Journey to the Center of the Earth

by Jules Verne

read aloud grade 5, readability grade 7

A secret message written by a 17th century alchemist sets Prof. Otto Lidenbrock, his nephew Harry, and their Icelandic guide Hans on an amazing adventure to the center of the earth. Throughout many stumbles and setbacks, this team discovers an underground ocean, prehistoric monsters, and the mazes that no one has ever stepped in.

This classic is suspenseful, and very intriguing. I have been avoiding it for years, I know that it’s a classic, but it didn’t appeal to me. But, I finally read it and I loved it. You should read it too for yourself and your students!

There are many points where Harry out of pure exhaustion, hunger, or thirst ends up fainting and falling into a delusional world. Make a pictorial fantasy line. List all of the major events that happened in this book. Draw pictures for each one. Draw a line across the middle of a large piece of paper. On one side of the line glue pictures of things that happened when Harry was conscious, and on the other side of the line glue all of the pictures of things that Harry imagined were happening.