Posted on 06/19/2008 7:10:37 PM PDT by incredulous joe
FReeps have such great taste! So, I thought I would put this out there.
One of my favorite things to do during the summer months is read to my children before they go to sleep. Actually, I do this year round, but particularly enjoy reading to them during the summer months. At times we get carried away with some of the great children’s lit available ~ with Mom finally coming up tho the bedrooms at 10:30 to shut down the evening's activities. At which point we may have to get real quiet and me straining my eyes.
It’s great to have a book that you can’t put down and not have to get up for school the following day!
As the kids have gotten older I’ve found that there is a lot of great stuff out there that we can read.
I thought that I would ask my FReeper friends what they may have read with their kids or grandkids and really enjoyed ~ thought funny or profound.
My son will be 10 and my little girl is going to be 7 soon. They’re interested in a lot of different things, but it’s sort of a key to meet somewhere in between with them on the stories that we read. My son could go for a steady diet of military stories and C.S Lewis books, but my daughter does not particularly favor those, though she will listen in.
Here are a few that were very much enjoyed;
“Flush” by Carl Hiasson
“Because of Winn-Dixie” by Kate DiCamilo
“The House of 60 Father’s” by Meindert De Jong
“Redwall” by Brian Jacques
What do you recommend?
My 10-year-old son listened to “My Antonia” on CD with me. Really. Try some classics you hated in high school :-).
My little nieces and nephews, all grown up now, loved ANY Dr. Seuss book! Not sure if that’s to your kids’ taste, but that wouild be my suggestion.
The Tale of Despereaux.
My little girls (10 and 8) like the “Royal Diaries” series. These generally have excellent historical research and good values.
Is that one of those rodent fantasies? I think I’ve seen it around the house, so somebody’s had it out of the library.
I loved the Laura Ingalls Wilder books as a kid. Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys were good too.
They never go out of style.
The Wind In The Willows by Kenneth Grahame is a MUST read. It’s also a good “read aloud” book in which you can act out all the characters, and the kids will love it. 100-years-old and delightful as ever.
My son would feign to be put off by the “princess” aspect. Truth be told he will devour anything with a historical angle. I frequently catch him dipping into my daughter’s “American Girl” books, at which poit he looks up and goes “WHAAAATT!”.
“Nothin’, dude. Reading is cool.”
The Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell. It’s perfect for both of them. I loved this story as a kid. I need to pull this one out for my daughter.
Sadly, my 2 are past Dr. Seuss and into “chapter books”.
We did enjoy them and still do on occassion. They launched our interest in reading.
“Feign” is the key, like Tom with “My Antonia.” There’s lots of action in those books, battles and assassinations and all that, just what boys like. Think of the boy in the movie “The Princess Bride.”
Wish I could go back and read it again for the very first time.
My boys read all the Hardy Boy books....there was a big difference in the books my husband read as a child and the newer versions....they seemed to have dumb them down in the recent versions....
If Redwall was a fave, I would suggest taking a look at “The Lightning Thief” by Rick Riordan... in my bookstore, for young readers, I always suggest the classic “From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler” by E.L. Konigsburg...magritte
That’s a great summer movie and possibly the theme for another thread.
Yes, it’s about a mouse.
Laura Ingalls Wilder books.
Nancy Drew books are certainly great mysteries.
My dd read Island of the Blue Dolphins two summers ago, at age 10. She also really liked The Summer I Shrank My Grandmother by Woodruff and Julie of the Wolves.
Oh, and Treasure Island...of course, Dad.
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