The List: What I'm reading

So I binged again. It's a problem but I like it and my kids benefit. Here's what I bought:

 The Five Kingdoms: Sky Raiders by Brandon Mull (look at the mouth watering cover. can you taste the adventure?): LOVEd

The Shadow Throne by Jennifer Nielsen (for Lore, I heart this series): LOVED

Spirit Animals: Hunted by Maggie Stiefvater (for Bryn): This series is marketing genius. It has a website where you can do quests with your spirit animal. Bryn LOVED it.

The Twistrose Key by Tone Almhjell (again, the cover): Reading this weekend
I've read them all except The Twistrose Key. Mainly because Lauren got to it first. She's almost 12 and felt like it was too young for her. Bryn's excited to read it after me.

Wings of Fire: The Lost Heir by Tui T. Sutherland (for Bryn): It's okay. Bryn LOVED it. She loves dragons. I'm buying books 3 and 4 for her birthday.

YA:

Panic by Lauren Oliver...I didn't love it. Am I the only one?

What are you reading this weekend?

The List: Favorite Twisted Fairytales for Middle Graders

If your kid likes a twist on a classic fairytale, here is a must read list:

ELLA ENCHANTED by Gail Carson Levine
Goodreads blurb: At birth, Ella is inadvertently cursed by an imprudent young fairy named Lucinda, who bestows on her the "gift" of obedience. Anything anyone tells her to do, Ella must obey. Another girl might have been cowed by this affliction, but not feisty Ella: "Instead of making me docile, Lucinda's curse made a rebel of me. Or perhaps I was that way naturally." When her beloved mother dies, leaving her in the care of a mostly absent and avaricious father, and later, a loathsome stepmother and two treacherous stepsisters, Ella's life and well-being seem to be in grave peril. But her intelligence and saucy nature keep her in good stead as she sets out on a quest for freedom and self-discovery as she tries to track down Lucinda to undo the curse, fending off ogres, befriending elves, and falling in love with a prince along the way. 

HALF UPON A TIME by James Riley
Goodreads blurb: Jack lives in a fantasy world. Really. He's the son of the infamous Jack who stole the magic beans from the giant, and he's working hard to restore his family's reputation. He finds the perfect opportunity when a "princess" lands in front of him, apparently from the land of Punk, as her Punk Princess sweatshirt implies. May is from our world, and she's utterly confused to find herself in the midst of the fairy tale characters she has read about. But Jack and May have more in common than they realize--and together, they embark on a hilarious and wild adventre in this highly accessible, modern middle grade fantasy novel.

THE WIDE AWAKE PRINCESS by E.D. Baker
Goodreads blurb: In this new stand-alone fairy tale, Princess Annie is the younger sister to Gwen, the princess destined to be Sleeping Beauty. When Gwennie pricks her finger and the whole castle falls asleep, only Annie is awake, and only Annie—blessed (or cursed?) with being impervious to magic—can venture out beyond the rose-covered hedge for help. She must find Gwen's true love to kiss her awake.

IN A GLASS GRIMMLY by Adam Gidwitz
Goodreads blurb: Take caution ahead—
Oversize plant life, eerie amphibious royalty, and fear-inducing creatures abound.

Lest you enter with dread.
Follow Jack and Jill as they enter startling new landscapes that may (or may not) be scary, bloody, terrifying, and altogether true.

Step lively, dear reader . . .
Happily ever after isn’t cutting it anymore.

RUMP: THE TRUE STORY OF RUMPELSTILTSKIN by Liesl Shurtliff
Goodreads blurb: In a magical kingdom where your name is your destiny, 12-year-old Rump is the butt of everyone's joke. But when he finds an old spinning wheel, his luck seems to change. Rump discovers he has a gift for spinning straw into gold. His best friend, Red Riding Hood, warns him that magic is dangerous, and she’s right. With each thread he spins, he weaves himself deeper into a curse.

