I love these 6 children's books, and you might too

I read a lot of kids' books. Our shelves are filled with classics, relics from my childhood. Sometimes I like a new book enough to buy it. Here are some recent favourites I added to our shelves.

Glenda Millard's The naming of Tishkin Silk is the first of seven books about a whimsical family that loves and creates and welcomes strangers and is full of tenderness and joy and loss and celebration. I received the whole Kingdom of Silk series as a gift and plan to keep reading and re-reading them and handing them on to my kids. Beautifully illustrated by Stephen Michael King. For ages 8 and up.

The dragonfly pool is my favourite of Eva Ibbotson's books. It starts in an eccentric English boarding school and ends up at a folk-dancing festival in Europe, where courageous Tally befriends prince Karil, defies Hitler and escapes war-torn Europe (as you do). Funny and fast-paced with a touch of stillness. For ages 8 and up.

Rebecca Stead's When you reach me is a perfectly crafted mystery inspired by Ursula Le Guin's A Wrinkle in Time. It opens with a fist to the stomach and a shattered friendship, continues with a series of hand-written notes that seem to come from the future, and ends with...well, you'll have to read to find out. This Newberry award winner is a page-turner that lives on your memory long after the final page. For ages 9 and up.

Rebecca Stead's First light is written with the same deft touch and sense of unfolding mystery as When you reach me. Instead of the gritty streets of Manhattan, this book is set in the haunting landscape of Greenland, where a scientist's son meets a girl from a hidden world and helps her rescue her people from a coming catastrophe. For ages 9 and up.

If I told you Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book was about a boy growing up with ghosts in a graveyard, mentored by a vampire, encountering ghouls, and escaping the man who murdered his parents, you might doubt its suitability for children. But don't be fooled. It's a warm and witty book about growing up, and the ending leaves you with that sense of mingled loss and satisfaction that all the best books do. For ages 9 (depending on your child's sensitivity) and up.

RJ Palacio's Wonder is the story of a boy with a severe facial deformity who goes to a public school for the first time, and the growing relationships between him and the other children. Real, heart-warming, thought-provoking: it's everything you want in a book. You'll love this even if you don't usually read kids' books. For ages 10 to adult.

What about you? Have you read any good children's chapter books recently? Tell us in the comments.

stop reading and start reflecting, or you'll rattle

If you're even the slightest bit into children's literature, here's a great read: E.L. Konigsburg's From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs Basil E. Frankweiler.

My friend Jenny introduced me to this book a few years ago. It won a Newberry Medal in 1968, so it's been around for a while. It's about two children who run away and live in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, as you do.

All that's by way of preamble. What I really want to share today is a wonderful quote from this book that my friend Andrew posted on his Facebook profile:

I think you should learn, of course, and some days you must learn a great deal. But you should also have days when you allow what is already in you to swell up inside of you until it touches everything. And you can feel it inside of you. If you never take time out to let that happen, then you accumulate facts, and they begin to rattle around inside of you. You can make noise with them, but never really feel anything with them. It's hollow.

Here's a similar statement from Challies:

There is something in my nature, I think, that wants to glance instead of linger. I get restless quickly, I look for a moment and then move on to other things. I have come to see that it is often better to linger, that certain things can only be seen and grasped by that long and dedicated study.

So true! So very true! Sometimes I have to stop reading a thousand blog posts and just slow down and...read. A book. Slowly.

Sometimes I have to stop reading and just slow down and...think. Pray. Ponder.

Or I start to rattle.

what I'm reading: Eva Ibbotson's Journey to the River Sea

I've just come across a great children's author: Eva Ibbotson. She's British, and writes for children of upper primary age, but she's also written some books for young adults (I haven't tried these yet). She was 85 when she died in October last year, so perhaps I should be using the past tense - but it's hard to do that with an author who's still new to you.

