RAR #135: What We’re Reading This Fall (and an invitation 💌)

Sarah (00:12): You are listening to the Read-Aloud Revival Podcast. This is the podcast that helps you make meaningful and lasting connections with your kids through books. (00:29): Hello everybody. Sarah Mackenzie here, and you've got episode 135 of the Read-Aloud Revival. Let's talk about what we're reading this fall, shall we? Who is up for some book recommendations today? Here's what we're going to do in this episode. First, I'm going to answer not one but two listener questions. Then I'm going to share with you our top reading recommendations for the fall, and what we're reading at Read-Aloud Revival month by month. Of course, we'll wrap up our episode with let the kids speak and we'll hear from 10 kids about the books they are loving right now. (01:07): As always, the show notes for this episode are at readaloudrevival.com/135 because this is episode 135 and you'll find all the books I'm recommending on today's show right there. Now before we dive in, I want to make sure you know that we've opened up registration to Read Aloud Revival Premium, our online community that helps you connect with your kids through family book clubs, masterclasses, and support from like-minded mamas. Often in homeschooling or reading just becomes another assignment to check off the list, another to-do. But instead RAR Premium is a really simple and delightful way to put relationships first in your home while also giving your kids a solid and engaging education. (01:53): You can join us at rarmembership.com right now where registration is officially open to new members and what you'll hear from our members is that they'll say they would give up Netflix before they gave up RAR Premium, that it's the best money they spend on their homeschool, that it's worth more than all their curriculum for the year. I mean it's crazy and you've got to join us to see what the buzz is all about. Go to membership.com. We've got a 30 day money back guarantee so there's no risk to try it out and see if it's a good fit for your family. Okay, let's hear a question today from [Ana 00:02:26]. Ana (02:27): Hi Sarah, my name is Ana. Thank you so much for all that you do at Read Aloud Revival. It's such an excellent resource and we are very blessed to benefit from all the work that you do. I had a question regarding reading motivation for my newly seven year old boy. He is a good reader but will rarely spontaneously pick up a book on his own to read and often will put up a fuss about reading when I ask him to sit and read, he much prefers being read aloud to and is eager to have books read to him or prefers audiobooks. My question for you is what can I do to help motivate him and is there ever a concern that listening to audiobooks would pave the road for an easier way to go about reading as opposed to the work behind decoding and sitting and reading on your own? Thank you so much again for all that you do and for answering this question. Thanks. Sarah (03:26): Hey, Ana. Really good to hear from you. When a child's a new reader, they're often resistant to doing a lot of reading on their own, even if they're getting pretty good at it. Many times I think this is just because learning to decode and learning to read on your own with your eyes, it's a hard skill to learn. Asking a child to read a lot right after they've learned to read is like asking our kids to climb to the top of the mountain and then saying, "Good job. Now do it again." They think, "Oh my goodness, give me a second. I just want to enjoy here." All that to say is it's very normal for a young reader with new skills or burgeoning skills to resist reading with their eyes. It's just not going to be enjoyable for them until it's easy for them and it doesn't get easy right away. (04:10): That said, the fact that your son likes to listen to stories is a wonderful sign. It indicates that it's not stories that he's avoiding. It's just the actual act of reading with his eyes. Here's what I suggest. Keep reading aloud to him a ton. Keep letting them listen to lots and lots of audiobooks. That's not going to turn them into a lazy reader. I know it's easy to think that our kids will get "lazy" if they can just hear stories because it's what we think of as easier for them to read a book if they are listening to it be read aloud to them. But really whether they get that story from their eyes or their ears, it doesn't matter that much when it comes to getting the stories into our kids. If the goal is to get the story into your child or if the goal is to have your child fall in love with reading, then you don't need to prefer one kind to the other. Reading with your eyes or reading with your ears. (05:01): Reading with your eyes is not better than reading with your ears, which is what I'm trying to say. Especially if your son loves audiobooks and loves being read to. He's probably developed pretty darn good taste in books and stories and frankly, lower level books or first chapter books, they're just not the same caliber and he probably knows this instinctively and likes the better stories, right? As well as that fully immersive experience of not having to work so hard at decoding with his eyes to enjoy the story. (05:29): Because if we think about what a child is doing when they're reading from a page, is it a different skill. Decoding the letters and knowing what those words say, it's a different skill than understanding the story