Summer Reading Goals-The 1000 Good Book List

This summer, we are participating in our library's summer reading program.  The challenge is to read (or listen to) at least 25 books this summer.  Well, we are upping that challenge and going for 25 books each week.  For listening, they receive library bucks to buy prizes.  They also get a free pass to the local pool, a day at a local indoor play-scape, and a free pizza if they work hard enough!

The only catch, is that the books MUST be checked out from the library.  You can't pull from your own shelves at home.  Soooo, that has changed a little bit of our summer school book reading.  I had to decide at a pretty quick notice which books to check out for this week and decided not to go with a theme or a subject.  Asking the kids (Charger and Mini Cooper) to pick out books was kinda painful in that we would have read all Clifford, Dora and Thomas.  While I did let them take ONE of each, I needed another plan.

Thankfully, I remembered a WONDERFUL source of books that I decided to pull from.  The 1000 Good Book List from the Classical Christian Education Support Loop.  I decided just to go in order from the top, skipping any books we 1) had already read, 2) owned (had to check these out), 3) were about holidays, or 4) the library didn't have.

The books we pulled for this week are:

Always Room for One More by Sorche Nic Leodhas
Animals of Farmer Jones by Richard Scarry
Animals Should Defiantly NOT Wear Clothing by Judi Barrett
Biggest Bear by Lynd Ward
Biggest House in the World by Leo Lionni
An Extraordinary Egg by Leo Lionni
Calico The Wonder Horse by Virginia Lee Burton
Five Hundred Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins by Dr. Suess
It's Mine Leo Lionni
Luckiest One of All by Bill Peet
Maybelle the Cable Car by Virginia Lee Burton
The Summer Noisy Book by Margaret Wise Brown
And pretty much the entire stack of Beatrix Potter Books

Some not on the list that we picked up anyways:

Jennifer and Josephine by Bill Peet
Word Bird's Summer Words by Jane Belk Moncure
Danger at the Diselworks
Egg to Chick by Millicent E Selsam
The Other Dog by Madeleine L'Engle
Zella Zack and Zodiac by Bill Peet
Madeline and Her Dog by John Bemelmans Marciano
Cowardly Clyde by Bill Peet
Daisy Gets Dressed by Clare Beaton

So, why am I boring you with our summer reading list?  Well, first to keep us accountable.  We plan to read these this week and are about half way through the list.

The other reason is because, oh my goodness, the books on the 1000 book list are AWESOME!!  As you can see, there are a number of books on the list that we've never ever read-and we have more to check out next week!

We have a favorite from the pile this week, and if you haven't ever read it, you need to.

It is The Five Hundred Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins by Dr. Suess.  I must admit, I am really not a huge fan of Dr. Sues (ducks).  I don't really know why, but I never have been.  I read his books, but just don't *love* him the way most do.  But, this little gem of a book is so different from his usual writing style and I will admit to LOVING this one!  Be sure to check it out at your library if you can!

I do have one other reason!  Anyone else want to join us in trying out new books from the 1000 book list?  We are just doing picture books since Mustang is reading her own set of books.  I would love to hear what other books you loved from the list!  I will be trying to update each week with the ones we read and loved.

Hope you are having an amazing summer!

God Bless,
Lisa