Toys Go Out by Emily Jenkins

I read this book out loud with Dane when he was in preschool and I thought Lucy would love it too, and we managed to read it together before our trip. (I have done a terrible job of reading chapter books to Lucy! It makes me so sad! But I kind of felt like it was reading lessons or chapter books this year and I went with the reading lessons.) But she loved this one and I thought it was super cute and fun to read together. 

Adam of the Road by Elizabeth Janet Gray

This was purely a Newbery read and I kind of struggled through it. But I think this could have been a book I actually enjoyed when I was a kid. It tells the story of a boy in medieval times who follows his dad who is a minstrel--and ends up getting lost and losing his dog and needing to find his way back to his dad and his dog. It is a journeying story and I think it was a great book about medieval times and what it was like back then--probably the least depressing of the medieval books I've read. But it still felt a little like a slog to me at times. I thought that Adam was a great character who found joy and determination at good times and I would be happy for my kids to read this one. \]

King of the Wind: The Story of the Godolphin Arabian by Marguerite Henry

I read this because it was a Newbery winner--but honestly, I did not enjoy it all that much. A lot of the reviews on Goodreads are from people who loved it as children because they were horse girls who were obsessed with horses and horse books. I honestly read Black Beauty as a child and loved it, but not really any other horse books, and I also have a hard time imagining any kid that would like this book. It was the story of a horse who became a famous racer and winning many races against long odds and not being favored. I kind of struggled through this and was glad to finally check it off. 

Dicey's Song by Cynthia Voigt

This book is the 2nd in a longer series about the Tillerman family, and our library didn't have the first book available. I usually like to read at least the books that lead up to a book in a series, but since I didn't have that option here, I just read this one by itself and still was able to appreciate it. It tells the story about a girl, the oldest in her family, who had to help her siblings find their grandma to take care of them after their mom abandoned them. The story starts with them living in their grandma's house and adjusting to their new life and figuring out how to trust and love again and live normal lives as children. I loved Dicey's character--so proud and independent and caring for her siblings. I thought this was a great choice for the Newbery and I think this is one I would have liked also as a kid. 

Shen of the Sea: Chinese Stories for Children by Arthur Chrisman Bowie

I couldn't think of anything else other than "cultural appropriation" the whole time I was reading this. It feels like a book that would never in a million years be published today: fake "folktales" about a culture that the author does not belong to. Many of them were just perpetuating false stereotypes about Chinese people. Several of the stories were cute, but it was just not a great read. It's easy to see how much the Newbery Award (and our own culture) has evolved since this time. 

Betsy-Tacy by Maud Hart Lovelace

I read this out loud with Lucy and loved it so much. It was really wonderful to read this out loud. She loved Betsy and Tacy and all of their adventures. 

Ramona and her Father by Beverly Cleary

Another successful read-aloud of Ramona with Graham and Lucy. They both love it and were so excited to go on to the next one together. It's interesting how some of the things in this book feel so dated--like how her dad is a smoker (I don't know that anyone would have a dad who smokes in a children's book any more) and it is crazy and kind of sad that her dad finally gets a job as a checker at the grocery store and it's the best news that they've gotten all year. Nowadays that would not be enough to support his family. 

Ramona the Brave by Beverly Cleary

Once again, re-reading Ramona with Graham and Lucy. I actually got choked up at one part in this book, where Ramona is so angry and upset that she's crying face-down on the couch, and her mom comes over and says, "Ramona, what are we going to do with you?" And Ramona says, "Love me!" That was just such a poignant answer, especially now as a parent where I've had my children doing that same thing, throwing that same tantrum and having a meltdown--and just seeing that they're begging for love. Ramona feels so real to me. 

Ramona the Pest by Beverly Cleary

I realized that Graham had never heard the Ramona books before, so I started reading these to him and Lucy. They absolutely love them. They are always begging me to read one more chapter to them. The thing I love about Ramona is how real her emotions are and how relatable. I think she and Graham are really similar in their personalities so I love him being able to listen to her story. These are some of my favorite read-alouds. 

Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes

Like I've said before, I'm not a dog person, and many of the Newbery winners seems to be about dogs. (What is that about?) I kind of put off reading Ginger Pye after I got it and saw the cover and saw, yep, it's a dog book. It had been sitting on my bedside stand for forever. But I finally plowed through it, and it was actually much cuter than I expected it to be. It had the episodic, small-town, old-timey, feel-good feel of the books my grandma would have had at her house when I was a kid, and it was really a sweet story about a family who gets a puppy and falls in love with him, until he gets stolen and they can't find him. They spend at least half of the book looking for Ginger and missing him before he's miraculously found again. This is one I probably would have loved a lot more when I was younger, but it was sweet enough that I didn't hate it reading it now as an adult. 

Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson

I grabbed this one off my stack of Newbery winners that I have by my bedside stand because it was the shortest and looked like the quickest--and it was incredibly quick; it only took me about one and a half hours to get through. But I actually really enjoyed it as well. This is one that I feel like I would buy to keep on our shelves because it was so cute and sweet. The story is about a community of small animals that live on a hill with a vacant house, and they learn that a family of humans is moving into the house, and they're worried that they are going to be humans who use traps or guns or dogs to get them. All of the animals have such distinctive personalities and funny ways of talking, and it's just a really cute story about all the things the animals hope the humans will be like, and how they end up exceeding all of their wildest dreams. The illustrations were really well done as well, and the ending was very sweet. Definitely a fun one and I'm glad I found it.

