Swallows and Amazons
Recommended. Age: 9+. A Catholic review of this book for parents.
Our review
Four children are trusted with a boat and an island, and they repay the trust. They obey their mother's rules, look after the youngest, and end by helping the uncle they had treated as an enemy. It is childhood as it should be. The one reservation is that God and church never appear.
For parents
Read aloud from 6, independent reading from 9 or 10. The pace is slow and the sailing terms are thick, so start aloud. Ask why Mother lets them go. Ask what changes between the children and Captain Flint. Their pirate game calls outsiders natives and savages, as 1930 did. Say why we would not.