She's a skilful and sparkling writer. Her heroines and heroes are likeable and original, and display great qualities like loyalty and courage. Their stories begin in ordinary places like British boarding schools of the best story-book kind, but end up in far-off locations like Austria and the Amazon, where they escape from deliciously villainous villains, stage daring rescues, and explore mysterious places. Here are two of my favourite passages from Journey to the River Sea:

'Come along, it's time we opened my trunk.'

Miss Minton had been poor all her life. She had no trinkets, no personal possessions; her employers underpaid her when they paid her at all - but her trunk was an Aladdin's cave. There were travel books and fairy tales, novels and dictionaries and collections of poetry...

'How did you get them all?' Maia asked wonderingly. 'How did you manage?'

Miss Minton shrugged.

'If you want something enough you usually get it. But you have to take what goes with it,' - and she pointed to her shabby blouse and mended skirt.

I learned some wisdom from that quote. And this one:

'I have looked after some truly dreadful children in my time and it was easy not to get fond of them. After all, a governess is not a mother. But Maia...well, I'm afraid I grew to love her. And that meant I began to think what I would do if she was my child.'

'And you would let her-' began Mr Murray.

But Miss Minton stopped him. 'I would let her... have adventures. I would let her... choose her path. It would be hard... it was hard... but I would do it. Oh, not completely, of course. Some things have to go on. Cleaning one's teeth, arithmetic. But Maia fell in love with the Amazon. It happens. The place was for her - and the people. Of course there was some danger, but there is danger everywhere. Two years ago, in this school, there was an outbreak of typhus and three girls died. Children are knocked down and killed by horses every week, here in these streets.' She broke off, gathering her thoughts. 'When she was travelling and exploring... and finding her songs Maia wasn't just happy; she was... herself. I think something broke in Maia when her parents died, and out there it was healed. Perhaps I'm mad...but I think children must lead big lives... if it is in them to do so.'

From Journey to the River Sea pages 49, 294.

an interesting quote: why teenage girls are the perfect readers

Here's a brilliant description of why it is that teenage girls are the perfect readers, and why books like Twlight appeal to them:

The salient fact of an adolescent girl's existence is her need for a secret emotional life—one that she slips into during her sulks and silences, during her endless hours alone in her room, or even just when she's gazing out the classroom window while all of Modern European History, or the niceties of the passé composé, sluice past her. This means that she is a creature designed for reading in a way no boy or man, or even grown woman, could ever be so exactly designed, because she is a creature whose most elemental psychological needs—to be undisturbed while she works out the big questions of her life, to be hidden from view while still in plain sight, to enter profoundly into the emotional lives of others—are met precisely by the act of reading.

I observe my 13 year old daughter retreating to her room to read and re-read series like Anne of Green Gables, Harry Potter, and, most recently, the Goose Girl series, and I remember my own teen years, and what Caitlin Flanagan says makes perfect sense to me - especially because it is no longer possible to abandon myself to reading in quite the same way.


From Caitlin Flanagan's article What Girls Want in The Atlantic HT Karen (thanks, Karen!).

5 books that changed who I am (1) childhood and teens - getting to know God

Nic tagged me for this meme. Lovely! But how do I cut it down to 5? As I look back over life's seasons, it seems to me that God shaped me in at least one significant way during each season, and that he used one book (or group of books) to do it.

Here they are - plus the one book that's changed me all along the way. (I'm going to cheat a little and post these one at a time, starting with childhood.)

1. childhood and teens - getting to know God
I was brought up on CS Lewis, and read his books over and over - fantasy, mythology, autobiography, Christian living, theology - but most of all, as a child, The Chronicles of Narnia. CS Lewis taught me to love and live for God, delight in creation, long for heaven, lose myself in reading and writing - and so many other things! When an idea pops into my head, a CS Lewis quote is never far away.

Runner ups: JRR Tolkien Lord of the Rings, Patricia St John Treasures of the Snow (and everything else she wrote), plus books by Isobel Kuhn, Peter Marshall, Sallie Lee Bell, and others. Writing this is reminding me to encourage my kids to read more Christian books...

