Daughter is a bookworm. Very Chasidish. Which gentile books?

OOTforlife

Sun, Feb 24 2019, 11:22 pm

Maybe Jules Verne? I haven't read much by him and it was a million years ago, but he might be a contender.

IIRC, both Jack London and Rudyard Kipling have some fiction with only animal characters that might be suitable. Their fiction featuring humans would probably not be suitable, at least the vast majority of it.

FranticFrummie

Mon, Feb 25 2019, 2:55 am

In another threat I just recommended the Molly Moon series. It's clean, very fun, clever writing, and lots of adventure. They are supposed to be for upper elementary kids, but I couldn't put them down!

Every Soul a Star is a lovely YA book. It takes place at a summer camp with mixed genders, and sometimes a couple will hold hands, but that's about it. DD was sorting through her books a while ago, and said that of all her books, that is the one that she will always keep.

amother

Taupe

Mon, Feb 25 2019, 5:57 am

I will need to read myself first. It will take long. I see some pubic libraries have Akiva Tatz books which she likes a lot and Mermelstein and Lazewnick - (She said no Lazewnick). What kind of books are mermelstein? and Yair Weinstock? they have at some libraries.
Will start with And Then There Were None... (gross but ...maybe a good book? Its hard for me to put myself in my daughter's shoes - or her brains )Phantom T....Watership... Molly Moon, Enid....'s books.Edward eager are super clean and I loved them. Also, the Theif Lord. Then Ill comeback here for more ideas.

Scotty

Mon, Feb 25 2019, 6:18 am

The Danny Dunn series. You will have to buy it online used but it's so old you can probably get the series for next to nothing.

The ONLY issue is that it's about two boys and a girl being friends and solving scientific mysteries - it was written in the 50s so they are SQUEAKY clean

amother

Seagreen

Mon, Feb 25 2019, 7:23 am

karat wrote:

Interesting, I’m a big fan of the Christie books, have been reading them since I was a teen and I never picked up on this.

yeah, me neither. I've never been tempted to murder anyone either even for noble motives.

Honestly her books are all so far fetched I think they are just escapism.

amother

Seagreen

Mon, Feb 25 2019, 7:25 am

cm wrote:

Watership Down by Richard Adams.

Fabulous book. But I can't remember - is there no mating or romance between male and female rabbits?

Btw some (one?) of his other books are extremely inappropriate.

Scotty

Mon, Feb 25 2019, 8:22 am

Happy hollisters series
Also out of print and old - but you should be able to buy entire sets on eBay for pennies

Power boys (same as above wonderful series!!)

Enid blyton is marvelous and TONS OF THEM (didn’t read all tho but I think 1000% clean) adventures

Rick brant is fabulous
Last one skip for your daughter. A few mentions in some books of boys and girls swimming together - it was the 50s though so very clean. Shower negia too (skip deadly Dutchman too if you’re super sensitive)

I adore the little house series but they do speak of x-mas is glowing terms (you would too if you starved in a shack on the prairie except for one day a year) and Sherlock Holmes is my jam but for an insular girl without context the love triangles may be confusing
(I was a heimishe girl who was very naive and it didn’t bother me a whit, just putting my sensitive glasses on here)

amother

Olive

Mon, Feb 25 2019, 9:30 am

You might want to check out the 1950s books that have been reprinted by Image Cascade publishing. (The mention of Happy Hollisters remind me of it). I think some of their authors/series include Catherine Woolley, the Sue Barton books, Janet Lambert, Rosamund du Jardin, etc
They have a website. Some have mild very 50s romances, though, so YMMV.

Mon, Feb 25 2019, 9:51 am

amother wrote:

Fabulous book. But I can't remember - is there no mating or romance between male and female rabbits?

Btw some (one?) of his other books are extremely inappropriate.

I'm not Chassidish so I don't share those sensitivities, but I prefer "clean" fiction and Watership Down has been a favorite in my family for decades. There is some mention made of finding mates (actually, a good portion of the story is about finding female rabbits to join the warren) and being in family relationships, but no mating per se that I can recall. They're rabbits, so it doesn't bother me that the couples aren't officially married. There is reference made to pregnancy and birth.

