(Part 2) Best family life books for children according to redditors
We found 182 Reddit comments discussing the best family life books for children. We ranked the 111 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 21-40. You can also go back to the previous section.
I work at a kid's bookstore and get this question all the time! Here are some of my favorite recommendations:
The Chrestomanci books by Diana Wynne Jones, and some of her other books too, like Howl's Moving Castle would be fantastic. She writes great fantasy.
The Emerald Atlas series is great for adventure.
Shannon Hale writes wonderful fairy tale type books. Start her off with Princess Academy or Goose Girl.
Jessica Day George is also a favorite at our store. Tuesdays at the Castle or Dragon Slippers would be great starts to new series.
Kate DiCamillo is wonderful. Her newest book Flora & Ulysses was awesome.
I loved Savvy and Scumble by Ingrid Law. If she likes those she could also try A Tangle of Knots and A Snicker of Magic. Not all one series, but similar ideas.
And lastly maybe something by Brandon Mull? He writes really fun fantasy adventure stories.
Has he already read the Diary of a Wimpy kid series? My son is a year older than yours. He loved Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Here are a few series books kids that like Magic Treehouse might also like:
Stink Series
Jack Stalwart
Artemis Fowl ( also a graphic novel series)
A to Z Mysteries
The Lemonade Wars
The Lemony Snickett Series of Unfortunate Events
Anything by Louis Sachar
This list could go on to eternity. Basically you can search google with any of his favorites and add the keywords “Read Alikes” and find lists.
Magic Treehouse Read Alikes by Richland Library
You wanna have a good cry? Well...okay.
Grief and Loss
Bridge to Terabithia
Katherine Patterson's masterpiece is rightly remembered as one of the saddest books ever written for an elementary-aged audience. A young boy strikes up a friendship with his new neighbor, a girl his own age, bonding over the fact that their individual interests make them outsiders among their classmates. Together, they form a "kingdom" they christen "Terabithia" in the woods behind their houses. Tragically, the girl dies accidentally and the boy must what he's learned and move on.
Mick Harte Was Here
Notable in that the tragedy happens in the first act, this novel follows teenaged Phoebe as she struggles with the reality that her brother died in a bicycle accident.
On My Honor
Probably the shortest, but also arguably the most brutal, of these books. After promising his father he would only ride his bike out to the rocky ridge, Joel follows his daredevil friend Tony to the Vermillion River. Joel challenges Tony to a swimming race. Joel surfaces, Tony does not. And Joel must face their parents.
Just for You to Know
A young girl, the oldest in her large family, finds herself in over her head when her mother dies in childbirth.
The Man Who Loved Clowns
If somewhat dated, this tragic novel follows thirteen-year-old Delrita as she struggles to come to terms with not only her parents' untimely deaths in a car accident, but also her maternal uncle Punky, who has Down's Syndrome.
Turtle On A Fencepost
The sequel to The Man Who Loved Clowns follows Delrita as she tries to find her place in the world, and her desperation to connect with her Aunt Queenie. She finds a kindred spirit in an unexpected place.
Pets
Old Yeller
Fred Gibson's novel is more than a story about a boy and his dog. It is a story about a boy becoming a man, and how becoming a man is not easy at all.
Where the Red Fern Grows
Billy's quest to gain dogs, not just any dogs, but hunting hound dogs, is a classic and rightly so. The story of Billy, Old Dan and Little Ann is one that is not to be forgotten.
Shiloh
Phyllis Naylor's beloved quartet about a boy and his beagle was one of my favorites growing up. Marty's struggle to rescue Shiloh from the abusive Judd Travers is just the beginning, with later books exploring themes of faith and forgiveness.
Stone Fox
Young Willy must gather all his strength to win the National Dogsled Race and win desperately needed money for his grandfather's farm, with his beloved Searchlight as lead dog.
A Childhood Lost
These books are often similar to those under Grief and Loss but I felt that it was important to separate these as they feature heavy themes of racism, discrimination, and war.
