Lou's Year in Books
Finally, at age 10, Lou truly dug into reading for pleasure this year. She's still a very active girl who prefers to dig into her violin or into invention projects, but she settles into reading now too.
She read all three Mysterious Benedict Societies.
The Fire Within
The Invention of Hugo Cabret
The Dealing with Dragons books
The Septimus Heap books
The Percy Jackson books
Sadly, she fell in love with The Beacon Street Girls and read more than I care to admit.
Some classics which I'm glad she found included:
Ballet Shoes
Roller Skates
Enid Blyton's Wishing Chair and Folk of the Faraway Tree books
Together we read:
Edith Nesbit's The Phoenix and the Carpet (a big hit)
Louisa May Alcott's Little Women and Jack and Jill
This spring I hope to continue reading more Edith Nesbit to her as well as The Wind in the Willows. Next year, 6th grade at Waldorf focuses on the Middle Ages, so I'm looking forward to introducing her to the Crispin books, The Door in the Wall, and The Midwife's Apprentice.
Here's the list of previous books we've read together along with recommendations many readers made for us.
I'm always looking forward to new books to introduce to the girls. This year I'm especially interested in books about ancient Greece, Rome and the Middle Ages. Fire away if you know of some hits!
Great. Thank you for posting this list. J will be turning 10 next month and I'm always on the look-out for new, interesting books. Blessings~Jane
Detectives in Togas is a fun historical fiction book about Rome. It looks like our daughters read a lot of the same books. I didn't know that there was a third Benedict Society book out yet...I'll have to look for that one.
As a child I loved Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising series, the central character is an 11-year-old (boy) and it had all the magical things I loved then. It can be a little dark, and I would definitely look for an older (secondhand) copy -- the new editions I've seen on Amazon are frightening at first glance. I can still remember how those books felt in the hand, and how I read them on the long bus rides home from school. And that it was a series, which meant there was yet another waiting to be read... I was so sad when it was done!
Such great reading, it has been harder to keep up with what my daughter is reading, when she was younger I was so much more part of the process. She has got in her head all those great (but somewhat dark) romances lately- just finishing 'Wuthering Heights' and "Jane Eyre' waiting in the queue. "Journey to River Sea" is a book we really enjoyed in fifth grade.
Thanks for the great list. My daughter liked Elise Broach's "Masterpiece" and "Shakespeare's Secret." She has also found the old Judy Blume standbys "Are You There God, It's Me Margaret," "Blubber," "Deenie," and others.
great list sarah! does hels have a list she'd be willing to share? we could really use some inspiration for emily. there is so much out there that is SO not for their age group, yet marketed right to them!
We have loved E.Nesbit.. have your read 5 Children and It yet? A big favorite around here. And without her, perhaps Edward Eager wouldn't have written Half Magic, one of my favorites, along with the others in the series.
That's an amzing list for a 10 year old. Good luck for continuing joy of books.
For Greek/Roman books I love the Michael Cadnum retellings of the Ovid for children/young adults Nightsong(Orpheus and Eurydice) and Starfall(Phaeton and the charoit of the sun) My kids ar e too young still, but I liked them!Enjoy:-)
Your mention of some of Enid Blyton's books like The Wishing Chair and The Faraway Tree suggests that you are an ardent fan of the author like myself. Thus, I would like to inform you that I have just published a book on Enid Blyton, titled, The Famous Five: A Personal Anecdotage (www.bbotw.com, www.amazon.com).
Stephen Isabirye