The rabbits have a well-developed system of belief and folklore retold as stories with the story, but not an actual religion, as I see it, and it appears to be all made up. Certainly nothing that would be considered a Christian allegory or teaching. (Brief side note: C.S. Lewis' Narnia stories are well-known to include Christian themes, but generations of clueless non-Christian kids have missed the point entirely, and enjoyed the books as adventure stories.)

Ravenclaw

Mon, Feb 25 2019, 10:46 am

amother wrote:

I wouldn’t give her And Then There Were None.
But I see I am in the minority here. I would start with middle grade books or Austen to be honest. To someone who has never been exposed to secular books they are usually not childish.

urban gypsy

Mon, Feb 25 2019, 10:55 am

youngishbear wrote:

I have read the following and think they should be fine. Many are for younger kids but she might enjoy them if she doesn't have much exposure to secular books.

A Separate Peace
Fahrenheit 451
Animal Farm
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
The Phantom Tollbooth
Frindle
Hatchet
Holes
Island of the Blue Dolphins
Maniac Magee
Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry
Matilda - (some people are appalled by the chutzpah)
Number the Stars
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Ender's Game
The Secret Garden
The Prince and the Pauper
Stuart Little
The Westing Game
The Whipping Boy

Good suggestions for the OP's purpose, but I'm sorry, this list gave me traumatic flashbacks to my high school BY English classes. Once I got fed up and confronted my English teacher about why every single book we read is about a bunch of teenage boys. My teacher replied that as soon as you introduce a girl character into a book there must be romance. Such a sad perspective and message Sad

I would also add The Red Pony, The Old Man and the Sea, The Yearling, Old Yeller.
Hatchet made me a lifelong fan of wilderness survival stories and Ender's Game turned me onto science fiction.

amother

Aquamarine

Mon, Feb 25 2019, 10:55 am

Ravenclaw wrote:

Am gonna try answering without posting spoilers, but basically many of her villains (especially in the more well known books) have noble motives and she (and the other characters) therefore do not always condemn said villains.

Agreed, but I also think she has a very cynical view of people in general. Of course there is a mistress, let's assume the child hates the mother, who was likely oppressive. The givens for Miss Marple, the nice elderly lady who is an expert study of human nature, are very depressing. I like the books, but there is a definite negative world view that can be internalized after reading a lot of them.

amother

Amber

Mon, Feb 25 2019, 11:16 am

I'm chassidish, and the books I read as a girl were;

The little house on the prairie series
The secret garden
The little princess
Heidi
Sherlock Holmes
Tom Sawyer
Huckleberry Fin
Oliver Twist
and other classics like these.. can't remember off the top of my head.

And... Harry Potter! (Don't know why it made it through the censor.. gotta ask my mother why she let us read it Smile

The first few are clean though)

And there is a whole Traditional Jewish section at Finkelstein's library (in Monsey) so we got books from there. And we got Jewish books from Jewish libraries as well (Like Bais Tefillah Library)

PinkFridge

Mon, Feb 25 2019, 11:54 am

Ravenclaw wrote:

Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Saving Shiloh (don’t touch any of this author’s other books with a ten-foot pole though! But Saving Shiloh is totally clean)

I just googled Saving Shiloh because I was curious.
It's part of a series, so unless you can recommend the whole series, I wouldn't suggest there.

kenz

Mon, Feb 25 2019, 12:09 pm

youngishbear wrote:

I'm curious what those lines could have been.

A Separate Peace is about a gay teenager. He doesn’t act on it but it’s blatantly there. That’s almost certainly what was blacked out.

Laiya

Mon, Feb 25 2019, 1:23 pm

The Red Badge of Courage

My brother Sam is Dead

Things fall apart, Chinua Achebe

Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett

Authors John Steinbeck (Grapes of Wrath), Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury (Dandelion Wine). Some are ok, some not, so use discretion

Go, my Son

The Bamboo Cradle