Yes, we still read! (Books for 8 Years Old)

I used to write long book lists in the early years, back when I was actually the one choosing the books. Now, my daughter chooses most of her reading for herself, though we do still have a regular family read aloud time every night. (Well, “listen aloud” may be more correct than “read aloud”, as we’ve switched to mostly using Audible for this.)

Instead of listing everything we’ve read or listened to in the past year, I’m going to lost the favorites here:

The Apothecary by Maile Meloy

The Candymakers by Wendy Mass

Millicent Min, Girl Genius by Lisa Yee

Prydain Chronicles (series) by Lloyd Alexander

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau

The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall

One Crazy Summer by Rita Garcia-Williams

The Misadventures of the Family Fletcher by Dana Allison Levy

Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly 

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

Tuesdays at the Castle by Jessica Day George

Frindle by Andrew Clements

Wonder by R.J. Palacio

Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos (series) by R.L. LaFevers

Alcatraz vs the Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson

The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by Bryan Mealer and Wiliam Kamkwamba

I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai

Plus, The Kid reread the Harry Potter series about a million more times. That obsession shows no signs of slowing down!

Poetry Teas, Simplified

Yes, we do Poetry Teas, though not as often as The Kid would like. Originally inspired by Brave Writer, these have gotten less and less formal with time.

When we started them, we would plan a great snack, do the shopping, do the baking, make the drinks, carefully choose the poems... you get the idea. There might even be flowers.

I found that, for us, all those preparations meant that we almost never actually got around to the Poetry Teas. So, it's been simplified. Now, Poetry Tea is often sparked by having baked goods around in our house. Did we make cookies recently? Hey! We could just add a drink and grab some books and we now have a Poetry Tea!

Or, maybe we just have realized that it's been a very long time since our last Tea. What can we possibly grab to turn this into a Tea? Triscuits and cheese? Perfect! Grab some books!

We have tea, lattes, mochas, steamers, lemonade, limeade - basically, whatever drink we have on hand that we enjoy. No fancy tea set, as we don't own one and don't have space in the cabinets to add one. Heck, we don't even own a dining table. This is all done at our kitchen island bar, where we do all our eating.

And it still works.

Reading List for My 7 Year Old

I didn't do a Literature List this year like I have in past years. I'm choosing not to assign literature, and The Kid is more inclined to choose her own books than read whatever I put in her library bin at this point. But that certainly doesn't mean we didn't read! We had a lot of reading with the Cultural Geography study, we continued to have family read aloud time every night (though we switched to mainly using audiobooks for this), and we listened to audiobooks in the car. So, at the end of the year instead of the beginning, here's the summary:

The entire Harry Potter series. Yes, the whole thing. It was immense and it took months. But The Kid is now fully obsessed with HP.

We read both Ramona Forever and Ramona's World this year, finishing up the entire Ramona series.

We also worked on finishing up a full tour of Roald Dahl's fiction this year, a project we started a few years back with The Minpins. I think The Witches is one of the scariest of Dahl's books, and we therefore left it to near the end. DD loved it, though - the visual language in this book is wonderful! And the little boy and his grandmother teaming up so well to work against the witches is fantastic.

I don't know how this one of Dahl's got left so late! It may be my favorite of the whole bunch. A brilliant little girl with horrendous parents, who eventually finds her way with the help of a lovely librarian and a supportive teacher. Plus, a little bit of magic, which always helps.

This was an amazing and imaginative story about a girl who was fed a bit too much moonlight as a baby, making her powerfully magical, and the witch, swamp monster, and Perfectly Tiny Dragon who raise her. It's a coming-of-age tale, written for middle grades but appropriate for younger readers who are ready for the themes typical of fantasy books, including grave danger and death. Winner of the 2017 Newbery Medal.

Middle grades book that is appropriate for younger readers who are okay exploring the theme of loss. Newbery Honor Book.

August/September's Top Ten Books

The Kid was camping for half of August, so I'm combining these two months.

1. Runny Babbit by Shel Silverstein - I had never read this "billy sook", which is a collection of poems in which the first letters of many words are swapped. The Kid read it twice through, once enjoying the sounds, and again to "translate" it.

2. The Watcher: Jane Goodall's Life with the Chimps by Jeanette Winter - a great picture book biography focusing on the determination and patience of Jane Goodall, ending with talk of her work on preserving habitat.

