My letter on Summer Reading sparked the idea to ask my kids what their favorite books were that they would recommend to others. Some are their books that they chose at the store with their own money. Others are books they have chosen from our “assigned Summer Reading.” I didn’t edit the list to communicate what I thought was important, but left the lists exactly as they wrote them, to leave the purity of the child’s desire there, instead of inserting this homeschooling mom’s heart. Though the ages listed are their current ages, some of these “favorites” were read in their younger years.

J.R. (age 11):

• The Land of Stories (Series)
• Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity
• Edward Tulane
• Treasure Hunters (Series)
• The Boys’ Book of How to be the Best at Everything

Christine (age 13)

• Sherlock Holmes Story Collection (free on Kindle)
• Master and Commander
• Artemis Fowl
• The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
• Greenglass House

Nate (age 16)

• John Grisham novels
• The Bible (OK – I added this, but he does read it a lot! haha.)
• Tim Tebow: Through My Eyes
• Mike Lupica (several)
• Brother Band (series)

Casey (age 19)

• Tin Man to Iron Man
• Watership Down
• Soccernomics
• Ranger’s Apprentice (Series)
• Johnny Tremain

I asked my kids for permission to use their names (or if they preferred that I leave their list anonymous), and they all said, “yes,” except one, who clarified:

“You have my permission to use my name in conjunction with all of the aforementioned information, along with any other information that may be prevalent to the purpose of the article, under the condition that I am properly referred to and quoted under all standard blog and MLA guidelines and format.”

..just in case you wondered. 🙂

Since my husband, Chris Brady, is an author along with our close friend and business partner, Orrin Woodward, I didn’t want to miss the chance to plug some of their books which would be great for summer reading, or homeschool curriculum or family book discussions. Here are a few of my favorites from our family’s discussions:

• PAiLS
• Rascal
• A Month of Italy
• Resolved
• Leadershift
• Financial Fitness
• Beyond Financial Fitness

I have one last list to mention! I recently came across the reading list for the Torrey Honors Institute within BIOLA University. Any child or adult could benefit from reading this list of books! Check it out here.

Read well to lead well,

Terri

Related Posts:

• Book Lists for Children
• Developing Kids Who Love to Read
• Summer Reading is Like Underwear