome
Little House in the Big Woods (all the Little House books)...Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Hobbit...J. R. R. Tolkien
The Reluctant Dragon...Kenneth Grahame
Five on a Treasure Island...Enid Blyton
Johnny Tremain...Esther Forbes
The Little Prince...Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Pippi Longstocking...Astrid Lindgren
The Little White Horse...Elizabeth Goudge
Finn Family Moomintroll...Tove Jansson
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (All the chronicles of Narnia)...C.S. Lewis
James and the Giant Peach (and other Dahl)...Roald Dahl
The Phantom Tollbooth...Norton Juster
To Kill a Mockingbird...Harper Lee (one you would want to discuss with her)
A Wizard of Earthsea...Ursula K. Le Guin
A Taste of Blackberries...Doris Buchanan Smith

Pemberley, two books that my ds loved when he was little were Journey to the Center of the Earth and Around the World in 80 Days. It's been ages but I remember loving The Black Stallion when I was in 2nd grade.... But that's so long ago I don't remember if there was anything really sad or scary in it. I also loved loved loved the Marguerite Henry books -they aren't incredibly long or complex but they were captivating for me as a young girl

A few books that aren't classics and aren't up at 10th grade level but your dd might also enjoy are The Warriors series and Hugo Cabret. I haven't read Wonderstruck yet but my ds loved it too.

polarbear

eta - I apologize that these aren't up at the 10th grade level, but when you're looking to fill this in, I also loved reading the Ladd series by Terhoune at around 2nd grade.

Well, the Penderwicks, Benedict Society and Indian in the Cupboard are all 4th-5th grade level, so I'll make some suggestions there. Have you tried EB White? Trumpet of the Swan and Charlotte's Web? Also, Five Children and It. The House on Pooh Corner is around 4-5th grade level. My 1st grader reads at 5th grade level and has read these books since September. They're good for her emotionally and at her reading level, so probably somewhat similar to your dd.

Lord of the Flies seems much too grim for a 2nd grader to read. My 10yo DYS son who reads at college level, put it down last summer because of the content. Seems like Jane Eyre would be too sophisticated for an 8yo, too.

Have you gone to scholastic book wizard for book-alike titles? You can choose content and age/reading level.

My 2E son with dyslexia also was given a tape player to listen to books. It wasn't successful. He had access to the library for the blind (can't remember what it's called), but in this age of easy technology, it seemed too old fashioned to use. We got him a Kindle and he used to do his nightly reading with text-to-speech, but he just reads now. On the kindle, we buy all his titles, but we think that's a great way to get him to read, so we're OK with it-- just be aware that not all titles are text-to-speech approved.

ETA: My dd loved Wonderstruck and Hugo Cabret, but I don't recommend those as books on tape, since they're so visual. But they might be fantastic on a kindle fire text-to-speech. We have a cd of Black Stallion we used to listen to in the car-- it is definitely a good one. At our local kids' bookstore, there are some classics that come with CDs and they're only about $10 for the book and CD. (This would be for books already in the public domain.)

My dd has also just enjoyed "Fire Within," about dragons. It's a series, and she's only read the first one, but has already downloaded the 2nd one.

And another author I just remembered-- Kate DiCamillo. Her books are wonderful. We've loved Eduard Tulane, The Magician's Elephant and Tale of Despereaux. She has others, too, we haven't read.

Great list Sweetie! We have already done about half of these but it gives me some good ideas. I have been thinking of Jules Verne but have never read any myself so wasn't sure. I have also thought of some Twain. I think Tom Sawyer would be good but can't remember some of the details of Huckleberry Finn to know if it's appropriate. (Some of the scenes on the raft make me wonder but like I said I can't remember the details.)

Syoblrig we did The Penderwicks and started Mysterious Benedict Society in kindergarten. She enjoys them but really needs more complex plots now. Lord of the Flies was too grim for me when I read it in 7th grade but I didn't know if that's just because I am just a wimp. I am very sensitive so books like Charlotte's Web were really tough for me as a kid. DD handles it all much better than me, though. ("Oh it's ok Mom. As long as it's part of the story it's fine.") We were warned about the last few Harry Potter books since they get very dark. She loved them all though. Thanks for the idea for Scholastic Book Wizard - I'll have to check it out.

We just started listening to Five Children and It in the car. We may go back and restart the Sister's Grimm series in the car when we're done with it. Tracking down the right book on cassette can be a challenge. When the local library got rid of their collection the librarian gave a lot of them to DD. We have a few that neither DH nor I have ever read. Would any of these be good: Because of Winn-Dixie, Atemis Fowl, The Black Cauldron or The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm? I like the idea of Around the World in 80 Days but DH is concerned about the same problems we ran into with Dr. Doolittle. We've seen the movie but neither has read the book to know for sure.

Right now these breaks are just for DD to listen - she doesn't follow along with text. The neuropsych suggested this as much to reduce her school anxiety as for enrichment. Once she gets the iPad she will likely have more text-to-voice with printed words to follow along. I just hope it doesn't ruin the joy for her - I frankly can't see her successfully following along these high level texts, especially at the speed they are read.

I really appreciate the input and am eager to hear any other ideas.

Is there anyway you could get a cd player for her (label it as owned by you guys) that was pretty good as far as being sturdy and has a headphone jack...and just send in CD's...I mean you are pretty limited by the tape situation.

