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Wednesday, March 21, 2012

What to Read?


My kids are both bookworms.

They love to read.  Neither will leave the house without a handful of books in tow - and if it's a trip of any length, then they pack a bagful.

I love this characteristic.  I love that they're curious, they love the written word, they get lost in stories of imaginary times and lands and people.  They read to gain information, to learn how things work, to figure out their world, to add to their storehouse of knowledge.

But all of that reading takes a lot of books, and while one of them happily reads the same books about the same topics over and over, accepting that new books on these topics are limited, the other frets and pushes the limits.

She doesn't want to read the same books time and again.  She wants to be challenged with new material, new words, new terms and concepts.

So I hunt, searching for books suitable for both her age and reading level, trying to find mysteries and humor and children being creative but being children.  I search for books with characters who are kind, mature, problem-solving, and for authors who write with flowing prose and strong vocabularies.

That's hard.  There are lots of kiddie chapter book series out there, but many of them have a watered-down vocabulary and name-calling characters.  She can read harder books, but many of them contain information for which she is too young.

I don't expect her to read Moby Dick, and fluffy books make great entertainment; but even fluffy books can be of good quality.


So my search continues.  I currently have stacks of kiddie books to read before her but would love to find something more difficult, something that makes her think and takes longer than 30 minutes to read.

What about you?  Do you read books before passing them off to your children?  What are their favorite books/authors??


3 comments:

  1. How old is your daughter? My first thought was the Anne of Green Gables series - I think I was about in 5th grade when I discovered those.

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    1. She turned 7 on Sunday. She's able to read just about everything, but she doesn't like scary material - and in many cases, any encounter with a villian is scary for her. I've been thinking about Anne of Green Gables - she would love the old TV show/movies - and so maybe we'll try them together this summer. Thanks, Lynne!

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  2. My two oldest are/were the same way. I was grateful that they liked series. If they got into a series, I would just read the first few and then let them continue on. I did a lot of previewing when they were younger, but now I just ask them about what they are reading. They all like the Junior Classics.

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