Comments on: Living Chapter Books for Kids: What We Read This Year

By: Julie

Julie — Wed, 02 Sep 2020 20:37:23 +0000

Many of these books were audiobooks so that helps A LOT!
No, definitely not on purpose. I have found it MUCH easier to find picture books by authors of color vs chapter books for the younger crowd. And this post was written years ago, so we’ve been growing in that area. Two all star books we’ve loved recently were “Stella by Starlight” and “Bud, Not Buddy”. But I know my boys wouldn’t have been ready for the intensity of those back when I wrote this. I’d love to find more for the younger folks that aren’t so focused on slavery or violent racism because that of course is not the only story there is to tell and we want to hear from diverse voices. I personally read “Brown Girl Dreaming” which I think would be appropriate for a middleschooler and “The Hate You Give” but that one is way too much for my kiddos right now. Thanks for bringing up this discussion.
I should write a post about picture books by diverse authors. We’ve found SO many good ones recently now that libraries are filling their shelves with them!

By: Shanna Mae

Shanna Mae — Wed, 02 Sep 2020 20:18:09 +0000

In reply to Katherine. Us too! We decided to put it in the recycling bin and purchase some books by native authors. The website americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com was really helpful for our family.

By: Shanna Mae

Shanna Mae — Wed, 02 Sep 2020 20:15:47 +0000

Wow That’s a lot of books! I wish I could convince my kids to read this much. One question though… is there a reason you only read books by white authors? Was that on purpose? You seem like a really nice family, and I enjoy your blog as we are homeschoolers ourselves, so I’m guessing it was just an oversight.
To be honest, I’ve been there myself, but I realized that I was sending a message to my kids about what voices and whose stories were important to listen to. I also realized that race doesn’t make you a bad or good author, so by only reading books by white authors, I was probably missing out on a ton of amazing books.

By: When the Kids are Home Indefinitely...What do you do? - The Kinda Crunchy Family

When the Kids are Home Indefinitely...What do you do? - The Kinda Crunchy Family — Mon, 16 Mar 2020 13:30:47 +0000

[…] Read a book and find activities to do that go along with the book. We do this a lot and my kids learn while they are having fun. Pick a book, then search on Pinterest for activities to go with it. For example, we read Sign of the Beaver. Then we learned about forest animals & the tracks they leave. We studied about the Native Americans that lived in our area. The options are plenty! I love this list of books. […]

By: Julie

Julie — Sat, 13 Oct 2018 02:06:52 +0000

In reply to Katelyn Carney. That's awesome Katelyn! The boys loved Charlie!

By: Katelyn Carney

Katelyn Carney — Tue, 09 Oct 2018 02:09:15 +0000

I’ve been needing a list like this! Thank you! Just bought Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to get us started. As a candyholic I think he’ll love it!

By: How to Successfully Start the Habit of Family Read-Aloud Times

How to Successfully Start the Habit of Family Read-Aloud Times — Tue, 07 Aug 2018 02:13:09 +0000

[…] (Check out all the “big” books my oldest read with me last year.) […]

By: Julie

Julie — Tue, 06 Mar 2018 21:49:43 +0000

In reply to Katherine. Yes, that was pretty shocking about Little House. It led to a lot of good discussions in our family. I think Laura makes it decently obvious that Paw didn't think the same way Maw did and that Paw was right. Still, it's good to be prepared to talk about racism as a family.

By: Katherine

Katherine — Tue, 06 Mar 2018 18:39:11 +0000

I agree with your choice to leave “The Last Battle” off of the Chronicles Of Narnia. I made that same choice when I read the series to my 7yo this winter.
I wish I had reread “Little House On The Prairie” before I read it to my 5yo. I had forgotten and wad unprepared for the intense anti-native American sentiments. It’s important to talk about it as a family, but I was really caught off guard!
Thanks for the recommendation of “My Side of The Mountain”; I think my sons will really like that!

By: Jodie

Jodie — Wed, 17 Jan 2018 00:44:13 +0000

I love this list. We’ve enjoyed many of the same books last year and have many of them on our list for this upcoming year. My boys loved The Cricket in Times Square and The Little House books which we listened to on audio because they are so good that way.