Classic Kids Book List That EVERY Child Needs: Three

This is part three in the series as the booklists I have to share are VERY long.  Keep checking in for new lists. Some of these books you may or may not recognize from your own childhood.  One thing I love about book lists is being reminded of good books I may have forgotten about.  Time to rekindle some pleasant memories and make new ones with our children today.

Here is the next book list:


Series Books:
Mist of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry (and other sequels)
Betsy Tacy by Maud Halt (10 in series)
The Borrowers Series by Mary Norton
The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall
Uncle Wiggily by Howard Roger Garis
Flower Fairy book series by Federick Warne
Time Warp Trio by Jon Scieska (13 in the series)
A Child's Story of the Book of Mormon (series for those who are LDS)


Read Aloud Suggestions:
Phantom Tollbooth- Norton Juster (Just in time for Halloween)

Good Reading:
Dragon of the Lonely Island by Rebecca Rupp
The Story of Holly and Ivy by Rumor Godden (Good for Christmas)
Moffats by Eleanor Estes
The Middle Moffat by Eleanor Estes
Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
Flat Stanley by Tomi Ungerer



TJED is based on Classically based books and mentoring. Start buying and reading the suggested books and see which ones will work for you and your family library. For those who missed where I got these book lists, I received from a good friend who is well versed in classic books for kids and has a house filled with bookshelves full of classic books for children.  Several afternoons she had me come and copy down the titles so I could start my collection.  Thank you, Linda!  Happy reading, everyone!

Classic Kids Book List That EVERY Child Needs: Two

This is part two in the series as the booklists I have to share are VERY long.  Keep checking in for new lists. Some of these books you may or may not recognize from your own childhood.  One thing I love about book lists is being reminded of good books I may have forgotten about.  Time to rekindle some pleasant memories and make new ones with our children today.

Here is the next book lists:

Series Books:

Berenstain Bears by Stan and Jan
Bear Books Karma Wilson
Weekly Readers book series (the old ones)
The Littles by John Peterson

Good Reading:

Rikki Tikki Tavi by Rudyard Kipling
*Raggedy Ann Stories by Johnny Gruelle
Raggedy Andy Stories by Johnny Gruelle
Floss by Kim Lewis
Just Like Floss by Kim Lewis
Dumpy by Julie Andrews Edwards
My Love For You by Susan Roth
The Girl Who Loved Horses by Paul Goble (An Indian story)
Degas and the Dance by Susan Rubin

Board Books:

Julie Merberg

Books by Author:

Lewis, Kim
Ehlert, Lois (artist)
Kellogg, Steven (artist)

Tate, Suzanne (Especially because shes is NC born and lives in the outer banks of NC -Nag's Head)


*Did you Know?

"Gruelle created Raggedy Ann for his daughter, Marcella, when she brought him an old hand-made rag doll and he drew yupa face on it. From his bookshelf, he pulled a book of poems by James Whitcomb Riley, and combined the names of two poems, "The Raggedy Man" and "Little Orphant Annie." He said, "Why don’t we call her Raggedy Ann?"

Marcella died at age 13 after being vaccinated at school for smallpox without her parents' consent. Authorities blamed a heart defect, but her parents blamed the vaccination. Gruelle became an opponent of vaccination, and the Raggedy Ann doll was used as a symbol by the anti-vaccination movement." (Source: Wikipedia)

TJED is based on Classically based books and mentoring. Start buying and reading the suggested books and see which ones will work for you and your family library. For those who missed where I got these book lists, I received from a good friend who is well versed in classic books for kids and has a house filled with bookshelves full of classic books for children.  Several afternoons she had me come and copy down the titles so I could start my collection.  Thank you, Linda!  Happy reading, everyone!

Flat Travelers

A girlfriend of mine introduced me to the Flat Travelers Homeschool group online.  It sounded like so much fun! Here is the posted explanation straight from the group's page:

"This idea is based on the book "Flat Stanley".

A Flat Traveler is a person, animal or thing made out of paper. You print or draw your Traveler, laminate it and then mail it along with a blank journal to someone in another area, state or country. The host family treats your Flat Traveler as a guest and takes it places they go. After a short time your Flat Traveler is mailed back to you along with a completed journal and perhaps some photos, postcards and/or souvenirs. You look over your Flat Travelers journey and plot it on a map. Some families keep a scrapbook with all their journals, souvenirs and photos inside.

Some families send out one Flat Traveler and other families send out dozens! You can make this project as simple or as detailed as you like. This is a fun way to learn about geography and history among many other subjects!

This group has been formed to give homeschool families a group of participants to contact world wide. As a member of this group you should be prepared to host Flat Travelers from other families as well."

What a fun and educational project to do, especially for homeschooling families! :)

Libraries with No Books

A few days ago, I read an online article on The Boston Globe by David Abel. The article was explaining how the New England prep school the Cushing Academy is riding their entire library of our 20,000 books and replacing it with digital screens, places for laptops, etc.

The first question that entered my mind was how the library cannot invite the digital books and books online along with the books? I’m all for the convenience of modern technology, but there are many things that technology cannot completely take the place of without consequences and one of those is books. What has been working well for centuries shouldn’t just end because one generation found an invention they liked better.

It was mentioned in the article that the staff of Cushing believe it is the start of a new era. The problems I foresee, aside from losing the pure love of books, are what if there was a power surge? What about the effects on the eyes as people do more reading on a computer screen? Like the television the computer screen can affect the brain waves as well. The author also pointed out various other problems with digital "books" such as sand, liquids and the cost of accessing the materials as many of the materials online are not free.

I'm also not in agreement with the library bringing in a coffee shop containing and encouraging the use of legally addictive stimulants for youth. Not just any coffee shop mind you, but a $50,000 coffee shop that will include a $12,000 cappuccino machine.

We travel an hour away to go to libraries in a large city nearest us. We have access to almost twenty libraries that inter-loan. I cannot imagine not being able to browse through the shelves, picking out books that catch my eye. Sometimes the spiral bound cookbooks are my favorites to browse, or books that are warn on the covers and pages dog-earring showing me that this was a well-read and well-loved book.

I write ebooks and articles, most of which are featured online. That still doesn’t replace the value of a book in my mind. Call me old fashioned but I love a book, a real book.

-Shiloah B.


Photo of old books by:  Ivan Vicencio (Pepo)