To break the spell, Rump must go on a perilous quest, fighting off pixies, trolls, poison apples, and a wickedly foolish queen. The odds are against him, but with courage and friendship—and a cheeky sense of humor—he just might triumph in the end.

THE FROG PRINCESS by E.D. Baker
Goodreads blurb: Princess Emeralda a.ka. Emma isn't exactly an ideal princess. Her laugh is more like a donkey's bray than tinkling bells, she trips over her own feet and she does not like Prince Jorge, whom her mother hopes she will marry. But if Emma ever thought to escape her troubles, she never expected it to happen by turning into a frog! When convinced to kiss a frog so he might return to being a prince, somehow the spell is reversed and Emma turns into a frog herself! Thus begins their adventure--a quest to return to human form.

THE LAND OF STORIES: THE WISHING SPELL by Chris Colfer
Goodreads blurb: Alex and Conner Bailey's world is about to change, in this fast-paced adventure that uniquely combines our modern day world with the enchanting realm of classic fairy tales. 
"The Land of Stories" tells the tale of twins Alex and Conner. Through the mysterious powers of a cherished book of stories, they leave their world behind and find themselves in a foreign land full of wonder and magic where they come face-to-face with the fairy tale characters they grew up reading about. 
But after a series of encounters with witches, wolves, goblins, and trolls alike, getting back home is going to be harder than they thought.

THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD AND EVIL by Soman Chainani
Goodreads blurb: This year, best friends Sophie and Agatha are about to discover where all the lost children go: the fabled School for Good & Evil, where ordinary boys and girls are trained to be fairy tale heroes and villains. As the most beautiful girl in Gavaldon, Sophie has dreamed of being kidnapped into an enchanted world her whole life. With her pink dresses, glass slippers, and devotion to good deeds, she knows she’ll earn top marks at the School for Good and graduate a storybook princess. Meanwhile Agatha, with her shapeless black frocks, wicked pet cat, and dislike of nearly everyone, seems a natural fit for the School for Evil.

But when the two girls are swept into the Endless Woods, they find their fortunes reversed—Sophie’s dumped in the School for Evil to take Uglification, Death Curses, and Henchmen Training, while Agatha finds herself in the School For Good, thrust amongst handsome princes and fair maidens for classes in Princess Etiquette and Animal Communication.. But what if the mistake is actually the first clue to discovering who Sophie and Agatha really are…?

THE THIEF AND THE BEANSTALK by P.W. Catanese
Goodreads blurb: Everyone knows the story of Jack and the beanstalk. Everyonealso knows that Jack's little adventure made him a very rich man. But what they don't know is what happened a long timeafter Jack....

That's where Nick comes in. Orphaned and desperate, Nick joins a rugged band of thieves in hopes of a warm meal and a little protection. In exchange Nick must help them break into the lavish white castle rumored to belong to an old man named Jack. Legend says it's full of riches from Jack's quest up a magical beanstalk decades ago.

When Nick's dangerous mission leads him straight to Jack, he sees a chance to climb the famed beanstalk himself. But what Nick doesn't know is that things are different from when Jack made his climb. There are new foes at the top now. Ones with cruel weapons and foul plans — plans that could destroy the world as Nick knows it. Will Nick come down the beanstalk a hero? Will he come down at all?

THE CHOCOLATE TOUCH by Patrick Catling
Goodreads blurb: John midas loves chocolate. He loves it so much that he′ll eat it any hour of any day. He doesn′t care if he ruins his appetite. He thinks chocolate is better than any other food! But one day, after wandering into a candy store and buying a piece of their best chocolate, John finds out that there might just be such a thing as too much chocolate. . . .

INTO THE WILD by Sarah Beth Durst
Goodreads blurb: Twelve-year-old Julie has grown up hearing about the dangerous world of fairy tales, The Wild, from which her mother, Rapunzel, escaped.