and enjoying the story. You do want to help your son continue to get better at reading with his eyes of course, and to develop fluency and accuracy and speed in his reading with his eyes so that it's enjoyable for him, you're going to need to give them lots and lots of practice reading easy books. (05:57): I would suggest giving him books that are slightly below his own reading level to help him gain speed and fluency and to help reading become easy. What we want is for them to read a lot of words, like a quantity of words. A lot of times we think our kids should always be reading at or above their reading level, but when they're in this important stage of knowing how to read but not reading voraciously for themselves yet, we actually want to give them tons of books that are really easy for them. It helps reading become easy and fast and something that they can do without a lot of strain and over time they gradually want stories that are longer or more interesting, more compelling, more difficult, but the only way to get there is to give them a lot of books that are super easy. (06:41): Giving them lots of easy books and maybe motivating him with some a treat like, "Hey, what you're going to do is you're going to read ... " what, I don't know what books your son is reading yet, Ana, but let's say he's reading, I'm not sure, something like Encyclopedia Brown. You give him an Encyclopedia Brown book and you say, "Finish this book and when you're done with it, you and I are going to go out for a milkshake and talk about it." (07:03): Let the reward for reading not be money and not be a physical prize. Definitely not screens but let it be time with you and that is a wonderful way to reward your kid's reading. If you're looking for a motivating "prize" for reading, let it be time with you and the ability to talk about the book that they've just read. That can be really motivating as well. I think that can help seal reading in his mind as something that he can do that he's good at, that gives him this reward of time with you and pairing that with lots of audiobooks and read alouds help him continue to love stories. (07:38): That way when reading with his eyes is not as difficult as it is now because it's still going to be more difficult than it is to listen to an audiobook, when those even out in either ways an adult you probably can read with your eyes or read with your ears with almost equal parts ease, when he gets there, he's going to have this love for stories and reading, but he's also going to have the skills to be able to do it whichever way he prefers. (08:01): Does that make sense? I hope it helps. I wouldn't worry about letting him listen to audiobooks or reading aloud too much to him. You're not going to harm your child by making it easier. If he loves stories, he's going to get there. It just takes some time to let those reading with your eyes skills catch up with the reading, with a heart and reading with the ears skills. Okay. Hope that makes sense and I hope that helps. Here's another question. This one from [Carrie 00:00:08:26]. Carrie (08:27): Hi Sarah. My name is Carrie and I am from Fort Worth, Texas. I have a almost six year old who is learning to read and I've been holding off on letting him listen to the audiobook versions of early readers such as Henry and Mudge or the Boxcar Children, but I know he would love those, but I'm scared to let him listen because I don't want it to ruin the books that I have for him to read when he's just a little bit better at reading. Should I go ahead and let him listen to them first or should I save those books for when he can read them on his own? Sarah (09:03): Hey Carrie, this is something we hear a lot actually. I know a lot of us, we want to save certain books until our kids are either fully able to enjoy the book or because we want them to read the books to themselves and we're afraid if they hear them earlier, they won't read them to themselves. The good thing about wonderful books is that they will be read and reread and reread. If your son loves Henry and Mudge, he's going to listen to it on audio and then when he's able to read it for himself, that's going to feel even more awesome because now he can get it for himself. He isn't going to feel like he's done the book just because he's heard them. In fact, oftentimes I think knowing the stories, knowing the names of the characters and the general pacing and cadence of the language makes reading it for themselves easier and so they can pick up on that skill of learning to read a little bit faster. (09:52): My twins have listened to countless repetitions of the Frog and Toad books by Arnold Lobel on audio, which are read by Arnold Lobel himself. We'll put links in the show notes because they are fabulously done. They're not ready to read those on their own yet, but when they are, they're going to feel like these are old companions and reading the book is going to feel less daunting. The whole experience of reading a book that long or a page that has that many words on it, it won't feel as daunting because they feel like old friends and the story may even be familiar because they remember it. That's all good. With a series like the Boxcar Children, there are so many different ones to share with your son. I think listening to some on audio can be a wonderful taste of what's to come. (10:33): A lot of times what our kids need is a little motivation, something they want to get for themselves. Now