I say this every year, so I just wouldn’t dream of let you down by failing to repeat myself. I must say it again: This has been my favorite year of home schooling so far! (Just pretend you’ve never heard me say that before.) Either the books keep getting better or I keep forgetting how good the other books were or I just like one-upping myself. Either way, our family had a great year of reading and learning.
If you’re new here, you may want to go back and read my Homeschool Hubbub posts to learn more about how school happens (or tries to happen) at our house, and to learn about our curriculum of choice.
I want to share with you my favorite pile of books for this year so that if you haven’t read them yet, you can look them up, and if you have read them already you can say, “I KNOW, that IS an awesome book! I’m not posting all the books we read, and that doesn’t mean I didn’t like all of them, these were just my very favorites. Here they are in no particular order (because by the end of our school year, our book shelf is not at all organized!):
The Great Turkey Walk, by Kathleen Karr
We read this book as a family and got a big kick out of this adventure. I love books that crack you up and make you think all at the same time.
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, by Mildred D. Taylor
We also read this book as a family. Our kids were able to understand better the turmoil in the U.S. that was still going on years after the Civil War. Fantastic book.
The Journeyman, by Elizabeth Yates
Elizabeth Yates is an awesome writer, helping the reader fit right into the shoes of the main character all while teaching important facts of history. I never knew what a journeyman was before this. We learned about that and so much more.
Mountain Born, by Elizabeth Yates
Another great one by Elizabeth Yates! This book was absolutely precious. Our boys could completely relate to the main character in this book, as the story was told through his point of view. This was one of those that I choked up at several times while reading it out loud. My boys love it when I do that {cough}.
Helen Keller, by Margaret Davidson
Justus and Elias declared this to be one of their favorite readers this year. They found it so interesting they could barely put it down. That rarely happens for my boys. (It’s usually pretty easy for them to put a book down and start kicking a ball instead.) I love the understanding they gained and the inspiration they felt by reading Helen Keller’s story.
Indian Captive, by Lois Lenski
Wow, this book still haunts me and I can’t imagine that this “happened in real life”. And yet, what a story of love and courage. You’ve gotta read it. (Our eighth grader read this on his own – I read it too. I wouldn’t recommend it for younger grades. There’s a lot to chew on in this book.)
Out of the Dust, by Karen Hesse
This was another book our eighth grader read this year. I believe he read it in two days…I read it in one. It is incredibly written and heart jolting. And obviously, hard to put down.
The Story of US, by Joy Hakim
Asa (8th grade) and I read through this series during the year as a part of his history program. I’ve mentioned it before, and I’ll say it again: Never did I know that studying history could be so intriguing. Joy Hakim is a fantastic writer. These books were so simple to understand and taught us so much. I recommend this series as a great set of books to have on your shelves to read and re-read through the years.
Books we’ll be reading this summer (this of course is not an exhaustive list, just some I’d really like to read through with the kids):
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Tell Me the Secrets, Treasures for Eternity, by Max Lucado and Ron DiCianni
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Missionary Books by Dave and Neta Jackson
(someone gave us a nice set of these and I can’t wait to read through them with the boys!)
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The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles
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By the Great Horn Spoon, by Sid Fleischman
What have been some of your favorite books you’ve read during the past few months? Are you reading anything exciting this summer that I should add to my list?! :)
We love, love, love the Little Britches series! And we recently finished Laddie and can’t say enough good about it either! We are going to start Carry On Mr. Bowditch it came highly recommended we hope we enjoy it too!
Hmmmm…another Sonlighter? Add The Winged Watchman to our favorite list this year. We also loved Caddie Woodlawn (we still quote, “If at first you don’t fricasse, fry, fry a hen!”) and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (did you know there’s a whole series about the Logan family? I’ve got the next two on our summer list, too).
For summer I just started The Silver Chair (Narnia #4 in the original book order) and I want to read Anne of Green Gables because I’m not sure I could get my boys to read “girl” book on their own! Oh, but I know they’ll love it! I’m also doing God’s Names by Sally Michael and a bunch of poetry, like Ruth Krauss and Jack Prelutsky for fun. And maybe a biography of Martin Lloyd-Jones since he’s my hubby’s favorite old preacher guy.
Reading aloud ROCKS!!!!! :)
p.s. I’m also doing the Learning Your Letters stuff with my girls who are 4 and 2 this summer since the boys are off school.
We’ve dried dishes, read D books, (The Church History ABC book is really cool! We read about John Donne today!), and tomorrow we’re taking doughnuts to the three Donnas who attend our church! Maybe we’ll watch a little Donut Man in there! :) I wanted to read our ABC Bible Verses by Susan Hunt but can’t find the book right now! That’d be a great one to recommend, too!
I remember my 6th grade reading teacher reading Roll of Thunder to us and then years later I was surprised to learn that it is banned in many public schools. There was also a sequel to it called Road to Memphis, but I can’t remember if I liked it or not – just that I read it.
Have you read Number the Stars by Lois Lowry? I loved it as a child. It’s all about one Christian Danish fmaily’s devotion to a Jewish family at the time of the holocaust. I want my daughter to read it this summer- she’s been complaining about disliking history, so I’d like to see how historical fiction fits her fancy :)
I love Number the Stars!! Very very good! I used to read historical fiction all the time!
