Our Favorite Books for the 2008-2009 School Year
Some of our recommended titles for summer reading
As we come to the end of our sixth year of homeschooling, I thought I would share my children’s favorite books from this year’s studies. They chose both read-alouds and readers that they would recommend to anyone wanting a good read during the summer. A read-aloud is a book that I read to them. My children read the readers to themselves.
Clayton and Kyla studied World history focusing on the non-Western world. They learned about the history, culture, and civilizations in Asia, India, the Middle East, Africa, and Australia. We read a combination of historical fiction and non-fiction books. I especially learned about Africa and its three ancient civilizations of Ghana, Mali, and Songhay. There was incredible wealth, trade, educational systems, etc. from the 11th century to the 17th century. I had never learned anything about them in my public school education. I digress.
Clayton just turned 13 years old. His favorite read-alouds were:
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
Genghis Khan and the Mongol Horde by Harold Lamb
Whatever Happened to Penny Candy? by Richard Maybury.
He enjoyed reading:
Rascal by Sterling North
King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry
Kite Fighters by Linda Sue Park.
Kyla is nine years old. She shares the same read-alouds and readers as Clayton, to give you some perspective. She recommends reading:
Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell
Shadow Spinner by Susan Fletcher
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien.
The readers she really enjoyed reading were:
Louis Braille by
Kite Fighters by Linda Sue Park
Rascal by Sterling North.
Jake is in the second grade and he is seven. He also studied World history, but its focus was ancient civilizations like Rome, Greece, Egypt, etc. Unlike my older children, his readers and read-alouds are unrelated to his study of history. Regardless, his books were excellent and fun to listen to and/or read. Jake highly recommends:
Homer Price by Robert McCloskey
Follow My Leader by James B. Garfield
Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
Mountain Born by Elizabeth Yates.
Jake’s favorite books to read were:
Amelia Bedelia books by Peggy Parish
Frog and Toad books by Arnold Lobel
The Beginner’s Bible by Karyn Henley
Greg’s Microscope by Millicent E. Selsam.
Adults would also enjoy the picks of my older children. I certainly did. I also would recommend reading The Shack by William P. Young. Regardless of your beliefs or faith, you will see the world a little different when you finish reading it. Your life won’t be quite the same.
As the summer fast approaches accompanied by the blistering heat in the afternoon, my children feel that these books are worthy of a summer read. Look for the titles at your local library or bookstore. If you have a suggestion for us, we would appreciate it.
Nice reading lists. When I was your 13 year-old’s age I read a different book by Harold Lamb, also excellent, and it remains a favorite read of mine. It was Hannibal. I knew that he took elephants over the Alps, but the extent of his greatness was a complete surprise. Having never occurred to me to look for anything else Lamb might have written, its nice to have something to add to my list.
Thank you, Dan, for your suggestion. We also know that Hannibal attacked the Romans by crossing the Alps on elephants, but I did not know that Mr. Lamb had also written a book about him. I look forward to finding it at our library or bookstore.
nice post, thx for sharing it
Good list of books.
We love to do read-a-louds. Some our favorites have been by Avi. “Confessions of Charlotte Doyle”, “Crispin and the Cross of Lead’ and this last week “Never Mind”. We also liked “The Hawk that Hunts by Day” I think that was a Scott O’Dell. We also read the Narnia series and all the EB White books and quite of number of Beverly Cleary books. We are starting “Just David” by E. Porter and are always on the hunt for good books.
Thank you for sharing your favorites.
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