What We're Reading :: Late Summer 2020

Like I have mentioned, we started back to lessons a couple weeks ago (here and here for some peeks at our school year so far), so I'm squeezing in this summer break post right at the end here to share what we read over the past couple months or so.

Our libraries were closed due to COVID this summer, so we were SO grateful to have our own stocked shelves to "shop" for summer reading. (Can anyone else relate?!)

Amy shared with me that each student in her house creates a summer reading stack for themselves -- so we decided to do the very same thing! I had the kids grab a stack of books from our shelves that they wanted to read through over the break. We kept the stacks on the bookshelf in our entry for easy access and it worked really well.

Me
Zena Hitz's Lost in Thought (was reading with friends online)
Cather's The Song of the Lark (started this in the spring and have come back to finish it)
Don Quixote (Form 4 novel for Term 1 -- we're using an edited version the PNEU assigned)

Belloc's Characters of the Reformation (also for Form 4)

Montgomery's Jane of Lantern Hill (just fnished re-reading for my Form 2 students' novel -- so good!)

Vincent, age 14

Baroness Orczy's The Scarlet Pimpernel

Knowles' A Separate Peace

Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days (he also read a bunch more Verne)

Caras' The Forest (out of print, but it was a recommendation from Amy)

And he spent a good amount of time rereading some Walter Farley books and Bethlehem Books' historical fiction, which is perfect summer reading!

Gianna, age almost-14

Gilbreth's Cheaper by the Dozen (my kids found this very relatable -- LOL!)

Dickens' Nicholas Nickleby (I have been giving them a Dickens to read each year)

Juster's The Phantom Tollbooth

Austen's Sense and Sensibility (re-read) and Pride and Prejudice (first time!)

The last few books in the Betsy-Tacy series

Mother Loyola's Home for Good (I mentioned this in my Catholic books post for this year)

Verne's From the Earth to the Moon (the Sea Wolf Books reprints are really nice!)

Cate, age 11

Montgomery's Emily of New Moon series (I have the older versions which I can't link to - but there's this one-volume option that looks ok...)

Eloise Jarvis McGraw's Mara, Daughter of the Nile (a favorite of my big girls)

Long's School of the Woods

Pyle's Otto of the Silver Hand (after reading King Arthur this past year, she pulled it from the shelf)

Buck's The Big Wave

Alcott's Little Women (her first read-through!)

Xavier, age 10

He has been obsessed with Redwall this summer, as you can see!

Bailey's Miss Hickory (his sister told him he had to read it)

Lawson's Rabbit Hill

Crusader King: A Novel of Baldwin IV and the Crusades (a birthday gift for my knight-loving boy)

Hilda van Stockum's The Winged Watchman and Pollard's Beorn the Proud (both related to last year's history reading)

Bridget, age 8

McCloskey's Homer Price

Stoutenburg's American Tall Tales

The Father Finn books (Vincent got a set for his birthday and the kids have been passing them back and forth since)

Estes' Pinky Pye (she read Ginger Pye last year)

Campbell's Fiddlesticks and Freckles

Pyle's The Wonder Clock

Clara, age 7

I dedicated a bit of daily time to Clara's reading lessons each day with the Treadwell Readers. She made lots of progress and decided to paint little cards of each story as she goes!

The Little Boys, ages 6, 4, and 3
We did lots and lots of picture books together this summer. Here's one evening's selections by Damien:

Byron Barton's Airport

Orchard's Little Yellow Book of Nursery Rhymes

Flack's Ask Mr. Bear and Angus Lost (the Angus series is among my very favorites to read aloud)

Lenski's The Little Auto

On audio
Five Little Peppers and How They Grew (the Term 1 novel for my Form 1 kids)
They also listened to a couple of the Redwall books this summer, which inspired lots of drawing and story writing -- like these maps by Xavier!

(I don't know about you, but I'd like to live at Redcrest if I could! :))

There was also lots and lots of pre-reading and books in the mail this summer. I'll have to sprinkle those in through the year as there are too many wonderful ones to share here!

Second Grade in Our Home :: Free Reading

I thought I'd share here the free reading my two oldest did this year in case you're looking for ideas for your own elementary students.  These are the books they read alone or we read together that were not narrated, just for enjoyment.  This list is definitely suitable for older children as well, as my children are advanced readers.  I don't believe you'll find anything objectionable here, but as always, pre-read before handing off books to your children if you're worried about that sort of thing.

