Alrighty!
Today I am goofing off and stepping away from the
mommy blog.
No pictures of my kids
like this one…
And definitely
no silly stories like how Rhett(4) was warned when we bought bright orange shorts that in general orange is not a neutral and he wouldn’t be able to wear it with other bright colors like, for instance, red. ย Oh, and when we bought him two new pairs of crocs it was my intention that he wear two shoes of the same color for a pair. ย I am crazy and un-imaginative that way.
I do NOT have time for that kind of
mommy blogger – ness!
Today I am asking YOU to give me some reading ideas.
Summer is upon me. ย My boys’ last day of school was on Monday.
I need reading suggestions for:
- 2nd grade boy
- 4th grade boy
- their harried 40 year old mother
I just LOVE a good book….and if you don’t read books, but have a good blog recommendation for me,
bring it on.
To thank you for your help, I will be sending a randomly selected comment below to receive a
$50 gift certificate to Barnes & Noble.
All you need to do is
comment with some sort of reading recommendation and you will be entered to win. ย The contest will close 5/18/10.
Easy, peasy.
And now I can get back to following around my children like paparazzi and blogging every word they say…
Hm I don’t remember 2nd & 4th grade books and my lil one is only 4 mo old so I can’t help you there! But books for you… anything by Stephen King if you’re into that (Lisey’s Story is a recent one that was really good). Memoirs of a Boy Soldier (true story, takes place in Africa), Time Traveler’s Wife, Lovely Bones… ๐
My daughter is 16 months so we are happy with the Cheerios book at the moment!
For you, I would suggest The Reliable Wife. Just finished it and it was quite the story!
~Emily
Just finished House Rules by Jodi Picoult – awesome. I am 3/4 of the way Handle with Care by Jodi – another great read!!!!
My recommendations –
FYI – I read to my kids at night, separately. So, I go through a lot of kids books. Have found as they get older, reading for myself at night rarely happens. Probably reading 2-6 chapters a night from kids books does it. Some of my favorite books are YA (young adult) and my daughter is entering that stage now. Scary for me, but it has already led to some great conversations, which is the best benefit of reading to your kids at night.
4th grade
The Gollywhopper Games by Jody Feldman (3 thumbs up – son, daughter & me/great read aloud too)
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane (3 thumbs up – son, daughter & me/great read aloud too)
The Get Rich Quick Club by Dan Gutman
Alvin Ho: Allergic to Girls, School, and Other Scary Things By Lenore Look
Two-Minute Drill by Mike Lupica
Diary of a Wimpy Kid Series
Percy Jackson & The Olympians Series* – The Lightning Thief (Book1) and series by Rick Riordan
Swindle by Gordon Korman
2nd grader – Stinky Series by Megan McDonald.
Looking for fun ideas and activities for kids? I recommend “Fifty Dangerous Things (you should let your children do)” by Gever Tulley, it just came out a few months ago & may only be available at Amazon. Point is that some things we did as kids that were great learning experiences are considered “not safe” these days. With the proper supervision and tools, you can create some great learning moments. Love, love, love this and we are using this summer.
For Moms (you) – if you haven’t read, “Everyone is Beautiful” by Katherine Center, it is my most recommended book. Her latest book came out last month, “Get Lucky” and I just started that. I also loved, “Next Thing on my List” by Jill Smolinski.
I have a review on most of these at MomsMaterial.com under Mom Books or Kids Books.
Cammie
Ummm …
You are Forever & Always my future expert on this topic!!!
{insert inspirational music in background}
xoxo
april
I LOVE to read, it was one of the greatest gifts that my parents gave to me. Let’s see some good books…Brightest star in the sky by marian keyes, On the line by Serena Williams
Sorry I am not much help for you boys ages as mine are younger and all I can think of is Judy Blume right now, but for you, if you want to get to know vampires there is the Sookie Stackhouse series (more adult than Twilight) or opposite end of the spectrum is Roses by Leila Meacham (Southern romance story, not a typical romance novel, but it includes lies and tradegy)
For the boys The Magic Treehouse and Hank Zipper series are both terrific.
There’s also a non-fiction series called Who Would Win that my boys love. It pits different animals again each other. Shark v. Great White, etc.
For you, I’d recommend some Young Adult titles that play to any audience: Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins, Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, and The Dark Divine by Bree Despain. Also It Sucks to Be Me and It Still Sucks to Be Me by Kimberly Pauley are fun.
I have a YA book blog that you can get more info http://sunnyinthemiddle.blogspot.com
If you are into the whole vampire thing, I just got sucked into the House of Night series, and read the first five books in a weeks time. I am itching to get my hands on the last two. Also, Dean Koontz is my all time favorite, so anything by him is worth reading.
As for kids books, I have a daughter ending second grade this year, and she loves to read books based on any Disney and Nick series, like Suite Life and Wizards of Waverly Place. (not sure if your boys watch these) She also loves Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
With a 1st, 4th and 7th grader in my house, we often do audiobooks so everyone can partake of the same interesting stories. My boys like fantasy books, so favorites from audio listening are the Harry Potter series, the Charlie Bone series, and Keys to the Kingdom series.
Honey for a Child’s Heart, A Landscape with Dragons, and the Read Aloud Handbook also give great ideas. Some books can be done as read alouds long before a child can actually read the text themselves.
Most any book by Dav Pilkey seems to get my boys laughing.
Tomie de Paola’s biographical series about his life as a young child was a great one, too.
If your boys like legos, I recommend the Bionicle books, my son read them and LOVED them! And for you, I HIGHLY recommend the Fannie Flagg novels…like the movie ‘Fried Green Tomatoes’, her other books wrap you up in the sweetest characters and hometown ever- very heart warming! Guaranteed good reading!