Books I Read in December (and Kids Winter Break Favorites)

Yep, it's January 18th and I'm just getting around to writing up December reviews! I thought I'd jazz it up a bit with what the kids enjoyed reading over the holiday break, as it's been awhile since I touched upon what they've been reading. 

In addition to alllll the National Geographic Kids Chapters books and Magic Tree House adventures, my seven year old has now been introduced to Neil Gaiman and she thought Fortunately, the Milk was ridiculously silly and fun, just like her brother did when he read it a few years ago. And we decided that this Christmas was the perfect time to introduce her to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: a rousing success, not surprisingly. And, yes, that is my copy of the book from my well preserved childhood Narnia set!

I read The Mysterious Benedict Society along with my ten year old and he really enjoyed it. It starts out fantastic, with great imagination and humor with these misfit kids all coming together to be tested into a secret sleuthing society. The second half dragged a bit for me, but I'm sure it would enthrall the middle grade reader in your house! He's also been enjoying alllll the James Patterson silliness: all the I Funny and Middle School books.

City of Thieves by David Benioff
This seemed like a good winter read, and it was, if a smidge harrowing! I was curious about Benioff's story telling, as a fan of HBO's Game of Thrones, which he co-created.  A young Russian is thrown together with an army deserter during the Nazi seige of Leningrad, supposedly based on a story told by his grandfather, had a similarly visceral feel to Thrones - scenes that were downright horrible, now burned in my brain. The pair's questionable mission (to obtain a dozen eggs for a Soviet colonel who wants them for his daughter's wedding cake) had shades of Saving Private Ryan. It was a sad and sincere read that made really want to know how much of it was embellishment, and how much was true the story of Benioff's grandfather.

A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab
I finally started the Shades of Magic series, and it's one I think I will continue! It's been awhile since I read a fantasy novel that really grabbed me. The premise of the novels feels original and rife with possibilities: our protagonist, Kell, is only one of two surviving 'Antari' that can travel between the Londons (yes, plural) that exist in four separate universes. The world building is vivid and immersive,  while the plot moves quickly and had me turning the pages. I do love the characters, but would love to get more backstory. I felt like I got a good handle on their motivations, but only snippets of their past when I really wanted MORE. Lila is awesome and looks to be on the cover of book two, so I have hope.

The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman
Practical Magic is one of those novels in which I barely remember the plot, but do remember loving it unconditionally some twenty years ago. Needless to say, I had high hopes, especially with the added hype over this 'prequel.' I'd say that in the first three quarters of the book, I was feeling as if my expectations were not being met. It's a slow burn, to say the least. But, the writing is lovely and creates an equally lovely, albeit somber, atmosphere in which I enjoyed lingering. "Unable are the loved to die, for love is immortality." My heart swelled at the conclusion and made the journey worthwhile.

Winter Solstice by Elin Hilderbrand
I mean... What more can I say about this series that I haven't said already? Words that are on repeat for my reviews of Winter Street, Winter Stroll, Winter Storms and now Solstice: humor, heart, immersive Nantucket, lovable characters, fun, and perfect light fare. It was fun to learn the origins of the Quinn family books from Hilderbrand's author note, and I look forward to a new winter series with a new family set in the Virgin Islands!

The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin
You can read my review here!

Summer Reading 2017 (Plus the Kids Favorite Books of the Summer)

Summer reading is not something I have ever put on the bucket list, because it is just implied that the kids are going to participate in ALL the summer book fun. The program through our library system is a highlight, as my kids are always chomping at the bit to see what the yearly prize will be (in addition to Storm tickets which we will hopefully carve out time for one of these days). This year they got awesome backpacks, which worked out great for containing all of their car entertainment on our annual summer road trip!

We also participated in the Scholastic Summer Road Trip event at our local independent bookstore.

My son finally got to meet Kazu Kibuishi, local author of the Amulet graphic novels (which I gush about here). 

There were prize wheels and activities to take home, as well as a Captain Underpants sighting.

Later in the summer daughter FINALLY got to attend an author event. She'd been jealous that her brother not only got his Amulet books signed, but his Diary of a Wimpy Kid's as well. Meeting Asia Citro (also a local!) who wrote the adorable science/magical creature Zoey and Sassafras series, as well as 150+ Screen-Free Activities for Kids, was a highlight of the summer. 

There was a super cool activity where she was tasked with 'freeing a dragon' from ice!

They were given salt, a cup of water and a dropper to experiment with the fastest way to unlock the dragon from it's icy prison. 

As for the books that dominated the piles next to their beds this summer, it was ALL about books in a series for BOTH of them:

My son (10) burned through James Patterson's House of Robotsseries. Highly recommend!

He also swears by these Dragonbreath books.

And the John Scieszka Frank Einstein series.

