The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare

My daughter and I recently read The Witch of Blackbird Pond, a Newberry Medal winner. Set in 1687 in the Connecticut Colony, this is the story of Kit Tyler who has come from Barbados to live with her aunt and uncle after her grandfather’s death. After a life of education and freedom in Barbados, Kit is woefully unprepared for the restricted lifestyle of early Puritan settlers. Predictably, her freethinking ways result in accusations of witchcraft. Fortunately, this book isn’t just about witchcraft, but of colonists first uprisings against British rule, the very beginning of the American Revolution. Speare wraps a compelling story in interesting lessons of early American history, the harsh lifestyle of early colonists, tolerance for those with different values and backgrounds, and adaptability. Full of adventure and sweet romance. My daughter couldn’t put it down. Four out of four bookworms.

Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi

Once again Avi gives us a compelling historical novel for young adults which adults will enjoy as well. Crispin has just buried his mother, but his grief is compounded when he is proclaimed a “wolf’s head.” Anyone may kill him and receive a reward. As Crispin runs for his life, he learns that all is not as it seems—with his life or with the world around him. This novel is reminiscent of The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle in that a stranger who Crispin initially distrusts opens Crispin’s eyes to the truths of how people treat each other. Avi gives us a lesson in English medieval history wrapped in an exciting story that will leave readers breathless and ready for the sequel. Four out of four bookworms.

The BFG by Roald Dahl

My daughter and I loved this book. The BFG is the Big Friendly Giant who kidnaps Sophie from an orphanage. Turns out, he’s not so big compared to other giants, but he is very friendly. Now, he must protect Sophie from these other giants who would love to eat her. These giants roam the world every night gorging themselves on the different flavors of human beans. BFG doesn’t eat human beans, only snozzcumbers, so Sophie is safe with him. The language in this novel is delightful--human beans, whiffsquiddler, frobscottle, trogglehumper and more. Want to know what they mean? Read the book. You won’t be sorry! Four out of four bookworms.

The Double Life of Pocahontas by Jean Fritz

This past summer, my daughter began to study American History at home to see how we would do together with homeschooling. When we got to the settlement of Jamestown, I felt the need to explain to her that Pocahontas wasn’t like the Pocahontas in the Disney movie. My daughter asked if there was something we could watch or read that told the true story of Pocahontas. So I began looking for a biography. I contacted Riva at a local used book store, Title Wave Books, for some suggestions. One of the books she recommended was The Double Life of Pocahontas by Jean Fritz. My daughter and I both found the book interesting. In fact, we were reading the book together, but my daughter stayed up late reading ahead of me because we weren’t moving fast enough. Fritz gives us a fascinating read while not leaving out the important historical details about John Smith, Jamestown, the Powhatan, Pocahontas’ marriage to John Rolfe, her time in England, and her death. A few weeks after reading this book, we visited the recreated settlement of Jamestown Fort and a Powhatan Indian village. A lot of what we saw there confirmed the facts in this biography. We were able to turn to each other and say, “I remember that from the book!” Fritz is an award-winning author who has a way of making history relevant and alive. Four out of four bookworms.

How to Get Kids to Read - Part 3

So how do you find a book that your child will enjoy? Start with his interests. Does he like sports? Find a novel in which the sport he enjoys is important to the plot. Matt Christopherwrites novels about kids and all kinds of sports for girls and boys. Does she want to be a princess when she grows up? There are all kinds of princess novels out there. I know because my daughter read them all when she was younger. Try The Jewel Princesses series by Jahnna N. Malcolm and Neal McPheeters. Does your child like gross humor? Try Dear Dumb Diary #1: Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jim Benton or Adventures Of Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey. Do you have a young historian? Try the Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne and Sal Murdocca. A budding scientist? Try Animorphs by K. A. Applegate or the Magic School Bus series by Joanna Cole. An animal lover? Animal Ark Pets Series is popular with younger kids. Hank the Cowdog books by John Erickson combine animals and a mystery. The whole family will love reading them. Bill Wallace writes some wonderful animal books. Try Snot Stew to start. Kids love the title! What movies or TV shows does you child enjoy? Is there a comic book or series of books published in conjunction with the show, such as Cheetah Girls , Lizzie Mcguire, or Spider-Man?

Still stumped? School librarians can make great suggestions. Independent bookstores may also have someone on staff who can recommend a good book for your child. I've found a local used bookseller who can give me recommendations. Or you can ask me. If I can't come up with something, I'll bet I know someone who can.

Now, get thee to a library or your favorite bookstore.

How to Get Kids to Read - Part 2

Another way to get kids to read is to let them see you reading. I still remember watching my parents read. My dad sometimes read over my mom’s shoulder. We adopted my daughter from China when she was seven years old. She didn’t speak English, didn’t read or write Chinese or English. But from the time she met us, she watched us read newspapers, books, magazines, even cereal boxes. Young children want to be like their parents. They want to do what their parents do. Take advantage of that while they’re young. Let them see you read, so they will realize how important it is to you.

Does my daughter like to read? You bet! Give her a Goosebumps Series book or a Dear Dumb Diary book, and I have to force her to put it down and go to sleep at night. She loves comic books, and I encourage her to read them as well as the funnies in the paper. She’s reading, and that’s what’s important! I do the same with her assigned reading that I did with my son. I read with her to get started. I always finish the assigned reading, but she usually finishes before I do. Right now, she’s reading Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi. We started together, but she got tired of waiting for me to read with her, so she’s way ahead of me. But I’m going to finish it. It’s a great story.

