Disciplines of a Godly Woman — This book has been an excellent read for me, especially coming off the 21 Days to a More Disciplined Life series. It’s packed with practical encouragement, thought-provoking chapters, and motivation to live a disciplined life. Highly recommended to Christian women.
Read Aloud
These Happy Golden Years – Our whole family has been enjoying our evenings of cozying up together and reading this book. Even Jesse and I are really enjoying this series and we’re sad that it’s almost over with (anyone have any really great book series to recommend that might be in a similar vein to the Little House books?)
Listened To
The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe — We listened aloud to this book this week while working on getting the bookplates and our Christmas cards ready to mail. The children were fascinated by it and it was fun for me to hear it again after all these years! Since you can download the entire Chronicles of Narnia audio series for free right now, we plan to listen to them all over the next few months!
You can see all of the books I’ve read in 2011 so far here. Read all of my book reviews here.
Have you read any good books recently?
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Hello,
I haven’t read through all the comments, maybe someone already suggested this. But, there are prequels to the Little House books about Laura’s mom, grandma, great grandma. I have a dream to accumulate what I can and read those first with our kiddos. Some are hard to find, others are more available.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Little_House_books
We enjoyed ‘The Five Little Peppers and how they grew’ (Margaret Sidney) when our girls were little. It is a series, and out of print I think. We found the books at our library. We also liked the Betsy-Tacy-Tib books. We also liked the ‘Little Britches’ series by Ralph Moody.
I see others got to it first, but Anne of Green Gables (and the following books) are wonderful. I listen to books in my car (sometimes I’ll bring them into the house and listen while cooking/cleaning) and just finished the Little House books last week – the last one is a bit depressing.
There are two other books you might be interested in. One is the diary Laura kept when she, Manly, and Rose moved to Mansfield called On the Way Home. Rose wrote some of it. And then West from Home is a collection of the letters Laura wrote Manly while visiting Rose in 1915 in SanFran. She talks about wanting to become a better writer.
My kids are grown and I really miss homeschooling. Continue to enjoy it!
Those other books by Laura were just recommended for you – not to read to your kids.
Another vote for Lauraine Snelling’s Red River of the North series. She writes from a more realistic place than Janette Oke, those her books are great too. As soon as my girls finished Little House, we did the Love Comes Softly series.
The Boxcar Children, Bengi Beaver, Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Grandma’s Attic, and the Pathway books are about Christian kids who learn lessons and you can get them for about any age kid. We read them for school and my kids were so sad when we had to do different reading books. The California Treasures books are awesome, too.
Elsie Dinsmore Series – I’m surprised no one has mentioned them yet! There are several books and I adored them when I was growing up!
My children just love the Boxcar Children series. In fact my oldest sons first book he ever read was the Boxcar Children!
I loved the Five Little Peppers and how they grew. It is kind of like Little Women. Wonderful family book – I read it when I was younger – and I think I need to pick up a copy for my kids! Thanks for the reminder!
As a former kindergarten teacher, I am always reading to our boys and looking for quality stories. We love the Boxcar Children, Chronicles of Narnia, Henry Huggins/Ramona Quimby series and even Junie B Jones. Junie B is a little bit sassy sometimes, but it’s a great springboard to discussions on respect, honesty, and friendship. Just a few ideas-happy reading!
I want to jump on the Boxcar Children bandwagon too. I loved those books when I was young!
My family really enjoyed the Once Upon a Summer series by Janette Oke. Also, there are other Little House series. The Rose ones are good.
There are some super funny books about a family with 9 boys and 1 daughter called…”Chickens in the Headlights” and “Bullies in the Headlights”. They are full of sweet and hilarious stories about a big family! My friends brother wrote them and they are based on their family.
Betsy-Tacy, Mandie, 5 little peppers!
I read them and loved them as a kid.