3. The Monster That Grew Small retold by Joan Grant - a retelling of an Egyptian tale about conquering fears by facing them.

4. The Rich Man and the Parrot retold by Suzan Nadini - a Persian folk tale about greed and possessions, with a parrot who communicates ingeniously in order to find his freedom.

5. Rimonah of the Flashing Sword adapted by Eric A. Kimmel - a North African version of Snow White, this was nothing like any other Snow White story I've ever read. I detest the piles of helpless women in fairy tales, who are all beautiful and completely selfless but have no spunk, and Snow White is among the worst of these. But this one is a complete badass. Absolutely awesome.

6&7. The Boy Who Painted Dragons and The Girl Who Drew a Phoenix by Demi - these Chinese tales are both about young people who pass through trials to gain virtues in their pursuit of amazing artwork. Phenomenally illustrated.

8. Snow in Jerusalem by Deborah da Costa - a tale about two boys who are taking care of the same stray cat, one in the Jewish Quarter and one in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem.

9. Rainbow Soup: Adventures in Poetry by Brian P. Cleary - a nice find. This introduces several poetic devices and styles of poems and then has several fun, whimsical examples of each. An incredibly approachable introduction to poetry terms.

10. Behind the Mask by Yangsook Choi - An awesome Halloween picture book that is not the usual fare, with a Korean-American as the main character.

July's Top Ten Books

We read so many books, both from our Literature List and also just randomly chosen from the library's shelves, I thought I'd try to start a monthly Top Ten list.

1. The Art of Miss Chew by Patricia Polacco - a great story that features a main character with learning differences

2. Rapunzel and the Seven Dwarfs by Willy Claflin - We read this as part of our Fairy Tale project (yes, we're still working on that!) and enjoyed the silly mashup of fairy tales.

3. Appelemando's Dreams by Patricia Polacco - an imaginative tale of visible dreams

4. Freedom's School by Lesa Cline-Ransome - set after the Civil War, when schools for African-Americans were being started, but were surrounded by racism

5. Pinduli by Janell Cannon - the author is better known for Stellaluna but I think I like this tale better. Basically a morality tale of "what goes round come around" when you say things that make others feel bad.

6. The Misadventures of Sweetie Pie by Chris Van Allsburg - The story of a mistreated hamster and the many children he is passed around to. Not a happy story, but a simple one that introduced the idea of what happens when animals aren't cared for properly; still has a happy ending for Sweetie Pie.

7. Sugar Cane: A Caribbean Rapunzel by Patricia Storace - This was my favorite of the Rapunzel stories we read this month, with adjustments to the tale as it is typically known in the U.S. to fit the island setting.

8. A Midsummer Night's Dream retild by Bruce Coville - a well-illustrated picture book retelling of the Shakespeare classic. This was The Kid's first introduction to Shakespeare and she enjoyed it so much that we followed up by going to see a local production of the play.

9. The Cloud Spinner by Michael Catchpool - an imaginative story with the theme of taking only what you need and no more, a greedy king orders a woman who can spin the clouds into cloth to make fine clothes for himself and his family until there are no clouds left and the kingdom is without rain

10. The Shaman's Apprentice by Lynne Cherry and Mark J. Plotkin - tells the tale of a boy who wants to become the next shaman in a remote village in the Amazon, and a village caught between tradition and newly introduced Western ways

Second Grade Literature List

This has been the most difficult book list for me to put together. I had two big problems. The first is that there are way too many good books! The second is that while The Kid is capable of reading anything in front of her, she still has a strong preference for a high pictures-to-text ratio. Her pleasure reading currently consists of really good picture books and meh chapter books. Her picture books have more complex stories, cover some history, and have amazing language. Her preferred chapter books, well, don't. After some thought and a lot of hours in the library, I decided that this year would focus on a big stack of the best picture books I can find, with a few chapter books thrown in near the end of the year.

