Sam (8)
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien -- we gave him this for his birthday, and he read the whole thing that same day. And then read it again the next day. I think that by now, he's read it seven or eight times. I'm so happy! I'm also super tempted to start him on The Fellowship of the Ring, but I'm making myself wait until he's ten for that, as I think right now he would get overwhelmed.
Rush Revere and the Star-Spangled Banner by Rush Limbaugh and Kathryn Adams Limbaugh -- the latest in a series about a time-travelling horse named Liberty who takes people back into America's past to learn about our forefathers. I haven't read any of them myself, but Sam laughs and laughs over them.
The Caboose Mystery by Gertrude Chandler Warner -- one of the original Boxcar Children mysteries. By now, there are more than a hundred in the series, but the first nineteen are the originals, and those are the only ones I will buy. I've been picking them up at library book sales and thrift stores for years now, and have almost all of them. I do let Sam read the others from the library, but I won't buy them because they're not nearly as good.
Sarah (5) and Tootie (3)
Hide and Squeak by Heather Vogel Frederick, illustrated by C. F. Payne -- a cute book about a daddy mouse trying to get his little mouse to go to bed. My kids like to pretend they are mice, so that made this especially enjoyable for them. I like Frederick's "Mother-Daughter Book Club" series, so I got a kick out of this being written by the same author.
The Sneetches and Other Stories by Dr. Seuss -- my favorite story here is "Too Many Daves," a very short story of a mother who foolishly named all 23 of her sons "Dave" and now wishes she hadn't. My kids love "The Sneetches," which is actually a lesson in tolerance and the fact that a person's appearance is irrelevant.
The Napping House by Audrey Wood, illustrated by Don Wood -- a whimsical tale of a napping house, where everyone is sleeping, at least until a wakeful flea causes some mischief. I really like Audrey Wood's books -- her The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear is another of our favorites, and so are Alphabet Rescue and Alphabet Adventure.
Ahhh....don'tcha wish you could purge your brain of all memory of your favorites and read them anew. We have to settle for doing in vicariously with the kids though. I remember the excitement when my kids first picked up Tolkien. I wanted to discuss every page with them.
ReplyDeleteJoseph, it's so true. Same with movies! You can never have that first viewing again. Best we can do is watch someone else experience it for the first time.
DeleteI loved the Boxcar Children!!! (Old and new ones.... though I agree, the old ones are probably best.) I can't wait till 'Sam' can start in on LOTR. ;D And... I've now got some happy new picture books to look into!
ReplyDeleteAnd oooooohhhhh *cough cough.* Do you know you've just handed me a most frightful puzzle?!? I was hoping to do Lois' 12 month Classics Challenge next year and I was booking Hamlet for January and planning to go back over your read-along with it and NOW you're doing Shane in January!!!!!!!! ;P Hmmm. Since they're both short and January's a long month I think I can probably squeeze both in -- so here's to hoping! (It'd be special as I can read that copy I won in your giveaway, too, which is right atop my TBR stack.)
Heidi, yes, the new ones are fun too, but they lack the excellence of the originals.
DeleteShane is super short! Only 16 chapters, and they're all tiny -- you could read it in an afternoon, if you had an afternoon free :-) And then just comment along with the posts as we go. And I'd forgotten you were the one who won that copy!
Ahhh!! The Hobbit!! I read it to my 11 and (then 9, now 10) year old brothers in January and my 8 year old sister heard it in June. Then in Sept, I read it to them again and my 7 and 5 year old sisters got to join us. But I did some editing while reading!! Not TO much, but still some. They all have now seen PARTS of the first two Hobbit movies. They aren't allowed to see Orc or Dol Guldur parts and they can't see Battle of the Five Armies, hear Lord of the Rings or watch Lord of the Rings, for a few more years!!
ReplyDeleteThe Caboose Mystery!! I love that one!! And yes, I think that the original 19 are the only ones worth reading!!
Erudessa, how awesome that you've been reading The Hobbit to your younger siblings! Did you perhaps edit the horrible spiders part? Ugh, I hate that bit. I've been thinking of showing Sam just bits of the Hobbit movies too, but decided to hold off on those for a bit. Always something to look forward to!
DeleteMy kids love the Rush Revere books. We actually have two of the audio versions, as well; its fun listening to Rush narrate his story.
ReplyDeleteWe've checked out The Napping House and others you have listed by Audrey Wood. I think the Red Ripe Strawberry is my favorite.
Ruth, very cool! You're the first person I've met who has also heard of those -- my dad is a Rush Limbaugh fan, so he's the one who got Sam started on these. I'll have to look into the audio version, I bet those would be fun!
DeleteAnd yes, it's hard to beat the Red Ripe Strawberry book.
Hello, Hamlette. Just wanted to let you know that I tagged you for the Awesome Food Award over at my blog.
ReplyDeletehttp://marchramblings.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-awesome-food-award.html
If you're interested, I'd love to read your answers. But no pressure. :)
~Miss March
Miss March, thanks for the tag! I'll check it out later today :-)
DeleteWow, your son Sam must be a good reader, to read The Hobbit at his age. I don't really know for which age it was originally written, but it feels quite complex and maybe more for 10 years and older?
ReplyDeleteBirdie, he is an astonishing reader. And voracious! I read The Hobbit when I was like 15 and have never really cared for it, I think because I was just too old for it -- it's aimed more for children, especially the tone of it, which is what I dislike. I've heard from a lot of bloggers who read it at 8 or 9 and absolutely loved it, and realized that since I knew he could handle it, now was the time to start him on it. Does he get every nuance? Probably not, but on a whole it's a pretty simple and straight-forward story, not nearly so complex as LOTR. Character motivations are fairly clear, etc.
DeleteThat must be such a joy to you as a book-lover to have such a reader for a son!
DeleteI didn't read The Hobbit until I was well over 20, but then I didn't become acquainted with Tolkien before the LOTR movies started coming out. My mom really didn't let us read fantasy books when we were younger! She still grumbles when she sees me watching or reading fantasy ;-)
It is wonderful! I love watching him delve into books I love too.
DeleteI didn't read LOTR until the movies came out, so when I was 21. I'd read the Chronicles of Narnia as a kid, and The Hobbit, and a few other fantasy books, but not a ton -- my parents weren't against them, but they were not of especial interest to me.