What were the books that changed you as a child or teenager? Tell us here.

Harold and the Purple Crayon

One of our favourite children's books is Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson (it's part of a whole series of books, which we haven't read, and it's been turned into a DVD series, which we love).

In this book the intrepid Harold, dressed in a sleepsuit and armed only with a purple crayon, draws his own imaginary world across the blank white pages of the book in dark purple lines. As he draws objects they come to life and he interacts with them, accompanied by the moon as it follows him across the pages of the book.

He draws an apple tree and a scary dragon to guard it, and some pie and a friendly moose and porcupine to share it. He accidentally draws an ocean, falls in and draws a boat to rescue himself. He draws and falls from a mountain and draws a hot-aid balloon to escape in.

Tired out, he longs for his own room and draws houses and windows until he realises that he knows where his own window is: around the moon. He draws a window around the moon, draws his bed, draws up the covers, and falls asleep.

It's a wondrous and simple story which I love because of the way it explores a child's imagination as expressed through their drawing. Thomas (7) said to me today,

I would draw anything I wanted if I had a purple crayon. I would draw lollies and stuff. It would be very handy and it would also make life a lot funner if I had a magic purple crayon.

I'd have to agree.

the princess follows her thread

Have you read George MacDonald's The Princess and the Goblin? It was one of my favourite books as a child - and a great one to read with your kids, not least for the hidden messages about trust and obedience.

In the following passage, the princess follows a magic thread that her "great-great-grandmother" has said will always lead to her and safety, but which takes the princess into the dark passages at the heart of a mountain.

But presently she came to a huge heap of stones, piled in a slope against the wall of the cavern. On these she climbed, and soon recovered the level of the thread only however to find, the next moment, that it vanished through the heap of stones, and left her standing on it, with her face to the solid rock. For one terrible moment she felt as if her grandmother had forsaken her. ... She threw herself upon the heap, and began to cry. ... At length the thought struck her that at least she could follow the thread backwards, and thus get out of the mountain, and home. She rose at once, and found the thread. But the instant she tried to feel it backwards, it vanished from her touch. Forwards, it led her hand up to the heap of stones - backwards it seemed nowhere. ... She burst into a wailing cry, and again threw herself down on the stones.

In his talk Praying our Fears Tim Keller uses the princess's story as an illustration of obedience in the face of fear. When the princess follows her grandmother's thread, it leads her into dark places and she's tempted to go back; but when she tries to go back, the thread disappears.

When God calls us to obey, there are only 2 possible responses: obedience, which is hard; and disobedience, which is impossible. Obedience may seem to take us into danger, but backwards lies disaster: and so we face our fear and go forward.

That was just to whet your appetite! Tomorrow I'd like to follow up on last week's post and share what I learned from Tim Keller's talk on fear.

top 10 - or is that 20? - Little Golden Books

I grew up with Little Golden Books. I had a pile of golden-edged books dog-eared with love, and a wonderful collection of them called "Storyland" which fell apart through over-use. Now my son Andrew (2) adores them.

Here's what you've all been waiting for: the results of the in all honesty Little Golden Books quiz, and my top 10 Little Golden Books of all time!

I've added a few more to make it a top 20. Well, I couldn't leave any out, could I?

1. I Can Fly by Ruth Krauss. A child's imagination comes to life as she hoots like an owl, swims like a fish, and gubbles like a mubble in a pubble (as you do).

2. The Little Red Caboose by Marian Potter. Always overlooked, the little red caboose saves the train, and learns it's just as good to be a caboose as a coal truck or even an engine.
3. The Colour Kittens by Margaret Wise Brown. The story of two colour-loving kittens, their search for green, and how they create every colour in the world.
4. The Taxi That Hurried by Lucy Sprague Mitchell. My mum read this as a child. A hurrying, scurrying book - "We're terribly late and the train won't wait" - with pictures of how things used to be.
5. The Friendly Book by Margaret Wise Brown. I love the way the rhymes in this book switch between fun - "Fat dogs / Doggy dogs" - and magical - "A dog that is barking over the hill / A dog that is dreaming very still".

