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Monday, June 22, 2009

Validating My Book Addiction

Alternate Titles:

Why I Love Book Lists
How I Keep Levi Out of Trouble (or His Mouth Quiet and His Body Still)
Pre-reading Books: It's an Impossibility
I Need Twenty More Book Shelves


The truth is, if I get an hour or two on my own (which hubby kindly grants me when he is able), my favorite places to head are the bookshelves at Goodwill (where youth fiction paperbacks are generally $.99 each) and then to the library. This is my book stack from this week's trip to Goodwill:

Book Stack

Why so many books, you might ask. (Well, many of you don't need to ask, as you have the same, ahem, issue.) I'll tell you whether you wanted to know, or not.

Levi read many books last year, but he often had 20 going at the same time, and I was never sure what he read or finished. He isn't much of a list guy (like Luke), so writing down the books he completed wasn't much of an incentive in his world. This year (technically, the day after Christmas last year), I made up my mind to keep his free-reading list for him. (Most of the books he reads for history, literature, and science are on a separate list.)

I'm sure I've missed a book here or there, but who's counting? Grin.

One thing this list has done for me is that I've stopped worrying that Levi might not get around to all the excellent books I desire for him to read.....

Levi's Free-Reading Book List: January - June, 2009

*Atwater, Richard and Florence. Mr. Popper’s Penguins

*Avi. The Barn

*Babbitt, Natalie. Kneeknock Rise

*Barrie, J. M. Peter Pan

*Barry, Dave & Pearson, Ridley. Peter and the Starcatchers
Peter and the Shadow Thieves
Peter and the Secret of Rundoon
Escape from the Carnivale
Cave of the Dark Wind

*Birdsall, Jeanne. The Penderwicks

*Bishop, Claire Huchet and Pene du Bois, William. Twenty and Ten

*Blyton, Enid. The Famous Five On a Treasure Island
Five on Kirrin Island Again
Five Are Together Again
Five Go to Demon’s Rocks

Five Get Into a Fix
Five Have a Wonderful Time
Five Go to Billycock Hill
Five Go to Smuggler’s Top

*Bond, Michael. A Bear Called Paddington
Paddington Helps Out

*Bruchac. The Girl Who Helped Thunder & Other Native American Folktales

*Bulla, Robert Clyde. Squanto Friend of the Pilgrims

*Carlson, Natalie Savage. The Family Under the Bridge

*Carroll, Lewis. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Through the Looking-Glass

*Cleary, Beverly. Mitch and Amy
The Mouse & the Motorcycle
Ralph S. Mouse
Runaway Ralph


*Clements, Andrew. Frindle

*Cole, Joanna. The Magic School Bus Chapter Book: Electric Storm
Amazing Magnetism
The Wild Whale Watch
The Giant Germ

*Cowles, Julia Darrow. The Robinson Crusoe Reader

*Dahl, Roald. George’s Marvelous Medicine
The Witches

*Davies, Jaqueline. The Lemonade War

*Dillon, Eilis. The Island of Horses

*Eager, Edward. Half Magic
The Time Garden
Seven-Day Magic
Magic by the Lake
Knight’s Castle
Magic or Not?

*Enright, Elizabeth. The Four-Story Mistake
Then There Were Five
Spiderweb for Two
Thimble Summer
Gone-Away Lake

*Erickson, John R. The Further Adventures of Hank the Cowdog

*Estes, Eleanor. Ginger Pye
The Moffat Museum
Rufus M.

*Funke, Cornelia. The Thief Lord (has read twice)

*Gannett, Ruth Stiles. Elmer and the Dragon
The Dragons of Blueland

*Harris, Joel Chandler. The Adventures of Brer Rabbit

*Haywood, Carolyn. Betsy and the Boys
Betsy and the Circus

*Hope, Laura Lee. The Bobbsey Twins
The Bobbsey Twins Adventure in the Country


*Lawrence, Caroline. The Pirates of Pompeii

*Morris, Gerald. Sir Givret the Short

*King-Smith, Dick. The School Mouse

*Kipling, Rudyard. Just So Stories

*Konigsburg, E. L. From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

*Lawson, Robert. Ben and Me

*Lewis, C. S. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

*Lindgren, Astrid. Pippi Longstocking
Pippi Goes on Board
Pippi on the Run

*MacDonald, Betty. The Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle Treasury