The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963
Told from the point-of-view of the bookish nine-year-old Kenny, the titular Watsons get into their fair share of misadventures in Flint, Michigan, but for the most part, things are relatively peaceful. The most strife comes from teenaged Byron. But a family trip to Birmingham flings the family head-on into the thick of the Civil Rights Movement, including the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing.
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
Let the Circle Be Unbroken
The Road to Memphis
These three books are part of a series, telling the story of an African-American girl named Cassie who grows up during the Great Depression in the Deep South and sees first-hand just how ugly Jim Crow can be.
Number the Stars
Lois Lowry's novel tells a dramatized version of the efforts of the Danish Resistance, with special emphasis on the evacuations to Sweden.
Abuse
Call Me Hope
Twelve-year-old Hope struggles with the emotional abuse brought on by her mother and copes by "awarding points" for specific insults.
He's probably a little old for it, but I would recommend this book anyway: Knuffle Bunny Free: An Unexpected Diversion
https://www.amazon.com/Knuffle-Bunny-Free-Unexpected-Diversion/dp/0061929573
I specialize in teaching reading skills to students aged 7 - 18 years. For a ten year old girl who likes drama and romance, an appropriate and engaging book series would be Gail Carson Levine's Enchanted series (Ella Enchanted, Fairest, and The Two Princesses of Bamarre - they all have age-appropriate love stories.)
Another good age-appropriate book would be The Girl Who Drank the Moon, which also has magic, witches, and some romance.
The first few are Chahta but there are various tribes depicted, some available in both English and the given tribal language!
Some tribes have lists online or books available in their online stores, as well, so if you’re looking for anything specific you might try that.
I think about this a lot and I have a few ideas, so this might be long! Lol.
For Husband: Idea 1. Give him a mug that says #1 Dad on it. (Edit 2: or one like this! <3) - My husband sort of collects mugs and he drinks a lot of tea and hot chocolate- so I'd give it to him with the test. (I'd probably get it while ttc, because I'd want to have it ready that day.) or 2. Husband is an Engineer and is allll about reading instruction manuals - Maybe buying him the book "The Baby Owner's Manual." 3. But in reality, I asked him "How do you want me to tell you when I find out I'm pregnant?" and he said he just wants me to tell him straight up. Also, that he doesn't think he'll be surprised because we'll have been trying and expecting it. SO... We'll see.
And then for my Parents/In-Laws: I'm a librarian, so I think I want to get them grandparent related picture books. Pretty sure I'm going to get "Llama Llama Gram and Grandpa" for my MIL & FIL because my MIL thinks the Llama Llama series is super cute. Ideally, if we can wait long enough to get an ultrasound pic, I'd put it in the inside cover.
Edit: Started looking again and I found this adorable book by Billy Crystal. I will probably get this one for my parents, they will love it!
For my own grandparents I think I'd get them a cute picture frame and put the ultrasound pic in it, or if I can get them to pose without knowing whats up I think it would be cool to do a variation of this generational pic from Pinterest and put the ultrasound pic in the one Me+DH would be holding.
And one more: At work every Monday we have an internal newsletter thing. It generally just says what programs are going on for the week/month, but sometimes if we have room to fill up, there is a "Guess the Employee" game where there's 2 or 3 facts about an employee and we have to guess who it is. It would be totally fun to have her run the ultrasound pic and "Guess the Employee"! Though everyone would probably know it was me right away. I'm still hoping I can do that when the time comes. :)
Yeah it's a real shame that this is so rare still. Makes me want to write some. There are a few though:
Raising Dragons. The book has some sort of message but it's not joyless and the girl just happens to be a black girl; her race has nothing to do with the story and it's not remarked on.
Rain! is another one. Just pure pictures and a happy boy who is black and his neighbour who is white. The lesson is that it's good to be happy, but I can't find any preachiness in it.
Here's another one I found on GoodReads with a review that's promising:
>Recently we went to a SURJ meeting where we talked about diversity in reading. One point made was how it's easy enough to find POC characters in books about issues, like Rosa Parks or the Underground Railroad, but harder to find books with diverse characters just living normal, day-to-day life. And this is fabulous - Kait likes the peekaboo/guessing game aspect of the book and she loves books about babies.
