Book ideas - Victorians

[teacherwith2kids]

Advice please, oh wise and well-read ones! My class topic for next term is the Victorians (Year 3) ... Usually I have no problem at all identifying suitable books for Literacy to fit in with topics, but I'm a bit stumped on this one.

I was thinking of reading Tom's Midnight Garden as a longer book, but because of the needs of this particular class I would also like a shorter 'picture' book to get us started. As an example, when teaching WWII I used 'The Lion and the Unicorn' by Shirley Hughes.

As an absolute ideal, what I'm looking for is a picture book with a similar overall 'structure' to Tom's Midnight Garden (child in modern times has some kind of 'transition' and experiences Victorian life), but a story about a Victorian child would be fine.

I would prefer to avoid shortened, simplified versions of longer books (e.g. abridged Secret Garden, child's version of Oliver Twist) if possible... I just don't like them much, and if I have to live with a book for several weeks I would prefer to start from a position where i like the book.

If it had a boy hero, so much the better! (I don't want much!)

Hetty Feather and The Lottie Project would be great for your better readers.

Fanny and the monsters

Thanks Indigo! Definitely ideas for the topic-related book corner.

The level of reading required isn't really an issue - I'm looking for a book that I can share with the class, rather than one they necessarily have to read for themselves...

Oooh. Like the Fanny one. Could take my topic planning in a completely different direction (always a good thing!)

Street Child by Berlie Docherty - went down a storm with the EBD pupils I worked with.

I'm about to do Street Child with Year 5/6 but I imagine that both that and Tom's Midnight Garden would be a bit beyond most Year 3s. You could look at Theresa Tomlinson's "Time Slip Adventures" - they're about children going back in time and I'm pretty sure that some of them are to Victorian times - Meet me by the Steelmen is one but there are several. They're short chapters but quite easy to read as far as I can recall!

Thanks Seren! I had considered Street Child but rejected it for the reason you mention.

I'm ordering a variety of possibilities from Amazon and seeing if any take my fancy. At least at the beginning of the year there is lots of flexibility in terms of possible genres so I can just adjust the long term plan to fit the books I find and like! (We still, vaguely, use the NLS as a guide to coverage in each year, though are not in any way tied to 'doing the units' in the way described). As Edward Lear was writing during the Victorian era, I think nonsense poetry might be on the agenda!

Edward Lear would be good! Yes, we still vaguely use the NLS too - there was a lot of good stuff in the unit plans! Hope you find something that you like.

I haven't read it for a long time, but is The Waterbabies any good? Or an abridged version of Wind in the Willows (you could show a couple of clips from one of the many film versions). Or I might be aiming too high for year 3.

There are a few ORT stories with a Victorian theme.

Mummy, I know... it's just that I can't see my class being enthused to write brilliantly and imaginatively over a period of weeks on the basis of an ORT book!

I have come to the conclusion that what I was originally looking for may not exist but there seem to be several quite short books around about Victorian children doing various rather nasty jobs or being involved in Victorian - era discoveries / inventions, which will take my planning in a different direction but I hope be equally interesting.

My 7 yr old dd has just read the Lottie project, and really loved it.

Thanks, I've ordered that one amongst others. One of my concerns is how 'boy friendly' it would be, given that the whole class will be studying it, and that boys' writing is something the school is working very hard indeed to improve... Would your DD recommend it to any of the boys in her class at school, do you think?

I just asked her as I didn't read it with her.

I said "Do you think the boys in your class would like the Lottie Project?" and she initially shrugged and said "some might" so I said "Do you think X and Y would like it?" (Her two closest boy friends) and she said "Nah - they'd like more Horrible Histories type books about Victorians, or funny ones. Think it's mainly a girls' book really...." So going by that, your concerns may be correct!