Summer Reading

I can't believe that the kids will be out of school in just TWO WEEKS! Where has the time gone? I swear we were just picking out backpacks and trying on school clothes. Part of me is so sad that all that time has passed and it feels like a blur. But part of me is happy that I will have them pretty much to myself for three WHOLE months.

In order to make sure we fill the summer with good things there are a couple of things I want to do this summer. One is to encourage them to read! I am a voracious reader. My mother faithfully drove us to the library every single week. I would load up on 8-10 new books. Then I would devour them over the course of the next seven days. The fatter the book, the better the experience. I read classics, non-fiction, fantasy, and novels. I read and read and read until I would either get in trouble or have to be physically removed from the book.

While none of my children are quite the readers that I was, they do enjoy good books. All of them put themselves to sleep at night with a book in hand. We have read books together. We've exchanged and shared our favorite reads. We see movies about books. I just love books. What can I say?

I thought it might be fun this summer to encourage reading. Here are some books I'm considering or that I would recommend to others. (Note: my children are 15 and 9 and I have a boy and a girl.)



For Boys:

* How to Train Your Dragon Series (this series does contain burping and such jokes, which I don't love but my son loved the characters).
* The Percy Jackson series (great introduction to mythology).
* The Kane Chronicles (also by Rick Riordan and this time about Egyptian Mythology).
The Ranger's Apprentice Series (sweet telling of a boy's triumph over being small and short).
* The Young Jedi Knights (follows Han Solo's and Princess Leia's children)
* The Inheritance Series (young Eragon finds a dragon egg and raises it)
* Leven Thumps Series (A boy discovers magic. This also appealed to my daughter.)
* Children of the Lamp Series (two kids discover they are djinn. Appeals to both boys and girls as the twins are brother and sister.)
* Janitors (A grade school boy discovers janitors have magical powers. It looks like this might be a series.)
* Septimus Heap Series (a fun series about a family of magicians)
* Pillage Trilogy (A series about the darker side of dragons and a family cursed to care for them.)
* Artemis Fowl Series (A wealthy boy blackmails the fairy community into helping him. Less fantasy and more science fiction.)
* Bartimaeus Stroud series (this one is a little darker and I recommend it for the older grade school kids or junior high group).
* Fablehaven Series (a brother and sister try to triumph over evil on a preserve protecting magical creatures. Fun and interesting characters.)



For Girls:
* Matched Series (dystopian society in which girls and boys are matched for marriage)
* Hunger Games Series (this does contain violence but it is respectfully done and is a great commentary on the involvement of government in people's lives)
* Princess at the Midnight Ball (pretty much anything by Jessica Day George is fantastic. This one is the retelling of 12 Dancing Princesses)
* Bayern Series (fun series about girls with special powers over water, fire, wind, etc. Again, anything by Shannon Hale for the YA set is clean and a good read.)
* Entwined (another retelling of the 12 Dancing Princess. Super clean story.)
* The Sisters Grimm Series (For the younger set. Based on Grimm fairy tale creatures.)
* Anne of Green Gables (can't say enough good about this amazing series. Anything by L. M. Montgomery is uplifting and sweet. Also try the Emily Series.)
* Little Women (Again, read anything by Louisa May Alcott. I particularly loved her "Rose in Bloom" series or "Eight Cousins" books.)

I could go on and on, but these are the ones that I liked that are clean. I'm hoping to add more to my list of "to read". Do you have additional recommendations for my kids (and I) for this summer? You can see from our lists what we typically enjoy so I'd love to hear what you've read or recommend!

7 comments

  1. Jen, thank you so much for your recommendations. I'll be picking some of them up at the library next week. We are also summertime readers at our house!

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  2. Jen- we are serious book lovers here. No Kindles or Nook allowed. We want our books! ha!

    I am so glad that my DD (age 15) has became an avid reader too. This little girl has turnd into a lover of autobiograhies. From celebraties to authors to presidents. It amazes me that she reads 800 page-books!

    Nothing makes a Mom prouder than to see their children lug around books...right?

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  3. JLBOhio11:05 AM

    Thanks for the suggestions! We are big readers too and it's always good to get recommendations on what other kids have liked!

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  4. Good to know about your blog and thanks for the suggestions! We are big readers too and it's always good to get recommendations on what other kids have liked!

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  5. Thanks for the list! We are book lovers too!

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  6. I'm a big reader too and have actually scored "big time" at my local thrift over the last month (4 books are $ 1.20 AND they have actually have been having Reader 2 and 3s with boy themes)...I put aside 20 books for vacation so far and hope to get 20 more for the boy...and I ordered about 20 from Scholastic when I got some xtra funds..I cannot go anywhere without a book and encourage my kids to do the same.

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  7. Have you read the Narnia books to your kids, or have they read them? Also love From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. I'm also reading through the Newberry award winners. Julie of the Wolves? The Witch of Blackbird Pond? Just some thoughts. I've always been a reader and still read children's books and others.

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