Now The Wild wants its characters back. Julie comes home from school to find her mother gone and a deep, dark forest swallowing her hometown. Julie must fight wicked witches, avoid glass slippers and fairy godmothers, fly griffins, and outwit ogres in order to rescue her mom and save her Massachusetts town from becoming a fairy-tale kingdom.

RAPUNZEL: THE ONE WITH ALL THE HAIR by Wendy Mass
Goodreads blurb: There are two sides to every story -- even fairy tales. A he said/she said series with a prince and princess twist.

Rapunzel is having the ultimate bad day. She's been stolen from home by an evil witch, locked in an incredibly high tower, and doesn't even have a decent brush for her hair. Prince Benjamin is in a pretty uncomfortable situation himself. His father wants him to be more kingly, his mother wants him to never leave her sight, and his cousin wants to get him into as much trouble as possible. Plus, there's the little matter of prearranged marriages. . . . Both Rapunzel and Prince Benjamin are trapped--in very different ways. It's only when their paths cross, that things really start to change.

FROGGED by Vivian Vande Velde
Goodreads blurb: One should be able to say of a princess “She was as good as she was beautiful,” according to The Art of Being a Princess (third revised edition), which the almost-thirteen-year-old Princess Imogene is supposed to be reading. Not feeling particularly good, or all that beautiful, she heads for a nearby pond, where, unfortunately, a talking frog tricks her into kissing him. No prince appears, as one might expect. Instead, the princess turns into a frog herself! Thus launches a funny, wonderfully spun fractured fairy tale in which Imogene wonders if she will be forever frogified

RAPUNZEL'S REVENGE by Shannon Hale
Goodreads blurb: Once upon a time, in a land you only think you know, lived a little girl and her mother . . . or the woman she thought was her mother.

Every day, when the little girl played in her pretty garden, she grew more curious about what lay on the other side of the garden wall . . . a rather enormous garden wall.

And every year, as she grew older, things seemed weirder and weirder, until the day she finally climbed to the top of the wall and looked over into the mines and desert beyond.

THE HERO'S GUIDE TO SAVING YOUR KINGDOM by Christopher Healy
Goodreads blurb: Prince Liam. Prince Frederic. Prince Duncan. Prince Gustav. You’ve never heard of them, have you? These are the princes who saved Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Snow White, and Rapunzel, respectively, and yet, thanks to those lousy bards who wrote the tales, you likely know them only as Prince Charming. But all of this is about to change.

What's your favorite twisted fairytale?

The List: Fabulous books for Girls who LOVE to read

I have four daughters. These books are a must before they are 12 but definitely not for my boy. This is the order I would introduce them to my girls. Truth be told, Lore is 11 and she's only read half these books. I'm going to need to go to the bookstore....I feel a binge coming on.

Fabulous books for Girls who LOVE to read (Don't torture your boys with these books.) 

1. Ramona the Pest by Beverly Cleary
2. Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
3. Falling In by Frances O'Roark Dowell
4. Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers
5. The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall
6. Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
7. The Secret Garden by Frances Burnett
8. Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery
9. Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan
10. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
11. The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elisabeth Speare
12. Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
13. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
14. Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
15. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin
16. Island of the Blue Dolphins
17. Julie of the Wolves by Jean C. George
18. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor
19. Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
20. Are you There God? It's me, Margaret by Judy Blume

What's your favorite on this list? What other books are great for girls who love to read?

The List: I binged again.

My daughter Lauren officially turned 11. Middle school this year, ack! We of course went book shopping to celebrate. They will all have my sickness by the time they leave for college. It wasn't really a binge because all my girls got a book, I got a few for me, and Lore picked two, right? She's been jones-ing for Inkspell and Inkdeath and the rest of the Ranger's Apprentice (I only have through 7) but when we got to the store, there were too many other choices.

