10 books you must read (giveaway too)

Posted by AmyS | 0 comments

Charlotte Mason once said, “Children come into the world with a natural appetite for all the material of knowledge.” Great stories and books can help to feed this natural desire and develop a love of learning. Living books, as Charlotte Mason liked to call them, will encourage a child to lose himself in an imaginary land. A happy child is the one whose imagination can take him anywhere.

The magical places, intriguing characters, and historical adventures found in living books help to develop creativity and an excitement about learning. Textbooks lack this necessary imagery and can be partly responsible for crushing a child’s love of reading. We’ve all heard the stories about the young child who struggles with the challenge of learning to read. Most likely the book he is reading just doesn’t inspire him. But give him a book about knights or pirates or even insects, and watch his literacy take off. Below are 10 great books that every grade school child should read.

• The Borrowers by Mary Norton. This is the classic story of a family of tiny people, who live under a kitchen floor and get their livelihood by borrowing from the “human beans.”
• The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner. In this series, which now encompasses over 120 books, four orphaned children start a new life of independence in an abandoned boxcar.
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. This is the delectable story of the adventures of the five Gold Ticket winners inside the chocolate factory of eccentric candymaker Willy Wonka.
• Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White. A heart warming story of the beautiful friendship between a spider and pig.
• The Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis. A series of 7 books set in the magical land of Narnia, where humans sometimes enter through port-holes and interact with the great lion Aslan and other talking animals and mythical creatures.
• The Complete Tales of Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne. The precious adventures of the inhabitants of the Hundred Acre Wood.
• The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks. This book tells about the unusual friendship of a young boy and a plastic Indian figure that comes to life after being locked in a magical cabinet.
• Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling. A set of hilarious short stories that tell of “how things came to be,” such as How the Camel Got its Hump and How the Leopard Got His Spots
• Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder. The books written by Laura Ingalls Wilder tell of her childhood memories after moving to Indian Territory in the mid 1800’s.
• Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Richard Atwater. The comical story of a painter who receives a special gift from a South Pole explorer.

Congratulations to Summer for being the winner of this giveaway!

In addition to reading aloud to your children every day, you should have them read to you. A good place to begin is with the classic early reader series Dick and Jane. Generations of children learned to read with Dick, Jane, Sally, Puff and Spot. We have a set of six of these beloved stories from William S. Gray to give away to one lucky reader! To enter, simply leave a comment by Friday, January 2nd at 10pm EST.

Amy is a devoted wife, Classical homeschooling mom to a six-year-old Superhero and the co-owner of Heart of the Matter. She has a passion for genealogy and is aspiring to be a Proverbs 31 lady. Be sure to visit her blog at Milk and Cookies.