6. Scuffy the Tugboat by Gertrude Crampton. In which an adventurous toy tugboat wants to swim in a river ("I was meant for bigger things!") but discovers that the bathtub is the best place after all.

7. Just for Fun by Patricia Scarry. I discovered this on my mother-in-law's shelves. It reminds kids of all the things they can do with paper bags, boxes, chairs and other household things - "When pots and pans are handy, a big parade is dandy."

8. Little Peewee by JP Miller. A tiny circus dog grows and grows and grows until he has to leave the circus because he's a normal sized dog, until he grows and grows and grows until he's a giant circus dog with a place in the circus after all.

9. Tootle by Gertrude Crampton. Who wouldn't love this story of a free-spirited engine who disobeys the most important rule - "You Must Not Leave the Rails No Matter What" - to race with horses and smell the daisies?

10. The Sailor Dog by Margaret Wise Brown. Cars, trains and submarines won't do for this dog: he was born for the sea. "And here he is where he wants to be, a sailor sailing the deep green sea."

11. The Poky Little Puppy by Janette Sebring Lowrey. A poky little puppy learns that puppies really shouldn't dig under fences and go for walks in the wide, wide world.

12. The Golden Sleepy Book by Margaret Wise Brown. A collection of sleepy stories and poems like "The whispering rabbit", about the yawning bunny who swallows a bee, and "The dreaming bunny", where Bunny No Good dreams the day away in a cabbage.

13. The Monster at the End of this Book by Jon Stone. A LOT of fun, the pictures tell the tale as Grover plunges through wooden barriers, brick walls and other obstacles to discover the monster at the end of the book. Do you dare to turn the next page?

14. The Saggy Baggy Elephant by Kathryn Jackson. A little elephant wanders through the jungle calling himself "Sooki" because he has no idea what he is, and escapes tigers, lions and teasing parrots to discover he's part of a great, big, wonderful family of elephants.
15. Ukelele and her New Doll by Clara Louise Grant. This was in my collection, but I've only just discovered how beautiful it is thanks to Nicole G. The story of an island girl who's given a new china doll by a sailor, but who loves her old wooden doll best.

16. Mister Dog: The Dog Who Belonged to Himself by Margaret Wise Brown. Crispin's Crispian, so called because "he belongs to himself", discovers a boy who also belongs to himself, and they decide to belong to each other.

17. Animal Friends by Jane Werner. A kitten, rabbit, dog, bird, squirrel and chick discover that they weren't made to live together - but they find some homes just right for them.

18. The Marvellous Merry-Go-Round by Jane Werner. A boy grows up to create a marvellous merry-go-round with real animals on it, painted to look like wooden ones. Who knows the animals are really alive? Only the children who ride on them.
19. The Train to Timbuctoo by Margaret Wise Brown. A rollicking tale about a big engine with a big whistle that goes whooooooooooooooooooooooooo and a little engine with a little whistle that goes wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee and how they make their way clackety clack - clickety click from Kalamazoo to Timbuctoo.
20. Seven Little Postmen by Margaret Wise Brown. A boy posts a letter promising a visit to his grandma and it makes its way via aeroplanes and trains and mail vans and post offices too small to be called post offices to his lonely Grandma's house.
I could keep going, but that's enough nostalgia for one day!

Which Little Golden Books were your favourites?

Little Golden Books quiz clues

I can see that not many of you had a misspent youth reading Little Golden Books like me! I'll have to give you some clues for last week's quiz about my 10 favourite Little Golden Books. I'll give you titles for the ones you guessed, and pictures and clues to help you guess the rest. See if you can work them out.

1. Gubble gubble gubble
I'm a mubble in a pubble

Clue: a little girl imagines. That's her, flying like a bird!

