Books to read aloud

Here is a list of the books I’ve read aloud to the family. I have a variety of ages, and from four to twelve they listen when I read aloud in the car or at home. In their teen years, they don’t listen to every book. 🙂

You can see from the list that we like adventure, magic, and especially books in a series.

All The Mad Scientists Club books by Bertrand Brinley

All the Redwall books by Brian Jacques (20 out of the 21; the next one is on our list).

All the Septimus Heap books by Angie Sage (six and counting).

Cheaper by the Dozen and Belles on Their Toes by Frank Gilbreth and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey. With eight kids in our own family, this is especially appealing. We also liked Ten P’s in a Pod by Arnold Pent III.

The Ranger’s Apprentice books by John Flanagan (we’ve read 7 of the 9).

Peter and the Starcatchers series by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson. We haven’t read The Sword of Mercy; the older girls read it and said it was a little too scary for the littles.

Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Richard Atwater (Brenda read this one).

Savvy by Ingrid Law.

The Chronicles of Prydain series by Lloyd Alexander.

The Brill and the Dragators series by Peggy Downing (Brenda read this series, too).

I’ll add more as I think of them.

A twenty year date

Brenda took me to see A Christmas Carol this holiday season. The production at the Missouri Rep was absolutely wonderful. The story was as fresh as when I first saw it there as a child.

As we watched Ebenezer Scrooge undergo his transformation from selfish miser to generous patron, I was asking God to give me the same heart — hopefully without the ghostly visions.

This wasn’t the first time Brenda and I saw this production. Christmas of 1998 we had our first official date at the same theater, seeing the same play. She bought tickets to this year’s performance to celebrate the twenty years we’ve been together.

So, here’s to a great twenty years, and twenty more to come, and twenty more after that….

Heaven

So I’m driving down the highway, and I see a billboard advertising a resort just a few hours away. There’s a picture of a guy golfing, and he’s saying something like this: “My wife’s at the spa, the kids are at the playground, and I’m in heaven.” What?

I just got back from a three-week family vacation to the east coast: Williamsburg, Jamestown, Wash DC, NYC, Philadelphia, and points in between. I would absolutely not have traded it for anything, especially a holiday where the various family members are shipped off to different venues. A vacation is where you don’t see your family? What’s up with that?

I can understand that we all need some time to recharge, but to advertise a vacation spot where you don’t actually have to spend time with your own family members….well, that doesn’t sound much like heaven to me. “Something for everyone” is good, but a separate “something for everyone” — not so much.