There's more here in this list, but a lot of them do seem quite preachy.
Granny Torrelli Makes Soup by Sharon Creech?
The book Knuffle Bunny Free is about the loss of a treasured stuffed animal. It's the third Knuffle Bunny book and your library probably has them all. The first two books show just how important Knuffle Bunny is to the little girl.
You might also try going to build-a-bear. You could talk about how the important thing for stuffed animals is that they are loved, then do a little ritual to put all that love for the Dalmatian into one of the little heart tokens that they put into the animals.
So sorry the BM is such a bitch :-(
Or how about The Whale Rider? It's a beautiful book, and it was made into a beautiful movie as well.
Could it be A Corner of the Universe by Ann M. Martin?
>Hattie Owen enjoys peaceful Millerton summertimes with "houses nodding in the heavy air," being in charge of Miss Hagerty's breakfast tray at her parents' boardinghouse, and drinking lemonade on the porch after supper. Yet this year, it's different -- Hattie's uncle Adam is coming home. Returning from a Chicago school that's just closed and whose existence is kept quiet by adult family members, Adam is a 21-year-old man with a child's mind, having a knack for talking quickly, a savant-like ability for remembering weekdays, and a passion for I Love Lucy. Hattie and Adam wind up spending precious time together -- including a visit to the recently arrived carnival with Hattie's new friend, Leila -- which makes her feel soulfully connected to her uncle, especially when he declares that she's "one of the people who can lift the corners of our universe." But when Hattie takes Adam on the ferris wheel one night, it sets off dramatic events that lead Hattie's family to strengthen its bonds and changes her life's outlook forever.
Good Night, Darth Vader
Roaring Rockets
Rosie Revere, Engineer builds a flying machine
Astronomy book:
Why We Have Night and Day
Definitely stay away from this one too
http://www.amazon.com/Already-Know-Love-You/dp/0060593938
Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:
amazon.co.uk
amazon.ca
amazon.com.au
amazon.in
amazon.com.mx
amazon.de
amazon.it
amazon.es
amazon.com.br
amazon.nl
amazon.co.jp
amazon.fr
Beep bloop. I'm a bot to convert Amazon ebook links to local Amazon sites.
I currently look here: amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca, amazon.com.au, amazon.in, amazon.com.mx, amazon.de, amazon.it, amazon.es, amazon.com.br, amazon.nl, amazon.co.jp, amazon.fr, if you would like your local version of Amazon adding please contact my creator.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;source=web&amp;rct=j&amp;url=https://www.amazon.com/Falling-Kingdoms-6-Book-Series/dp/B0713RZ9CK&amp;ved=2ahUKEwilr7n39ePdAhUbIjQIHZEdBZAQFjACegQIBRAB&amp;usg=AOvVaw3usnY9c4usFrH8kGvC8Pka
Not sure if it's on Audible but it should be.
Search results, haven't read them myself:
Not a book but you could easily print out as one with some clip art:
There's also a reader's recommended list on Goodreads.
If anyone would like to see a bit more in depth into the 1984 riots, this is a really good historical fiction that explains a lot of it.
http://www.amazon.ca/Under-Moonlit-Sky-Nav-Gill/dp/1894917995
The Phantom Tollbooth
Here are two I think that could work that were my favorites growing up:
Dave at Night: An orphan boy goes to live at an orphanage in New York City where everyone is mean to him. He sneaks off into the streets of harlem every night and discovers parties, jazz, a whole cast of characters (takes place in the 1920s).
Chasing Redbird: A young girl lives with her aunt and uncle for the summer and decides to clear the trail behind their house while confronting her own demons (she feels responsible for some tragedies that have happened).
Is it that Hildan has a clone or is a clone? That's not totally clear. You could probably get rid of the "well, that part's not so ordinary, is it?" tag - the clone part should make it ironic just on it's own.
Also, if you need comp titles, I can think of several about clones ~13ish, including Double Identity and The House of the Scorpion.