2. First came the big black engine, puffing and chuffing. Then came the box cars, then the oil cars, then the coal cars, then the flat cars.

Bec's right - this is The Little Red Caboose.

3. Green as cats' eyes
Green as grass
By streams of water
Green as glass.

Meredith guessed this correctly as The Colour Kittens

4. "We're terribly late and the train won't wait." ...
"We're a speedy pair. We can get you there."

Clue: that's the main character in yellow on the right.

5. The wind that blows away the thistle
Light as the little birds whistle and sing
And the little boy whistling in the spring

Clue: " I like stars. Bright stars. Quiet stars. Lighting up at night stars."

6. "I was meant for bigger things."

This was guessed correctly as Scuffy the Tugboat - "This is the life for me!".

7. If I write a letter
and mail it
to someone I love,
someone I love
may write a letter to me.

Clue: what can you do with things around the house? You'll be doing well to get this one - I discovered it in my mother-in-law's house, but I'd never seen it before.

8. Then he opened the box and out came the teeniest-weeniest teeny teeny teeny weeny weeny weeny little dog in all the world.

Clue: a story about a circus. If you get this, well done, it's an obscure one!

9. His wheels began to say over and over again, "Do you like butter? Do you?"

Clue: "Stay On The Rails No Matter What!"

10. And here he is where he wants to be -
A sailor sailing the deep green Sea.

Clue: the story of a sea-going dog.

Put your guesses in the comments. And if you still can't get them, Mum will have to join the guessing game after all!! Answers soon.

giant slayers and storm stillers

I've said it before and I'll say it again, but The Jesus Storybook Bible really is a fantastic Bible for kids. The writing is superb, the pictures wonderful, and every story points kids towards Jesus, who fulfills every bit of God's grand plan of salvation.

I read the story of David and Goliath to 5 year old Thomas last night, and we were both captivated.

We held our combined breaths as we read "His beady, greedy eyes glowered at them hungrily from under his horrible helmet ... And he laughed his terrible laugh." We trembled at the picture of Goliath towering toothily over little David, then lying like a fallen mountain on the ground.

By the end of the story, Thomas had a new childhood hero: David, who was strong and courageous because he trusted in God.

We closed the book, and his eyes fell on the picture on the cover of Jesus asleep in a boat during a storm. "What's happening in that picture, Mummy?", he asked me. "That's the story where Jesus was sleeping in the boat, and there was a terrible storm. Do you remember?"

Thomas responded, "Oh, that's right. And then Jesus stood up and said something REALLY WEIRD!"

Okay, so maybe I need to go and read that story with him again. But it's good to see Thomas becoming captivated by the gripping, wonderful, Jesus-glorifying stories of the Bible.

Alfie top 5

A few of us were having a bit of a guessing game in the comments here about which of the Alfie and Annie Rose books by Shirley Hughes are in my top 5. It turns out that one of my top 5 Alfie books, Dogger, isn't actually an Alfie book at all, but I had no trouble coming up with 5 others. I could keep going - top 10, top 15, top 20 (are there that many Alfie books?) - but these are the 5 which create storytime magic for me. Here they are:

Alfie Gets in First
This was the first Alfie book Shirley Hughes wrote. Alfie is horrified to find himself locked in the house with his mum and sister outside. All the passersby try to rescue him, but he eventually (and proudly) rescues himself. It's a beautifully crafted book: on many of the pages, the left hand picture shows what's happening outside the house, while the right hand picture shows what's happening inside the house. A lively story with a subtle message about one preschooler's independence and courage.

A Journey to the North Pole from Alfie Weather
How I love stories (as I've said before) which celebrate a child's imagination! Here's another. The story and pictures have two layers: what's happening in real life, and what's happening in Alfie and Annie Rose's imagination. Shut in during a wet and cold day, they bravely explore Grandma's house until they reach the North Pole in the freezing attic. This is the first story in Alfie Weather, the most beautifully produced of all the Alfie books.

