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What books do your kids read over and over?


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Thinking ahead to Christmas here.

 

For the first time ever DD has requested " lots of books" for Christmas. We have an excellent library system and can borrow almost anything and I prefer that as I'm trying to keep clutter to a minimum and I'll have to buy more shelves if I buy anymore books LOL.

 

DD has never really been interested in reading books more then once so I have never seen the point in buying them to keep around permanantly plus she was still in the easy reader stage and I wasn't keen on buying those type of books.

 

Well DD has just turned 8 and reads at about a 5 th grade level ..maybe a little higher if the book is interesting. I have read a lot of the Roald Dahl books to her and now she is expressing interest in reading them herself again so some of those will go on my list because I am sure the boys will like them later too. We have all the Harry Potter series and the Narnia books although I have tried to read those aloud a few times and no one was interested so I stopped. The kids have seen the movies though and enjoyed them so they know what they are about.

 

She likes girly type books but also mysteries and funny books. Although honestly, just about anything I hand her she will try if I tape a dollar in the back for encouragement and then she will enjoy it and ask for second one in the series...so its pretty easy to get her to read something she might not pick up just by looking at the cover.

 

So I am looking for suggestions of books that have been a worthwhile purchase for your family and not just read once and then became a part of your clutter.

 

Did any of your kids like the Anne books at this age...I loved them but I can't remember how old I was when I read them. Maybe more suitable for when she is older?

 

Anyway..please help me make up a book depository list wish for her.

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Mine was a precocious reader, so she was reading Secret Garden, Anne series, etc at age 8. I don't think that's typical.

Anne is very wordy and can be a slog with a kid who wasn't ready, and that would be such a shame!

 

Dd loved the MPO Odyssey series, the Little House books, and Betsy-Tacy at that age. She also devoured Nancy Drew and Cherry Ames and...oh, the Other One That's Like That! lol--can't think of the name. But she didn't reread they mysteries.

 

A little later she loved the Inkheart series and all the Harry Potters and still rereads those.

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I have boys, so this may not suit you as much, but Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, and Silmarillian (I may not be spelling that one correctly).  Ad infinitum.  My son is actually a walking Tolkien wiki.

 

Since you mentioned she likes funny, I will suggest The Pickwick Papers by Dickens.  This is not the "heavy" Dickens that people associate with.  This is funny, laugh-out-loud stuff.  You might want to do it as a read aloud if she has trouble with the language, or get the audio book.  But my son reads his to death, because it's just funny stuff.

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Sister (who is 9 and has read all but book 7 of the HP series) has reading enjoyed the following:

 

Alice in Wonderland*

The Little Princess*

Black Beauty*

Big Red*

The Sisters Grimm series

A Hero's Guide to Saving the Kingdom

The Ramona series

 

 

*these are books we own

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We buy a lot of books. The ones that have been read over and over around age 8: 

Holes

Sideways Stories From Wayside School 

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Stuart Little

Charlotte's Web

Just So Stories

The Children's Treasury of Virtues

the "Great Illustrated Classics" version of anything

 

series:

The Borrowers

The Boxcar Children

Harry Potter

A Series of Unfortunate Events

Little House on the Prairie

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I have a boy so FWIW:

 

Indian in the Cupboard series

Moomintroll series

The first three books of the Little House series

Half Magic

The Plant that Ate Dirty Socks

Spy Cat

 

There are lots more but those are the ones that come to mind easily.

 

He also listens to audiobooks over and over. His favorites as an 8 year old include:

 

Paddington

Fantastic Mr. Fox

George's Marvelous Medicine

Dealing with Dragons series (I had to ban this one for a while because he would start it again as soon as it was over. I didn't love it the way he did)

Mrs. Piggle Wiggle

Phantom Tollbooth

101 Dalmations

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Thanks for the ideas. She doesn't mind if books tend to be on the boyish side...if there is such a thing ....but if we go to the library she will head straight for any book that is glittery pink and purple lol. I recently introduced her to Encyclopedia Brown which she wouldn't have picked out for herself and she liked it and wants to read the rest of the series.

 

She really loves Fortunately the Milk.

 

She tried Lemony Snicket but didn't like it...I don't blame her..I'm not a fan either.

 

I'll definitely add the Sisters Grimm series...I read it myself and loved it. I think she is the right age now.

I don't know why I didn't think of The Little House series...I read her the first one and she loved it. Seriously, its so obvious why didn't I think of that.

She does love the Boxcar children but I have a hard time finding them in Australia. I do have the first 12 on my kindle but keep forgetting to give it to her to read.

Oh and Baby Island..my favourite as a kid..will have to add it.

 

I'll have to look a couple of these up as I'm not familiar with them.

 

I'm always surprised when I hear of young kids reading the Lord of the Rings. I read the Hobbit at 13 and hated it. I read the rest when I was an adult and just didn't like it at all. Then I saw the movies....suddenly understood the storyline and who was who and reread the books and enjoyed them then. DD has seen the two hobbit movies that are out...she liked them but not loved. I don't think she is ready for the books. We have them already in any case.

 

 

Does anybody have any recommendations of good cat stories.... she loves books with cats in them. I actually just bought her Pioneer girl.

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Youngest (now 13) has read and reread the Percy Jackson series, Artemis Fowl, Ender's Game, Spiderwick Chronicles, and Harry Potter books many times over.

 

Oldest (now 18) reads and rereads Jane Austen, John Green, The Sister's Grimm, Ranger's Apprentice, The Books of Bayern, and tons of Shakespeare

 

I am sure there are a couple more that I can't come up with at the moment.

