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Sally Mae has told me more than once that she needs GIRL BOOKS!!! She is a little sick of Swiss Family Robinson, and all the other stuff we have been reading latley, because it’s BOY STUFF. I know what to read to the boys, but Sally Mae claims it just ain’t workin’ for her.
All you Mamas of girls, I’m gonna need your reading list. I have a pretty good library here, but I will admit there are a lot of Hentys and Ballantynes on the shelves and not a lot of girl stuff. What are your favorite read alouds for girls? What are your girls’ favorites?
The most important thing we’ve learned,
So far as children are concerned,
Is never, NEVER, NEVER let
Them near your television set
Or better still, just don’t install the idiotic thing at all.
In almost every house we’ve been,
We’ve watched them gaping at the screen.
They loll and slop and lounge about,
And stare until their eyes pop out.
(Last week in someone’s place we saw
A dozen eyeballs on the floor.)
They sit and stare and stare and sit
Until they’re hypnotized by it,
Until they’re absolutely drunk
With all that shocking ghastly junk.
Oh yes, we know it keeps them still,
They don’t climb out the window sill,
They never fight or kick or punch,
They leave you free to cook the lunch
And wash the dishes in the sink-
But did you ever stop to think,
To wonder just exactly what
This does to your beloved tot?
IT ROTS THE SENSES IN THE HEAD!
IT KILLS IMAGINATION DEAD!
IT CLOGS AND CLUTTERS UP THE MIND!
IT MAKES A CHILD SO DULL AND BLIND
HE CAN NO LONGER UNDERSTAND
A FANTASY, A FAIRYLAND!
HIS BRAIN BECOMES AS SOFT AS CHEESE!
HIS POWERS OF THINKING RUST AND FREEZE!
HE CANNOT THINK -HE ONLY SEES!
‘All right!’ you’ll cry. ‘All right!’ you’ll say,
‘But if we take the set away,
What shall we do to entertain
Our darling children? Please explain!’
We’ll answer this by asking you,
‘What used the darling ones to do?
How used they keep themselves contented
Before this monster was invented?’
Have you forgotten? Don’t you know?
We’ll say it very loud and slow:
THEY….USED,,,TO,,,READ!
They’d READ and READ and READ and READ,
and then proceed to READ some more.
Great Scott! Gadzooks! One half their lives was reading books!
The nursery shelves held books galore!
Books cluttered up the nursery floor!
And in the bedroom, by the bed,
More books were waiting to be read!
Such wondrous, fine fantastic tales
Of dragons, Gypsies, queens and whales
And treasure isles and distant shore
Where smugglers rowed with muffled oars.
And pirates wearing purple pants,
And sailing ships and elephants,
And cannibals crouching ‘round the pot,
Stirring away at something hot.
(It smells so good, what can it be?
Good gracious, it’s Penelope!)
The younger ones had Beatrix Potter
With Mr. Toad, the Dirty Rotter,
And squirrel Nutkin, Pigling Bland,
And Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and-
Just How the Camel got his Hump,
And How the Monkey Lost his Rump,
And Mr. Toad, and bless my soul,
There’s Mr. Rat and Mr. Mole-
Oh, books, what books they used to know,
Those children living long ago!
So please, oh please,
We beg, we pray,
Go throw your TV set away,
And in its place you can install
A lovely bookshelf on the wall.
Then fill the shelves with lots of books,
Ignoring all the dirty looks,
The screams and yells, the bites and kicks,
Fear not, because we promise you
That, in about a week or two
Of having nothing else to do,
They’ll now begin to feel the need
Of having something good to read.
And once they start–oh boy, oh boy!
You watch the slowly growing joy
That fills their hearts.
They’ll grow so keen
They’ll wonder what they’d ever seen
In that ridiculous machine,
That nauseating, foul, unclean,
Repulsive television screen!
And later, each and every kid
Will love you more for what you did.
From Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
ht to Anita at Busy Hands Busy Minds.
No related posts.
In no particular order, my girls suggestions are:
Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink
Five Little Peppers and How They Grew by Margaret Sidney
Dr. Doolittle by Hugh Lofting
The Princess and the Goblin by George McDonald (and all the others by him)
The American Girl series of books
all my girls have enjoyed Greek myths from books like “The Wonder Book” and “Tanglewood Tales”
The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge
Mommaofmany’s last blog post..Pastor Steve Anderson…Domestic Terrorist
That’s one of my favorites. I just started reading that to her a few days ago! Thanks, Mary.
