hi i'm vanessa from speak english with
vanessa calm today we're gonna talk
about books let's get started today i'm
gonna quickly talk about eight books
that are great if you've never read a
book in english before all of these
books use simple language simple
vocabulary but the stories are engaging
and interesting and they move quickly so
you don't have to read pages and pages
of descriptions of the scenery or of
some deep character well in these books
they are generally for upper elementary
school kids so nine-year-old
ten-year-old eleven twelve thirteen year
old this age group usually reads
interesting books but books that use
relatively simple language so i
recommend if you've never read a book
before in english use one of these books
get one of these books off of amazon or
other places that you can get books in
english and try it take some time take a
couple weeks to try to read one of these
because there's eight books there's a
lot of material so i'm gonna try to go
quickly to help you really get an idea
for each of these and choose the right
book for you let's start with the first
one the first book is raw dolls James in
the Giant Peach this book is about a
little boy who tries to escape from his
terrible aunts who he's living with and
he goes inside an amazing Giant Peach
and has a lot of adventures as he's
traveling from London to the US I think
that this book is pretty well known the
story is well known maybe you've seen
the movie but take some time to read the
book it's not so long there's some
pictures and I'm gonna read you the
first couple sentences so that you can
have an idea about the language that's
used are you ready until he was four
years old James Henry Trotter had had a
happy life he lived peacefully with his
mother and father in a beautiful house
beside the sea there were always
plenty of other children for him to play
with and there was a sandy beach for him
to run about on and the ocean to paddle
in it was the perfect life for a small
boy
then one day James mother and father
went to London to do some shopping and
there a terrible thing happened I'm not
gonna tell you what happened you'll have
to read the book to find out this is our
first book and the most simple we're
gonna start with the most simple and
then go up to a little more challenging
but all of these really you could read
if you've never read a book in English
before let's go to the second one the
second book is a little more serious it
is Louis Lowery's number the Stars this
book is about a little girl in Denmark
who decides to hide and try to save her
Jewish friend during world war two so
this book as you can imagine is not not
as funny as the first book but it also
has an interesting storyline I'm gonna
read you the first couple sentences so
that you can get an idea for the
language why are you running I'll race
you to the corner Ellen and Murray
adjusted her thick leather pack on her
back so that her schoolbooks balanced
evenly ready
she looked at her best friend Ellen made
a face no she said laughing you know I
can't beat you my legs aren't as long
can't we just walk like civilized people
she was a stocky 10 year old unlike
lanky Ann Marie so as you can tell from
the first few sentences of this book
there are probably a few words that
might be new to you such as stocky lanky
well these words are important for the
story but they're not essential so as
you're reading you can understand the
general idea and then if you want to
underline those new words and look them
up immediately or look them up later you
can get a better idea for these specific
words but they're not gonna stop you
from
understanding the general story and I
think for me when I read my first book
in French when I finished the book I
felt so accomplished I felt like I had
done something amazing even though the
book wasn't that long it was maybe
something like this I felt amazing
because I finished the book and I
generally understood this story so if
you can generally understand the story
and gain that confidence that yes I can
do it I can read a book in English then
you can go back and you can learn the
specific words or you could move on to
some of the other books that I'm gonna
recommend the third book that I'm gonna
recommend is EB White Charlotte's Web
this book is a classic children's story
and it's got a kind of crazy story when
you think about it it's the story of a
pig who is gonna be killed to be eaten
and a spider who decides to save the
pigs life so it's about animals but it's
also featuring a little girl which is a
really touching enduring story I'm gonna
read a couple sentences to you from the
beginning of this book chapter one
before breakfast where's Papa going with
that axe said fern to her mother as they
were setting the table for breakfast out
to the hog house replied mrs. arable
some pigs were born last night I don't
see why he needs an axe continued fern
who was only eight well said her mother
one of the pigs is a runt it's very
small and weak and it will never amount
to anything so your father has decided
to do away with it do away with it
shrieks fern you mean kill it just
because it's smaller than the others
well so far you can see because this
book is for maybe ten year olds I think
I read this book when I was in fourth or
fifth grade they often explained some of
the vocabulary words so here in the book
the mother says
one of the pigs was a runt our UNT maybe
this is a new word for you and I think
the author is explaining the word
because it might be a new word for some
of the original native English speaker
readers of this book as well and she
says it's a runt it's small and weak so
you're learning vocabulary through the
people in this book and then when the
mother says your father decided to do
away with it this word do away with
maybe some people who are reading this
book understand what it means but maybe
they don't
so here fern fern is the girl fern says
do away with you mean kill so here you
can understand that the expression do
away with in this situation means kill
so you're learning vocabulary through
the characters excellent an amazing
story
let's go to the next book the next book
is Richard at Waters mr. Popper's
Penguins unfortunately I don't have a
physical copy of this book but I'm still
gonna explain it and read to you a
couple sentences that are digital on my
computer so this book mr. Popper's
Penguins is a delightful kind of silly
story about a man who has a lot of
penguins
maybe you've seen the movie I think it's
with Jim Carrey read the book don't
watch the movie first read the book and
learn something silly that vocabulary
and sentences are really simple in this
book so I hope it will help to build
your confidence and get you interested
in reading books in English I'm gonna
read to you the first couple sentences
chapter one Stillwater it was an
afternoon in late September in the
pleasant little city of Stillwater mr.
