Category Archives: books

More Reading Lists for Boys: 4-year, 7-year and 9-year-olds

activities for kids, books

Yesterday I wrote about Daddy’s Super Summer Reading List and how much our boys look forward to receiving it every summer.  I also posted their reading lists from when they were 5-years-old, 8-years-old, and 10-years-old.

As promised, here are some reading list ideas for 4, 7, and 9-year-olds.

Reading Suggestions for 9-year-old boys (avid readers):

  • The Original Adventures of Hank the Cowdog by John R. Erickson
  • Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
  • Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary
  • The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnet
  • The View from Saturday by E. L. Konigsburg
  • The Island by Gary Paulsen
  • The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
  • Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
  • The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
  • Redwall by Brian Jacques
  • The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
  • A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
  • From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg
  • The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket
  • King of Shadows by Susan Cooper
Reading Suggestions for 7-year-old boys:
  • The Chameleon Wore Chartruese by Bruce Hale
  • The Secret of Platform 13 by Eva Ibbotson
  • The Cricket In Times Square by George Selden (We read this one aloud.)
  • The Adventures of Taxi Dog byDebra Barracca
  • How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
  • The Not-So-Jolly Roger by Jon Scieszka
  • D’Aulaires Book of Greek Myths by Ingri and Edgar Parin d’Aulaire
  • Horrible Harry in Room 2B by Suzy Kline
  • Owen Foote, Soccer Star by Stephanie Greene
  • Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Richard Atwater
  • And then What Happened, Paul Revere? by Jean Fritz
  • The BFG by Roald Dahl
  • The Best School Year Ever by Barbara Robinson
  • Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown
  • The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
Reading Suggestions for 4-year-old boys:
  • Fix-It Duck by Jez Albourough
  • Mr. Wolf and the Three Bears by Jan Fearnley
  • Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina
  • The Chicken Sisters by Laura Joffe Numeroff
  • Sheep in a Jeep by Nancy Shaw
  • Mole Music by David McPhail
  • Martha Speaks by Susan Meddaugh
  • Absolutely, Positively Alexander by Judith Viorst
  • Pigs Ahoy! by David McPhail
  • Corduroy by Don Freeman
  • Freight Train by Donald Crews
  • Good Dog Carl by Alexandra Day
  • The Missing Piece by Shel Silverstein
  • George Shrinks by William Joyce
  • The Day Jimmy’s Boa Ate the Wash by Tinka Hakes Noble
As a reminder, when my husband gives the boys their lists, some books come with special instructions, such as Tell The Family About It or Make A Drawing or, even, Book Report.  But most are simply to be read and enjoyed, and they end up telling us about the great stories anyway. 
Happy Reading!
Submit to StumbleUponDigg This Share

Summer Reading Lists for Boys

activities for kids, books
Every summer at our house, the boys enthusiastically look forward to Daddy’s Super Summer Reading List.  The boys enjoy reading, and the Summer List is a great way to help them broaden their genre horizons.  (What, not another Goosebumps?!)  At the end of the summer, the boys earn a prize for having finished their lists—sometimes it’s a gift certificate to Barnes & Noble or our local bookstore; sometimes it’s a fun day hiking, biking, and getting ice cream with dad; once it was a trip to an amusement park!
In addition to Dad’s prize, kids can often earn prizes from bookstores.
At Barnes & Noble, for example, kids can win a free book by reading 8 books during the summer.  As kids read, they fill out the Barnes & Noble Reading Journal.  When they turn it in between 5/24 – 9/6, kids can choose a free book from the Barnes & Noble list (on the back of the Reading Journal form).  The books are for kids in grades 1-6, and include Stanley, Flat Again; The Batboy; and Gregor the Overlander.   In the 3-4 grade range, they have La telaraña de Carlota (Charlotte’s Web),a perfect choice for your little Spanish reader!
This isn’t a Barnes & Noble promo, however.  Lots of local bookstores and libraries have summer reading programs.  Our library lets kids earn coupons for free candy and toys at local businesses, where, of course, mom is likely to spend a few more dollars while the kids redeem their prize.  It’s a win for the kids, a win for local businesses, and mom gets some caramel popcorn.  Who could say no?
Interested in our book lists?  Here are the book lists for our boys at 5, 8 and 10-years-old.  Tomorrow, I’ll post the they boys’ book lists from when they were 4, 7, and 9 years old.
Happy Reading!
Submit to StumbleUponDigg This Share

Getting Kids to Read

books, kids, Parenting

Earlier this week an interviewer asked me for some tips on encouraging kids to read.  I gave her my off-the-cuff response, but the persistent little topic has stayed with me all week.

This is a tough issue for some parents, because reading is so critical to education.  Too often, we push our kids to learn to read–to understand how the letters on the page form words–rather than teaching our kids to love to read, which I would argue is an entirely different goal.

When kids love a story, they eventually want to connect the dots.  They want to understand how to make those words for themselves.  For some kids, this comes early and easy.  Others struggle more, in the beginning, but eventually they get it.  We just have to keep reading with them and be patient.

If you’re looking for ideas, you can find a few ideas in the following posts from my archives.   Here are the summaries, and you can click through if you want more info.

1)  We can’t read to our kids often enough.

2)  We can’t read to our kids (and they can’t read to themselves) when they’re watching TV or plugged into PlayStation or blah, blah, blah.  You get it.

3) Pick great books.

3) Keep reading fun.

A final note: I’m a huge fan of Daddy’s Super Summer Reading List, because our kids enjoy reading and look forward to a fun list of new ideas from dad every summer.  However, I’m not a fan of assigning kids who don’t like to read a certain number of books they have to read in a certain amount of time.  It’s like torture for the poor kid.  Instead, I’d choose a great book–a classic, maybe–and read it aloud to that child, whether he’s 7 or 11.  The drawback, obviously, is that reading aloud takes forever.  I read The Cricket in Times Square to the boys a few summers ago, and it took ages to finish.  Everyone was hooked though–all ages!  I’ve found that when kids are engaged in a good story they’re more likely to read a page or two on their own to see what’s going to happen next.  And if I have to choose for them to want to read a page or two, rather than trudging, begrudgingly, through a book I’ve “assigned”?  I’ll choose the wanting every time.

Submit to StumbleUponDigg This Share