In addition to the Zoey and Sassafras books, my daughter (7) read every Stick Dog (and Stick Cat) book she could get her hands on this summer.

She is also loving Owl Diaries, which are right in line with her Sophie Mouse and Critter Club sensibilities  - i.e. animal loving.

Even though she normally shuns the princess stuff (I have no idea how I dodged that bullet), I convinced her to try The Princess in Black because I heard good things - and now she's gobbling them up.

Now it's time for back to school reading and I can't wait to see what they bring home from the school library... As always, I love to hear recommendations for early middle grade readers!

Should Reading to My Kids Count Towards Tracking on Goodreads?

Recently, Book Riot had a post on whether to count audio books when tracking your reading. It seems crazy to me NOT to count them! To your brain, they are not 'cheating' and you are spending almost similar amount of time consuming a story. The same goes for re-reads in my opinion: you are taking that precious time to engage with the written word, that for sure counts as reading. 

I sometimes feel not quite guilty, but some small hesitation when I add children's books to my Goodreads 'read' pile. For example, graphic novels - I never counted re-reading A Wrinkle in Time in graphic novel form. And when I read The Amulet Series after my son finished them, I only counted it as one book in my tracking. Should I go back and add six more books read?? Raina Telgemeier writes the most amazingly heartfelt stories with her pictures and words: Smile and Ghosts are must reads. Since they only took me the time it would take to watch a movie, I hesitated adding them to my list. Yet I read We Should All Be Feminists in the same amount of time! It all seems to even out to the length of an average book at the end of the year (a respectable 341 pages per book last year) so I count my monthly Newberry book, occasional middle grade read or graphic novel. It evens out with all that time I spent reading The Queen of the Night, right?

In thinking about time spent reading, it got me thinking about ALL THE TIME spent reading to my kids. Does that count for anything? I mean, aside from the obvious benefits of bonding and building my kids vocabulary, empathy, education and all. I'm certainly not talking about counting Goodnight, Moon or the millionth reading of Madeline. However, my kids are at an age where I am reading books to them that have some heft. I am a huge advocate of reading to your kids until they go to college, if you can swing it (also corroborated by Connecting Boys with Books) and I am still going strong with my seven and ten year old. This year I've read every Roald Dahl book you can think of with the younger, and just finished The Goblet of Fire (when Rowling starts to get particularly loquacious) with the older. We read a new Harry Potter with him every summer, and oftentimes we're reading for more than a half an hour a night. The caveat: my husband and I take turns and do a quick catch up on what happened with each other between readings. When we read Flora and Ulysses with my ten year old, I wanted to add it to my Newberry list of books read. Yet I had that 'guilt' feeling of counting it since I didn't sit and read it the whole way through. At least it's one I easily sat down and read on my own in an evening or two. But half of Harry Potter? Does it count for anything? I'm genuinely curious if parents count any of these books. Perhaps this means I SHOULD go back and add those other Amulets...

Ultimately, it's about what my goals are - if I want to conquer a set number of pages per year, I suppose I could figure out a way to work that into my Goodreads challenge. But that doesn't seem like a goal I want to pursue. More than anything, I like to look at the breakdown of the books I read: how many new releases vs backlist, fiction vs nonfiction, or how many books written by women or POC. My yearly goal is somewhat arbitrary, in that I usually just aim for more books than the year prior. So, I'll probably just keep on with not counting the books I read to my kids, unless I take the time to read the other half or whole on my own, and continue to see it as one of my favorite things to do together. A practice that I hope doesn't end anytime soon.

Fun Activities for Early Readers (Featuring Favorite Book Characters)

Over Spring Break, I kept the kids plenty busy with fun outings almost every day. But, we still had our fair share of downtime at home. My daughter, who is in first grade, is currently OBSESSED with the Critter Club series. A few weeks ago, I did some research on the books to see when we'd eventually run out: book 17 comes out next month, so I think we're good for awhile. And while I was clicking around Simon and Schuster's website for the series, I found printable activities! I saved them up for Spring Break and my girl was BESIDE HERSELF.

Her own clue journal! As well as a form to play her own game of MASH. Oh my gosh, I can't believe this is still a thing, and it's awesome. Now that she's got the hang of it, we play all the time. We've wasted time waiting for big brother to get his hair cut, or waiting for our dinner after Cirque du Soleil playing MASH. The 'name of the person you will marry' has been substituted with 'the name of your pet' in accordance with the theme of Critter Club.

I then went down the rabbit hole of all her favorite book series and their websites, and most have fun printable activities! Some even have educational teacher guides (which would be great for parents, too) and event kits for parties! Perhaps a book club meeting for 7 year olds is in order... So, if your first grader also loves Heidi Hecklebeck, Ivy and Bean or Judy Moody - click on the links and print away. We only got through Critter Club stuff over break, but I'm saving up some of these others for the inevitable rainy day this summer. 