Poetry to add to our shelves for Poetry Teas
Child's Book of Poems by Gyo Fujikawa
Several selections from the Poetry for Young People series

Picture Books
Life Doesn't Frighten Me by Maya Angelou (poetry)
The Sorcerer's Apprentice by Mary Jane Begin
Kid Blink Beats the World by Don Brown
Odd Boy Out: Young Albert Einstein by Don Brown
Behind the Mask by Yangsook Choi
Midsummer Night's Dream adapted by Bruce Coville
Fairy Tales by e.e. cummings
Bat Boy and His Violin by Gavin Curtis
My Brother Martin: A Sister Remembers by Christine King Farris
How My Parents Learned to Eat by Ina R. Friedman
Storyteller's Candle by Lucia Gonzalez
Meet Danitra Brown by Nikki Grimes (poetry)
Sami and the Time of the Troubles by Florence Parry Heide
Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore by William Joyce
Island of the Skog by Steven Kellogg
Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez by Kathleen Krull
The Librarian Who Measured the Earth by Kathryn Lasky
Erandi's Braids by Antonio Hernandez Madrigal
Escape of Oney Judge by Emily Arnold McCully
Mirandy and Brother Wind by Patricia C. McKissack
Precious and the Boo Hag by Patricia C. McKissack
The Rag Coat by Lauren Mills
Baseball Saved Us by Ken Mochizuki
Passage to Freedom: the Sugihara Story by Ken Mochizuki
My Rows and Piles of Coins by Tololwa M. Mollel
Raising Dragons by Jerdine Nolen
Capyboppy by Bill Peet
Eli by Bill Peet
The Bee Tree by Patricia Polacco
Mrs. Katz and Tush by Patricia Polacco
Belle, the Last Mule at Gee's Bend by Calvin Alexander Ramsey and Bettye Stroud
The Apple-Pip Princess by Jane Ray
And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
Testing the Ice by Sharon Robinson
Little Melba and Her Big Trombone by Katheryn Russell-Brown
Sukey and the Mermaid by Robert D. San Souci
Talking Eggs by Robert D. San Souci
Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales by Jon Scieszka
Johnny on the Spot by Edward Sorel
The Old Man and His Door by Gary Soto
Black Ships Before Troy by Rosemary Sutcliff
Hana Hashimoto, Sixth Violin by Chieri Uegaki
Suki's Kimono by Chieri Uegaki
Garden of Abdul Gasazi by Chris Van Allsburg
Jumanji by Chris Van Allsburg
Freedom on the Menu by Carole Boston Weatherford
Stories for Children by Oscar Wilde
Freedom Summer by Deborah Wiles
Follow the Drinking Gourd by Jeanette Winter
Watcher: Jane Goodall's Life With Chimps by Jeanette Winter


Longer Books with Few/No Pictures
Molly's Pilgrim by Barbara Cohen
26 Fairmount Avenue by Tomie de Paola
Stone Fox by John R. Gardiner
Pearl Verses the World by Sally Murphy (poetry)
Tales From the Odyssey by Mary Pope Osborne
Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective by Donal J. Sobel

Family Read Alouds
Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater
Freckle Juice by Judy Blume
The Chocolate Touch by Patrick Skene Catling
Ramona and Her Mother by Beverly Cleary
Ramona Quimby, Age 8 by Beverly Cleary
Household Stories by the Brothers Grimm translated by Lucy Crane
Courage of Sarah Noble by Alice Dagliesh
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
Danny, the Champion of the World by Roald Dahl
The Cabin Faced West by Jean Fritz
Igraine the Brave by Cornelia Funke
Wonder Book for Boys and Girls by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling
Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang
Gooney Bird Green by Lois Lowry
Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan
The Princess and Curdie by George McDonald
The Princess and the Goblin by George McDonald
Five Children and It by E. Nesbit
The Borrowers by Mary Norton
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery (there is a phenomenal pop-up version of this!)
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein

First Grade Literature List

Poetry to add to our shelves and use during poetry tea times:

Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost, illustrated by Susan Jeffers
Paul Revere's Ride by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
My Parents Think I'm Sleeping by Jack Prelutsky
New Kid on the Block by Jack Prelutsky
Pizza the Size of the Sun by Jack Prelutsky
Something Big Has Been Here by Jack Prelutsky
Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein

Books to read aloud, enjoy together, and discuss during school reading time:

Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears by Verna Aardema
How the Leopard Got His Claws by Chinua Achebe
Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Anderson
Story of Babar by Jean de Brunhoff
Day's Work by Eve Bunting
Pop's Bridge by Eve Bunting
SOS File by Betsy Byars, Betsy Duffey, and Laurie Myers
Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles
Strega Nona's Magic Lessons by Tomie de Paola
Big Anthony and the Magic Ring by Tomie de Paola
Jamie O'Rourke and the Big Potato by Tomie de Paola
Jamie O'Rourke and the Pooka by Tomie de Paola
Legend of Old Befana by Tomie de Paola
Legend of the Poinsettia by Tomie de Paola
Legend of the Bluebonnet by Tomie de Paola
Stone Fox by John R. Gardiner
The Wolf Who Cried Boy by Bob Hartman
Saint George and the Dragon by Margaret Hodges
Little Red Riding Hood by Trina Schart Hyman
Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
The Stray by Dick King-Smith
The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf
Henry's Freedom Box by Ellen Levine
Micawber by John Lithgow
King and the Seed by Eric Maddern
Six Men by David McKee
Tikki Tikki Tembo by Arlene Mosel
Three Questions by Jon J. Muth
Raising Dragons by Jerdine Nolen
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff
Cinderella by Charles Perrault
Puss in Boots by Charles Perrault
Aunt Minnie McGranahan by Mary Skillings Prigger
Apple-Pip Princess by Jane Ray
The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka
The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales by Jon Scieszka
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
Brave Irene by William Steig
Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig
Many Moons by James Thurber

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst
Biggest Bear by Lynd Ward

The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams
Owl Moon by Jane Yolen
Rumpelstiltskin by Paul O. Zelinsky
Rapunzel by Paul O. Zelinsky

Books for family read aloud time:

Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
Tumtum and Nutmeg: The Rose Cottage Tales by Emily Bearn
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Ralph S. Mouse by Beverly Cleary (we read the first two in the series last year)
Ramona and Her Father by Beverly Cleary
Ramona the Brave by Beverly Cleary
Robin Hood retold by Paul Cresswick
The Magic Finger by Roald Dahl
The Giraffe, the Pelly, and Me by Roald Dahl
The Enormous Crocodile by Roald Dahl
Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl
The Twits by Roald Dahl
The Tale of Desperaux by Kate DiCamillo
Complete Book of Dragons by E. Nesbit
The Littles by John Peterson
Aesop's Fables retold by Jerry Pinkney
Encyclopedia Mythologica: Fairies and Magical Creatures by Matthew Reinhart and Robert Sabuda
The Little Mermaid retold by Robert Sabuda
Cricket in Times Square by George Selden
All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein

Kindergarten Literature List

For the most part, picture books are for The Kid to read aloud to me. The chapter books are for me to read aloud to The Kid.

Picture Books (listed from lower reading level to higher, we will read them in this order with exceptions for some seasonal titles)

Lucky Ducklings by Eva Moore
The Dot by Peter Reynolds (we will read some of his other books as well)
Two Times the Fun by Beverly Cleary (four longer stories in one book, less pictures)
Zen Shorts by Jon J Muth
George and Martha by James Marshall
How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World by Marjorie Priceman
The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
The Lion and the Mouse by Bernadette Watts
Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney
Andy and the Lion by James Daugherty
Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey
New Coat for Anna by Harriet Ziefert
Story of Babar by Jean de Brunhoff
Three Little Pigs by Paul Galdone (we'll read a variety of other folk tales by Paul Galdone as well)
Anansi the Spider by Gerald McDermott
Frida by Jonah Winter
Owl Moon by Jane Yolen
Three Questions by Jon J Muth
A Chair for My Mother by Vera B. Williams
Abuela by Arthur Dorros
Chanticleer and the Fox by Barbara Cooney
The Knight and the Dragon by Tomie dePaola
Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch
Horton Hatches the Egg by Dr. Seuss
How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss
500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins by Dr. Seuss
Alexander and the Terribly, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst
Diego by Jonah Winter
Eyes of Gray Wolf by Jonathan London
Island of the Skog by Steven Kellogg
Princess Knight by Cornelia Funke
Elizabeth Leads the Way by Tanya Lee Stone
Fly Away Home by Eve Bunting
The Girl Who Spun Gold by Virginia Hamilton
The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry
The Boy Who Loved Words by Roni Schotter
Dogteam by Gary Paulsen
True Story of Stellina by Matteo Pericoli
Woman Who Outshone the Sun by Alejandro Cruz Martinez
Koko's Kitten by Francine Patterson
Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse by Leo Lionni
I Can Hear the Sun by Patricia Polacco
Verdi by Janell Cannon
How Ben Franklin Stole the Lightning by Rosalyn Schanzer
Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg
Stellaluna by Janell Cannon
Toy Brother by William Steig
Quiltmaker's Gift by Jeff Brumbeau
Sea Chest by Toni Buzzeo
Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs by Mo Willems
Dragonfly's Tale by Kristina Rodanas
Going Home by Eve Bunting
How the Stars Fell Into the Sky by Jerrie Oughton

