If you've followed along on my blog over the years, you know that at the beginning-ish of each year, I do a review of all the things I read the previous year. And I intend to do that again this year. BUT, I had the genius idea this year that I should do it with the kids too, now that some of them are old enough to read on their own. And it was a lot of fun. First I had them fill out their answers on a sheet of paper, then we gathered up all the books and I interviewed them on film and they held up their books to show while they were talking about them. I'm hoping I can figure out how to upload those interviews here, but youtube is being funny at the moment, so we'll see.
After the interviews, Lincoln and Ivan thought it would be fun to go all around the house and gather up all the books they'd read in 2018, just to see what that pile would look like. And it was crazy! I knew they read a lot, but I had no idea.
I posted pieces of the kids' interviews on Instagram (it wouldn't let me post the whole thing), and I got messages from several different friends who have boys near my boys' ages, who wanted a list of book recommendations because they are always on the lookout (aren't we all?) for new ideas for their boys to read. So I thought I'd just take a minute and compile a list for them, and for my own future reference.
* Are for books I
highly recommend the Audible version of
$ Are my 11 yr old’s
favorites
# Are my 9yr old’s
favorites
FICTION
Newberry Award Books
·
The One and Only Ivan
·
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of HIMH
·
The Egypt Game
·
From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E
Frankweiler
·
Because of Winn Dixie
·
The Golden Goblet
·
Holes #
·
Johnny Tremain *
·
Hatchet series #
·
The Sign of the Beaver
·
Call It Courage
·
Charlotte’s Web
·
Caddie Woodlawn
·
The Whipping Boy
·
Julie of the Wolves
·
The Summer of the Swans
·
A Single Shard
·
Out of the Dust
·
On the Banks of Plum Creek (And all Little House
series)
·
Bridge to Terabithia
·
Bud, Not Buddy *
·
One Crazy Summer *
·
Classics
·
Secret Garden *
·
Black Beauty *
·
Tom Sawyer
·
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn #
·
Anne of Green Gables * (my boys enjoyed listening to this, but I doubt they'd pick it up and read it)
·
War of the Worlds (Illustrated Classics) $
·
Moby Dick (Illustrated Classics) $
·
The Three Musketeers (Illustrated Classics) $
·
Gulliver’s Travels (illustrated Classics) $
·
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Illustrated
Classics) $
·
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Illustrated
Classics) $
·
Journey to the Center of the Earth (Illustrated
Classics) $
Fantasy
·
Harry Potter series *#$ (Highly recommend the illustrated editions for younger readers who might be intimidated by huge blocks of text in regular editions, and the pictures are fabulous!)
·
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
·
The Hobbit *#$
·
The Lord of the Rings series *
·
The Chronicles of Naria series
·
Fablehaven series $
·
Candy Shop Wars series $
·
Michael Vey series $
·
Spirit Animals series
·
Percy Jackson series
·
Mr. Lemoncello’s Library series
·
Spiderwick series
·
Charlie Bone series
·
Guardians of Ga’hool series
·
Five Kingdoms series $
·
How to Train Your Dragon series
·
Three Tales of My Father’s Dragon
·
Odd and the Frost Giants *
·
The Graveyard Book $
·
Redwall series #
·
The Green Ember series
·
Alcatraz vs the Evil Librarians series
Other Fiction
·
Bunnicula Series #
·
Mouse and the Motorcycle series
·
The Indian in the Cupboard series *
·
Keeping Score
·
Free Baseball
·
The Thing About Luck
·
Tales of Ancient Egypt #
·
Ben and Me
·
The Liberation of Gabriel King
·
Tuck Everlasting
·
In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson
·
Homer Price
·
Hoot
·
Esperanza Rising *
·
The Girl Who Drank the Moon *
·
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang series * #$
·
Detectives in Togas
·
The Swiss Family Robinson $
·
Navigating Early
·
A Wrinkle in Time
·
Sherlock Holmes and the Bakerstreet Irregulars
series
·
My Side of the Mountain series #
·
Greenglass House
·
A Tugging String
·
Just so Stories
·
Grimm’s Fairytales
·
Where the Red Fern Grows
·
The Wild Robot
·
The Borrowers
·
The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet
series
·
A Long Way From Chicago
·
The Penderwicks series
·
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon
·
The Red Pencil
·
Elijah of Buxton *
·
The Witches (or any by Roald Dahl)
·
Nick And Tesla’s High Voltage Danger Lab series
Summer of the Monkeys #
Old Yeller
Finn Family Moomintroll
The Boxcar Children
Pax $
Comic/Graphic Novel
·
Calvin and Hobbes #$
·
The Adventures of Tintin #$
·
Garfield
·
Hazardous Tales series by Nathan Hale #$
NON FICTION
Young Readers Edition books (these are versions of
adult books with the same title that have been adapted for younger readers, if
you search “young readers edition” on amazon, a bunch will come up)
·
Chasing Space $
·
The Disappearing Spoon $
·
The Journey That Saved Curious George
·
Elon Musk and the Quest for a Fantastic Future $
·
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind $
·
Omnivore’s Dilemma $
·
Pay It Forward
·
Irena’s Children $
·
Lion A Long Way Home
·
Hidden Figures
·
The Finest Hours #
·
A Storm Too Soon #
·
Flags of Our Fathers #
·
Wicked Bugs #
·
Wicked Plants #
Biography
·
Little Britches series *
·
Mathematicians are People Too
·
Alexander Hamilton the Outsider
·
All Creatures Great and Small
·
James Herriot’s Treasury for Children
·
Who Was…. series
Other Non-Fiction
·
The Tuttle Twins series
·
Rush Revere series
·
Way To Be! By Gordon B Hinckley
·
Bear Grylls Survival Skills Handbook
Bomb: The Race to Build, and Steal, the World's Most Dangerous Weapon #$