Winter Stars from Alfie Weather
This is from the same Alfie collection. It's a story, as you might guess, about stars: stars scattered across the walls and ceiling from the night light, star-shaped cookie cutters in Grandma's kitchen, stars crackling in the ice underfoot during a night time stroll, and stars sprayed across the sky viewed from the safety of Daddy's arms. The simplest of stories, it's absolutely arresting visually.

Bonting from The Big Alfie Out of Doors Storybook
I've already told you why I love this one!

Rhymes for Annie Rose
These poems are a glorious celebration of ordinary life: building cubbies, splashing through puddles, washing clothes, meeting cows, learning to count. Some, like The Knobbly Tree, have entered our family folklore, quoted every time we see a hollow tree. Others, like Footprints and One Winter Evening, send shivers down my spine every time I read them. These poems are simple enough to read to a 2 year old, but adults will also enjoy reading them over and over again.

book quiz revisited

You've all been very clever and guessed all the children's books in this quiz except number 4 - "He heard Fillyjonk's shrill little voice in the garden; she had found the Hemulen."

Can anyone guess which book the sentence is from? Here's a clue: it's something to do with this picture, the country Finland, and my birth month.

If you still can't get it, I obviously need to introduce you all to a wonderful series of children's books!

children's books quiz: book meme

Here's a quiz for all you fellow book lovers, especially if you love children's books. I thought it was time for Nicole's book meme, given the recent bookish nature of this blog. I've made it easier by taking all the clues from this list of my favourite children's books.

Here's the rules:
- Take 10 books, and transcribe the 5th sentence from page 56.
- Make sure that at least 5 books are fiction, provide 5 hints, and pass the meme on to 6 other bloggers.

Here are the sentences. See if you can guess which books they come from. If you've read the books in question, it should be very easy!

1. From the very beginning Madame took an interest in Posy.

2. The goblins began to sing, or croak, keeping time with the flap of their flat feet on the stone, and shaking their prisoners as well.

3. "She catches flies and sucks their blood."

4. He heard Fillyjonk's shrill little voice in the garden; she had found the Hemulen.

5. For days Pa hauled logs.

6. Copses, dells, quarries and all hidden places, which had been mysterious mines for exploration in leafy summer, now exposed themselves and their secrets pathetically, and seemed to ask him to overlook their shabby poverty for a while, till they could riot in rich masquerade as before, and trick and entice him with the old deceoptions.

7. She said it stiffly because she was not used to thanking people or noticing that they did things for her.

8. Peter whistled.

9. The big dyeing job was done twice a year at the hairdresser's, but every month or so in between, Mrs Wormwood used to freshen it up by giving it a rinse in the washbasin with something called PLATINUM BLONDE HAIR-DYE EXTRA STRONG.

10. "That means that we can't possibly tell you because you're a native ... a nice native, of course."

I've already given you the only hint you'll need: all the books are children's books from this list. I've cheated a bit: when the 5th sentence was impossibly difficult or completely obvious, I'll admit to choosing sentence no. 4 or no. 7. If you need help - which I doubt! - I'll give you another clue.

Put your guesses in the comments, and happy guessing!

I'm not going to tag anyone, but if any other bloggers want to have a go - Honoria or Sandra, or Belinda, or anyone else I've fogotten - tell me and I'll see if I can solve yours!

my favourite children's books (1) chapter books

Here's a list of my all time favourite chapter books for children and teenagers, as promised. With very few exceptions (when one of my kids, a good friend or her child adores them) these are the kids' books I love the most.

Most of them are books I enjoyed as a child, some I discovered as a young adult, and others I found as I searched for books to read to my kids. I'm a great fan of children's and teenage fiction, so I add more to my list every year!

There are many, many others I could have included, including lots I'll be encouraging my kids to read as they get older (Treasure Island, Tom Sawyer, Obernewtyn etc.) but this is a personal list, and I've only included my favourites.