Do I let my children read anything? No. It has to be age appropriate. Even so, it might not be right for them. In first grade, my son was determined to read a Goosebumps book. I finally broke down and let him read it, knowing it would be too scary for him. Sure enough, he read only one chapter before he got so scared he couldn’t read anymore. He hasn’t read a horror novel since then.

Tomorrow, suggestions on how to find a book your child will enjoy.

How to Get Kids to Read--Part 1

What’s the best way to teach a kid (not the baby goat, but the human child) to enjoy reading? Why is it important for a child to enjoy reading? Is it ever too late to get a kid hooked on reading?

Too late? My husband was 25 when he and I married. He hated reading. It only took me two months to get him hooked. It’s never too late.

Why is it important? If a child enjoys reading, he’ll read more. If he reads more, he expands his vocabulary and his knowledge base. In short, he expands his world. Want a more concrete reason? Children who enjoy reading get better grades.

“But how do I get him to enjoy reading? He hates his school textbooks!”

Heck, can you blame him? I hate textbooks, too. In fact, I hated history in school because we learned about it through textbooks. It wasn’t until my last year of college, when I discovered that you could learn about history from sources other than textbooks, that I learned to love it. Textbooks should be outlawed! What an awful way to teach a child to read. What an awful way to teach a child anything! My children didn’t like reading textbooks. They still don’t. Fortunately, that wasn’t their first experience with reading. I read to them from the time they were born. When they were infants, I chose books with bright, interesting pictures. As toddlers and preschoolers, I added stories that were interesting and easy for them to follow, like Where's My Teddy? and Miss Spider's Tea Party . As they got older and developed their own interests, I chose books that I thought they would enjoy. I didn’t care if it was an award-winning book. In fact, most of the Caldecott books I’ve seen haven’t done a thing for me. The Newberry books usually have a pretty good story, but they often take a while for my child to “get in to.” For instance, my son read Johnny Tremain , a Newberry winner, in 5th grade. I’d remembered reading this book when I was in 5th grade. I loved it then and was excited that I could share this with my son. But Johnny Tremain is slow to start, and my son was having trouble getting in to it. So, I sat down with him, and we took turns reading the first few chapters out loud—no more than one chapter a day. After a few chapters, he didn’t want to quit reading, so he took the book to his room and continued on his own. We did this with many of the assigned books for his elementary and middle school English classes. He’s a senior in high school now, and while we don’t read aloud to each other, I will sometimes read one of his assigned novels, so I can discuss it with him.

Books he selected on his own or books I selected for him have often kept him up all night. Science fiction, action adventure, mysteries. Animorphs, a series of science fiction novels for young adults, isn’t the most literary of works out there. But my son loved that series, and it got him to read. He consumed them in one sitting.

That’s all for today. More tips tomorrow.

Frightful’s Mountain by Jean Craighead George

This is the third book in the series beginning with My Side of the Mountain and On the Far Side of the Mountain. I haven’t read the first two, so I can’t compare them to Frightful’s Mountain. However, my daughter and I enjoyed this book so much that we plan on reading the original two books.

Frightful is a peregrine falcon raised illegally since she was a hatchling by a boy, Sam Gribley. As the novel begins, Frightful has been stolen from Sam by poachers. Frightful manages to escape which begins her adventure to find home, aka Sam. While trying to find her way back to Sam, she must learn to be a peregrine. George expertly weaves her meticulous research through the story, so children don’t know they’re learning while reading. Frightful’s encounters with poachers, animals, power lines, and a construction project keep this story suspenseful until the end. Three out of four bookworms.

Eragon by Christopher Paolini

Imagine my surprise when I learned, shortly after reading Eragon, that the author was only fifteen years old when he started writing it. This book is pure fantasy. I’ll admit it’s a book that I normally wouldn’t have picked up because I don’t like fantasy. But, I have a student pen pal in my daughter’s class who loved this book, so I read it to give us something to discuss in our letters.

Eragon is a fairly fast-paced novel about a boy, Eragon, who finds a dragon egg which he believes to be a pretty rock. The egg hatches, and life, as Eragon knows it, is never the same. Eragon resists the change, as most of us would. His resistance elevates this book to more than fantasy. It becomes a life lesson as well. The novel was a little too gory in spots for the elementary school crowd, but it’s a good book for middle school students. Keep in mind that I’m a little stricter in what my children read and watch than most parents. No PG-13 until they’re eleven, unless I watch and approve it first. No R until they’re in high school. Some reviewers have trashed this book and said the editor who bought it should be fired. I disagree. I’m for just about anything that will get children to read—magazines, comic books, and genre fiction—as long as it is age appropriate.


A little bit of trivia. My son pointed out that “Eragon” is “Dragon” with the “D” changed to an “E”. Interesting.

What do I think of the movie? Sorry, haven’t seen it. When I like a book, I stay away from the movie because it never lives up to the book. And I liked this book. Three out of four bookworms.

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi

This historical novel is a little slow to start, but stick with it because it will soon take you on a rollicking, high seas adventure. Charlotte Doyle boards the Seahawk believing she will be chaperoned by not one, but two suitable families. That is just one of her firmly held, prim and proper misconceptions to be shattered during her voyage across the Atlantic. Adventure, mystery, tension, and surprises await the reader with every page. My eleven-year-old daughter and I read this book together, and we both enjoyed it. A Newberry Honor Book. Four out of four bookworms.

Where’s My Teddy by Jez Alborough

Eddie has lost his teddy. Where he finds it will surprise everyone!

This is my all-time favorite read-aloud book for children. My kids loved it as well. Playfully suspenseful, with a surprise ending. The expressions on the characters faces are priceless and add to the suspenseful yet fun tone of the book. Four out of four bookworms.