Good Books for the 7-10 year old Crowd

Several months ago, I started thinking about how important it is for children to learn how to discuss what they read. I learned how to "book talk" around the dinner table. My parents are both avid readers and my Dad would periodically hand us a book that he thought was particularly excellent (like Mrs. Mike), we would all read it, and then we'd discuss it around the table. (Mrs. Mike is particularly excellent.)

Miriam is the oldest, so she is reading a lot of books that the other children aren't. She doesn't like to discuss books with me. These discussions go like this:

Me: "How did you like _______ ?"

Miriam: "I loved it!"

Me: "What did you love about it?"

Miriam: "Well, I liked that . . . [realization dawns that explaining takes awhile] . . . just read it yourself."

To better facilitate "book talk," I created a book club for girls age 7-10 and invited Miriam to join. So far we've met three times. Today was the first time I hosted and was able to listen to the actual book discussion. It was wonderful! The girls had so many funny things to say! I couldn't believe how much Miriam contributed. Yeah!

I think all the books picked for our monthly meetings are excellent (yes, I picked them) so I thought I would share them with you. Any of them would make great summer reading. These books, although geared toward the younger crowd, are good enough to be read by readers of all ages.

I'm not writing a synopsis of the books so I linked the titles to amazon so you can easily find out more if a book interests you. No, I do not get a kick-back from amazon.

The Wish-Giver by Bill Brittain is a classic tale of wish-making gone awry.

Letters from Rifka by Karen Hesse.

Girls Think of Everything by Catherine Thimmesh. This book has a series of short entries about different inventions created by women. Awesome.

Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink. Vivacious redhead--what's not to love? :)

Out of Darkness: The Story of Louis Braille by Russell Freedman. Freedman is the man when it comes to nonfiction for this age group. Loved this book.

The Horse-Tamer by Walter Farley. If the author sounds familiar it is because he wrote all the Black Stallion books. I like those, but this is my favorite Farley.

The Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli. This is a great medieval historical fiction about the plague. No head-banging monks. Sorry.

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg. This is the book the kids read for this month and listening to them talk about it was hilarious. They loved the idea of running away, bathing in a fountain, and sleeping in dusty beds. For our activity we carved Ivory soap with butter knives. Michelangelo we aren't, but we had fun.

George Washington, Spymaster: How the Americans Outspied the British and Won the Revolutionary War by Thomas B. Allen. Long title, very accessible read.

The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander. This is the first book of the Prydain Chronicles, which include The Black Cauldron--which all of you know because you read my blog. This is, of course, my favorite writer for middle readers. Alexander is the king of fantasy for youngsters. Love, love, love this book and this series.

Gentle Ben by Walt Morey. One of my favorite animal books--right up there with Popper's Penguins (although My Friend Flicka is still the best animal book ever. Ever. Read it, you'll see what I mean.) Apparently there are two books called Gentle Ben about a boy and a bear (I just learned this searching for a cover image). I haven't read the other one. When you search at your library, check the author.

And that is it. I realize I've posted a lot of book recommendations lately, but hey--everyone needs a good book to read!

PS A little heads up--there is going to be a giveaway for my units on another blog. I'll announce it here on the day of. Stay tuned!

A Celebration of Monsters

Another month, another book club meeting! This month we (me and my children, my homeschooling buddy, Julie, and her two children) read Beyond the Deep Woods by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell. If you have a boy between the ages of four-twelve, you should probably put this book into his hands. Unless he doesn't like gory monsters. *chuckling* Right, right--boys and monsters just go together. As a sidenote, my daughter likes the book too.

The book isn't much on plot or moral lessons. It is about a boy, Twig, who gets lost in the extremely dangerous Deep Woods and almost dies about every fifteen pages in a variety of gruesome ways. There's a carnivorous tree, goblins, trogs, etc. Before you get too worried, I did read this to my four year old. It's not that gruesome. Just enough to keep your kids on the edge of their seats. Very fun.

Since the Deep Woods is about monsters, our book club meeting/party was monster themed. We all made individual monster pizzas. I know Emeline's looks like it is wearing a hair bow (not scary) but it is not. Those are ears (very scary).

We also made monster cupcakes.

Then we ate all the monsters. Yum, yum.

To round out the monster theme, we let the children watch Labyrinth. The small people thought it was hilarious. As do I.

It was a lovely party and a fun read-aloud. The book, Beyond the Deep Woods is available from the Davis County Library System.