*McAllister, Angela. Digory the Dragon Slayer
Digory and the Lost King

*McCaughrean, Geraldine. One Thousand and One Arabian Nights

*McMullan, Kate. Dragon Slayers’ Academy: 97 Ways to Train a Dragon
Knight for a Day

*Morey, Walt. Runaway Stallion

*Mowat, Farley. Owls in the Family

*Nesbit, Edith. The Book of Dragons
Five Children and It
The Magic City

*Osborne, Mary Pope. Magic Tree House (countless)

*Paterson, Katherine. Bridge to Terabithia

*Pene du Bois, William. The Twenty-One Balloons

*Ransome, Arthur. Swallowdale

*Robinson, Barbara. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

*Rupp, Rebecca. The Dragon of Lonely Island
The Return of the Dragon
(twice)
The Waterstone

*Scieszka, Jon. The Time-Warp Trio: Gladiator
Tut Tut
Knights of the Kitchen Table

*Sobol, Donald. Secret Agents Four
Encyclopedia Brown
Encyclopedia Brown Finds the Clues

*Sorensen, Virginia. Miracles on Maple Hill

*Smith, Alexander McCall. Akimbo and the Crocodile Man
Akimbo and the Lions
Akimbo and the Elephants

*Warner, Gertrude Chandler. The Boxcar Children
(#1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 18, & Winter Special #1)

*Watson, Jean. The Family Pilgrim’s Progress



I've added an 'On Levi's Book Shelf' list over on my side bar, so that I can start listing books he is reading. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up with it....

8 comments:

Gwen said...

I love it when I hear about kids that like to read. To me there is nothing better than the gift of reading.

Zee said...

Love that list!

If he liked Pippi he might like some of Astrid Lindgrens other titles. Try and see if you can find the Emil books, The Children of Noisy village and although they are rather sad Mio My Son and Brothers Lionheart (you might want to pre-read this one first as it deals with the afterlife and it might not match your world view).

Molly Anne said...

Haha - I was at Goodwill looking at books just today! I got an amazing copy of The Secret Garden for my friend's daughter (who cares that she's only a month old?)

Yes I have the same...issue. :D

I don't think I knew Farley Mowat wrote anything besides Never Cry Wolf.

And I just myself recently read Peter Pan. I liked Peter and the Starcatchers and also Peter Pan in Scarlet.

I love reading kid's books, I'll just admit it. :)

Heidi said...

Gwen~ I agree! The whole world opens up for kids who can read and enjoy it!

Zee~ I'm pretty sure he has read The Children of Noisy Village (it's on our shelf), but I'll check out those other titles. Thanks!

Molly~ I love reading children's books, too! :) If I want a light read, I often go for a really well-written children's book. Often much better than adult fluff. :) I haven't read Peter and the Starcatchers, but Levi said it was awesome. :)

jodi said...

what a truly awesome list, heidi. keep that in his portfolio! i wish i had kept the lists of books my olders read. i kept them for a few years, but (too many moves, i suppose) i eventually thre them out and of course now wish i had them to refer to "who read what when" for the little boys.

my 3yo "reads" the most hilarious stories. on our 20 hour car drive over the weekend, he "read" the same sesame street book (from goodwill, with the noise making buttons) about 16 different ways. i think when he actually *can* read, he'll be disappointed the story isn't nearly as interesting as when he told it. :)

so glad to finally be back "home" and catching up with you!
jodi-in pa for good now!

Annika said...

This is such a great book list! I'm already buying books for my boys to read, though they're still too small to read on their own (well, my husband thinks this is just an excuse to get more books ....), and I think, too, that a love for books is the best thing to give to your children. Here is another book (you may have it already) that I read as a kid, and rediscovered recently, it's "Twist of Gold" by Michael Morpurgo, you might like it.

The Never Fairy said...

Quite an impressive list! :D
In regard to the Peter Pan novels (other than Barrie,) did you notice a lot of mistakes as compared to his original stories? Even the "official" sequel has contradictions to what Barrie wrote.

Be sure to check out the Pan novel based on his ideas for more adventure... just click my name.

Now to catch up to your reading prowess ;)

BELIEVE!

our little acorns said...

Wow, IMPRESSIVE! Thank you so much for posting this. My oldest isn't quite at that reading level but getting there quickly. Several of these I have read aloud to all the boys...but I am going to STEAL your list and get some new ones for him. Thank you!