Or what about a cheap mp3 player that you could check out cd's from the library...burn them to your computer...then load them to the mp3 player?

Because of Winn-Dixe...great!

That's a great list Sweetie posted!

FWIW, there are books on it my ds really loved when he was little and I'd forgotten about -
Robinson Crusoe....Daniel Defoe
Gulliver's Travels...Jonathan Swift
Swiss Family Robinson...Johann Rudolf Wyss
Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn...Mark Twain
Treasure Island, Kidnapped...Robert Louis Stevenson
Wizzard of Oz...L. Frank Baum

I liked Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland...Lewis Carroll
Black Beauty...Anna Sewell
Heidi...Johanna Spyri
Little House in the Big Woods (all the Little House books)...Laura Ingalls Wilder
(but fwiw, I think these are not as high in level as the other books above)
To Kill a Mockingbird...Harper Lee (one you would want to discuss with her)
(fwiw, I read this in 3rd grade and loved learning about the history associated with it)


I am not sure I'd recommend Call of the Wild or Johnny Tremaine, ds read these for school recently enough that I have vague memories of him talking about them, and I think there's a little bit too much scariness to them for a 2nd grader.

I didn't read them but remember my sister loving:
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm...Kate Douglas Wiggin
Anne of Green Gables...Lucy Maud Montgomery
Wind in the Willows...Kenneth Grahame
The Story of Doctor Dolittle...Hugh Lofting
Winnie-the Pooh...A. A. Milne

My ds didn't read them until he was a little older but he LOVED the Hobbit - and all of the Tolkien books.

One thing I have enjoyed as my kids read the classics is re-reading them myself, which has been fun!

polarbear

Pemberley, this is wondering slightly OT, but have you considered purchasing the iPad yourself and having her use it at school? We ran into situations when ds was first using AT (this is pre-iPad world lol!)... he needed a laptop for school, it took a long time to get the school to agree to let him have one (supplied by the school), but it came with a few conditions that we couldn't agree to (in our case, the school wanted us to sign a replacement contract if he was to be allowed to take the laptop home... that required us to reimburse the full cost of a *new* laptop should the laptop be damaged... and it was a very old not-working-so-well laptop.) There were also issues with the laptop itself - it wouldn't hold charge. And.... we weren't able to install software on it hence ds was limited to what the school felt he should have for school. That all happened at about the same time we were realizing that we needed to be looking at AT for *life*, not just for schools, so we chose to provide the laptop and software. It cost us $ but also saved us a lot of hassle with the school *and* enabled us to get software etc to ds much quicker than we could have going through the school.

With iPads, there is so much that is so useful and so inexpensive (other than the iPad itself)... that it might be an option you'd want to consider. I'd also ask the school how it will work once you have the iPad - will you be able to purchase and download books if you want to, or will your dd only have books provided by the school?

Another thought (and I'm not the most up-to-date techie in the world...) but if you can download ibooks to an MP3 player or iPod, that might be another solution you could purchase for your dd and that she could enjoy not just at school but when you're driving or at home etc. Once he started downloading books to his iPad, ds started taking his iPad everywhere lol!

Best wishes,

polarbear

Thanks for the input polarbear and sweetie. We still haven't gotten the AT report so we don't know just what the plan is going to be. Last year they refused to look at AT or to introduce keyboarding so we bought DD a computer to try it ourselves. We went with a desktop equipped with a very large screen and a kid friendly color-coded keyboard. No luck. It just didn't click. After that we are even more in the camp of having the school take responsibility for walking her through all these steps.

It took more than a month to get even the cassette player and tapes arranged at the beginning of the year. No one could figure out how on earth to provide access to audio books. Someone in upper administration donated an iPod but no one could figure out how to download books to it and get DD to listen to them. All the while they were trying to figure this out it turned out that there were cassette players in the school library and that they still owned a copy of The Indian in the Cupboard on tape, which was the book they were trying so desperately to download. I stayed out of it and just reminded them that they were required under the terms of her IEP to provide the audio books. Hopefully once the AT is introduced the OT will help us get the whole thing operating more smoothly. For now at least DD gets to listen to her books so I don't want to make things any more complicated.

As I have documented here we have had a few issues with certain people in the district. As a result we have taken the position that it is *their* responsibility to do whatever they have to in order to meet her needs. It has been hard sitting on my hands but if I do *anything* it opens up a response from them to deny responsibility. Things are pretty tenuous right now as we try to figure out if this can work in the public school or if she will need an out of district placement. If they provide her an iPad with restrictions we will likely just buy a second one for home use. We can't/won't be in a position to be interpreted as accepting responsibility for her AT needs by sending a machine into school for her to use, though.

Nothing is ever easy in these situations is it?

Just saw this thread. These audiobook suggestions are so useful!

In addition to classic and modern fiction, there are some other genres that can be great audiobooks. Some things my 1st grader has enjoyed in audio format include:

Plays (e.g. Shakespeare's comedies or The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde)
Poetry read aloud by the author (e.g. Robert Frost)
Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf (read aloud by Seamus Heaney himself with his great accent)

Also, how about non-fiction books? For example:
Blizzard: The Storm That Changed America (science and history)

I would not recommend Lord of the Flies; this is truly grim and haunting. Tom Sawyer is great but I would also recommend Huck Finn as a book best discussed with an adult (e.g. explaining the use of the word "nigger" and complex views of society). I think Around the World in Eighty Days would be great for this age.