I'd Be Your Princess: A Royal Tale of Godly Character by Kathryn O'Brien, ill. by Michael Garland.
"If you were a king, I'd be your princess," said the little girl to her father.
This is a lovely book for a Dad to read to his little girl and it was one of Moozle's favourites for a long time. A little girl imagines being a princess and as she does, her Dad uses each situation to talk about the godly character he sees in his little girl. (For around ages 4 to 6)
"At night," said the girl, "we would look through our royal telescopes and you would teach me about all the stars and planets God made."
"You would listen carefully when I told you the name of each star," said her father, "because you love to learn."
Let us learn together what is good.
Job 34:4
Sarah Witcher's Story by Elizabeth Yates is based on a true incident and is the touching story of a little girl who wanders away from her home in the woods. After four days of searching she was still missing and only her father believed she was still alive. As the searching came to its close, a stranger arrived having travelled by foot from thirty miles away. He said he'd come to find the child.
Last night, when I walked into the inn at Plymouth, I heard talk of a lost child. I prayed that she would be found, and when I went to bed I dreamed of finding her.
A beautifully told, simple story of a father's unshakeable trust in the Lord. For around ages 6 to 10 years.
See inside the book here.
Little House in the Big Woods & Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder were two out of the series written by the author that Dad enjoyed reading aloud when our eldest two were about 4 and 6 years old. He brought back the boxed set from the USA when he was over there for work and the books are barely holding together after twenty years of use. Little House in the Big Woods was reminiscent of my husband's childhood growing up on a farm in the Bay of Islands in New Zealand...butchering time etc.
Farmer Boy with all its descriptions of food, farming life and deciding what direction to take in life was another good Dad read aloud. Our children enjoyed these books as read alouds from the age of 4 years and then read them for themselves multiple times after that.
Jotham's Journey by Arnold Ytreeide is a tense, adventure filled book that Dads can read aloud with gusto and drama especially in the lead up to Christmas. It might scare some sensitive children but it didn't bother ours. After the success with this book I went ahead and bought another by the same author for my husband to read aloud but he hardly got through the first chapter before deciding it was no good. I can't remember which title it was but I didn't bother with any more after that.
In Freedom's Cause - Scotland, William Wallace, wars, adventure, historical accuracy...a great Dad hit. As was Under Drake's Flag. Henty wrote over a hundred historical fiction books for children and these are a couple that have been favourites - perhaps because Dad read them aloud.
We have a number of the Henty books in hardback but Dover has these paperback versions available via Bookdepository.com.
Sun on the Stubble is voted the most memorable read aloud from Dad of all time - probably because he thought it was hilarious and kept reading ahead and then was unable to continue until he'd had a good laugh, but also because some of our children were in their teens and so remember it well. I wrote about it here.
I ended up reading the three books below to our children but I thought they'd be a good choice for Dads to read aloud to older children around the ages of 12 years and up. The author wrote of his family's missionary experiences and his boyhood among the Machiguenga Indians in South America and although quite raw in places (the superstitious practices of the Machiguenga, their beliefs and behaviour are intertwined in the books), they are also light-hearted and very funny. My kids loved them, probably because the stories are about a very ordinary family and their very ordinary and imperfect children and have a different slant to many other missionary stories.
Wycliffe has some previews of the books here.
10 comments:
Thanks for this lovely post. You people may also cater the habit of going through the detailed road maps in your children that can help them in their life. In my last Australia trip I found the detailed Australia Road Map a helpful stuff in my bag pack that helped me throughout my whole journey.
I really love this post! I can't wait to check some of these out, Carol! :) Ralph Moody is another that my husband reads out loud!
Yes! That would definitely be a good series for a Dad to read aloud.
The first book had my full attention and the second book you shared about had my heart pounding. It's awful to think of a child lost in the woods for days, but praise God that the stranger was faithful to come join the search. I'm visiting from Booknificent Thursdays. My weekend linky party:
http://abooksandmore.blogspot.co.za/2015/11/an-artist-and-more-with-linky.html
My dad never read any of those, but each night he would read something to me. But even better than that he would tell me stories. For some unknown reason my favourite was when he got caught in an abandoned cabin with a rattlesnake and how he had to get to the only door to get back out. A silly memory, but a fond one. - Margy
I never had stories read to me a child, that I can remember but I heard many stories of my Granny's life & they were just as good as any book. A bit of a lost art, I think.
Thanks for the link, Christina :)
My dad read A Little House in the Big Woods and Farmer Boy to me as well! I loved the series and went on to read, and reread it many times. :-)
I love this list, and I'm especially interested in finding Sun on the Stubble. I'm wondering where I should start looking. Thanks so much for sharing this at Booknificent Thursday!
Tina
Tina, you could try Abebooks. I thought it was still in print - or at least it has been until recently.
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