The books that cover Rose’s childhood are – Little House on Rocky Ridge, Little Farm in the Ozarks, In the Land of the Big Red Apple, On the Other Side of the Hill, Little Town in the Ozarks, New Dawn on Rocky Ridge, On the Banks of the Bayou, and Bachelor Girl.
I’m new here so I don’t know the ages of your children. While it isn’t a series, the book “The Mouse and the Motorcycle” is wonderful and usually pleases all ages. The Winnie the Pooh books are wonderful too. I enjoyed them as much as my children.
We loved the Swedish series, “The Children of Noisy Village.”
I like Jeannette oke s love comes softly but I don’t think its appropriate for young children. Definitely read them before you dive in with your kids.
My mother read Little House on the Prairie to me as a little girl. I distinctly remember “graduating” to Anne of Green Gables shortly after Little House on the Prairie. I love (and loved!) Anne of Green Gables…!
You might try locating the “Jennifer” series by Eunice Young Smith. It’s about a young girl growing up at the turn of the century in the countryside near Chicago. I don’t think they are in reprint but you may be able to find them at the library or from used book sites. Pristine copies are expensive but beat-up copies read just as well.
I loved the Laura Ingalls Wilder series, also the Betsy-Tacy books and Anne of Green Gables. This is in another vein, but the Redwall series is excellent too. Fantasy with lots of adventure and good winning over evil.
Just my two cents.
Grandma’s Attic series, Anne of Green Gables series, Little Women & other Louisa May Alcott classics, Betsy-Tacy series, A Little Princess & the Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Penderwicks series, Pilgrim’s Progress (children’s version)…
…so many wonderful series to try! Happy reading!
I loved to read as a kid! Now I’m in my forties and still read these. In addition to the books listed above, some more of my favorites include the Boxcar Children series, the Great Brain series, The Saturdays (about a family with 5 children), Cheaper by the Dozen, Wrinkle in Time, and the Tripod series by John Christopher. A Single Shard is an excellent read for a young teenager; I wanted to underline whole paragraphs as I read this.
Ooh! I hadn;t thought of Cheaper by the Dozen, but that’s a great one! There’s a sequel called Belles on their Toes. These are about a family with 12 children living in New Jersey in the 1920s, and written by 2 of the children. These are what the Steve Martin movies are LOOSELY based on. However, I would not recommend the Steve Martin movies, but the books are wonderful–there is one short part about birth control I might edit out, though. There were also movies made around 1950 with Clifton Webb and Myrna Loy as the parents that are very good.
Along the same vein, is Yours, Mine and Ours, by Helen North Beardsley about a blended family with 19 children. Once again, this is what the Dennis Quaid movie is LOOSELY based on, but there is another with Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball that is very good.
I was also going to recommend the Happy Hollisters series. I think its set in the 50s about a family who solves mysteries. I read it as a child, and enjoyed it very much.
Hello,
I am at the other end of my mothering now with my daughters and son as young adults.So many of the titles mentioned above we read and in particular listened to while driving.
We started with the Boxcar children on tape with our children everytime we drove anywhere.They were wonderful first start, we also did Indian in the Cupboard as mentioned by a previous poster. It has sequels which when I listened to found frightening ( still!). I don’t think it left that impression on my children though.
For around grade 4 and 5 we listened to the “Hatchet” series by Gary Paulson, a great book about resililiency and survival. We read and listened to many of his books. As a young boy in Northern Michigan? his stepfather was unkind to him so he would take off and “live ” in the bush on weekends to escape his home life. All the situations in his books are based on real life settings he encountered. He has a website to further explore him as an author, he also writes about the Alaskan dog race the “Ititerod” that he competed in on a few occaisions.
Also at about grade 5 I would give everyone but in particular the boys in my life the book”Where the Red Fern Grows”. Amazing book about a boy and his coon dogs growing up in Appalachia during the depression.Every child I have ever given it to remarks how it affected them. There is also a very old movie from the 40′s made of it.
