Yesterday I wrote the numbers 1-100 on notebook paper titled “Summer 2014 Book List” and taped them up on the inside of the pantry door. We checked out fifty books from the library last week. The stack of books on my bedside table is shrinking at long last because I have time to actually read my own books. For two hours yesterday, I sat cozy on the sofa with all four children, a big bowl of popcorn and a new read-aloud. They begged me not to stop reading when it was time to start dinner.
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The summer reading frenzy has begun. I couldn’t be happier.
So, turn off the tv, ban electronic devices, go sit under a big, shady tree and disappear into the pages of a new book. Make a list like I did and have a party when you get to 100. You won’t regret it. Your kids won’t either. This could be the summer they learn to love to read for fun! My children have all gotten “hooked” at different ages and by different kinds of books. It takes time and exposure to lots of different literature for a person to truly learn to love books.
But once they fall in love with words, it’s positively magical.
If you are looking for some new book ideas, here are a few of our old book-friends mixed with new-found book-loves. I linked them all to Amazon, so you can read a little about them to see if they look interesting to you.
Happy Reading my friends!
Picture Books:
Blackout by John Rocco
Have You Seen My Cat by Eric Carle
Tallulah’s Tutu by Marilyn Singer
Is Your Mama a LLama? by Deborah Guarino
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
Naughty Little Monkeys by Jim Aylesworth
Turkey Bowl by Phil Bildner
I Scream Ice Cream: A Book of Wordles by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
Plant a Kiss by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom by Carole Boston Westherford
Eloise by Hillary Knight
Easy as Pie by Cari Best
Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems
Leonardo the Terrible Monster by Mo Willems
Stuck by Oliver Jeffers
Lentil by Robert McCloskey
Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey
Mirror Mirror by Marilyn Singer
The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton
Timothy and the Strong Pajamas by Virginia Schwarz
Scaredy Squirrel by Melanie Watt
Tap the Magic Tree by Christie Matheson
Chapter Books (read-alouds we have done are marked with a *):
*Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgrin
Summer of the Monkeys by Wilson Rawls
Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis
Along Came a Dog by Meindert DeJong
The Golden Goblet by Eloise Jarvis McGraw
Tucket’s Travels by Gary Paulsen
All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor
*Anne of Green Gables (the whole series) by L.M. Montgomery
The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman
Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
*The Saturdays (the whole series) by Elizabeth Enright
*The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry
*The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Books on my bedside table:
Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang
Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth
A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
The Telling of the Bees by Peggy Hesketh
One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp
The Nesting Place by Myquillyn Smith
A Million Little Ways by Emily P Freeman
Bread & Wine by Shauna Niequist
Loving Our Kids on Purpose by Danny Silk
Honey for a Child’s Heart by Gladys Hunt
Books to Share with the Kids:
God’s Design for Sex Series by Stan and Brenna Jones