A Reading Heritage

My grandparents and my parents are all avid readers.  When I was little, I remember Mom taking us to the public library regularlly.  We loved books!

However, when I was about Megan's age, maybe a little younger, I was still more interested in picture books than chapter books.  For my birthday or Christmas that year I received two copies of Little House on the Prairie.  I was SO disappointed!  Ha Ha   My wise mother decided to challenge me to see which of us could read the book fastest.  While I wasn't very excited about reading the book, I was quite determined that my mother was not going to read it faster than me.  I finished the book in something like 2-3 days.  (It was Christmas break, so I had plenty of time to read.)  My mom is a fast reader, but she was working so I won.  I borrowed every Laura Ingalls Wilder book the public library had and I have been reading ever since.

Our blogging challenge topic for this week has created some discussion in our home about books. Although I posted earlier this week about picture books, we moved on to discussing our favorite chapter books.

Some of my favorite chapter books growing up were:

A young boy has an accident while playing with his friends and goes blind.  The book tells how he adjusted to being blind and how he learned to use a seeing eye dog.  I must have read this book 20 times!

Heather read it a couple years ago and really enjoyed it, too.

This story about a young boy and his dogs was one of my all-time favorites.  I cried every time I read it.

During one of my college creative writing classes, author Orson Scott Card came to visit and talk to us.  I had never heard of him so I went out and bought this book.  I read it several times and borrowed some other books by the same author from friends who were appalled that I had never read any of his books. 

Many of my favorite books now are books I have read with my children.  My sister's kids and my best friend's kids often read the same books and then we discuss them.  Some of books I like are:

     - No Talking by Andrew Clements

     - Frindle by Andrew Clements

     - Harry Potter series by JK Rowling

     - Everything I have read by Rick Riordan 

     - Adventurers Wanted 1: Slathbog's Gold by ML Forman (book 2 comes out in February 2011!)

     - The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy

     - The Work and The Glory series by Gerald N. Lund

     - Charly by Jack Weyland

Megan is still at the point that I was when I got my Little House books for Christmas.  She LOVES to have me read to her, but she isn't so excited about reading to herself.  Many of her favorite books are still picture books.  Her chapter book list is below:

     - Tardy Boys series by Todd Strasser

     - Island of the Blue Dolpins by Scott O'Dell

     - Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder 

Emily loves book series more than one-shot stories.  Her favorites include:

     - Fablehaven series by Brandon Mull

     - 13th Reality series by James Dasher

     - Chronicles of Narnia series by CS Lewis

     - Series of Unfortunate Events series by Lemony Snicket

     - Tennis Shoes Adventure Series by Chris Heimerdinger

     - Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan

     - Adventurers Wanted series by ML Forman

Heather is an avid reader, too.  In fact, many times I have had to take her book away from her to get her to do other things, like homework and sleep.  She also loves book series.  Some of her favorites are below:

     - Tennis Shoes Adventure Series by Chris Heimerdinger

       (She read all 10 books in two weeks last summer!)

     - Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan

     - Harry Potter series by JK Rowling
     - Big Red series by Jim Kjelgaard
     - Sister Grimm series by Michael Buckley
     - Anything by Andrew Clements
       (He single-handedly got Heather hooked on reading)
     - White Fang by Jack London

What are some of your favorite books?  We'd love to find some new series or authors to follow.