Can I just come over and spend a week reading books off your book shelf? :-)
Yes, but only if you bring S and B! :) Well and of course R can come too!
Thank you for sharing. I don’t have kids, but this gives me some great reading ideas for myself.
Nonfiction & Christian children’s fiction here!
Of course, since I write books, I’d recommend all books by me ;)
I looked you up on Amazon. Is your middle name Lynn? Looks like you have all sorts of exciting books.
Yes, I’m Randi Lynn Millward. Thank you for the compliment!
Oops! Wrong link in previous comment! Couldn’t figure out how to delete it! Sorry!
Great selection of books…… My high schoolers read through the Hakim series as well along with the Sonlight readers for their US History credit. It realy is a great series. Very interesting and lots of great pictures too.
I too recommend the Little Britches series by Ralph Moody but you will have to edit out alot of cowboy language when you read ‘The Home Ranch’. The ingenuity and work ethic are just not something that are common in our day and a great example to the kids.
“This has been my favorite year of home schooling so far!” Love it! And, yes… great books [smile].
I second the Little Britches series, by Ralph Moody. Finally, there here is a companion guide to “Little Britches” available called “Just Across the Fence,” compiled by a homeschooling mom from Colorado. Character training scripture studies, nearly 40 appendixes (great resource!), 195 vocabulary words, 42 recipes, and more. Oh, yeah – DVD included – showing actual photos of the area in which the first three books take place and video clip of how cowboy hats were made over 100 years ago. She even offers a driving tour! You can email her at 7conners at gmail dot com for more information.
We’ve read almost every book you listed within the past few years and count many of them as favorites. My kids loved reading “By the Great Horn Spoon” and “The Great Turkey Walk.” I have to say I’m a mom that sheds a tear or two (or more) during our read aloud times, too. What a great way for our kids to see the impact good books can have on us! The one book that made me cry the most was “Amos Fortune, Free Man.” If you haven’t read it, you simply must — it’s based on a true story.
What a great idea for a post…you’ve inspired me to share our favorites from this year, too! Not this morning, mind you, but Lord willing, I’ll get to it in the next week or so. Blessings! ~Lisa
I LOVE Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry! My mom read it aloud to me when I was homeschooling and I read it every year when I taught in a classroom and now I look forward to reading it in our homeschool. The sequel is Let The Circle Be Unbroken and there is The Road to Memphis. There are also several short stories about the Logan family by Mildred D. Taylor, all of which are worth reading. Sk glad your family enjoyed the book!
I would love to hear your age assessment for the Joy Hakim History series. My kids love history, but are still elementary age. Is it something I could read to them?
These were technically recommended for Asa (8th grade) but Elias and Justus (3rd and 5th) were in there half the time listening because they were so interested. Malachi wasn’t too interested, but that might just be Malachi. You’re welcome to come over and look at them sometime. :)
My mother read “The History of US” series to us when I (the oldest) was in 9th grade, and my youngest sibling was in 4th grade. It was relevant to all of us. She even brought it with us when we went to Boston, and read to us about the events that happened where we were currently at, including the Boston Tea Party (original one).
Hi there Laura,
We have the “History of US” by Joy Haikum. And we adore them. We have been homeschooling for 6 years in a charter school – well we have decided to brach out & go on our own – WHEW!!! Kids & mama are bored – time for some fun stuff – unit studies, Bible curriculum, real out-of-the-box stuff, etc!!! We are soo excited & a little nervous, too!!! Prayers needed here :) Have a great weekend! Janet
Thanks for the book list! Some we’ve read, some we knew others we didn’t! We just finished By the Great Horn Spoon you’ll love it!
First, that is a great book list. We have read a few of those ourselves and I will have to write down some of the others to look through.
Second, my kids are not into the whole reading experience. I have no idea where they get that from, because I am never far from a good book. But this past March, I was desperate to find something to read that would spark some interest. Well I grabbed The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe from our bookshelf and we haven’t stopped reading them since. We just started book 5 last night. My son, who dreads reading time, makes me read numerous chapters at a time. It is so fun when you find something that they enjoy (and not totally dread and thereby, start faking death!).
Enjoy your summer reading!
My daughter has enjoyed The Story of US so much with our cyber school that I think we might have to purchase it – she’s really sad we have to send it back next month. I was an honors history/education major in college and I’ve really enjoyed(and learned a lot from!) these books.
I had never read to kill a mockingbird until one of my sons had to read it for school. I couldn’t put it down! I also read belle prater’s boy with another son for school. It was also a great read!
I didn’t read all the previous comments, so pardon me if I repeat titles! I teach 6th grade Language Arts and some of my kids’ favorites this year have been:
-Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson
-Fever, 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson
-HAtchet by Gary Paulsen
-Zach’s Lie by Roland Smith
-Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz
-Pictures of Hollis Woods by PAtricia Reilly Giff
Thanks for posting your list! We are enjoying Pinky Pye right now – a fun family story!
Oh man… I choked up during Mountain Born, too. My boys loved it, too!
Which books does your youngest son like the most? I’m trying to figure out what would be great summer reading for my Daughter. She’ll be five in Aug and will listen to just about anything.
Mountain Born, for sure! It’s SO sweet!!
Thank u! We’ll read that one for sure then.