Mystery Reading in Beyond

This is where new posts begin. All questions or discussions about any of Heart of Dakota's curriculums start here. If you wish to share a one-time post about your family's experience with our curriculum, you may post under the specific curriculum title (found beneath this "Main Board" heading).
Post Reply
Happy2bMommyof3
Posts: 103
Joined: Fri Aug 14, 2009 7:41 pm

Mystery Reading in Beyond

Post by Happy2bMommyof3 » Tue Jan 12, 2010 1:13 pm

Hi Ladies,

We are in the second week of reading The Railway Children for our mystery selection in story time. I can't read this story another day. :( I am struggling with the run-on sentences so much that I confuse myself as I try to comprehend what I am reading as I am reading it out loud to my daughter. Either I am having a hard time with distractions right now or the book is just poorly written. :? Anyway, I am going to the library tonight to get another mystery selection and I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations. Do any of you have any opinions about the Nancy Drew Mysteries? To what age are they generally geared?

Thanks for any help!
Heather
Wife to the most hardworking man I know,
Mother to three amazing gifts from the King...
Amelia -8 - BHFHG + DITHOR
Noah - 5 - Christian Liberty Press Kindergarten
Lily - 4 -Rod and Staff Pre-K

Tmisek
Posts: 112
Joined: Mon Dec 22, 2008 9:38 am
Location: Nebraska

Re: Mystery Reading in Beyond

Post by Tmisek » Tue Jan 12, 2010 1:46 pm

We are in our 3rd week of The Railway Children. It is pretty long and difficult to read! (But it is starting to grow on me :D )

Anyway, we have not read any Nancy Drew books, but there is a book called "Key to the Treasure" by Peggy Parish that my daughter is reading on her own, and she said it's really good. It is one of the suggested mystery storytime titles in Beyond. Another one called "Pheobe the Spy" by Judith Berry Griffin looks good (we have it, but haven't read yet). There are descriptions of both those books in the appendix of the Beyond manual...and you may already know all this! Another series, besides Nancy Drew, that comes to mind is the Boxcar Children.

I did a search on the board last week about The Railway Children because I was wondering if anyone else was having trouble, and a couple threads on the subject came up. There were some recommendations in those. "Key to the Treasure" was one that most people seemed to like. Have fun at the library!
Tammy

Mommy of 3 treasures:
dd14
ds12
dd10

:) Enjoyed: LHFHG through MTMM!

holyhart
Posts: 557
Joined: Wed Jun 18, 2008 2:16 pm
Location: ~New Hampshire
Contact:

Re: Mystery Reading in Beyond

Post by holyhart » Tue Jan 12, 2010 1:52 pm

OH! Haven't read The Railway Children yet, but my vote is for Phoebe the Spy!!!! FABULOUS book. Easy to read and well written. Plus it takes place during the Revolutionary War (about a girl who is given an assignment to save George Washington's life), so depending on where you are in your history lessons, that might work out as a fun tie-in! :D
~Kelly~
wife of CB since 10/99
mother to:
~Evelyn Grace 5/03
~Joshua Ryan 11/05
~Lillian Rose 8/08
~Caleb Charles 8/10

lmercon
Posts: 659
Joined: Tue Jan 22, 2008 3:05 pm
Location: Zieglerville, PA

Re: Mystery Reading in Beyond

Post by lmercon » Tue Jan 12, 2010 2:46 pm

I pre-read the book and, though I enjoyed it, I felt it would be too above my ds. I will read it to him later. The boy option package that Carrie sells had "Key to the Treasure" as the mystery book. I checked it out of the library. My ds LOVED it! It was a fun book with lots of clues to solve. Very fun!
hth,
Laura
Wife to a great guy and mommy to:
Ds(15) - using WG and loving it!
Dd(11) - using Res.to Ref and having a blast!
Ds (3) - our joy!
Two little ones in the arms of Jesus - I can't wait to hold you in Heaven!

Carrie
Site Admin
Posts: 8125
Joined: Wed Aug 15, 2007 8:39 pm

Re: Mystery Reading in Beyond

Post by Carrie » Tue Jan 12, 2010 3:30 pm

Heather,

The ladies are giving you some terrific advice! You always have several options within the Beyond read-alouds, so if The Railway Children isn't your cup of tea, simply choose a different one. :D I have to admit that The Railway Children grew on me over time and that it's one of those books that requires a seasoned listener to enjoy. It is one of my older boys' favorites though, and one they still remember fondly years later. Maybe you could try it again someday by listening to it on audio? :wink:

Anyway, we also loved Key to the Treasure and Phoebe the Spy, both of which are shorter and an easier read. I find that I go through seasons in my life where I need shorter read-alouds that are easier on MY eyes and ears. We're in that season at our house in Beyond right now, since I have already done all of the harder read-alouds with my older kiddos. :wink: It's fine to recognize the season that you're in as a reader and what will match your needs best. It's also important to know your listener and to give yourself permission to switch if it suits you better, since it won't mess up the flow of the plans. :D

Blessings,
Carrie

crlacey
Posts: 630
Joined: Thu Feb 14, 2008 1:13 pm
Location: NC

Re: Mystery Reading in Beyond

Post by crlacey » Tue Jan 12, 2010 4:25 pm

We too were having a hard time with Railway Children and since I didn't have any of the other books yet, we skipped to another book and will come back to the mystery after Keys to the Treasure arrives. We gave it a good try, but I was tired of having to recap every few paragraphs so that DD could keep up.
Crystal
DD 20 married college graduate
DS 17 college student
DD 11 CTC