I love all your postings(Crystal will you have a running list as your children age of the books you covered with them?)of all your reccommended readings. The books mentioned above and others instilled much conversation about choice making, empathy , forgiveness, grace etc in the lives of my children as they grew up. We did purchase some of these books all the tapes and CD’s we ordered through our library, hundreds of hours of entertainment for no or low cost.
Besides the great suggestions so far I will add: The Littles, Cheaper by the Dozen, the Ramona books, and some very old fashioned books which I loved as a child so they may be hard to find: B is for Betsy, Betsy and Star, etc. I can’t remember the author but I re-lived them while reading them to my daughters several years ago and will re-read them to my grandchildren as well.
Carolyn Haywood, (sp?)
Did you read Farmer Boy as well – it is about Almonzo Wilder and my favorite of her books
You really must read the “Anne of Green Gables” series, if you loved the “Little House” series. You will be completely endeared with Anne and there are about 6 books in the series. I’m happy to send you the first one if you’d like. Just let me know.
Crystal I just wanted to say I appreciate your book reviews and sharing your faith in subtle ways. I am sure the Lord is using you to witness to more people than you can imagine. I also like the blogs that you link up to because most of them are Christian bloggers. Keep up the good work!!!
My kids love the Bobbsey Twins books! Two sets of adventurous twins growing up around the turn of the century.
I posted this previously but your family will enjoy Caddie Woodlawn.
All-of-a-Kind Family books!
Not really similar to the Little House series but the Ramona Quimby series by Beverly Cleary will always hold a special place in my heart. I audiobook series on CD. My two boys and I always listened to the entire series start to finish each summer. The boys loved it and so did I.
I love the Little House series too. Also The Boxcar Children is a good series. I think girls and boys both like that series.
Others mentioned Anne of Greene Gables and that is also a good one.
For reading aloud, try the Little Britches series by Ralph Moody. You’ll have to edit out ‘authentic’ language, but otherwise these books are as good as the Little House books. When the mother made one of the most difficult and godly decisions I’ve ever read about in children’s literature (at the end of the second book, I think) I cried.
I’ve listed some other favorites in a recent blog post. http://anniekateshomeschoolreviews.com/2011/09/some-favorite-living-history-authors/
I wouldn’t recommend Anne of Green Gables either. I tried to read it aloud once, but I couldn’t actually say some of the sentences to my little ones.
Elsie Dinsmore, with her insistance on an extra-Biblical rules (not reading novels on Sunday) actually disobeyed one of the 10 commandments (honor your father and mother) without realizing she was sinning!
Annie Kate
We love Ten P’s in a Pod by Arnold Pent III. An incredible story of a homeschooling family in the 1940s! It is a good, clean hilarious family read!!
Also, there is a series of five books called The Building on the Rock Series by Joel R. Beek and Diana Kleyn. These are wonderful faith-building stories. There are long ones and short ones in each book and we really enjoyed them as a family!
Oops, that is Joel R. Beeke.
Oh Crystal, see what you get when you ask people for book recommendations? I have read the Little House books so many times that I start “telling” one of the books to myself when I am trying to fall asleep. My dad read them to me before I could read, and I have probably read the series upwards of 50 times.
Anyway, I definitely recommend at least the first Anne of Green Gables books. Yes, Anne is an imp, but she is wonderful. If I ever have a daughter, I hope she is like her. The other books may be too boring for your daughters right now (though YOU should certainly read them).
The Boxcar Children would probably be very enjoyable for them. Be aware, though, that they are NOT all written by the original author. I recently bought the first 12 for $9.99 for my Kindle, and have been rediscovering them at the age of 25.
They would probably enjoy the Redwall books, although they are rather long. Not Christian, but very strong morally. The first one, “Redwall,” is the place to start.
Roald Dahl has some great children’s books. “Matilda” and “Danny, the Champion of the World” come to mind. They would probably love Wilson Rawls’ “Summer of the Monkeys” and “Where the Red Fern Grows” as well. And you will be bawling…
And of course, the Chronicles of Narnia. Another series I have read over and over. There’s my $0.02.
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