I always struggle about what to post on Sundays. We mostly have repeat dishes on the weekends or like this weekend we spend it traveling so we are eating out for all our meals. So, I have decided to make Sunday our family day for awhile. What I mean is sharing about my family and who we are.
One of my favorite things about my family is our family books. Just like in most families we read to our children every night from the time they were infants. Each child had their favorite books that had to be read each night. My son loved “Where’s the Baby?” and anything by Dr. Seuss. My daughter was more particular. Her favorites were “Chick-A, Chick-A” (which I can still repeat almost the whole book from memory), “Bad Case of Stripes” and “When I Was Little.” But, like most children they eventually grew out of these books and we moved on to chapter books about the time my daughter was in second or third grade.
Chapter books take longer and are more involved so we moved to reading them together as a family each night. We would gather on our bed and read one, two or three chapters depending on the book and time of year. We could read more during the summer when bed time was a bit more flexible than we could in the winter.
It was the time when the “Harry Potter” series were really popular and our family rule is that we cannot see a movie without reading the book it is based on first and they really wanted to see the movie. So, we started with “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.” I am so glad we read this book together as a family. The language is rich and I could explain vocabulary words to them as we were reading. I could talk about foreshadowing and have them make guesses as to what was going to happen next based on clues we just read. I could give our family perspective on certain topics or things that happened in the book. It took us almost six to eight months to finish that book but we kept going. The best part is when they saw the movie they were a bit disappointed. The movie is different from the book and both children were explaining, “But, this is not how it was in the book.” This was the first time they could see how much better most books are than the movies that are based on the books.
Now that my children are 13 and 16 we are still reading together. We don’t do it so much during the school year anymore as they are both busy with rehearsals, classes and homework but on vacations and during the summer we start back up again. I hope to continue to read with them until they both leave for college. I think it has helped both of the children and me with talking about our family beliefs and values in a non-threatening manner, as well as improving vocabulary and understanding dramatic devices in writing.
I have just chosen our book to start this summer, “The Book Thief.” I started reading this book for me but I was less than half-way through the first chapter when I decided we needed to read this book together. I am looking forward to starting the book tomorrow night. After that who knows what we may choose for our next book.
In case you are curious or need a good Children’s or Young Adult chapter book recommendation here is a list of some of the books we have read together:
Books We Have Read as Family Books:
- The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane
- Harriet the Spy
- Little House in the Big Woods
- By the Banks of Plum Creek
- Little House on the Prairie
- From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E Frankweiler
- Igraine the Brave
- The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
- Prince Caspian
- Mrs. Piggle Wiggle
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
- Harry Potter and Order of the Phoenix
- Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
- My Side of the Mountain
- Our Side of the Mountain
- Frightful’s Mountain
- The Great Brain
- Inkheart
- The Golden Compass
- Hunger Games
- Catching Fire
- Mockingjay
- The Guardians of G’aHoole
- Extra Credit
- The Mysterious Benedict Society
- The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey
- The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner’s Dilemma
- The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict
- The Hobbit
- A Wrinkle in Time
- Divergent
- Insurgent
- Allegent
- The Kingdom Keepers – Books 1 and 2
To Read List:
- The Book Thief
- Biography of Helen Keller
- I am Malala
- To Kill a Mockingbird
- The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian
- The Chocolate War
- Watership Down
What would you add to our list of books to read?
What's for Dinner Moms? 
This is a wonderful family tradition and a great reading list.
I haven’t read The Book Thief but loved the movie.
Whenever I read the book first, I agree that book versions are better than movies.
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My children can’t understand why they can’t make better movies. Lol.
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I have the same question )))
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Harriet the Spy and A Wrinkle in Time were my favorite books as a child! What a great reading list, I think I have read 90 percent of those. Although written in the 60s, I’d also recommend Stranger in a Strange Land by Heinlein. Also, why not throw some Agatha Christie in there?
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Love Agatha Christie! Good ideas!
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When my children were little I would read the Anne of Green Gables series. At Christmas I would read The nutcracker, in chapters, and A Christmas Carol, also in chapters. When we went camping we would read around the campfire. What a wonderful thing that you are able to read together as a family with teenagers. By the time mine were that age we had stopped the campfire reading. You might want to check out the Number One Ladies Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith. And The Book Thief is a wonderful story. Enjoy!
