books we have loved this year

This year we have read some great books together. Charlotte adores listening to books aloud and will listen for long, long periods of time.  I love to read out loud so it is a wonderful way to learn and and spend time together.  Lila has a bit less of a tolerance for long read alouds, but I have to remind myself that she is much younger and also has a different personality than her big sister.  She does really well, in that she only interrupts when she is really, REALLY bored!

So here are some books we have really loved this year, some we have read over and over again.  These books are all part of Sonlight K curriculum.

"Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" by Judi Barrett

This book was written in 1978 and is a fascinating and creative story, written in a lovely way.  The grandpa in the story is inspired to tell a story to his grandkids after flipping a pancake high in the air at breakfast.  In his story, a community of people receive all of their food from the sky, instead of from the supermarket. The illustrations are beautiful, some black and white line drawings. This is one we have read and enjoyed many, many times.

"The Boxcar Children" by Gertrude Chandler Warner 

We have loved many of our novels this year, but this one was loved so much, Charlotte wrote and directed a play based on a few of the chapters.  There are many, many books in this series, numbers 1 - 19 were written by the original author Warner in the 1940s.  (The first book was first published in 1924.) Charlotte reads these with her daddy at bedtime snacktime, they have just finished book 7. The original book is about four siblings who are orphans and find an abandoned boxcar to live in.  The joy the children find in simple things is refreshing and inspiring.  The children eventually end up living with their grandfather.

"The Usborne book of Living Long Ago" by Felicity Brooks and Helen Edom

This book is divided into four sections: Clothes and Fashion, Homes and Houses, Food and Eating, and Travel and Transport.  Each section moves through history in these topics.  It covers a lot of information with activities and recipes too.  We have read through this book a lot and although I did not expect it to be a favorite with Charlotte as it is all non-fiction, it is.  We are working on a "Living Long Ago" play based on the sections on the pioneers.  This book was published in 1990, so it is not necessarily current (I edit the term "Indian" to first nations, and we have had lots of conversations about this) but it is still a great book to inspire a love of history.

"Isaac Newton and the Laws of Motion" by Andrea Gianopoulos

This book is a historical account of Isaac Newton in graphic novel format.  This is one that I didn't think Charlotte would love, but she does!  She loves graphic novels and this book has a lot of information in it, as it presents the laws of motion and how Isaac Newton came to create these laws. We have had conversations about force and motion and Charlotte remembers these scientific principles!  

Right now we are reading:

"Little House in the Big Woods" by Laura Ingalls Wilder

We have read a few of the Usborne beginner books for science this year, and are about to read "Caterpillars and Butterflies" by Stephanie Turnbull.

We read Mother Goose weekly, the poetry book "The Llama who had no Pajama", our missionary stories and Bible. We have just finished "The 20th Century Children's Book Treasury" for Lila's book list and there were favorites in that treasury for sure.  

I would love to hear what some of your favorite children's books have been this year!