if they can read Boxcar Children, they have this endless amount of stories to read, something to look forward to and if he listens to even a dozen Boxcar Children, books of ads only scratching the surface when it comes to the Boxcar Children, so he'll be excited to get the rest for himself, I bet. (10:53): The short answer, I guess this is not exactly the short answer, but the short answer would be that I don't think hearing the books on audio now are going to preclude him from reading them later on, especially if he loves them. I'd say go for it and let them listen, especially if you think he's going to enjoy it now and then in the not too distant future, he's able to start reading them on his own. That's going to be a little taste of magic for him. (11:17): I hope that helps. Thank you Ana, and thank you Carrie for your questions. If you'd like me to answer your question here on the show, then head to readaloudrevival.com and then scroll to the bottom of the page and you'll find a button there that says, leave a question for Sarah Mackenzie. (11:51): All right, let's talk about, we're reading this fall. Now you might know that at RAR Premium we read a book every month as part of our family book club and the books I'm going to tell you about today are in fact the book club picks for RAR Premium. If you choose to read any of these with us this fall, you are in good company because thousands of us are reading them as well. In RAR Premium we make family book club guides to go with each of these and those family book club guides contain ideas for really good shared experiences about the book. Usually those shared experiences transform an ordinary dinner into a book club experience. I love these because dad can be a part of it. Honestly this just makes book club not one more thing to do on the schedule, like not another thing to add to to the to do list. None of us need that. (12:43): Instead, it helps us transform something we're already doing every day, making dinner, into a memorable and delightful experience that's rich in our book loving experience. It also includes dad in what we're doing, which I think is winning on all levels. We hear a lot of feedback from members who say, especially the dads themselves, who say they just love book club night. They come home for dinner and it's not an ordinary dinner. It is book club night and so really fun. These book club guides that we have in Premium, they have ideas for those shared experiences for those dinners. They have some open ended questions to ask about each book with kids of all ages to have some really good conversations and get those discussions going. We also have some tips for looking at and reading each book closely to help you and your kids look more closely and fall in love with the book more deeply. I think just see it on a whole new level. (13:34): Then, and this is the part that I really feel like is magical, the author illustrator comes to RAR Premium to meet your kids in a live video stream. If you want to find out what those are like, then you want to listen to our last episode, episode 134 because you'll see one of these in action with the author of the Jesus Story Book Bible, Sally Lloyd-Jones and you can watch a video replay of that at readaloudrevival.com/134. I'll let you know today as we go along and I'm talking about these books that I'm recommending for the fall, who's coming to Premium for each of the books. To get those family book club guides and to give your kids a front row seat at the author access events, you want to become a Premium member and you can do that right now, in fact at rarmembership.com because we've opened registration. (14:23): Also to celebrate the fall lineup of family book clubs, all the books I'm in fact going to be recommending today, we're giving away each of these books on Instagram. If you're on Instagram you want to make sure you check out our feed. That's just at instagram.com/realaloudrevival and you want to get in on the fun there this week because we're giving away a whole slew of books. (14:45): What are we reading this fall? The novels we're reading this fall are, I feel like I need a drum roll. There we go. The novels we're reading this fall are some of my very, very, very favorites to recommend to families. The Vanderbeeker books. These start with the Vanderbeekers of 141st Street by Karina Yan Glaser. The second book is The Vanderbeekers in the Hidden Garden, and the third book releases September 17th of this year and I got to read it a little early. I loved it every bit as much as the first two. (15:25): The Vanderbeekers are a Chinese American family living in Harlem in a townhouse that looks an awful lot like what you might see in All-of-a-Kind Family. If you're a fan of some of that throwback literature, there are five kids and two parents in the Vanderbeeker books and a smattering of pets and lots of trouble to get into. If you've got kids who like the Penderwicks books, who like the Melendy family books by Elizabeth Enright, or the Moffat series by Eleanor Estes or any of those old classics, these books have your name written all over them. They're fun, they're lighthearted, they're easy to read. I haven't met kids who don't like them yet. I have not met a single child who I recommended it to you who doesn't like it, which is saying something. (16:05): If you want to read along with us, you can start wherever you are with these, so if you've never read a Vanderbeeker