From the Ambleside Online list for Year 2

Spyri's Heidi

de Jong's Along Came a Dog

d'Aulaire's Leif the Lucky

d'Aulaire's Abraham Lincoln

d'Aulaire's Columbus

Henry's Brighty of the Grand Canyon

Otto of the Silver Hand

Browning's Pied Piper of Hamelin 

Sidney's Five Little Peppers (read aloud)

Lofting's The Story of Dr. Dolittle (via librivox, read by Roy Trumbull)

A Door in the Wall (audiobook, read by Roger Rees)

The Wizard of Oz (audiobook, read by Brooke Shields)

Nesbit's Five Children and It (audiobook, read by Anna Bentinck)

Hawthorne's A Wonder Book and Tanglewood Tales (read aloud)

Other Fiction

Edward Eager's Half-Magic

Henry's Stormy, Misty's Foal

Stein's Gabriel and the Hour Book

Spyri's Chel

Spyri's Gritli's Children

Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (audiobook read by Eric Idle)
Charlie and the Magic Elevator

Lovelace's Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Hill

Andrews' Mandy

Fritz's Brendan and the Navigator

Wiley's The Prairie Thief

Nesbit's The Story of the Amulet

Nesbit's The Phoenix and the Carpet

Nesbit's The Treasure Seekers

Nesbit's The Enchanted Castle

Lovelace's The Trees Kneel at Christmas

Kastner's Emil and the Detectives

Steele's The Buffalo Knife

The Bobbsey Twins series (my childhood copies)

The Great Treasury of Brer Rabbit

Jones' Twig

McClung's Wings in the Woods

Willard's Augustine Came to Kent

Godden's The Kitchen Madonna

Fleming's Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang

McCloskey's Homer Price

Barker's The Lord of the Rushie River

Estes' Ginger Pye and Pinky Pye

Estes' Miranda the Great

Estes' The Hundred Dresses

Estes' The Sleeping Giant

Estes' The Moffats series

Estes' The Alley

Estes' The Curious Adventures of Jimmy McGee

Clara Pierson's "Among the" books (free on Kindle)

Authur Scott Bailey's nature stories (most free on Kindle)

Lucy Fitch Perkins' Twins books (most free on Kindle)

the rest of Sidney's Five Little Peppers series (most free on Kindle)

Fairy Tale Collections

The Barefoot Book of Giants, Ghosts, and Goblins

The Sleeping Beauty and Other Tales by the Brothers Grimm

Andrew Lang fairy books (free on Kindle)

Lang's In Fairyland

Andersen's Fairy Tales

Three Golden Oranges and Other Spanish Folktales

Bates' Once Upon a Time: A Book of Old-Time Fairy Tales

Enid Blyton's Bedtime Bookshelf

Provensens' Legendary Animals

d'Aulaires' Book of Norse Myths

Oscar Wilde's The Happy Prince and Other Tales

Religious

Mary Fabyan Windeatt saint biographies

Ignatius Vision saint biographies

Encounter the Saints biographies

Pochocki's Once Upon a Time Saints series

I'll post soon our list of planned free reading for this summer and into fall--I've got a lovely stack piling up.  In the meantime, any not-to-miss favorites?

First Grade in Our Home: Free Reading

I have mentioned my challenge before: I find it difficult to keep my children stocked with quality reading for advanced, voracious readers with innocent souls.  How to provide them with plenty of challenging free reading without compromising on literary quality or introducing situations or behaviors I don't consider age-appropriate?  I know you mothers with early readers can relate!  And if you're like me, you're looking for reading suggestions for your lively little book-lovers. ;)  I posted a list of their kindergarten reading, and here is a list of my children's free reading for first grade.  

These are books I put on their shelf for their afternoon reading time in particular, not the scads of picture books and old favorites they picked up throughout the day on their own. ;)  We did a few from this list as audiobooks (Little House in the Big Woods, Farmer Boy, Peter Pan, Pinocchio) and a few as read-alouds (Mary Poppins, The Moffats series), and the rest were independent reading.  These were not narrated.  And be warned: a few of these show up on AO free reading lists for years ahead.  I do reserve most of the AO-selected books for when they're scheduled on the school rotation, but I do sometimes dip into the free reading options.  And one last disclaimer: the books I have listed here are all innocent enough for our family, and I consider myself pretty discerning--but please, do pre-read as needed to ensure they're okay for your children as well!

And now for the list...

From the AO list:

King of the Golden River

Little House in the Big Woods

Farmer Boy

Peter Pan

Pinocchio

Mary Poppins

Pocahontas

Others:

The Mouse and the Motorcycle

Runaway Ralph

Stuart Little

The Trumpet of the Swan

The Children on Troublemaker Street

Old Mother West Wind

Venezia's books on composers and artists for this year

My Nature Friend monthly magazine

The Railway Children

Schoolhouse in the Woods series (four books in the series)

d'Aulaires' Nils

Thimbleberry Stories

d'Aulaires' Abraham Lincoln

Maminka's Children

The Rackety-Packety House

Betsy-Tacy, Betsy-Tacy and Tib (we'll wait until they're a bit older for the rest in the series)

Dr. Doolittle

Misty of Chincoteague

The Cricket in Times Square series (seven books in the series)

The Children's Book of America (we read the others in the series last year)

Degas and the Little Dancer

Merlin and the Making of a King

Fireside Stories

Tumtum and Nutmeg series (seven short books in the series)

And they're currently working on these:

Freddy the Pig series (there are *26* books in the series!)

The Moffats series (four books total)

That should keep us busy for the next month, but then I'll be back out hunting for more--so if you have suggestions for books at this level (or just beyond), please do let me know!