Reading

 As I've said before, I've been reading to the kids every night that they can get through their before-bed routine with time to spare before their read-in-bed, settle-down-for-sleep time.  I started with Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books, then read My Side of the Mountain.*

Then, I moved on to David Weber's A Beautiful Friendship.  I read one of the short stories in the collections that introduced the doctor character before I moved past the first part of the book, so that one took...a while.  And David Weber's work is really hard to read out loud.  I've promised I'll read them the second book (I've already bought and read it), but not the third one.  They can read that one for themselves, if they so choose.  

When I finished that one, I couldn't find what I'd done with book two (Fire Season), so I had the pixie bring out one of her books, one that Weber had mentioned in one of his Honor Harrington books: David and the Phoenix.  They loved it.  Honestly, I enjoyed it, too, and I usually don't care so much for kids' books.  

After I finished that one, I still couldn't find Fire Season, so I borrowed one from my sister that I used to have, but lost: Elizabeth Goudge's The Little White Horse.  We tore through that one pretty quickly.  And the kids loved it, and demanded we get a copy for our library (if you're going to, get the hardback--the paperback lacks the delightful illustrations that the hardback has).  I ordered two copies: one for us, and one for the kids' school library.  Because it's a delightful, allegory-heavy, powerfully Christian story.  It's also a bit of a coming-of-age story (again, I usually hate those, but this one was very well-told).  

The book we're on now is Daniel Defoe's Robinson Cruso.  The language has been updated, but I don't think the story has been changed or abridged at all.  The copy I'm reading from was mine from when I was around the imp's age.  

We're almost done with that one, though, and I have found our copy of Fire Season.  I've promised to read that one, next.  And the kids have found my copies of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and demanded those ones next.  So...I have the next several months' worth of night-time reading planned out.  

After those, I'll be reading Wrede's The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, and then Cooper's The Dark is Rising books.  I may read some Twain to them, too.  We'll have to see what I feel like reading when we get through the ones I'm planning.

*They loved this one...but hated the ending.  It's one of the reasons I'm reading Robinson Cruso to them.