book, you want to read these in order. You definitely wants to start with the first one. That's The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street. If you've already read that one, just move on to the second. That's The Vanderbeekers and the Hidden Garden. If you've read both of those, then get your hands on that third one, which comes out in September and read that one. For our family book clubs, FYI, we don't schedule our reading, we don't tell you need to read certain chapters or certain pages each week or whatever because a family book club should fit your family, not the other way around. (16:40): You just read one or all three or whatever fits your schedule, everything that's happening with you right now, this season of life, you get to make the family book club fit you. Our family book club guide in Premium will help you share experiences about the books. It'll help you talk about the books. Then later in the fall in November, Karina Yan Glaser herself, will come answer your kids questions about the books. (17:03): Those are our family book club novels for the whole fall. We're just immersing ourselves in the world of the Vanderbeekers and the Vanderbeeker books, by the way, they're excellent read alouds for all ages. I read them with my kids age 5 to 17 so they're the epitome of perfect books to share with a broad range of ages because they can appeal to your young kids and to your teenagers. I love that about some of these books that have a lot of kids like big family books because there is a character for each of your kids to relate to most closely because it's a family book. (17:34): The Penderwicks are like that too. I think that's part of what makes them so appealing to all different ages. Now each month, so we're reading these Vanderbeeker books and these are the novels in the fall, and each month we also have a family book club pick that's a picture book. This is a whole family book club after all, right? There needs to be something for everyone and all families are in a different spot. Every season's a little different. Sometimes in this season you'll be able to read everything we suggest and sometimes not. Some of our families just read the picture books because we have a picture book chosen for each month and that's a great experience, too. We intentionally choose the best picture books we can find that appeal to a broad range of ages and that offers something for young kids but also for older kids and even teens. (18:19): First step is our September pick. Actually there are two of them, two picture books we chose for September. They're both by our September Author Access Guests, Deborah Hopkinson. The first is Apples to Oregon: Being the (Slightly) True Narrative of How a Brave Pioneer Father Brought Apples, Peaches, Pears, Plums, Grapes, and Cherries (and Children) Across the Plains. That is really the title. You can just put in Apples to Oregon when you're looking for it, though. (18:46): The second book is Abe Lincoln Crosses a Creek: A Tall, Thin Tale. Both of these are historical fiction picture books. Well the second is a picture book biography, of course. They are exceptionally well-written. They're funny and they have great illustrations. In fact, the illustrator of that second one, Abe Lincoln Crosses a Creek, That's John Hendrix. He also wrote an illustrated Miracle Man: The Story of Jesus, which is our October picture book pick for Family Book Club. (19:16): Folks, if you haven't seen this book, you have got to get your hands on it. Miracle Man: The Story of Jesus. It is stunning. It is breathtaking. It's such a wonderful read aloud experience for all ages. I really mean all ages. I found one of my teenagers pouring over it the other day. There's a lot to look at here. The stories are so well told. In September, Deborah Hopkinson is coming, of course, she's the author of both of those books. She's going to be our Author Access Guests and then in October, John Hendricks, the illustrator of that second one is coming. He's the illustrator again of Abe Lincoln Crosses a Creek and he's also the illustrator of Miracle Man, which is our October pick. We're going to get to talk about both kinds of storytelling, storytelling with words and storytelling and pictures by talking with both Deborah Hopkinson and John Hendrix. (20:02): That is September and October. Now in November, Karina Yan Glaser is coming to talk to us about the Vanderbeekers and in The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street, Isa's violin plays a pretty important role in the story. We made our picture book selection for that month The Man with the violin by Kathy Stinson, illustrated by Dušan Petričić. (20:22): I love this book. It's based on the true story of the world renowned classical violinist, Joshua Bell, who took his instrument down to Washington DC subway for a free concert and more than a thousand commuters rushed by him without even glancing his way at all, this world-renowned musician. Only seven people stopped to listen. Most of them were kids. This story tells a fictional account of boy who may have been one of those to stop and listen. The story is wonderful, but I really think the showstopper in this picture book is in the illustrations, particularly the first spread, which may be one of the cleverest illustrations I have ever seen. (21:08): The Man with the Violin, that is our November picture book pic. I really think, especially when you're older kids find out