Princess’ Fall ’09 Reading List

Wow, y’all really came through on all the book suggestions – and I just want to say a BIG thank you to everyone who pitched in when I asked for help. Y’all rock. The best tip was from Juliana who told me about Scholastic’s Teacher Book Wizard which allows you to search by reading level, interest level, genre or subject. Princess and I sat down with my laptop, the book wizard and y’alls suggestions and right now we have 22 saved to our list.

I’ve chosen 10 for her to read during our first school term (September 1st thru November 28th) and if she gets them completed before then she’ll get a reward at the end. I haven’t decided exactly WHAT yet but I have a few good ideas in mind. And lest you think – that’s A LOT of reading for a 9 year old girl!! Bear in mind that she not only loves to read, but our current bedtime routine calls for her sister going to bed in their room first while she stays up to read until Drama Queen is asleep. That’s at least a half hour of reading every night. Also add to that the fact that Big Daddy has instituted a Reading 4 Computer Time system (earning a minute of PC time for every minute of reading) and well, she has all the incentive she needs right there.

Here’s Princess’ Fall ’09 Reading List:

1. 101 Dalmatians by Dodie Smith
2. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
3. Aquamarine by Alice Hoffman
4. The Bad Beginning (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book 1) by Lemony Snicket
5. The Black Stallion by Walter Farley
6. The Borrowers by Mary Norton
7. Hound of the Baskervilles Arthur Conan Doyle and Janice Greene
8. Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder
9. The Secret Garden Francis Hodgson Burnett
10. The Secret of the Old Clock by Carolyn Keene

I already have #’s 9 & 10, I’m pretty sure I also have #1 and #5 – all of them in a box of books stored from my youth. Admittedly, most of them are Nancy Drew hardbacks. I devoured Nancy Drew hardbacks. The rest we’ll pick up from our public library if we can and if not, order them from Amazon or ebay. Of the list above, I haven’t read #s 2,3,4,6 and 8 – but all of them are well recommended (except the mermaid book, which she picked out because she likes mermaids.)

Of course, I’m going to make a chart, and of course she gets to choose the order. We’ll see how this first list goes and see if ten proves too many for one nine year old in one 3 month school quarter, but I don’t think it will be.  She reads well and fairly quickly so we’ll see. There’s only a week left until school starts and then we’ll get this show on the road!