Not wanting my fourth grader to be left out, I did some sleuthing on some of his favorite series and, lo, the Diary of a Wimpy Kid contingent did not disappoint. It happens to be the 10th anniversary of the series and there's a bunch of fun stuff on the Wimpy Kid website. He's growing out of some of these things, but had fun testing his book knowledge, drawing his own Greg and book cover. 

I could kick myself for not discovering these activity packs back when he was in first grade and reading Stink Moody, Captain Underpants and Big Nate. Alas, I thought it best to share this information in the event that someone else hadn't figured this out yet either, and would find it as awesome as I did! Big thanks to Simon and Schuster, Chronicle Books, Scholastic, Harper Collins, Candlewick Press and Amulet Books for enriching our kids reading lives.

Middle Grade Graphic Novels My Kid is Loving Lately

It's no surprise to anyone that reads my posts that my nine year old loves graphic novels. The other day, I found myself domineering a friend's Facebook post about her daughter's discovery of Raina Telgemeier's book Smile. I began GUSHING over it and started giving other recommendations. I find myself doing this with other parents ALL THE TIME. So, rather than cornering you during a casual conversation that turns to kids books, taking over your Facebook post, or running up a Tweetstorm, these are some recommendations I love to share.

As for the reading level, my kid is your average fourth grade reader. He's enthusiastic about reading, and not at all categorized as a 'reluctant' reader.  Books litter the floor around his bed as he drifts off to sleep at night. But he's in this transitional space where he certainly has the comprehension level to tackle more advanced middle grade like Harry Potter, but the small font filling ALL THOSE PAGES, with nary an image to break things up, intimidates him (and many readers his age, from what I gather). So we read these types of books together - Harry Potter, The Land of Stories, A Wrinkle in Time, The Chronicles of Narnia, etc. Inevitably, we'll get to an exciting point in the book and he'll finish it on his own, sometimes late into the night. To be honest, I like having the excuse to read to him - and I think he does, too. As I discovered when I read Connecting Boys with Books, I should keep up this practice for as long as possible. It's an invaluable way of building vocabulary, and also spending that one on one time with your kids. 

On his own, my son is enjoying a nice little middle ground of books that are still challenging and age-appropriate. Somewhere beyond The Magic Treehouse and Stink/Judy Moody, but not quite ready for an entirely solo read of The Warriors or Percy Jackson. Graphic novels are a great segue, and if they whet you kid's appetite to read, all the better! Here's the evidence in support of letting them READ WHAT THEY WANT. Yes, some of his choices make me roll my eyes (I'd rather he spend less time on Calvin and Hobbes anthologies). However, it all fosters a love of reading. 

Now, some of these might not technically fall under 'graphic novel' at the library: they are just heavy on the cartoons like Diary of a Wimpy Kid (another favorite). Hopefully there is something new in the list that the young reader in your life will love - and, as always, give me your recommendations!

My kiddo picked up Dream Jumper: Nightmare Escape at the school book fair and it has a pretty cool premise, with the protagonist having the ability to enter the dreams of his friends and save them from the dream monster.

We've read Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book together, but, Fortunately, the Milk is one he read on his own and LOVED. It's crazy silly Gaiman at his finest.

Many kids love the Star Wars: Jedi Academy series as much as my kiddo, and he just finished the latest book in the series. I'd recommend the Strange Case of Origami Yoda  as a good step up. It's more challenging material that still has ties to everyone's beloved Star Wars. Plus, each book has fun origami projects!

The Creature from My Closet Series is a fun recent discovery wherein a hybrid creature, emerges from the books in protagonist Rob's closet that he must take care of - the first being a Wonka Frankenstein creature, Potter-Wookie being a favorite.

Lunch Lady series is a little on the easy reading side, but my kid gobbled up these stories of a renegade Lunch Lady engaging with cyborgs, bake sale bandits and mathletes, to name a few.

The Misadventures of Max Crumbly is the Dork Diaries answer for boys. Not that I haven't brought up the latter to my boy for reading, but he demurred. Just as he did for the graphic novels of The The Baby-Sitters Club, even though he loves Raina Telgemeier's memoirs and her latest novel Ghosts. Max went over quite well, and it looks as if there will be more in the works. 

Timmy Failure with his domestic polar bear and failure of a detective agency is laugh out loud funny.

My son blew through Secret Coders (and of course wants to code now) after he chose this as one of his books for the Global Reading Challenge.

It's rather serendipitous I pushed this post back to this week, as Modern Mrs. Darcy is devoting a whole week to kid lit with #ReadingForALifetime Twitter chats, an Instagram challenge and DAILY What Should I Read Next podcasts. I highly recommend checking it out if you have young readers in your life, or are a 'young at heart' reader!