Yesterday , I wrote a blog about how much reading is too much.  I thought I’d follow it up with some of the books they enjoyed.  So here goes…

My daughter Jana is my reader.  She has loved books since the day she was born.  She has a bachelor’s degree in English and has become quite the book snob.   Some of her favorites include:

Preschool years:  Anything with farm animals, all of the Dr. Sues books, anything with rhyming words (she is now a poetry junkie-this may have contributed to it, who knows?

Elementary years:  Books about foreign countries/cultures/maps, American girls, Corduroy series, Aesop’s Fables, Madeline books, Box Car Children, Charlotte’s Web, Babysitters Club, Anne of Green Gables (she had an obsession with Anne, but that’s another blog), Secret Garden, Ramona books, Tales from Shakespeare (she always loved Shakespeare), The Lion, Witch and Wardrobe series, 

Jr. and Sr. High School  Uncle Tom’s Cabin, The Great Gatsby, anything by Shakespeare, anything by Tolkien, Les Miserables, anything by John Donne (her favorite poet) all the British poets, the Odyssey, Oedipus Rex, Grapes of Wrath, Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice (anything by Jane Austin), To Kill a Mockingbird, the Bible,  and too many to count.

My son, Jeremy, did not particularly love reading and was not an avid reader growing up.  Actually, we had to coax him to read and he had a hard time finishing books that he deemed  were “too long.”  However, I a happy to report that he loves reading his Bible and is beginning to read some non fiction on his own.  I asked Jeremy what some of his favorites were and this was his his reply.

Pre-school:  Bible stories, Cat in the Hat, Fairy tales we read to him

Elementary years, Where the Wild Things Are, The Lorax, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Henry Huggins, Magic School Bus series, Magic Treehouse books (easy readers),The Loin, Witch and Wardrobe series, Hank the Cowdog series (we did these as books on tape)

Jr. and Sr. High  Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, The Great Gatsby, The Giver, Rip Van Winkle (we did a short stories unit in our co-op (Total Language Plus) and he enjoyed most of the stories),The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Eregon series, To Kill a Mockingbird, the Bible. 

My goal was to expose both of the kids to as many different genres as possible.  Some of the books we read were controversial but they were all taught from a Christian worldview.

What about your kids?  What do they enjoy reading?