by Carolyn | Adventure, Character Training, Cultural Diversity, Girls, Imagination, Juvenile Fiction, Middle School, Middle-grade, Newbery, Older Elementary, Read Alouds
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin features a young girl, Minli, who lives in a poor village with her parents. Her father tells her stories each night, but her discontented mother says the stories are a waste. In an effort to make her family happy, Minli...
by Carolyn | For fun, Imagination, Older Elementary, Picture Books, Preschool, Read Alouds, Recommendations, Toddler
This fun picture book totally surprised me! I had expected Home by Carson Ellis to be about different types of homes people from around the world from highrises and ranches to igloos and wigwams. And Home does start out that way. Then, just when you think you know...
by Carolyn | Audiobooks, Classics, Girls, Imagination, Older Elementary, Read Alouds
We listened to Emily’s Runaway Imagination by Beverly Cleary as an audiobook, and let’s just say I was enchanted along with my kids by this story. Emily Bartlett lives on a farm in a small Oregon town in the 1920’s. She longs for a library, like the...
by Carolyn | Biography, Imagination, Juvenile Fiction, Movies, Older Elementary, Read Alouds
Several years ago, when my older kids were four and six, I decided to read The Invention of Hugo Cabret to them. My husband and I had just seen the movie, so I was pretty excited about the book. I put it on hold at the library and waited patiently. I was expecting a...
by Carolyn | Adventure, For fun, Imagination, Juvenile Fiction, Middle School, Older Elementary, Steampunk
Is All the Wrong Questions by Lemony Snicket a good series? Yes. But that’s the wrong question. What you should be asking is, “Does my child like mysterious books that don’t take themselves too seriously?” I’ve read the first two books in...
by Carolyn | Book Lists, Boys, Girls, Imagination, Older Elementary, Poetry, Read Alouds
It’s easy to neglect reading our kids poetry. But poetry can give our children an appreciation for words, rhythms, sounds and meaning like nothing else. Poems show you the world with a new view. They can be endearing, funny, or breathtaking; the best poems...
by Carolyn | Adventure, Character Training, Imagination, Older Elementary
I was recently asked this question: “What one book most inspired you as a child?” I thought back to all my favorite childhood books. The Trumpet of the Swan was the first book I remember falling in love with. It was the first book to make me realize I...
by Carolyn | Board Books, Character Training, Imagination, Picture Books, Read Alouds
When I first discovered the Little Books by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, I thought they were a hoot (pun intended). Little Hoot, Little Oink, and Little Pea offer a hilariously different perspective on the “problems” of childhood such as having to go to bed,...
by Carolyn | Adventure, Book Lists, Character Training, Imagination, Older Elementary, Read Alouds
I believe reading aloud is so important! It is special family bonding time. Sharing a story together gives us shared experience, shared characters, shared adventure, shared emotion. We are able to walk through a story and wonder together at the same things, empathize...
by Carolyn | Adventure, Boys, Character Training, Imagination, Older Elementary, Spiritual Allegory
When I first read The Magic Bicycle by John Bibee in fifth grade, the whole Spirit Flyer Series instantly became one of my all time favorites. I didn’t have to be told that the Spirit Flyer bicycles were an allegory for the Holy Spirit or that the snakes...
