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!