Books Eliminated from Inquiry

In my original rational for inquiry I found 10 Children's Classics that I found worthy of revisiting. I obtained copies of all of the pieces of literature and informally evaluated them before reading.

The novels collected for this inquiry

At first I wanted to eliminate The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. In all the other texts, the protagonist was either a young girl or a fantasy creature (Hobbits/ Middle Earth dwellers and talking animals). Although I support a range of protagonists to be evaluated in the classroom, I wanted to make comparisons across similar texts, I felt that all texts except Sherlock Homes and Tom Sawyer, would be well compared against one another. 

Next, using Scholastic.com I evaluated the Lexile, suggesting reading level, and suggested interest level for all 10 of the novels.

ex. Title: Lexile (L), Reading Level (RL) by grade, Interest Level by grade

• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: L560, RL 5.9, Interest: 3-5
• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: L1000, RL 6.9, Interest: 6-8
• Peter Pan: L920, RL 6.1, Interest 4-7
• The Hobbit: L1000, RL 6, Interest 6-12
• The Secret Garden: L350, RL 2.8, Interest 3-5
• The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe: L940, RL 6.1, Interest 3-5
• The Wind in the Willows: L1140, RL 8.3, Interest 3-5
• Little Women: L1300, Rl 7.9, Interest 9-12
• Sherlock Holmes: L1090, RL 6.9, Interest 9-12
• Tom Sawyer: L950, RL 5.9, Interest 6-8

Comparing these numbers I initially recognized that The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Little Women had an interest level at 9-12, which is at least 3 years above the target audience for which I was analyzing the books for.

Next I saw that the highest Lexiles were Little Women and The Wind in the Willows. With two ratings above the range I was considering, I decided that Little Women was not the right choice for this inquiry although it is a worthy novel to be examined in other contexts. Although The Wind in the Willows has a higher Lexile that I would have preferred, the copious amount of illustrations are strong aids to the text making it more accessible to its suggested audience, grades 3-5.

I recognize that illustration, even if minimal, in children's literature is essential for its audience. In the copies of Sherlock Holmes and Tom Sawyer that I had obtained, there were no illustrations. In The Secret Garden there were also no illustration, but this novel was one in which had the lowest Lexile and reading levels. I considered The Secret Garden important to keep as it would be a good novel to begin an introduction of classics with a younger target child.

In conclusion, I deiced to eliminate  Little Women, The Adventures of Tom Sayer, and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes from the inquiry.