Books can save lives!
The lunatics are about to start running the asylum. This time comes every single year, and is better known as "Summer Vacation". Parents lose their patience, energy and MINDS as these raggity, dirty-footed like things start screeching their fool selves through houses morning, noon and night. It's a surprise that we don't start to see an increase in older child adoption around mid-July every year. I have a friend who has two "spirited" children (the third is still the apple of her eye, as he has yet to walk or talk. It's only a matter of time before he's ripe for killin' as well) who are about to take over the household. As a stay-at-home mom, she wont get the respite of going to work (you know it's bad when dragging your ass to work at 9am every morning seems like a vacation). In anticipation of the loss of her sanity, I received this text from her: Dear Lady, I want you to write a blog post recommending classic books for fatheaded children, namely a 10 year old who will be up my ass all summer... ... He's trying to schlog his way through A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court and is trying to tell me he doesn't like books with a lot of pages like that [BW&R Note: tough shit]. I said "Bullshit. You read all the Harry Potter books, dummy". And he says "Yeah, but there's always a mystery to solve." So there you have it, Harry Potter is Scooby Doo in literary form... So... To save the life of a rambunctious 10 year old (and also the life of an adorable nut-job 8 year old), I must post a list of reading material that will keep mama from going all Andrea Yates (too soon?) on their adorable little hineys. Dear God... THE PRESSURE! This list is a combination of classics and modern publications... but most are books that changed my life when I was about that age. These are the books that started my love of reading and I am so thankful that I had teachers who introduced me to these gems. I believe that all children should read these books before they begin the escalation into the arrogance and obnoxiousness of their teen years. 1. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson 2. My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier 3. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle 4. The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster 5. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh by Robert C. O'Brien 6. From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg 7. Hatchet by Gary Paulsen 8. Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia McLachlan 9. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving 10. The Giver by Lois Lowry 11. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll 12. Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner 13. The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel by Michael Scott 14. The Cay by Theodore Taylor 15. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain Happy summer reading, Pete!