The Next Chapter

Many years ago, when when Oliver was in preschool and Calvin was in 1st grade, the electricity went off one evening and I thought it would be fun to read by candlelight.  I chose The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe off of the bookshelf and I began reading aloud to them.  

This was the first chapter book we had read together, and we enjoyed it so much that we just kept right on reading books together.  As we finished the An Acceptable Time (the final book in the Time Quintet by Madeline L'Engle) just before school started this year, I asked the boys if they thought we should be done reading chapter books together, and they both just kind of shrugged.  It broke my heart a little, but then we thought back to all of the books we'd read over the years, and it made my heart happy again.  These are the books we came up with (and I'm sure we missed a few):

1)  The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

 2) Charlotte’s Web

           3) Because of Winn-Dixie

           4) Freckle Juice

      5) The Hatchet

          6) The River

     7) Brian’s Winter

        8) Brian’s Hunt

      9) James and the Giant Peach

       10) Matilda

       11) The BFG

       12) Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh

       13) Racso and the Rats of Nimh

       14) R.T., Margaret, and the Rats of Nimh

       15) Ramona Quimby, Age 8

       16) Henry Huggins

       17) Super Fudge

       18) The Wind in the Willows

       19) The Jungle Book

       20) Where the Red Fern Grows

       21) The Summer of the Monkeys

     22) The Mouse and the Motorcycle

       23) Little House in the Big Woods

       24) Little House on the Prairie

       25) Stuart Little

       26) Sounder

       27) Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective

       28) Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

       29) The Lawn Boy

       30) A Wrinkle in Time

       31) A Wind in the Door

       32) A Swiftly Tilting Planet

       33) Many Waters

       34) An Acceptable Time

       35) Bunnicula

      36) The Indian in the Cupboard

       37) The Secret of the Indian

       38) The Return of the Indian

       39) The Key to the Indian

       40) The Secret Garden

 There were so many great books in there!  Many of them I'd read as a child, but there were also lots that were new to me.  Thanks to our wonderful librarian, Becky, we discovered that we LOVE Gary Paulsen.  And we discovered that the Rats of Nimh and The Indian in the Cupboard were actually parts of series, which were probably our favorite series books.  I loved the time we were able to spend reading, but I also knew the time would eventually come when they would be too old.  The good news, though?  I've got more kids!  Although Violet isn't ready to sit and listen to chapter books yet, Evelyn was really excited to check out her first chapter book to read with mommy.  And I'm excited to read some more of the Little House on the Prairie books!  My boys weren't so interested in these and we only got through two of them.  I have a feeling Evie will love them.

We read Next Spring an Oriole first, and then read a book about a runaway kitten.  I had to laugh as we were reading the kitten book while sitting on the couch, and I looked up to see Calvin AND Oliver listening intently.  Maybe they aren't so old after all. . .