popper the house painter was going home
from work he was carrying his buckets
his ladders and his boards so that he
had a rather hard time moving along he
was spattered here and there with paint
and kalsa mine and there were bits of
wallpaper clinging to his hair and
whiskers for he was a rather untidy man
hmm here as before we have a couple
words that might be new to you but in
general you can imagine mr. popper he's
carrying ladders and buckets and he has
wallpaper stuck to him he has paint
everywhere he is an untidy man so you
could learn this word untidy by the
descriptions and it continues going
where he meets a bunch of penguins and
lots of crazy things happen it's an
excellent book with pretty simple
sentences and simple vocabulary a good
place to start let's talk about the next
book the next book is holes by Louis
Sachar
I think that's how you say it well this
book is about a boy who has to go to a
detention center and dig holes it's a
pretty well-known story as well and
that's one of the reasons why it'll be
easy to follow if you already know the
story but also the thing that I like
about this book is that the chapters are
really short so here we have chapter one
and already it's chapter two so you're
not waiting for other things to happen
it's it goes really fast let me read you
the first couple of sentences there is
no lake at Camp Green Lake there was
once a very large lake here the largest
lake in Texas that was over a hundred
years ago now it's just a dry flat
wasteland there used to be a town of
Green Lake as well the town shriveled
and dried up along with the lake and the
people who lived there so in this short
excerpt there were probably a couple new
words such as wasteland shriveled but
hopefully from the context you can get
an idea wasteland dry flat waste land
hmm you can get the image that it's a
dried leg with nothing the soil isn't
good there's no trees it's not beautiful
it's waste kind of like garbage so
hopefully this book holes would be
good introduction to your English
reading journey let's go to the next one
the next book is called my side of the
mountain by Jean Craighead Gorge this
book also I don't have a physical copy
of but it's on the computer so I want to
tell you a little bit about it this book
is one of my favorite books for young
people and it's about a little boy who
decides to go live in the woods and he
has to find food he has to find shelter
and I think this book has inspired a lot
of people to explore nature and just do
something adventurous I know for me when
I was younger it inspired me when I
taught English to Americans in the u.s.
we read this book in seventh grade so
they were 13 years old and they loved
this book because it was really
inspirational about going and trying new
things so let me read you a couple
sentences and hopefully you'll get an
idea for the language chapter 1 in which
I holed up in a snow storm I am on my
Mountain in a tree home that people have
passed without ever knowing that I am
here the house is a hemlock tree six
feet in diameter and must be as old as
the mountain itself I came upon it last
summer and dug and burned it out until I
made a snug cave in the tree that I now
call home here he's describing his tree
home so you get this image of someone
who is in the middle of the woods
alone but you get a feeling of
satisfaction of pride I made this cave
this home in a tree
I really recommend this book if you like
nature and if you like adventure check
this one out let's go to the next book
the next book is called hatchet by gary
paulsen this is a book that I think is
required reading in the US for nine ten
eleven year olds because it's also full
of adventure like the previous book it's
about a little boy who
is in a plane crash and he has to
survive in the Canadian wilderness with
only a hatchet a hatchet is this thing
here it's kind of like an axe a small
axe and he has to survive so let me read
you a couple sentences and you can get a
feeling for the language Bryan Robson
stared out the window of the small plane
at the endless green northern wilderness
below it was a small plane a Cessna 406
a bush plane and the engine was so loud
so roaring and consuming and loud that
it ruined any chance for conversation
not that he had much to say he was 13
and the only passenger on the plane was
a pilot named what was it Jim or Jake or
something who was in his mid-40s and who
had been silent as he worked to prepare
for takeoff here we have a picture of a
boy looking over the beautiful Canadian
wilderness in a plane alone with someone
who he doesn't really know hmm what
could happen I recommend it let's go to
the last book the last book is Scott
Odell's book Island of the Blue Dolphins
this book is the most challenging out of
all of these recommendations but it's
still a book that's usually read by
twelve or thirteen year olds in the US
and this book is based off of a true
story it's absolutely incredible because
in the true story there was a woman who
was living on an island off the coast of
California for 20 years by herself no
one else was on the island and after 20
years someone found her and she was
happy she was healthy and it's the story
about what was her life like we don't
know because actually when they found
her in real life no one could understand
her language they didn't even know what
her language was so no
we'll ever really know what this woman
did while she was living on the island
by herself for 20 years but Scott Odell
decided that this is a beautiful story
and he wanted to create it he wanted to
imagine what this woman's life was like
by herself so I'm gonna read you a
couple sentences so that you can get an
idea for the language I remember the day
the eluate ship came to our island at
first it seemed like a small shell
afloat on the sea then it grew larger
and was a gull with folded wings at last
in the Rising Sun it became what it
really was a red ship with two red sails
my brother and I had gone to the head of
a canyon that winds down to a little
Harbor which is called Coral Cove we had
gone to gather roots that grow there in
the spring here she's explaining some of
her story before she becomes alone on
the island well I recommend it if you're
interested in imagining what could have
happened in history because we have no
idea but it's a great book quite
interesting and it's simple enough it's
a little challenging but it's simple
enough
to start your English reading journey I
hope that at least one of these books
sounds interesting to you so that you
can get started reading in English I
have a video where I talk about some
reading techniques to help you really
learn as you're reading and also enjoy
it I made a video a while ago
about some more challenging books so if
these books seem too simple for you make
sure to check out that video and let me
know in the comments what are some other
recommendations you have for some kind
of simple book in English that's a good
book to get started with thanks so much
for learning with me and I'll see you
the next time bye
vennett
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