All the Reading

Reading is really the best way to avoid the world. It was true when I was a kid, and it's true now. Want some escapism? Read a book. Everything turns out all right in the end. So heart warming after reflecting on what is going on in the world. Never do I appreciate books as much as I do in times like these.

The last few months, I've been reading a lot out loud actually. To the girls; mostly to Sophie. After the last post on reading, I did go on to read some Narnia with the girls. I started with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which they both liked, and then I went with The Magician's Nephew. This book is a fair bit slower paced than that most famous of the Narnia Collection, so it was tougher to get through. We also noticed Rachel doesn't quite have the stickability as Sophie does with sitting around listening to chapter books, so I ended up just reading most of it to Sophie.

After that, we did The Horse and His Boy, which I really enjoyed too, and we referred to the map at the start constantly. That's something I've never done before, but was really helpful for Sophie, especially since we'd only read a chapter or two a night and then have to recap before we started again the next night.

After this, I thought we would give Narnia a break. I did some research on books that I thought might be good for Sophie to start reading herself. Even though reading with kids is absolutely my weak spot, and something I will pretty much drop everything else for, I was wanting her to develop her own confidence with longer books too. I ended up purchasing the following books.

Tuesdays at the Castle by Jessica Day George
The Kindom of Wrenly; the Lost Stone by Jordan Quinn
Fortunately the Milk by Neil Gaiman
Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

Some of them were a little beyond her, others were a good middle ground for us to take turns reading, and others were spot on. I enjoyed all of them.

We started with Tuesdays at the Castle, which was good for me to read to her, but the story line turned out to be a little political. I can see Sophie liking it in a another three or four years, so not a bad investment, just a little early. We made it half way before we moved on to The Kingdom of Wrenly which was spot on for Sophie. Chapters with pictures, easy to follow story with no scary bad guys, but enough trouble to keep you interested. This is a great book for introducing young readers to fantasy they can read themselves. We loved it.

Fortunately the Milk was next up, and a pretty great tale, even if the time travel was a bit much for a seven year old to follow along with. I've put Ella Enchanted on the shelf for now, because I think it will fall in the same realm as Tuesdays at the Castle. Sophie is keen for it though, so maybe soon.

The next thing we started was Tashi. The Tashi books are short stories with illustrations written by an Australian author. My wonderful Godmother had given Sophie a set and we picked up another at the lifeline bookfest earlier in the year. They are full of mythical creatures, dragons, ghosts and demons, as well as your typical "bad guys"; the evil Baron, the wicked Lord, the witch in the forest. Tashi always comes out on top though, through some clever trick or kindness.

Each Tashi book has two stories in it, so we've read 24 Tashi stories all up. Plus one that Rachel spontaneously brought home from the Library at school (the week before we started actually!) These were shorter, so I was reading them to both girls most days, and they couldn't get enough.

As far as what I've been reading, a new street library opened up near us, on our daily walk to school route. Oh, how I love our community. I picked up The Book Thief by Markus Zusack and The Airman by Eion Colfer. Both of these were great reads.

One of my day care families lent me a book called Flyaway by Kathleen Jennings. I was about a third of the way through before I realised it was an Australian Gothic novel. Not my usual choice for reading, but by then I was committed, so I kept going. It was easy to read, and fairly short, but not something I'll be pick up again.

Then I was graciously allowed to borrow the first five books of the Wings of Fire series by one of the kids at our church. For me, not really the intended audience, they are snack reading I guess. Easy, light, but delicious. The world building and description of each type of Dragon is really well thought out and believable. My only complaint is that at times, they dragons act like humans (raising their "talons" to show they are harmless!) but I don't think I'd have noticed as a 12 year old, and given that I'm not the intended audience, I can let it slide.

Now I'm not sure what will be next. I suppose with the girls it's time to go back to Narnia and read the fourth instalment. Given that I'm starting my last term of Family Day Care this week, maybe I won't have as much time to read for a while anyway. Such a shame. Some days, reading is life.