Ages are only approximate, as every child and parent is different. There are a few adult books in the teenage section which I enjoyed at that age, and some collections of stories and 1 or 2 books of poetry have snuck onto the list.

Please add your own favourite children's books to the comments. I'd especially like to hear about well written, well produced, theologically astute Christian books for kids - but I'm also interested in all kinds of other books, as you can see! I hope you enjoy browsing the list, and perhaps choosing some to read yourself, or to your child.

young children
Christian
Paul White Jungle Doctor Fables
other
Enid Blyton Faraway Tree series, Wishing Chair series, Naughtiest Girl in the School series (I could keep going)
Joyce Lankester Brisley Milly-Molly-Mandy
Dorothy Edwards My Naughty Little Sister
Ruth Park The Adventures of the Muddle-Headed Wombat
Leslie Rees The Big Book of Digit Dick
James Herriot James Herriot's Treasury for Children
Beatrix Potter The Complete Tales of Beatrix Potter
Rev. W. Audrey Thomas the Tank Engine
A.A. Milne Winnie the Pooh (although I like his poems better - When We Were Very Young and Now We are Six)

early to late primary
Christian
CS Lewis The Chronicles of Narnia
Patricia M St John Treasures of the Snow, The Tanglewoods Secret, Rainbow Garden (all of her other books too!)
Irene Howat Ten Boys who Changed the World / Made History series and Ten Girls who Didn't Give In / Made a Difference series (Christian biography for kids)
Paul White Jungle Doctor series
John Bunyan Pilgrim's Progress
other
Laura Ingalls Wilder Little House series
Arthur Ransome Swallows and Amazons series
Elizabeth Goudge The Little White Horse
Elizabeth Enright's Melendy quartet: The Saturdays, The Four-Story Mistake, Then There Were Five, Spiderweb for Two
Noel Streatfeild Ballet Shoes, White Boots, Gemma series (I love everything she writes)
Fraces Hodgson Burnett The Secret Garden, A Little Princess, Little Lord Fauntleroy
E Nesbit The Railway Children, The Story of the Treasure Seekers, Five Children and It trilogy
Astrid Lindgren The Bullerby Children series
Johanna Spyri Heidi series
Robert C O'Brien Mrs Frisby and the Rats of Nimb
Roald Dahl Danny the Champion of the World, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Matilda (I love most of his books)
Kenneth Grahame The Wind in the Willows
E.B. White Charlotte's Web
Tove Jansson Finn Family Moomintroll series
Dodie Smith 101 Dalmations
Meindert Dejong The Wheel on the School
Mary Norton The Borrowers series
S.A. Wakefield Bottersnikes and Gumbles
Susan Coolidge What Katy Did series
Elyne Mitchell The Silver Brumby series
George MacDonald "A Little Princess" in The Light Princess and Other Stories, The Princess and the Goblin
Susan Adler Samantha, Valerie Tripp et al Josefina, Janet Beeler Shaw Kirsten, Connie Rose Porter et al Addy, and the rest of the American Girl series
Emily Rodda Fairy Realm series (excellent Australian author)
Enid Blyton Famous Five series, Malory Towers series, St. Claire's series
Beverley Cleary Ramona the Pest series, Ralph Mouse series (I've enjoyed all her books)
Eleanor Estes The Moffats series
Glenda Millard The Naming of Tishkin Silk, Layla Queen of Hearts
Hugh Lofting Dr. Doolittle series
Elisabeth Beresford The Wombles series
Lewis Carroll Alice in Wonderland (I'm not such a fan, but my 5 year old loves it)
May Gibbs Snugglepot and Cuddlepie
Hans Christian Anderson The Complete Fairy Tales
Jenny Nimmo Dog Star (a good author to look out for)
Alexander McCall Smith Akimbo books
Kate Dicamillo The Tale of Despereaux

