I am a huge fan of Esme' Raji Codell, author of How to Get Your Child to Love Reading, an amazing book geared to give book advice and inspiration for both "ravenous and reluctant readers alike". Codell created a masterpiece for anyone wanting to pick the best book for a child from birth to 18.
Kids in our house always receive books for gifts, especially at Christmas.
She created the following list that answers the question,
"If my child were about to leave grade school, what would I hope they would have in their hearts?"
As I mentioned earlier, I am a grant writer and I have a special passion for writing grants on the importance of reading and literacy. As a mom, I love spending time reading with my kids. Reading aloud is an amazing opportunity to not only bond with your child but it can serve as a powerful example that will echo through future generations.
Finding the right book to read can be just like finding the right mate...well, maybe a bit easier, as there are SO many options for great books, especially for reluctant readers. Reading motivation typically wanes when it becomes a chore and when youth no longer are reading the "right" books to motivate and inspire.
Esme's list (for which we are still working through in a mad rush before middle and high school) includes the following must-read books that all kids should read before they are thirteen.
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken
Tim All Alone by Edward Ardizzone
The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynn Reid Banks
The House with a Clock in Its Walls by John Bellairs
The Wish Giver by Bill Brittain (a family favorite)
Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown
The Quiltmaker's Gift By Jeff Brumbeau
Ida Comes Early Over the Mountain by Robert Burch
The Stories Julian Tells by Ann Cameron
The Devil and Mother Crump by Valerie Carey
Beezus and Ramona by Beverly Cleary
Frindle by Andrew Clements
Love that Dog by Sharon Creech
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
The Watsons Go to Birmingham, 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis
The Twits by Roald Dahl
D'Auilaires' Book of Greek Myths
The House of Sixty Fathers by Meindert DeJong
The Wheel on the School by Meindert DeJong
The Empty Pot by Demi
Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles by Julie Andrews Edwards
The Birchbark House by Louise Erdich
The Hundred Dresses by Elanor Estes
How Does It Feel to Be Old by Norma Farber
A Little Bookroom by Elanor Farjeon
Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
The Great Brain by John D. Fitzgerald
Half-A-Moon Inn by Paul Fleischman
Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner
Even A Little is Something by Tom Glass
The Iron Giant by Ted Hughes
The Bat-Poet by Randall Jarell
Mowgli's Brothers by Rudyard Kipling
Talking to the Sun by Kenneth Koch and Kate Farrell
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg (a favorite from my own youth)
King Matt the First by Janusz Korczak
Trouble in Bugland by William Kotzwinkle
Ella Enchanted by Gail Caron Levine
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren
Afternoon of the Elves by Janet Taylor Lisle
In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson by Bette Bao Lord
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin
One Thousand and One Arabian Nights by Geraldine McCaughrean
Shiloh by Phyllis Naylor
The Land I Lost by Huynh Quang Nhuong
Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pene du Bois
...(To Be Continued)
Happy Reading!
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