Like I have mentioned, we started back to lessons a couple weeks ago (here and here for some peeks at our school year so far), so I’m squeezing in this summer break post right at the end here to share what we read over the past couple months or so.
Our libraries were closed due to COVID this summer, so we were SO grateful to have our own stocked shelves to “shop” for summer reading. (Can anyone else relate?!)
Amy shared with me that each student in her house creates a summer reading stack for themselves — so we decided to do the very same thing! I had the kids grab a stack of books from our shelves that they wanted to read through over the break. We kept the stacks on the bookshelf in our entry for easy access and it worked really well.
Cate, age 11
Bridget, age 8
The Little Boys, ages 6, 4, and 3
We did lots and lots of picture books together this summer. Here’s one evening’s selections by Damien:
Me
Zena Hitz’s Lost in Thought (was reading with friends online)
Cather’s The Song of the Lark (started this in the spring and have come back to finish it)
Don Quixote (Form 4 novel for Term 1 — we’re using an edited version the PNEU assigned)
Zena Hitz’s Lost in Thought (was reading with friends online)
Cather’s The Song of the Lark (started this in the spring and have come back to finish it)
Don Quixote (Form 4 novel for Term 1 — we’re using an edited version the PNEU assigned)
Belloc’s Characters of the Reformation (also for Form 4)
Montgomery’s Jane of Lantern Hill (just fnished re-reading for my Form 2 students’ novel — so good!)
Vincent, age 14
Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days (he also read a bunch more Verne)
Caras’ The Forest (out of print, but it was a recommendation from Amy)
And he spent a good amount of time rereading some Walter Farley books and Bethlehem Books’ historical fiction, which is perfect summer reading!
Dickens’ Nicholas Nickleby (I have been giving them a Dickens to read each year)
Austen’s Sense and Sensibility (re-read) and Pride and Prejudice (first time!)
The last few books in the Betsy-Tacy series
Mother Loyola’s Home for Good (I mentioned this in my Catholic books post for this year)
Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon (the Sea Wolf Books reprints are really nice!)
Cate, age 11
Montgomery’s Emily of New Moon series (I have the older versions which I can’t link to – but there’s this one-volume option that looks ok…)
Eloise Jarvis McGraw’s Mara, Daughter of the Nile (a favorite of my big girls)
Pyle’s Otto of the Silver Hand (after reading King Arthur this past year, she pulled it from the shelf)
Alcott’s Little Women (her first read-through!)
Xavier, age 10
He has been obsessed with Redwall this summer, as you can see!
Bailey’s Miss Hickory (his sister told him he had to read it)
Crusader King: A Novel of Baldwin IV and the Crusades (a birthday gift for my knight-loving boy)
Hilda van Stockum’s The Winged Watchman and Pollard’s Beorn the Proud (both related to last year’s history reading)
Bridget, age 8
The Father Finn books (Vincent got a set for his birthday and the kids have been passing them back and forth since)
Estes’ Pinky Pye (she read Ginger Pye last year)
Clara, age 7
I dedicated a bit of daily time to Clara’s reading lessons each day with the Treadwell Readers. She made lots of progress and decided to paint little cards of each story as she goes!
The Little Boys, ages 6, 4, and 3
We did lots and lots of picture books together this summer. Here’s one evening’s selections by Damien:
Orchard’s Little Yellow Book of Nursery Rhymes
Flack’s Ask Mr. Bear and Angus Lost (the Angus series is among my very favorites to read aloud)
Lenski’s The Little Auto
On audio
Five Little Peppers and How They Grew (the Term 1 novel for my Form 1 kids)
They also listened to a couple of the Redwall books this summer, which inspired lots of drawing and story writing — like these maps by Xavier!
On audio
Five Little Peppers and How They Grew (the Term 1 novel for my Form 1 kids)
They also listened to a couple of the Redwall books this summer, which inspired lots of drawing and story writing — like these maps by Xavier!
(I don’t know about you, but I’d like to live at Redcrest if I could! :))
There was also lots and lots of pre-reading and books in the mail this summer. I’ll have to sprinkle those in through the year as there are too many wonderful ones to share here!
11 comments
I love seeing ALL the books. So many good ones in these stacks. It is wonderful having a library full of rich literature. My children (21, 20, 17) tell me they believe I'd rather have books than anything else. True.
J loves Redwall too! Our copies are all worn from re-re-re-reading.
Lovely, Celeste! I love reading your lists. Thank you for sharing! And I looooove those Redwall maps…swoon! We've done that, too!
Do you have any info you could share on the Don Quixote version on the Programmes? I would love to see it
Yes! So true! Our books have helped keep us sane during these many months indoors. 🙂
They just get passed from person to person to person among my middle kids right now — someone always has one in hand! 🙂
He has been heavily influenced by Brambly Hedge and Redwall. 🙂
The abridgement was done by Mabel Wheaton on John Ormsby's translation. It is being reprinted by a few publishers, but I ordered from Gyan Press. Hope that helps!
Yes! Thank you very much
Those maps are fantastic! I'll have to show those to my son, who was pretty obsessed with Redwall a couple of years ago!
He loves drawing miniature things! Redwall has given him lots of inspiration for that. 🙂