My parents were largely responsible for my continued love of reading. They always had a book on hand, and one of my favorite things to do as a kid was go to the local library with my dad and pick out any book I wanted. For free! I was addicted to Dean Koontz, Stephen King, Lavyrle Spencer, Jean Auel, Ken Follett...
I am still a big reader. I love Stephenie Meyer (clearly), Diana Gabaldon, Victoria Holt, as well as the authors of my childhood. Just opening a Judy Blume book brings back memories of my preteen years (not always pleasant, but not unpleasant, either). I really want to pass this love of reading onto my children. We visit our library every other week, and all three of them love to pick out books. My sister in law is a school librarian, and she often sends boxes of Scholastic books to the kids for birthdays and holidays. I am so grateful for that.
So here is the jist of this post: I need suggestions for some new books to read to Elijah and Isabel. I have plenty to read to Gabe, but now that the older two are, well, older, I have run out of age-appropriate ideas. Neither one of them have the stomach for Stephen King yet, but Magic Treehouse has lost its appeal. Elijah is 10, Isabel is almost 9, and they both are reading on a Junior high level. I love the time we spend together in the evening, laying on Elijah's bunkbeds, me reading, the two of them listening, bonding over this love of the written word.
Do you have any ideas? What do you read to your children? What are some of your favorite books from your childhood? Please leave me some comment love with some ideas...I will run to the library today to pick out some new titles. And they also make great Christmas gift ideas...
I knew I could count on my bloggy friends to help me out. Imagine curling up with a shawl by Betty, a cup of hot chocolate (or Mike's hard lemonade) and a good book with your kids this winter. Sounds good, huh?
I promise, they will thank you, and so will I...
16 comments:
I'm no help here. My oldest is 7 and still loves Magic Treehouse, Nancy Drew and Hannah Montana.
Doesn't there school send home age appropriate scholastic book order forms? Or does that stop as they get older?
The Wilderking Trilogy. It's a Narnia-like trilogy based on the life of King David (of the Bible) that starts when he is a shepherd boy and ends when he becomes king. My son and I had so much fun reading it together!
http://wilderking.com/
If you order it directly off the website (instead of on Amazon) the author will autograph it for you.
Ohhh, Morgan loves the Artemis Fowl books by Eoin Colfer and The Lighting Theif (Percy Jackson and the Olympians) by Rick Riordan, there are 5 books so far. He also liked the Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz. Not sure about what Isabel would like since Danielle doesn't enjoy reading as much as Morgan. Has she tried the Judy Blum books or maybe Beverly Cleary. Have either of them read Holes and other books by Louis Sacher?
Oh, Dean Koontz has a new book coming out November 25th, in honor of my birthday like every November, called Your Heart Belongs to Me. This is always my gift to myself so you can have it when I am finished.
You can do the classics like The Hardy Boys & Nancy Drew!
My kids at school love "The Kingdom and the Elves of the Reaches" this is a series. I have read a little and I might say it looks really good.
Thanks for that shout out! Made me smile :) I'm actually wrapped up in mine as I type.
Oh man my oldest is 6. Sorry I can't think of anything for you. I love Diana Gabaldon too! I just read her series again and found out that a new Jaime and Claire book is coming out next September. It is called An Echo in the Bone. She says that it does have time travel and it will not be the last book! And here I thought that A Breath of Snow and Ashes was the last one! I am so excited!! Good luck finding some age appropriate books.
Chronicles of Narnia
Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys (rotate)
Pipi Longstockings
HOOT and FLUSH
Rick Riordan books (from SA)
American Adventure Series
Little House books (larger chapters)
Sorry I am not much help. We are stuck on Dr. Seuss. But what about the Lord of the Rings Trilogy? and with it the Hobit? Just a thought?
Yeah a fellow Diana Gabaldon Fan.....Good Stuff...and Kujo at 9....wow...I would have been freaked out completely with that book....
Oh,I did a whole post about young adult books over the summer. Because I just love them. I think you'll find lots of option:
http://sunshineandlemonade.blogspot.com/2008/06/thursday-thirteen-young-adult-novels.html
Lib's still too young...but darn tootin' I'll have her on Judy Blume, Beverly Cleary, and Laura Ingalls Wilder...VERY soon.
Sorry I am of no help. You do realize I'm having a minor life crisis right...'cause you know. You do.
Well, my dtr is 8 and she really enjoys Junie B. Jones. Not sure what boys like, since mine is exclusively intersted in spongebob.
Where the Red Fern Grows was always my favorite as a child.
James and the Giant Peach.
I'm frustrated because there was a book I loved and I thought it was called Greyhound but can't find it on search, just a million other things. I read all the time in gradeschool but many of the books I read weren't very appropriate like Flowers in the Attic.
I am also in that same boat. It gets harder and harder to find things for them. My DQ -12 loves fantasy so Eragon, Inkheart, Inkspell and Inkdeath are great. There are also some faily easy reads that are about fairys that she liked Fern the green fairy and so on. Everyonce in a while we get biographies her favorite one was on Albert Einstein. I have also heard that the Lightening Theif is a good one. Scholastic sometimes has the collection of greats that is a good buy. We got Time Cat, the real Ella Enchanted that were easy but enjoyable reads. I will have to dig for you the acclerated reading list that our school has. It is really good and the local library has those books in a seperate section for the kids to access. I love finding books that the kids are interested in and then getting a second copy for myself and then we will do our very own reading group. I love talking about the book with my kids and discussin the best parts and what we would change.
Here is the link. It might help you with some books.
http://webservices.davis.k12.ut.us/AR/index.jsp?loc=157
Where the Red Fern grows
The Princess Bride (you have to go in about 100 pages before you get to the actual story but still a GREAT read...it's the abridged version so there are some author comments in there too but those are all in italics.)
Anything really by Roald Dahl - My personal favorites are: The BFG (big friendly giant), the Twits, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Fantastic Mr. Fox, James and the giant Peach and Matilda
Anne of Green Gables came to me last night, there is a series!
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