Summer Reading

One thing I'm trying to do this summer (and remember folks, we're only in week 2 here) is to read with my kids. I used to read with my daughter quite a bit and with my son some.  My daughter and I have read many books together:  The Secret Garden, Pippi Longstocking, Alice in Wonderland, A Wrinkle in Time, among others.

She refused to read The Outsiders so I started reading it to her this summer and now she really likes it.  See, mom does know best!  I promised to show her the movie after we finish and point out all the actors I drooled over when I was her age.  I just loved me some Matt Dillon!

I'm looking for suggestions for our next book together.  I'm thinking of To Kill a Mockingbird, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn or The Book Thief.  She's 12 but pretty mature for her age and like I said, I'll be reading it with her.  So if anyone has any suggestions.

Clara has actually made me read some of her favorite books like When You Reach Me and Heartbeat.  Two awesome books for young adults that I highly, highly recommend.  The best part about When You Reach Me is that it refers to A Wrinkle in Time but it's so much more than that.  Heartbeat is written all in poems but it tells a complete story.  Trust me, you'll cry.  For my summer reading, I'm working my way through the Percy Jackson series.  They are perfect for the pool and they don't make me cry.  'Cause that would just be embarrassing at the pool.

As for my son, we're reading The Phantom Tollbooth.  And if you have not read that book then you need to drop everything and get a copy now.  It's that good.  What are you waiting for?  GO!  I've read this book many times as a kid and read it to my daughter and am now enjoying it all over again with my son.  I get something new out of it every time I read it.  Next, we're going to finish the Narnia series, I think we only have 2 books left.    He's 9 going on 10 so if anyone has any good ideas for that age, send them on.

It's really a win-win reading with my kids:  not only do I look like a great mom (right?), I also get to read a bunch of books that I never did as a child.  I totally skipped the Narnia series so it's nice to know what they are all about.

Quick story about that:  I started reading The Secret Garden when I was young but then one night my mother made dusty potatoes and I came down with a fever.  So, I never finished the book because I always associated it with dusty potatoes and being sick, even though none of those things are in any way related.

Check back in a month though to see if I'm still reading to them or if we've just gone straight to watching the movie version.