Jude’s Summer Holiday Reading

I don’t normally record the books my kids read. I’m terrible at keeping up to date with the school reading logs. And our lovely local library kindly encourages me to do the 1000 books before school chart with the little ones. But I figure that these monitoring schemes are a device to motivate regular reading, which we are already doing. We could read and then search for our chart or log book (3 mins), decide which sticker or pen or pencil to use (3 mins), mark the correct place (2 mins) and then have a handful of questions or comments about the chart or log book (5 mins), or we could just stay where we were and squeeze in another 2 or 3 books.

This summer I forced myself to record the chapter books Jude was reading. I thought it might be helpful for other parents who are looking for some new titles for their book devouring child.

So in no particular order, but with a few comments, here goes:

After reading the most recent David Walliams’ book, The Ice Monster in early December, Jude was keen to read the rest of the David Walliams’ books he hadn’t yet read. He re-read Billionaire Boy, plus finished Mr Stink, Ratburger, Gansta Granny, The World’s Worst Children #2, The World’s Worst Children #3 for the first time.

Jude also really loves the Geronimo Stilton books. I have read a few and would classify them as twaddle; the is no way I would read them as a read aloud, so he can go ahead and read as many as he wants himself – and there are heaps of them. Jude read: The Hunt for the Colosseum, The Cat Gang, The Perilous Plants (from the Heromice series), The Flood Mission, Attack of the Dragons (from the Micekings series) and #11 in the Guardian of the Realm series. I would recommend never buying these. If your local library is anything like ours they will have a gazillion Geronimo Stilton books. The main problem is that they all look alike to me so I can never choose some off the shelf, Jude has to come in and select ones he hasn’t read yet.

Another group of books that our library seems to have a lot of are the Judy Moody books, by Megan McDonald. There are a few different types, there are ones about Judy, then there are Judy Moody and Friends and Judy and Stink and there is also a series just called Stink (who is Judy’s younger brother). They are American books, on par with Billie B Brown (though a bit higher reading level). This summer Jude read: Judy Moody Declares Independence, Judy Moody and Stink: The Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Treasure Hunt and Stink It Up: a Guide To The Gross, The Bad and The Smelly.

Jude also got to read a few books that were from series that he had previously started. He read:

• The recently released Funny Kid: Get Licked by Matt Stanton.
• The Alien Zoo…as Good As New by Adrian Beck and Heath McKenzie.
• Desmond Puckett and the Cloverfield Junior Hight Carnival of Horrors by Mark Tatulli.
• Another one from the You Choose series called Alien Invaders From Beyond the Stars by George Ivanoff.
• Iguana Boy Saves the World With a Triple Cheese Pizza by James Bishop.
• Anders and the Volcano by Gregory Mackay.
• Rory Branagan Detective: The Dog Squad by Andrew Clover and Ralph Lazar. He REALLY liked this one.
• Also 3 more from Alex T Smith’s Claude series: In The Country; On Holidays; and On The Slopes.

He got also got introduced to a couple of new series. The first is called King Flashypants by Andy Riley. Jude read The Evil Emperor and The Boo Hoo Witches and is keen to get his hands on more. He also read the first Grandma Dangerous book, The Dog of Destiny (which I reviewed for the CBCA). The second book, The Egg of Glory was published only a couple of weeks ago. Jude also started Ben Hatke’s graphic novel trilogy with Legends of Zita the Spacegirl and really liked it, so we’ve reserved a few other Ben Hatke books from the library. Jude also read Pirate from the Dirty Bertie series. He also whipped through 3 (Netball, Swimming, and Handball) of the Sporty Kids series by Felicia Arena.

Just a couple more. Jude read Cakes in Space by Phillip Reeve; Max Champion And The Great Race Car Robbery by Alexander McCall Smith; and he also read one I had chosen for a family read aloud before we even started on it – Fabio the World’s Greatest Flamingo Detective: The Case Of The Missing Hippo (more on that one in our read aloud journal).

All in all a very successful summer reading for my big boy. I think what really helped was that with it being summer holidays we had time for him to go into the library and choose his own books. There have been plenty of times I choose for him and he has either already read it, or is not interested in my selections.

Another great reason to use the library? If I had bought all these books I would have been spent almost $450, that’s $90 a week on books for one kid.

THANK YOU Monash Public Library!