Don’t forget Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White!
mary bailey’s last blog post..J. Vernon Says…
Rebekah of Sunnybrook Farm, Mary Poppins, Wizard of Oz, Seven Little Australians.
and all the other suggestions. I can’t wait to read to my Anna about the “Anne spelled with an E”
jess’s last blog post..It’s not the bad, but the good that traps me.
I love you with the love of a thousand burning suns. What an AWESOME poem. I have no recollection of actually reading it in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – but that’s not surprising as it’s been about 30 years since I read it.
I am printing it out and taping it across the front of my TV set.
The last sentence of that poem is true. My parents refused to have a TV in the house until I was 11 or something. I still contend it was the greatest gift they ever gave me. I’m so thankful they did that.
Sooooo…..How do I convince my husband to get rid of the TV? I’ve been trying for 15 years and nothing’s worked yet.
I have 5 girls — so I wouldn’t know what to read to boys. We love The Little House on the Prairie books, Heidi, the Little Princess, Pollyanna, The Secret Garden, Anne of Green Gables, Chronicles of Narnia, Nancy Drew, Black Beauty, National Velvet, Little Pilgrim’s Progress, American Girl books, YWAM books — lots of good women missionaries, and the Betsy Tacy series.
You’ve gotten some good suggestions, so I’ll just say thanks for the poem. It was the perfect pick-me-up after writing about my dog dying. I knew you’d have something cheerful.
Little House on the Prarie (I still read this). Anne of Green Gables, Little Princess, Secrect Garden, Little Women, Black Beauty, Alice in Wonderland, Wind in the Willows,
When she is older, any of the Jane Austen Books, Jane Eyer, The Age of Innocence, O Pioneers, Wuthering Heights
Just to name a few…;-)
Aimee’s last blog post..It is going to be a Good Day
The Grandma’s Attic books by Arleta Richardson. Various books by Lois Lenski are a nice complement to geography. Marguerite Henry’s books (horses). The Wheel on the School by Meindert de Jong. Don’t forget Anne of Green Gables when Sally Mae grows older.
Thanks, Maggie! Aren’t the Little House books super. Plenty of girl stuff for the girls and all that outdoorsy, manly stuff that Pa did. I love those. That’s actually the next series in line after we finish the Swiss Family Robinson.
Thanks, Mary. I had forgotten about A Little Princess. I bought a nice copy of that the day I had my sonogram and found out we were gonna have a daughter. I bet she’s old enough now.
My 6 YOG loves the Chronicles of Narnia, the Boxcar Children books and AG books. Little House books would be good too.
Oh! This is one of my favorite topics! As you know, I don’t have a girl but I recommend books for my friends’ daughters all the time. I’ll come back later with a more thorough list but right now I will just give you this one: A Little Princess by Frances Hodgeson Burnett.
mary bailey’s last blog post..Suddenly Sick
Hi Anita,
Thanks for the book list. That’s a big help.
The best bunch of info I have found on the solar ovens is at The Solar Cooking Archive . If you prefer a real book to hold the one I like is called Cooking With Sunshine .
Girls book suggestions from my 9 yog: Little House series, Boxcar Children (original), Magic School Bus chapter books, All-of-a-Kind Famiy, Five Little Peppers books, Carolyn Haywood’s Betsy books, Childhood of Famous American’s. She hasn’t started reading Elsie yet, but my older girls (25 and 21) read them years ago. The oldest liked them and rereads hers, but the second daughter didn’t enjoy them and her set probably needs a good dusting. If she likes music try to find Opal Wheeler’s books on composers. They are being reprinted by a homeschool mom and are available from Queen Homeschool Supply (?) Our’s are library discards as are most of our home library. Thanks for the link.
BTW, my sour dough bread, Nourishing Traditions version. didn’t do well. I just keep doing the My Favorite Bread from the Lunches and Snacks cookbook by Sue Gregg. It works for my bunch. Can you give a resource for you solar oven? That would be a good project for my 9 and 12 year olds this summer. Thanks for the mention!