Our Reading Book List for our Final Term

Here are the books my children will be reading during our last school term this year.

Jaden, 12-year-old boy

1. Boyhood and Beyond: Practical Wisdom for Becoming a Man, by Bob Schultz. The title says it all. This book (and pretty much any book by Bob Schultz) came highly recommended by my friend Linda at The Gluten-Free Homemaker.

2. Jungle Pilot, by Russell T. Hitt. The story of missionary pilot Nate Saint who was killed, along with four other missionaries, by the Auca Indians of Ecuador over 50 years ago.

3. Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science. At the age of 26, Phineas Gage suffered a severe brain injury that has made him world-famous and the object of intense study over the last 160 years.

Jerah, 11-year-old girl

1. Tales From Shakespeare, by Charles and Mary Lamb. This is an exceptionally well-written children's version of several of Shakespeare's plays.

2. The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, by Avi. The plot of this Newbery Honor book is succinctly summarized on the backcover: "A vicious captain, a mutinous crew — and a young girl caught in the middle."

3. Jacob's Rescue: A Holocaust Story, by Malka Drucker and Michael Halperin. The story of an eight-year-old Jewish boy during World War II who befriends a Christian family and has to hide his identity to safeguard his life and the life of his friends.

4. The Borrowers, by Mary Norton. A classic fantasy story of a miniature family who lives under a grandfather clock. They struggle to keep from being discovered by an unfriendly housekeeper.

Joely, 7-year-old girl

1. The Hundred Dresses, by Eleanor Estes. A young immigrant girl wears the same old blue dress every day to school, but she tells everyone else she owns a hundred dresses. She is teased and taunted endlessly by her peers, but in the end her tormenters realize how much their insults have hurt.

2. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, by Betty MacDonald. From the backcover: "Everyone loves Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle. She lives in an upside-down house and smells like cookies. She was even married to a pirate once. Most of all, she knows everything about children. She can cure them of any ailment. Patsy hates baths. Robert never puts anything away. Allen eats v-e-r-y slowly. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle has a treatment for all of them."

3. The Rotten Romans, by Terry Deary. Part of the Horrible Histories series, this book offers a humorous look at Roman history through comics, anecdotes, and number of rather odd lists.

4. Ten Girls Who Made History, by Irene Howat. Short stories about Florence Nightingale, Henrietta Mears, Mary Jane Kinnaird, Elisabeth Elliot, Ida Scudder, Betty Green, Jeanette Li, Bessie Adans, Emma Dryer, and Lottie Moon. This book is part of series for both boys and girls.

This is the homeschooling reading list that our kids will be reading for the next 6 weeks.