Our book binge on Middle Grade:
The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau (Lauren's Pick)

The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer (Lauren's Pick)

The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke (me)

The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Warner (for Ava)

The School for Good and Evil by Domain Chainani (Everyone wanted this book)

Pandora Gets Frightened  by Carolyn Hennesy (Ava's Pick)

Wings of Fire: The Dragonet Prophecy by Tui T. Sutherland (Bryn's Pick)
Brave (Morgan's Pick Picture book)

My YA musts:

The Elite by Kiera Cass

The False Prince by Jennifer Nielsen

Of all the books, The School for Good and Evil everyone was fighting over who would read it first. And who can blame them, the cover is gorgeous. It makes me drool. Seriously, I'm swallowing spit. Shows the importance of a great cover. It just came out in May. I was drawn to it but read the flap before tucking it under my arm. Bryn and Ava both grabbed it purely on cover and we all laughed that we had picked up 3 copies.

What are your drooling for right now?

The List: Breaking Down the Best 100 Books Of All Time for Reluctant Readers

So there have been a ton of "Best Books Lists" floating around Pinterest. When I opened most of these lists, I realized, I've read the majority of the books and while some of them really are great, certain kids will not want to read them. So I thought I would harness my knowledge of middle grade books and break these lists into what I call the Best Books for Reluctant Readers. I plan to deconstruct or compile a new list every Friday, so check back if you need more recommendations.

First, what is a reluctant reader you (didn't) ask? This is your kid age 8 - 12 that hates to read, sees it as work or a chore, or can't be bothered with boring stories. One of my daughters, age 9, I still consider reluctant because she will put the book down if it doesn't keep her attention. She has started The Lion, The Witch, & The Wardrobe like 3 times and still can't make it to when all the kids are in Narnia. She's seen the movie, she knows it gets good, but the beginning set up in England is way too boring for her. So yeah, CS Lewis isn't going to make this list. Gasp! I'm not saying it isn't a great book, it just isn't for your reluctant reader. You savvy?

So my first list to break down comes from The Children's Book Guide: 100 Best Children's Chapter Books of All-Time.


All-Time Best Books Your Kid Will Actually Finish:
Reluctant Readers (Girls & Boys 7-9)

1. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
2. Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
3. The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo
4. Redwall by Brian Jacques
5. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh by Robert C. O'Brien
6. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
7. Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl
8. The BFG by Roald Dahl
9. Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar
10. A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snickett

Reluctant Readers (Girls 7-9)

1. Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitz...
2. Judy Moody series by Megan McDonald..
3. Matilda by Roald Dahl
4. The Witches by Roald Dahl

Reluctant Readers (Boys & Girls 8-12)

1. Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
2. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo
3. The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks
4. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (and series) by J. K. Rowling
5. Fablehaven by Brandon Mull
6. The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson series) by Rick Riordan
7. The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan (should read Percy Jackson series before starting this series)
8. The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau
9. Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer
10. The 39 Clues series: The Maze of Bones by Rick Riordan
11. The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke
12. Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
13. Holes by Louis Sachar
14. The Hobbit by J.R. Tolkein

Reluctant Readers (Girls 8-12)

1. Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
2. Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
3. When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

Yup, that's it. I know. There are other books I would put on my RR list but I was just deconstructing The Best 100. Sometimes it only takes a few of these RR books to hook your child on reading. When they are ready, have them dive into the list below. I put them in order of how I would introduce them to my kids.


When They are Ready for Something More

1. Stuart Little by EB White
2. The Borrowers by Mary Norton
3. Frindle by Andrew Clements
4. The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
5. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
6. The Boxcar Children by ...
7. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
8. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis 
9. Peter Pan by JM bu...
10. The Neverending Story by Michael Ende
11. The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander
12. The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Stewart
13. The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman
14. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
15. Coraline by Neil Gaiman
16. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
17. Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
18. Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli
19. Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Curtis
20. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
21. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
22. Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
23. Stone Fox by John Gardiner
24. Shiloh by Phyllis Naylor
25. Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt (may be a bit too girl book)
26. The Giver by Lois Lowry
27. The Invention of Hugo Cabret by brian Selznick
28. Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick
29. Number the Stars by Lois Lowry