At the start of the year the kids and I sat down and made a master list of the books we planned to read together this year. Natural a few things have changed, mostly in adding books to the list, but on the whole it’s been going very well and we’ve read many stories so far and listened to some good audiobooks as well. I’m not sure if we’ll make it through the entire list this year, but we’ve been making great progress.

As I mentioned, they’ve enjoyed all of the books we’ve read so far, but some have been particualar stand-outs. A verbal poll confirmed my suspicion that The Lord of the Rings is their collective favorite book on the list, and they’ve even been asking me to read it to them a second time. Redwall and the last two books of the Chronices of Prydain are close behind, along with A Wrinkle In Time which was something of a surprise hit given how very weird it it. N loved Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH because of the cool tech the rats build, and Iron Thunder as it tells of the building of the ironclad Monitor. A has particularly enjoyed the How To Train Your Dragon books and The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl due to the silly humor. I’m not sure if H has any particular favorites beyond crowd pleasers, The Lord of the Rings, Redwall, and Prydain, but she also spends more time reading on her own at the moment so she has more books jostling for space in her head right now.

When it came to The Lord of the Rings, which they initially begged to be the first read of the year, I was amazed at how voracious they were for the story. It’s a long book, obviously, but they were willing to sit for hours doing nothing but listen. On several occasions we read nearly a hundred pages in one sitting. My voice was quite hoarse after those marathon reads, but it was worth it to share my favorite novel with them and see them love it just as much as I did at about their ages.

Obviously the year isn’t over so there’s a lot of book-fun ahead of us! If you check out our Book Tasting post from earlier in the year about how we chose our reading list, you’ll note that there are plenty of books that we’re still hoping to get to before the end of 2017. Although the kids are excited about everything on the list, the last four Harry Potter books are what they’re really longing for. So, without further ado, here’s the list of what we’ve read together so far, with audio books marked with an asterisk:

• Kulipari: The Rainbow Serpent, by Trevor Pryce
• Kulipari: Amphibian’s End, by Trecor Pryce
• A Wrinkle In Time, by Madeline L’Engle
• The Last Kids on Earth, by Max Brailler
• The Chronicles of Prydain: Taran Wanderer, by Lloyd Alexander
• The Chronicles of Prydain: The High King, by Lloyd Alexander
• The Last Kids on Earth: Zombie Parade, by Max Brailler
• A Series of Unfortunate Events: A Bad Beginning, by Lemony Snicket
• The Foundling and Other Tales of Prydain, by Lloyd Alexander
• The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien
• A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Reptile Room, by Lemony Snicket
• The Tale of Despereax, by Kate DiCamillo*
• LEGO Nexo Knights: The Forbidden Power, by Max Brailler
• Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, by Robert C. O’Brien*
• How To Train Your Dragon: How To Speak Dragonese, by Cressida Cowell
• Redwall, by Brian Jacques
• Star Wars Aliens: Tales From A Galaxy Far, Far Away, by Landry Walker
• A Single Shard, by Linda Sue Park
• Marvel Phase One: Thor, by Alex Irvine
• Marvel Phase One: The Avengers, by Alex Irvine
• Lost In The Pacific, 1942: Not A Drop To Drink, by Tod Olson
• Iron Thunder, by Avi
• The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl: Squirrel Meets World, by Shannon and Dean Hale
• Odd and the Frost Giants, by Neil Gaiman
• How To Train Your Dragon: How To Cheat A Dragon’s Curse, by Cressida Cowell