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A Christmas Carol scares me. lol. I was terrified by the Alistair Simms version when I was a child and still won’t watch it or read it. I will have to check out The One Ladies Detective Agency. I have never heard of it.
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Please do, I think you’ll like it.
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This is a good thing you are doing đŸ™‚
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Thank you!
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This is a wonderful book to share with your family!
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Thank you! I am excited to get started on it.
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I loved the book thief! Books to read would be ‘ Of Mice and Men’ by John Steinbeck, ‘Lord of the Flies’ by William Golding ‘Animal Farm’ by George Orwell….. oh so many more I could recommend!
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My son has read Animal Farm. He loved it! Lord of the Flies and ‘Of Mice and Men are great recommendations. Thank you!
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Reading together is a wonderful activity and one our family did for years. I now read regularly with my granddaughter. Many benefits as you say. As for The Book Thief – it’s one of my all time favourites, although I wouldn’t read it to a very young child as it’s heartbreaking. Stunningly good though. Enjoy.
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My kids are 13 and 16 so I think they will be okay. I will probably be the one crying, as usual.
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Oh this is a wonderful post! We also read all the Harry Potter books…not out loud together, but we each read them and they were a huge part of our family.
We also loved Inkheart.
I’d recommend The Rangers Apprentice series. Fits with this line of books in my opinion and we loved them. đŸ™‚
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I have never heard of them. I’ll have to look them up.
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We loved them. đŸ™‚
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I loved Charlotte’s web a lot
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That is a wonderful book!
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We have the book, A Bad Case of Stripes, and I love to read it to the grands! The artwork is awesome, and the story, intriguing! My favorite book of all time would be chosen from this list: To Kill and Mocking Bird, The Count of Monte Cristo, or The Hiding Place–I’m not sure which of the three would be my fav favorite, but they are all pretty close in the running. I wish I had read to my boys when they were small. We did it some, but not nearly often enough. So glad you are doing this with your kidlets. Reading together creates precious moments–valuable beyond measure!!!
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We love, love, love “A Bad Case of Stripes!” We had each of the kids pick out a book for our niece who had a baby shower last weekend and my daughter couldn’t decide between “A Bad Case of Stripes” or “When I Was Little” by Jamie Lee Curtis. She ended up picking “When I Was Little.” My son chose “The Lorax.”
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My DIL LOVES The Lorax! I’m not a big Seuss fan. Queer, I know! đŸ˜‰
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Wonderful, Marci!
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Thank you!
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Great family tradition! I always read out loud to my two, and now am doing the same with #1 Grandson. I am looking forward to reading him James and the Giant Peach, Charlotte’s web, Trumpeter Swan, Stuart Little, Harry Potter, A Wrinkle in Time series, and so many more!
Right now his favorite book is Goodnight, goodnight construction site.
I think I can recite the whole thing without the book!
My son’s favorite book that he read over and over while growing up was A Child’s Story of America from Liberty House Publishing I think, and my daughter’s favorite was the Lemony Snicket A Series of Unfortunate Events. As far as know they both still have these books. They both still list them as favs when we talk books.
So many books so little time or shelf space! đŸ™‚
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I had to sort book when we moved, after 15 years if collecting, and I still had 14 medium size boxes! (Oops!)
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I’ve had to really par down too! When we did the remodel I gave away boxes and boxes, but still have quite a few boxes to bring back in from the garage.
It’s easy to get big collection isn’t it. đŸ™‚
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Too easy.
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Just curious, how did your 13-year-old do with the final Harry Potter book(s)? I was recently chatting with a friend and we realized that since we grew up with the books, we were able to begin when we were Harry’s age and we matured as the books got more advanced. We aren’t sure at what age to introduce our own kids (future kids for me đŸ™‚ to each book now… Also, The Book Thief is my second favorite book in the whole world (following Les Miserables!), I’m sure you’ll love it. But, good luck reading it out loud. I read it out loud to my husband on a road trip and cried so many times! But it’s absolutely amazing. Happy reading!
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My 13 year old was about 9 when we read it. He was much better than his older sister at 12. She has a much more delicate temperament and the battles and Umbridge were just her undoing in these books. She loves them but to this day says the true evil is Umbridge not Voldemort. We are liking The Book Thief. We are about 1/2 way through. It is taking us awhile to read because we had to take a month off while the kids were at camp and then my daughter was in Europe for 2 weeks. They are asking me to read more now.
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Great list!
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Thank you!
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My daughter loves Pete the Cat.
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I have to look those up!
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