The Cat Who Went to Heaven by Elizabeth Coatsworth

This was a tiny, very short Newbery award winner about a poor Japanese painter who got a chance to paint the Buddha for his town's temple. As he paints, he thinks about all of the stories about the Buddha he knows. I thought the stories about the Buddha were incorporated very smoothly and I enjoyed learning more about the Buddha and his life. But once again, I don't see any child reading this and enjoying it. I'm sure there are some out there who would want to read it--maybe I would have as a kid. But only if I'd accidentally stumbled across it and started reading it and gotten sucked in without anyone telling me what it was about. I would have never chosen to read it.

Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder

I finished reading this to Graham and we both just loved this book so much. Farmer Boy is so great because it just goes into so much detail about what life on a farm was like for people living back then, and I feel like it is so healthy for our kids--and for us--to appreciate how much work they had and what we should be grateful now. I'm always telling my kids how they should be grateful that they don't have to sit and be silent all day on Sundays because of Laura Ingalls Wilder's books. 

The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare

I had this book on my bedside stand for months, meaning to read it, and I am finally clearing off the books on my bedside stand and got through this one. This is about a boy in the 1700s (or earlier?) in Maine, who is left for the summer to guard his family's new cabin while his father goes to their old home to get his mom and sister to bring them back. He becomes friends with a Native American boy who lives nearby and learns all sorts of tricks for survival in the Maine woods. I thought this book did a good job of humanizing the Native Americans, but it also had some problematic stereotypes which probably would have been edited out if it were being written today. I think this one would appeal to my boys though because of the survival aspect and the exciting scenes like where they fight a bear. This one isn't a Newbery Award winner, although it did win a Newbery Honor and I thought it was worth reading because Speare wrote two other Award winners.

The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill

I've had this book on my to-read list for over THREE YEARS, and I've checked it out from the library at least five times. And even once I started, it took me so long to read it. And I REALLY liked it! I don't know what was my issue with this book, because it was cute, and loving, and magical--for some reason, I just couldn't get through it. It's obviously meant for middle-grade readers, which is probably my problem. But I bet Dane would love it. I might check it out for him. The book is about Luna, a girl who is given magical powers when she accidentally drinks the moon as an infant, and a lot of other different characters who come together throughout the book. There's a tiny dragon, a swamp monster, a witch, an insane woman, and some very good people who work together to defeat the bad people. I thought the message about the Sorrow Eater was really pertinent--she had so much sorrow within that she spent her whole life (centuries) trying to make everyone else sorrowful. 

Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes

I feel like this book would be a great read-aloud book with the boys, especially if you're trying to learn about American history. A good Fourth of July book, maybe. I read this because it was a Newbery winner, but I actually enjoyed it a bit more than I was expecting. I definitely got caught up in it, and I could see boys who had learned about Paul Revere and the Boston Tea Party in school being so excited about this book. There were a few things that dated it--a negative reference to black people really turned me off--but it was written in 1942. Otherwise, it stands up and is a great illustration of what life was like in Boston during the lead-up to the American Revolution. I felt like I was there, the details were so well-done and thorough. 

Juana and Lucas and Juana and Lucas: Big Problemas by Juana Medina

I had heard several times about this cute early chapter book and finally checked it out to read with Graham. We read both books in just a day each (they are so short--each only took us about an hour) and both of us loved them. They are so cute, about a little girl named Juana living in Colombia, who has to learn English in the first one and whose mom is getting married in the second one. I thought Juana was such a sweet character (clearly autobiographical based on the author) and it was so great reading a book set in South America, with a normal little girl living a normal life, learning English and doing things that our kids do. Graham said he wants to go to Bogota after reading this, which I never had considered doing until reading this book too, but Juana makes it sound magical! It was absolutely darling and gets bonus points for adding diversity to our bookshelf. I want to buy them and keep them at our house. 

Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle by Betty MacDonald

We listened to this on audiobook on our drive to California and then finished it on our way home to Texas. The boys both loved it. I love how silly Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle is, and how many fun adventures she has, and how magical she seems. It's such a fun book for kids. I want to read the sequels with the boys. 

By the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder

I was tempted to skip this book in our reading aloud of the Little House books, because it's always seemed kind of forgettable to me. No iconic scenes like the grasshoppers eating everything or Pa building a house from scratch. But we decided to read it and I'm glad we did. The boys really enjoyed the details about the railroad and how the railroad was being built. They just really enjoy everything about these books. We had five chapters left in it this morning, and I read them while they played with Legos, and as soon as we finished they yelled, "LET'S START THE NEXT ONE!" They really loved it and I am super glad we read it. But I am really looking forward to The Long Winter because that one has always stuck in my memory.

The Voyages of Dr. Dolittle by Hugh Lofting

I was so confused while reading most of this book, because I definitely had strong memories of reading a book about Doctor Dolittle as a kid, and some of the things in this book rang some bells in my head, but I definitely didn't remember this story. I didn't realize until afterwards that the book that we had when I was younger was The Stories of Dr. Dolittle, the prequel to this one. This one was written a few years after, but had a few references to things from that book--I strongly remembered the "pushmi-pullyu," a two-headed animal he discovered in Africa, and the parrot Polynesia and the gorilla Chee-Chee. This book was different because it was narrated by a nine-year-old boy who becomes the doctor's assistant and goes on a journey to Brazil with him, where they visit a floating island and become a part of a tribe living there for a few months. As a kid, I think the most appealing part of this story is Dr. Dolittle's ability to talk the languages of the animals. That is definitely true in this book as well; the animals become major characters in the story and have strong personalities. However, reading this book as an adult, it's hard to ignore the imperialism and the negative attitudes towards people of other races and countries. Dr. Dolittle becomes this white savior for the natives living on this floating island--he teaches them how to make fire and they make him their king because they think he is so amazing... it's a little hard to swallow in today's day and age. I don't know that this is one I would read to my kids; I feel like it would take a lot of explanation to make me feel good about it. But that's what happens with books that are 100 years old.