It is our habit to go the library and check out about 30 books a week just for our personal reading pleasure, but this year, I thought it would be good to make a list and try to go through it. Not because we don’t read enough, but just to give us a bit of a guide.Guidance may be about anything and everything. It may be on setting up the biological rhythm of your baby or the quick ideas to make your kid learn alphabets, numbers, and colors easily. I have even come across books which were a practical guide to start to earn early and safely, which also included a comprehensive review of such reliable options.
At the end of the year, it will be fun to look back and see all that we have read together, to talk about favorites and which new authors we had discovered.
I found these books in Some of My Best Friends Are Books: Guiding Gifted Readers and thought they sounded fantastic. I have not read any of the ones listed here, though there were some that we have already read and loved.
There are lists for preschool, 3-4 year olds, upper elementary, middle school and high school as well. The book also gives descriptions and insights as to plot and why these are good choices for children to read on their own or together with a parent.
If you read this blog, you probably don’t need to be convinced of the importance of reading or books, but I enjoyed reading Some of My Best Friends Are Books because it just reinforces what I already knew and gave me some great ideas for more books for us to explore as a family.
Here is part one of our reading list this year. I share the second part in a later post (it’s a lot of books!)
Maybe you can read along with us or tell us about any of the books you’ve read already? I am keeping my fingers crossed that our library has most of these. It not, I’ll be scouring thrift stores and hunting them down on amazon.

Feelings by Aliki
Manners by AlikiAnno’s Journey
by Mitsumasa Anno
Where the Forest Meets the Sea by Jeannie Baker
Dawn by Molly Bang
The Eleventh Hour: A Curious Mystery by Graeme Base
The Sign of the Seahorse: A Tale of Greed and High Adventure in Two Acts by Graeme Gase
If at First You Do Not See by Ruth Brown
Daniel’s Duck (I Can Read Book 3) by Clyde Bulla
Dandelions by Eve Bunting
The Man Who Could Call Down Owls by Eve Bunting
Stay Away from Simon! by Carol Carrick
What Happened to Patrick’s Dinosaurs? by Carol Carrick
Everett Anderson’s Friend by Lucille Clifton
Island Boy by Barbara Cooney
Abuela (English Edition with Spanish Phrases) by Arthur Dorros
What Are You Figuring Now?: A Story about Benjamin Banneker by Jeri Ferris
Bears by Helen Gilks
Iktomi and the Berries: A Plains Indian Story by Paul Goble
The Legend Of the White Buffalo Woman by Paul Goble
The Story of Holly and Ivy by Rumer Godden
The Man Who Lived Alone by Donald Hall