older primary to early high
Christian
Marie Barham Blossom of the Crag
Sallie Lee Bell Until the Day Break
other
JRR Tolkien The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings trilogy
Madeleine L'Engle A Wrinkle in Time
Richard Adam Watership Down
Paul Gallico Jennie, Thomasina (I love all his books)
Louisa May Alcott Little Women series
Robert O'Brien The Silver Crown
Tamora Pierce Protector of the Small quartet, Circle of Magic quartet and The Circle Opens quartet
James Herriot All Creatures Great and Small series
Gerald Durrell My Family and Other Animals trilogy, Encounters with Animals (and all his books)
Mary Mapes Dodge Hans Brinker, or The Silver Skates
Norton Juster The Phantom Tollbooth
L.M. Montgomery Anne of Green Gables series
Katherine Paterson Bridge to Terebithia
Alison Uttley A Traveller in Time
William Horwood Duncton Wood
Jean Craighead George Julie of the Wolves Trilogy, My Side of the Mountain Trilogy
Emily Rodda Rowan of Rin series
J.K. Rowling Harry Potter series
Colin Thiele Blue Fin

teenage
Christian
CS Lewis The Space Trilogy, Till We Have Faces
Isobel Kuhn By Searching
Corrie Ten Boon The Hiding Place
other
E.L. Konigsberg From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (I enjoyed all her books)
Dodie Smith I Capture the Castle
Robert O'Brien Z for Zachariah
John Marsden So Much to Tell You, Letters from the Inside, Tomorrow series (some sexual content)
Todd Strasser The Wave
Jack London The Call of the Wild
Margaret Balderson When Jays Fly to Barbmo

mid to late teen
Anne Frank The Diary of Anne Frank
Ursula Le Guin The Earthsea Quartet
John Wyndham The Crysalids, The Day of the Triffids and all the rest
Chaim Potok The Chosen, My Name is Asher Lev
Miss Read Village School series
Mary Renault The Bull from the Sea
Mary Stewart Merlin Trilogy
H.G.Wells The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds
John Knowles A Separate Peace
Alan Paton Cry, the Beloved Country
Margaret Craven I Heard the Owl Call My Name
Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes
Shakespeare Complete Works
Robert Frost The Poetry of Robert Frost
Jane Austen Pride and Prejudice and the rest!
Charlotte Bronte Jane Eyre

image is from emilywjones at Flickr.com

encouraging children to read good books

My older 2 children love easily digested books. Lizzy (10) can get through 3 Rainbow Magic books a night. Benny (8) spends hours browsing through his Pokemon Diamond and Pearl Pokedex. Left to themselves, they wouldn't do much serious reading.

For a long time, I've comforted myself with the thought that at least they're reading. I exclaim perkily (and proudly) to the librarian as I borrow yet another enormous pile of books, "Oh, yes, my daughter will read all those!" I'm glad Ben enjoys filling his head with facts, even if they are often limited to an alternate universe filled with bizarre, small creatures.

But I want my children to read good books. And there are many old favourites I'd love to share with them! I read to them fairly regularly: Lizzy and I are about to finish Frances Hodgson Burnett's A Little Princess, and Ben and I are up to the second book in Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons series. But I'd also like them to learn the discipline of reading more challenging books for themselves.

It occurred to me recently that there's a very simple solution. I've set them a nightly reading task. When they read their Bibles, which they do every night after dinner, they're now expected to read a chapter of a book as well. I'm sure this approach isn't for everyone, but it's working really well for us at the moment. They're enjoying it - they just needed that little bit of extra prodding!

Lizzy (10) is half way through CS Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia. Benny (8) has started Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books. When they've finished, I'll encourage them to choose another good chapter book from our shelves or the library. I'd like to share my list of favourite books for independent readers with you soon.

If you have children who are independent readers, I'm interested to hear how you encourage them to read. When and how do they read? When and how do you read to them? How do you (or they!) choose which books they'll read?

image is by Novelist from flickr