Finished: LHTH, LHFHG, BLHFHG, BHFHG, PHFHG, CTC, Res to Ref, Rev to Rev, MTMM, parts of WG and WH

Tansy
Posts: 1029
Joined: Thu Sep 06, 2007 9:11 am
Location: Texas

Re: Mystery Reading in Beyond

Post by Tansy » Tue Jan 12, 2010 5:12 pm

What can I say Railway children also got on my nerves. And dd1 is not a seasoned listener Oi not a good combo,

We switched to these cat books my dd loves, very silly can't remember the name but I know exactly where they are in my library lol! but I would endorse Pheobe the spy! I lOVED that book as a kid.
♪♫•*¨*•.¸❤¸.•*¨*•♪♫•*¨*•.¸❤¸.•*¨*•♪♫
Dyslexics of the world Untie!
Adoptive Mom to 2 girls
http://gardenforsara.blogspot.com/
♪♫•*¨*•.¸❤¸.•*¨*•♪♫•*¨*•.¸❤¸.•*¨*•♪♫

my3sons
Posts: 10698
Joined: Sun Aug 26, 2007 7:08 pm
Location: South Dakota

Re: Mystery Reading in Beyond

Post by my3sons » Tue Jan 12, 2010 6:54 pm

We've read Railway Children, Phoebe the Spy, and Key to the Treasure. We enjoyed them all, and they are all very different from one another. I agree that Railway Children requires a more seasoned listener, but good living books often do, especially as dc get older. I like to give books time to grow on me and our dc, as these are often some of our favorites by the end. We had this with King of the Wind, Railway Children, A Lion to Guard Us - many books that are now among our favorites. It has taken me awhile to recognize and love living books, but it has been worth it. We actually just have been having this with Mountain Born, and now that we are more than halfway through, we are loving it. The character development and plot development has grown and grown - we can now see the parallels to the Biblical character David, and to our Lord and Savior Jesus. This is just fresh on my mind as I was thinking today I was so glad we continued to read and now are enjoying it so much. So, while it's wonderful to have lots of options of books to read, I'd like to encourage you give book selections a due period of time for a good while first before making a change, as this allows for a story to truly develop, and for a more classical way of writing to grow upon us. :D This will be incredibly important as our dc get older, so when they are doing classical works such as Shakespeare's or reading Pride and Prejudice - they can enjoy these works and not be totally shocked at the change. Just food for thought, as this is a journey I've been on my past 15 years of teaching too. Since you've already made the decision to put aside the Railway Children, both Phoebe the Spy and Key to the Treasure are shorter in length, have much shorter, less complicated sentence structure, and are very enjoyable to read and listen to, so either one of those books would be wonderful as well. :wink:

In Christ,
Julie
Enjoyed LHTH to USII
Currently using USI
Wife to Rich for 28 years
Mother to 3 sons, ages 23, 20, and 16
Sister to Carrie

funkmomma71
Posts: 373
Joined: Sat Oct 11, 2008 1:54 pm
Location: Las Vegas, NV

Re: Mystery Reading in Beyond

Post by funkmomma71 » Tue Jan 12, 2010 11:32 pm

I just wanted to pop on and say my dd and I are reading Ginger Pye for the mystery book in Beyond. She loves it! It does take awhile to get into the "mystery" of the book, but there are dozens of character sketches through out that you really connect with the characters. We find ourselves laughing ALOT while reading this book.
Nancy
Mommy and teacher to
Dd 12 and DS 8
Doing MTMM & Preparing 2016-2017

Patience
Posts: 183
Joined: Thu Jan 15, 2009 9:21 pm

Re: Mystery Reading in Beyond

Post by Patience » Wed Jan 13, 2010 8:46 am

I might wait until your kids are a little older, it is a more difficult read. We read this last year when my kids were 8 and 6, and though at first I did not think we would like this story, at the end I can say that it was our favorite book of the year. And there is a nice movie that is true to the story that you can watch when you are finished. Pull it back out in a few years and you will enjoy it :)
Wife of 10 wonderful years
Mom to three
9 yo girl and 7 yo boy doing BIGGER
3yo girl listening in to all our reading

Busymomma1
Posts: 231
Joined: Tue Sep 04, 2007 1:57 pm
Location: Ohio

Re: Mystery Reading in Beyond

Post by Busymomma1 » Wed Jan 13, 2010 11:01 am

My dd just finished "Key to the Treasure" for DITHOR, and I did the read-aloud with "The Treasure of Pelican Cove" for all 3 of my kiddos. Now, my dd is beginning "The Railway Children" to read for DITHOR. I did have to help her a bit on chapter 3 with comprehension, and we did some vocabulary work with it. But it seems interesting. She is both a 'seasoned listener' and 'reader' at age 8. It almost reminds me of when we read "Black Beauty"... you gotta get used to the old style of writing/language of those Brits! ha! Railway Children IS VERY different from the other 2 titles I mentioned. They are more the "typical" kids mystery story, I'd say. So perhaps a better, simpler intro to the genre. I'm not sure about Nancy Drew, either. I read "The Bobbsey Twins" as a child, and as I look back on them, there is a lot of stuff about ghosts and haunted references, I think. I'm wanting to stay away from that myself. But, I'd be interested to hear opinions on the Nancy Drew series from those who've read them!

We've just started Ginger Pye as the read-aloud for all. It sure DOES take a while to get into the mystery. My dd is fine with it, but I hope I can keep my younger 2 interested until we get into the "exciting" parts! :-)

We are very much enjoying going the the genres in Beyond and DITHOR!
Tricia
Married for 14 great years!
Mom to DD (10)
DS #1 (9)
DS #2 (6)

Post Reply