Now that our A Book a Week with David project is over, I’ve been thinking about how to continue reading together for 2012.
Here are all the books we read in 2011:
- Winnie the Pooh
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
- The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
- The Mouse and the Motorcycle
- The Tale of Despereaux
- Ralph S. Mouse
- The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
- From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
- Holes
- The Land of Oz
- The Cricket in Times Square
- The Twenty-One Balloons
- Mr. Popper’s Penguins
- The Secret of Terror Castle
- The Mystery of the Stuttering Parrot
- The Mystery of the Whispering Mummy
- The Mystery of the Green Ghost
- The Secret Garden
- Encyclopedia Brown Boy Detective
- Katie Kazoo Anyone But Me
- Katie Kazoo Be Nice to Mice
- The Emerald Atlas
- Junie B. First Grader, Dumb Bunny
- Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s Magic
- Danny Dunn and the Homework Machine
- Charlotte’s Web
- Because of Winn-Dixie
- The Magician’s Elephant
- Stuart Little
- The Mystery of the Vanishing Treasure
- The Secret of Skeleton Island
- The City of Ember
- The Tilting House
- Harriet the Spy
- Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s Farm
- Babe, the Gallant Pig
- Much Ado About Aldo
- The World According to Humphrey
- Owls in the Family
- Pee-Wee’s Tale
- My Father’s Dragon
- Akimbo and the Elephants
- Elmer and the Dragon
- The Dragons of Blueland
- The Mystery of the Fiery Eye
- The Mystery of the Silver Spider
- The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane
- Homer Price
- The Westing Game
- Frindle
- Sideways Stories from the Wayside School
- The Little House in the Big Woods
Instead of doing another 52 books this year, I decided we would focus on longer, more involved books. These books might take a month to read and that’s ok. The idea is for him to learn to stay connected to a story over a long period and to get a better feeling for the depth of experience a longer novel can provide.
Or so is my hope.
I picked a bunch of books that I thought were on the longer side and a few classics.
Here’s what I have so far:
- The Mysterious Benedict Society (and books 2, 3, 4 if he likes it)
- Little Women
- Black Beauty
- Bridge to Terabithia
- Peter Pan
- The Wind in the Willows
- The enchanted castle and five children and it
- Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
My goal is to incorporate our thoughts and feelings about each finished novel to David’s Book of Good Memories so we can have a record of our progress and continue to write down his thoughts on each book.
Like last year, I would love some more suggestions. David is almost 7 so any age-appropriate books for a 7-8 year old would be excellent. A huge thank you in advance!
Yey, can’t wait to start another year of reading!
Great idea!
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Roald Dahl James and the Big Peach. See the official website at http://www.roalddahl.com/
Especially Mathilda. Fabulous story!
The entire Nate the Great series.
Charlotte’s Web
Stuart Little Both by E. B. White
Poetry by Shel Silverstein
A.A. Milne – The Winnie the Pooh Adventures
All of David’s books are in the attic. This is all that I could remember from many moons ago!
My girls loved Roald Dahl too, particularly Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Another favourite have been the Geronimo Stilton books http://www.scholastic.com/titles/geronimostilton/
Any of The Boxcar Children books.
I agree with Charlotte’s Wed and the Geronimo Stilton books, as well. I used the GS books with my low readers when I was teaching (early second grade reading levels).
My children and I (now ages 31 and 37) had a similar reading together experience when they were younger. One of their favorites was TUCK EVERLASTING; it provoked much discussion and we still talk about some of the concepts occasionally. Good luck with your list!
Cheri, I was told this story is very very sad. Is it?
I would recommend the “Phantom Toll Booth”. Also “Alice in Wonderland”, “Haroun and the Sea of Stories”, “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” series, “Indian In the Cupboard”, and “Watership Down.” So many good books to read!!!
Aloha, KAte
We read Phantom Toll Booth in 2010. Sort of how this project started last year. I love The Phantom Toll Booth” one of my all-time favorite books!!
The Percy Jackson and the Olympians might be a good one. They are not too long and action packed so they should hold attention well each might take a few weeks.
I think he would like them too but he seems to be scared of the movie so he refuses to read them! Maybe I’ll try again in a few months 🙂
Good luck, that’s what we are going trough right now with the HP series, I have this funny rule about book before movie, somehow he snuck a peak of one of the HP and now he thinks they are too scary so he won’t go near the books. He’s probably the only 4th grader who has not seen them.
I love that rule. I won’t let David watch any more Harry Potters without reading either and he, too, is worried they are too scary. I’m just happy we have more stories to look forward to over time. There’s also the Tolkien books and so many more!! I am so grateful for books!
The Castle in the Attic and its sequel, The Battle for the Castle
Little Men
Swallows and Amazons
the Henry and Mudge series, but that’s one he most likely is reading on his own.
All of the Edgar Eager books (Half Magic, Knight’s Castle, Magic by the Lake, etc. FABULOUS!)
thanks so much, I haven’t heard of any of these books!! I am off to check!!
A couple classics from my childhood – The Five Little Peppers and The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew. Trumpet of the Swans and Stuart Little. Any of the Narnia series. Also Heidi. The Uncle Wiggly books. How I loved reading to my children! Really miss it and looking forward to reading chapter books to my grand-daughter.
thank you so much for this list! We have Trumpet of the Swan but I never read it! I’ll add them to my list. thanks so so much!
The book ‘Hugo’ was a big hit with one of our third grade classes but I would only recommend it if you haven’t seen the movie. I think it spoils it for kids when they see it first but that’s just me. Also, one that’s super popular in our fifth grade classes is ‘The Ranger’s Apprentice’ series of books. The kids in there are 9-10 so maybe keep that on your list for the future!! (PS-I’m a principal…that’s why I write like I own ‘classes’ of kids! I sort of do…they are like my own since I spend more time with them than my own!!)
We always read the book first, too! 🙂 🙂
My kids weren’t that fond of Dahl’s books – we picked and choose carefully, some images are quite harsh.
The Green Knowe series is one my kids loved at 8+, you read the Little House in the Big Woods there is another in that series my DS preferred ‘Farmer Boy’. Search for Delicious and others by the same author… Patricia C Wrede’s Enchanted Forest Chronicles we first read at about that age too (I’m trying to think what else did we read in 1998…) little Britches was in our reading list for school and was mixed, but David may enjoy it.
TheToothpaste Millionaire – actually look at Sonlight.com for the appropriate reading list for 7 yr olds, that will have more recommendations.
Chinaberry.com is wonderful for recommendations too, and I’ve spent more money than I’d like to think there – starting before I was a Mom but still an Aunt who loves books.
For Nathanial’s letter project – Five in a row has some wonderful book and project combos. When dd was that age we did A apple pigs, B berries – including picking and going in a pie, as events came up – meant we did some letters more than others but she didn’t seem to mind.
thank you so much for the list!! I am not as huge a fan of Dahl either. Some I love, some not so much. I will check these out, thank you!
My daughter is in the 5th grade and I continue to read to her. It’s a special time for the two of us. We are currently reading The Secret Zoo series which is awesome. Make sure you read Trumpet of the Swan. Enjoy!