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The Warriors series by Erin Hunter (who is not a real person but an amalgamation of writers)

 

Harry Potter

 

The Underland Chronicles

 

The Bunnicula series

 

ETA: At that age I loved Anne of Green Gables, but the other books, when she was older, didn't interest me as much. In fact, to this day only the first two books really excite me. Beyond that the writing and story feel like Lucy Maud Montgomery kinda lost interest in the story.

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Dd is not an "over and over again" book reader.  But my boys were.  So I'll put their favorites out for those with boys.  

 

When they were younger, they would read The Tin Tin books and the Asterix books over and over.  

 

In the middle years, they read more than once: the Narnia series, Lord of the Rings books and Horatio Hornblower series. 

 

Lisa

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So I am looking for suggestions of books that have been a worthwhile purchase for your family and not just read once and then became a part of your clutter.

 

Anyway..please help me make up a book depository list wish for her.

 

We own all books written by these particular authors because DD cannot bear to part with them. I usually whine about the sheer amount of book clutter only when it's time to move. :D  On other days, it's very comforting(for me and her)  to have well used books around..

 

 E.Nesbit

  E.B.White

The entire lemony snickett series

  Kate Dicamillo

 Roald Dahl

Lewis Carroll

Frank L Baum

Michael Morpurgo

Alexander McCall Smith

C.S.Lewis 

Gerald Durell

Francis Hodges Burnett

Jules Verne

James Herriot

Andrew Lang fairy books (ebook)

Rudyard Kipling

Kennet Grahame

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My younger son listened to a dramatized audio of Pilgrims's Progress over and over and over.

 

I have a tutoring student who has been reading Elsie Dinsmore over and over and over for at least a year now and wants to tell me about the same parts over and over and over. The book triggers my PTSD a bit, but this is only the second book she ever finished in her life, so I'm trying very hard to be supportive, even if it gives me a stomach ache. No she doesn't want to read the rest of the series; she just wants to read this one AGAIN and talk about the same parts AGAIN.

 

Even though she is an adult, I guess she is going through the same stages a child goes through, but just later. I don't know. The sight of Elsie's curls, makes me feel ill.  :ack2:

 

 

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Truly depends on the kid. Ds9 has reread the hobbit too many times to count, and a popular science year by year book we have. Dd9 has done the same with the Misty books and Animal ark books. Other ds9 rereads math and puzzle books and those yearly almanacs.

 

Basically they reread books all the time, but they do have preferences for favorites.

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This past year our re-reads (and re-reads....and re-reads... :laugh: ) were Misty of Chincoteague (and the next Misty book, Stormy, Misty's Foal, though that one wasn't as big of a hit--it's pretty sad and bit more mature for my then 6-year old), the Boxcar Children, My Father's Dragon, and the Water Horse.

 

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The books my dd8 reads over and over and over are the nonfiction selections--a national geographic bird book, a book about butterflies, an usborne body book, a dk animal book etc.

 

Just throwing that our there since most of the suggestions have been fiction. :)

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How to Train Your Dragon was/is a huge favorite around here. In fact, my daughter wrote a fan-fic Holiday story called "How to Survive Odin's Day" as a gift for her brother about the characters in the story that (if I might say so myself....) is awesome. If you'd like it I can ask her if it's ok to share it.

 

Another one my kids read over and over (and over) was The Mysterious Benedict Society.

 

I second the James Herriot suggestion above - "All Creatures Great and Small" and the rest are well worn here.

 

 

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Here are the ones the girls have read over and over...most are books in a series:  Kitten Club; Kitten Magic; Penderwicks; Moffats; Main Street; Emily Windsnap; The Family Tree; When the Butterflies Came; Nancy Drew; The One and Only Ivan; all Roald Dahl; Marty McGuire; Pippi Longstocking.

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Over and over. Last month for 2 weeks solid he listened to the Wizard of Oz completely every single night. He read it twice.

And we spent a week on the second book until I decided no more Oz for a while. :)

There are plenty of Oz books if you are looking for lots of books.

 

Charlotte's Web ans the Ramona books have been other books that have been just as well loved.

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Harry Potter series has been read at least 7 times this year. Warriors (cats!) series is also a re-read (and they have a role playing game on their website). And he's re-read the Rick Riordan books.

 

The HP series was so popular with my son that I have him the series on Kindle for his birthday. I was sick of putting it on hold at the library every week. :D

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I'm always surprised when I hear of young kids reading the Lord of the Rings. I read the Hobbit at 13 and hated it. I read the rest when I was an adult and just didn't like it at all. Then I saw the movies....suddenly understood the storyline and who was who and reread the books and enjoyed them then. DD has seen the two hobbit movies that are out...she liked them but not loved. I don't think she is ready for the books. We have them already in any case.

 

 

Good to know someon else who couldn't read the Hobbit. I couldn't read it and didn't even try Lord of the Rings. My ds 11 had me watch the movies with him and I really enjoyed them. I don't think any of my kids have read Lord of the Rings except DD read the Hobbit and liked it. I don't think I'm making any other kids read it unless they decide to do so on their own.

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At that age, I really liked Mrs. Piggle Wiggle books, but I don't remember a thing about them.

 

I also LOVED the Grandma's Attic series by Arleta Richardson. They have religious content, but mostly they are very funny stories that I think are based on the author's grandmother and her adventures growing up (in maybe the late 1800s). The earlier books feature a story at a time in each chapter, not one continuous story for the whole book.

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At that age, I really liked Mrs. Piggle Wiggle books, but I don't remember a thing about them.

 

I also LOVED the Grandma's Attic series by Arleta Richardson. They have religious content, but mostly they are very funny stories that I think are based on the author's grandmother and her adventures growing up (in maybe the late 1800s). The earlier books feature a story at a time in each chapter, not one continuous story for the whole book.

Yep. My girls have loved the Grandma's Attic books too.

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