Brandt's Reading List

I'll try not to rant--not that I don't do that, huh Mom & Dad? It's just that I've tried to guard from it on this blog. Okay, so I'll just give you a little background (read hobby horse here). Every year some new series of books comes out. Lately it seems to be books that either flirt with or dive right into the occult. "Fringe" seems to be in on book runways for spring 2007--and has been for about ten years now. And often I'm left speechless by the persisting argument, "Anything that causes a child to love reading is worth reading." Now let's never mind the completely illogical "cart driving the horse" problem with that statement and admit the real assertion that people are dying to make: "Everything new is best." But here in the Bergeron household, we tend to think that everything new is ... just new. It may be noble, true and new or it may just be the same philosophies (pragmatism, humanism, logical positivism, relativism) repackaged. But I don't bother much with questions like "Should Christian children be reading Harry Potter?" because I have a 150-book list that we've simply GOT to wade through before our sons, enamored someday with the novelty of the novel, come to us and ask to read Harry Potter. And then it won't be Harry Potter probably (how long can Rowling string this out, I wonder?) To be sure, it will be the same ends-justifies-the-means all-power-comes-from-the-same-source-it-just-depends-on-you philosophies; but we can afford to put that off for a few more years. In the meantime, we've got a world of tried-and-true mind-expanding reading waiting to be explored!

Arguments aside, I've promised some of you a list of chapter books that Brandt has read over the past three years. I have not personally read every single one of these. If they were on a friend's booklist or from another trusted source, I did not deem it necessary. If you want to know what is future on our reading list, you can check out Veritas Press's new interactive online catalog at www.veritaspress.com unless perchance you have my Amazon password and can hack into my shopping cart! I know I've probably forgotten a handful of books. Although some of these we have used as read-alouds for our whole family, I'm astounded at how much one child can read when he's at home for a good portion of his day with many books at his disposal. Thanks Mom, Dad, and Nana for buying so many of these and thank you Lord for providing in the book budget even when it should have long since run dry!!!

Natural History
On the Far Side of the Mountain - Jean Craighead George (more in this series)
Frightful's Mountain - JCG
My Side of the Mountain - JCG
There's a Tarantula in my Purse - JCG
Gentle Ben by Walt Morey
Minn of the Mississippi -Holling Clancy Holling (more in this series)
Paddle to the Sea - HCH
The Call of the Wild - Jack London
Where the Red Fern Grows - Wilson Rawls
Shiloh - Phyllis Reynolds Naylor


Historical
The Witch of Blackbird Pond (New England Witch Trials)- Elizabeth George Speare (see more by this author)
The Bronze Bow (time of Christ)- EGS
Ten Boys Who Made a Difference - Irene Howat
Ten Boys Who Made History - IH
Ten Boys Who Changed the World - IH
Outcast (Roman Occupation of Britain)- Rosemary Sutcliff (see more by this author)
The Shining Company (British fighting Saxons in 600 A.D.) - RS
Why Not, Lafayette? - Jean Fritz (see many more by this author)
The Great Little Madison - JF
Twenty and Ten (WWI)- Claire Huchet Bishop
Caddie Woodlawn (Frontier) - Carol Ryrie Brink
The Children's Homer (Iliad & Odyssey - Padraic Colum
Hittite Warrior (Israel's Battle Against Sisera) - Joanne Williamson (see more by this author)
God King (Hezekiah's Battle Against Assyrians) - JW
The White Stag (Huns & Magyars) - Kate Seredy
A Place Called Heartbreak (Vietnam) - Walter Dean Myers
Turn Homeward, Hannalee (Civil War) - Patricia Beatty
Castle Diary: The Journal of Tobias Burgess - Richard Platt
Son of Charlemagne - Barbara Willard (see more by this author)
True Stories of the Second World War - Paul Dowswell
Rifles for Watie (Civil War)- Harold Keith
Adara (Israel's War with Assyrians, time of Elisha) - Beatrice Gormley
Esperanza Rising (Immigration from Mexico, 1930s) - Pam Munoz Ryan
From Wales to Westminster (Martyn Lloyd Jones ) - Christopher Catherwood
Beric the Briton (Roman Occupation of Britain)- G.A. Henty (see tens more by this author ... warning: a trifle verbose)
Hostage Lands (Roman Occupation of Britain) - Douglas Bond (see more by this author)
Duncan's War (Scottish War Against England) - DB
King's Arrow - DB
Rebel's Keep - DB
Daughter of the Mountains (Tibetan Girl's Journey - Buddhism) - Louise Rankin
All-of-a-Kind Family (turn of century Jewish family in NYC) - Sydney Taylor (see more by this author in this series)
South Sea Island Rescue (story of Scottish missionary John G. Paton) - Kay Walsh
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (mid-19th century South) - Mark Twain
Bull Run (Civil War) - Paul Fleischman
Hadassah: The Girl Who Became Queen Esther - Tommy Tenney
The Apple and the Arrow: The Legend of William Tell - Mary & Conrad Buff
Sarah, Plain & Tall (Frontier story) - Patricia MacLachlan
Keep the Lights Burning, Abbie (true story of Abbie Burgess, 1856) - Peter & Connie Roop
Shades of Gray (Civil War) - Carolyn Reeder
The King's Fifth (Conquistadores in New World, 1500s) - Scott O'Dell (see many more by this author)
I, Juan de Pareja (story of Diego Velasquez) - Elizabeth Borton de Trevino
The Golden Goblet (Ancient Egypt) - Eloise Jarvis McGraw
Tirzah (the Exodus) - Lucille Travis
Little House on the Prairie Series - Laura Ingalls Wilder
Detectives in Togas (Ancient Rome) - Henry Winterfeld
The Door in the Wall (Middle Ages) - Marguerite D'Angeli
Adam of the Road (Middle Ages) - Elizabeth Janet Gray & Robert Lawson
Mr. Revere and I (Revolutionary War) - Robert Lawson (see more by this author)
The Red Keep (France, Middle Ages) - Allen French (see another by this author)
Almost Home (Mayflower Puritans) - Wendy Lawton (see more in this series called "Daughters of Faith")
Carry On, Mr. Bowditch (Revolutionary New England, Classical Method) - Jean Lee Latham
The Boy in the Alamo (Mexican-American war) - Margaret Cousins
The House of Sixty Fathers (Occupied China, WWII) - Meindert DeJong (see more by this author)


Science
Archimedes and the Door of Science - Jeanne Bendick

For Fun and Imagination
The Adventures of Pinocchio - Carlo Collodi
Misty of Chincoteague - Marguerite Henry (see more by this author)
Misty's Twilight - MH
Stormy, Misty's Foal - MH
Sea Star: Orphan of Chincoteague - MH
Chucaro, Wild Pony of the Pampa - Francis Kalnay
Ginger Pye - Eleanor Estes (see more by this author including The Moffat Family Chronicles)
Pinky Pye - EE
The Hundred Dresses - EE
The Bears on Hemlock Mountain - Alice Dalgliesh
...And Now, Miguel - Joseph Krumgold
The Railway Children - E. Nesbit (see more by this author)
Chronicles of Narnia series - C.S. Lewis
The Tower of Geburah - John White (see more in this series)
The Milly, Molly Mandy Storybook - Joyce Lankester Brisley
The Wheel on the School - Meindert de Jong
The Cricket in Times Square - George Selden
a few in the Boxcar Children series
a few Hardy Boys and a "few" more in future, I'm sure