Longer/Chapter Books 
Minpins by Roald Dahl
The Reluctant Dragon by Kenneth Grahame
My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett (there are sequels to this)
Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson
Bunnicula by Deborah Howe (there are sequels)
Stuart Little by E.B. White
Betsy-Tacy by Maud Hart Lovelance (there are sequels)
The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner (there are sequels)
The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary (there are sequels)
Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White
Tumtum & Nutmeg by Emily Bearn (there are sequels)

Advanced Reading for Preschoolers

Since The Kid started reading, she's really taken off. I was having trouble keeping up with her and finally found two tips that saved my sanity (for now).

Tip #1: Stop looking at lists of "books for _____ graders" as those quickly got into books that my daughter was not interested in/ready for. Just because she can read at a third grade level does not mean she has any interest in books with few pictures. She is still a preschooler! Better is to look at lists of "read-alouds for preschoolers/kindergarteners" and just acknowledge that she can be the one reading aloud instead of a parent.

Tip #2: Organize! I'll find a great book, know that there is a series, and then forget all about it. So, in the spirit of organizing, I started a few GoodReads lists. You can use these as reference or add to them yourself!

Preschoolers Reading at First Grade Level
Preschoolers Reading at Second Grade Level
Preschoolers Reading at Third Grade Level
I'm editing this post to add one more list:
Preschoolers/Kindergarteners Reading at Fourth/Fifth Grade Level

The Final Bob Books Reading Loop

I posted earlier about using Bob Books to learn reading with a kid that doesn't like to re-read anything. (I don't get that. I mean, she will ask me to read a new story 3-4 times in a row to her!) Here is the progression we ultimately ended up using:

Bob Books Set 1
Bob Books Set 2
Bob Books Sight Words Kindergarten
Bob Books Rhyming Words
Bob Books Set 1
Bob Books Sight Words Kindergarten
Bob Books Set 2
Bob Books Sight Words First Grade
Bob Books Set 3
Bob Books Sight Words First Grade
Bob Books Set 3
Bob Books Set 4
Started Progressive Phonics Intermediate level
Started easy readers - mostly Clifford, Little Critter, and Elephant and Piggie
Bob Books Set 5

Once I introduced her to Progressive Phonics and easy readers, she would choose which she wanted to do each time she wanted to read to me. We'll still go back and forth between easy readers and Progressive Phonics (which she calls the "read it together stories"). She can now handle easy readers at a beginning-of-first-grade level with just a bit of help with some of the words that are not phonetic.

If I were redesigning the sequence, I would put the Rhyming Words set and the Sight Words Kindergarten set before Set 2. They fit better there, but I wasn't sure where the non-numbered sets should go when I started. We may loop through Sets 4 and 5 again sometime in the future depending on whether she is interested and how she is doing with the easy readers.

At her request to learn spelling, I also introduced All About Spelling while we were going through Set 5. Since All About Spelling is a phonics-based spelling program, I'm expecting that it will also help bolster her reading skills. Right now, it is giving her further confidence because she is realizing she can already spell all the words in the first several lessons!

Bob Books With an Impatient Reader

Learning to read was definitely The Kid's idea. And she loves her Bob Books... most of the time. I've read many a blog post from people who spend a week on a Bob Book, delving into the reading rules and making whole lessons around them. That wouldn't work here. The Kid has no patience for repetition of something she has to work for. And she memorizes books after 2-3 readings, so it wouldn't take long before she was reciting the book instead of reading it.

We started Bob Books about 8 months ago. Through fits and starts, The Kid has now read Sets 1 and 2, the Kindergarten Sight Words Set, and the new Rhyming Words Set. She does really well with them, but gets frustrated easily. Set 3 reportedly takes a big leap in difficulty, so we decided not to move on quite yet.

Then the idea came to me - she surely wouldn't remember the stories she'd read once eight months ago, right? So we're starting over with Set 1. She is gaining some confidence and fluency in her reading. We will work our way back through the sets we have and then do either the First Grade Sight Words or Set 3. After that box, we will consider looping back through again. I expect that each loop will go faster than the first time through since she is certainly a stronger reader now than when she started!