I loved (adored) Babysitter’s Club books when I was a kid. I loved all the characters. Kristy the smart tom-boy, MaryAnne the sweet one, Claudia the artsy one, and Stacey the cool one. I wanted to be Stacey, even if she did have to suffer from diabetes.
I would get so excited when the teacher would hand out the book order forms, and then I would anxiously await the new arrival. It was a special treat when the special edition ones about vacations or trips came out. When the book would finally come in, I would go home and read it instantly. And then I would reread old ones. And then I would organize them. And reorganize them. Then I would probably organize them again.
I felt the same way about the Sweet Valley Twins series.
I’ve tried to get Magoo to like the books, but she won’t even take a look at them. I guess they look too old. Or maybe it’s because her mom picked them out. We have very similar taste in books we want to read together, and very (very) intense differences in what we choose to read on our own.
She’s doing the Battle of the Books at her school, and she worked hard to read through all twelve of the books. I think she really enjoyed almost all of them. But one night, about an hour after heading up to bed, she ran down the stairs. She had a huge grin on her face and she looked so excited.
“Mom,” she said. “I just finished a book, and it was so so amazing. You don’t even understand. You can feel just what the author is feeling. Like you can really feel it. I just had to tell you. It was amazing.”
And then she turned around and went back upstairs. The book under discussion was Lemons by Melissa Savage.
TJ and I just looked at each other and smiled.
Loving books isn’t something new to our family, and it’s definitely not something new to Magoo. I’ve been reading to her since before I even gave birth, and she is about as voracious a reader as they come. My other kids, to varying degrees, are also following suit.
I have a new hero. Her name is Sarah Mackenzie, and she recently wrote the book The Read Aloud Family. Sadly, I have not had a chance to read her book yet (I will!) but I’ve been following her podcast, The Read Aloud Revival, for quite awhile now. In her podcast she talks about books and kids. She interviews authors and gives suggestions and talks about different topics pertaining to reading. She’s incredibly inspirational.
I was listening to one of her podcasts today in which she was reading from a chapter of her book about creating a book club culture at home. In it, she quoted a study that showed that kids who grow up in households where books and reading are most highly regarded as a source of delight and joy are more likely to become avid readers than are kids who grow up in households that value reading as a source of academic success. Even if both sets of parents greatly value reading.
And, well, this seems pretty obvious. After all, how many people who don’t particularly enjoy reading once loved it and fell away from it as comprehension questions and prescribed essays started to stomp out some of the delight.
As I was listening to the podcast, I started to think about the attitudes we have towards reading in our house. Why do we prize reading?
For myself, I think I value reading mainly because of all it prompts me to think about. Books give my never stalled brain something to munch on. It feeds my soul and it feeds my brain and it feeds my heart.
But also, I realized, finally over the past year or two, I have finally started to revert back to reading solely for pleasure. I have finally learned (or relearned I should say) how to get lost in a book. I’ve spent a lifetime reading. I’ve spent two years specifically studying literature at the graduate level. But it took me until I was almost 40 years old to rediscover the joy I had back in those Babysitter’s Club days.
Luckily with my kids, we mainly value reading for the time it gives us together. For the joy in the story. For the excitement. And for the togetherness.
And so in honor of all of that, I thought I would just share a brief list of all of the books or series that have brought us delight in the last year or so.
And I have to be honest that my hope is that you all will either share on my facebook page or in the comments section what your favorite or your kids’ favorite books are.
Without further ado…
Magoo (age 9)
- The Harry Potter series. To say she likes these is an understatement.
- The Percy Jackson series. She did not like these at first because I recommended them, but then she eventually came around. Now she laughs when I remind her of how adamantly she shunned these for so long.
- The Chronicles of Narnia We are reading this series together. We are almost done with book four. These books are a perfect choice for us because she loves the fantasy and characters, and I love the symbolism. (In interest of full disclosure, I have a literary crush on Lewis, so my opinions are in no way unbiased.)
Goosie (age 6)
- The Ramona books. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who knows Goosie. I’ve always secretly thought that she kind of is Ramona. I think she’s starting to see the connection. We are going to start our third one soon when we finish Trumpet of the Swan.
- Junie B Jones books. Goosie likes trouble makers. What can I say. I honestly adore these books. I’m not a huge fan of the language (calling things stupid,) but I think she is absolutely hysterical, and often as I’m reading them, I find myself laughing out loud. Goose loves them just as much
- Harry Potter books. I refuse to allow my children to watch the movies before they read the books. I also don’t like reading these aloud with them because I don’t want them to read them before they are ready. I worry it will ruin their enjoyment. But her sister loves HP, and she wants to be like her sister, so she has started book one. She is liking it.
Mae (age 5)
- Sophie the Mouse books. I have to say that these aren’t exactly my favorite. I like well developed characters even in beginning chapter books, but Mae loves them. And they are cute. And they are interesting stories.
- Mercy Watson books. How can you not love this porcine wonder! These books make us all laugh.
- Little House on the Prairie books. We started reading the picture books a year or two ago. Then I bought some early chapter books which we are reading through now. But recently during our illness, I started to read Little House in the Big Woods to all of them, and she loved that too. I don’t know what it is about these books and her, but she loves them in every iteration she has come across. Even the audio book of Farmer Boy which took us about a month to get through and that should be above her level.
- Bob books. I’m hesitant to include these as they are early (early) readers, but she loves them. Littles love how they can read whole books. She devours them. And her reading is improving pretty rapidly. I don’t do flash cards with reading. I don’t do flash cards with alphabet. We don’t do phonics lessons. If my kids are going to learn to read before kindergarten (which they all have thus far) it’s going to be organically. And these books help with that.
Tessie (age 18 months)
Okay, she pretty much likes anything with a picture. Her tastes haven’t quite been refined yet. Still some we have been reading through more often than others lately are
- Goodnight Gorilla
- Dr Suess’s Wet Pet, Dry Pet, Your Pet, My Pet
- Touch and Feel Baby Animals
Audiobooks for the Whole Family
- Little Woman (I would gush, but I do not believe I would ever stop)
- Black Beauty
- A Series of Unfortunate Events I must clarify that generally I do not like needlessly dark books like this for kids. I like books to inspire their imaginations, and I can’t say I quite like the way their imaginations might wander with books such as these. But I must say, this one caught my own attention because it was just so unbelievable and shocking.
Myself
- All the Light We Cannot See Anthony Doerr
- Till We Have Faces CS Lewis
- Gideon Marilynn Robinson
- Hannah Coulter Wendell Berry
Most of my own reading is dictated by book clubs because surprisingly with four kids, I don’t have a ton of time to read on my own. I’m looking forward this summer to a bit more time to read books of my choosing, but I find that book clubs prompt me to read books that I normally wouldn’t and that I end up enjoying supremely. So there’s my psa – go join a book club!