this is, this truly happened, and start reading the back matter about Joshua Bell, it's a really good book for kids of all ages. (21:21): Now in December we will be reading the Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Tome, and I almost feel like I heard people sigh with happiness and I just said that. I love this book so much, too. I know a lot of you do, too. The illustrator, P.J. Lynch is going to come to Read Aloud Revival. He's going to live stream with us from his home in Ireland to talk about illustrating it. There's actually a wonderful movie version of the Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Tome as well. We're going to get a chance to talk with our kids about the differences and similarities between visual and written storytelling, which is going to be really great conversation to have. (21:56): That's what we're reading this fall. Apple's to Oregon, Abe Lincoln Crosses a Creek, Miracle Man: The story of Jesus, The Man with the Violin, The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey, and all the Vanderbeekers books. It is going to be glorious. I have so much fun putting together these lineups and making them coordinate and go along together. I love that as we're reading the Vanderbeekers with all of our kids, we can also be reading The Man with the Violin and talking about how music shapes people in both stories and this can be a whole family conversation. Then the shared experiences that we have over dinner that are in our family book club guides just bring everybody into conversation about the same book together. It really bonds us. Then we have the author illustrator come. It's just such a rich experience and I love putting these together. I get giddy putting these together. So fun. (22:44): To get the full experience where you can access those family book club guides and join us for author access, you do want to be sure to join us in Premium and you can do that at rarmembership.com. We have monthly, quarterly and annual options for joining us. But there's no commitment. You don't have to join for a certain amount of time. I think you'll find out why our Premium members love it so much when you just get a peak in there. Since we're talking about Premium, let me tell you a few of the other things we have happening there this fall. A couple of masterclasses are coming up now. RAR masterclasses are professional development for homeschooling moms, although a lot of our members are moms who are not home schoolers and they tell us they loved them just as much. (23:23): In September, I'm teaching a new masterclass about how to set yourself up to teach from rest, which I'm hoping will get us all off on the right foot, the beginning of a new school year. Then in October we have a guest instructor, Heather Woodie from Blog, She Wrote. She's coming to teach a masterclass on teaching from rest in the high school years. For those of us who want to apply the principles from my book, Teaching from Rest: A Homeschooler's Guide to Unshakable Peace into our homeschools. In November and the [Mackenzie Capa 00:23:52] is going to come and she's going to do a mini masterclass on voice acting for any mamas who love to do voices as they read aloud. As you know, you don't have to do voices as you read aloud, but this is a mini masterclass for anybody who likes to do voices and just wants to get better at it and take it up a notch to level up and we're going to have a little class on that for anyone who wants it. (24:10): We've also got two drawing workshops with Ralph Masiello. He's our favorite drawing instructor. We have him at Read Aloud Revival a lot in Premium. He's coming, he's going to do two. One is geared toward ages 4 to 9 and the other is geared for ages 10 and up. These are always kid favorites. There's some of our highest attended workshops. Kids love them. Ralph guides the kids in real time through several drawings during the workshop. What happens a lot of time, first of all, the end of the workshop, your child has a bunch of drawings and then they're just set free. He gives them lots of ideas for how to keep using the principles he just taught them to keep creating and making drawings. I love how on Instagram and Facebook for days after each of these you just see people posting pictures of their kids just drawing and drawing and drawing. So fun. (24:56): Then we also have a seasonal mama book club for Premium members. This fall we're reading Pam Barnhill's book Better Together: Strengthen Your Family, Simplify Your Homeschool, and Savor the Subjects that Matter Most. We'll be reading that together this fall. For the Mamma Book Club, we do read certain chapters during certain weeks, usually very slow, gentle pacing for us because we're all busy. Then Pam Barnhill will come of course and chat with us about the book at the end of it. (25:21): One of the great things about our live events in membership, their access, whether they are drawing or writing workshops or mama book clubs or masterclasses, any of it, they're all recorded and they're all available to watch in our Premium library. Just because something doesn't work for your schedule doesn't mean you'll miss it entirely. (25:40): Everything's available to you to watch on replay. Everything is closed caption. If your hearing impaired or your kids are hearing impaired, you can watch everything on replay with closed captions so you don't have to miss anything and everything we have ever done in Read Aloud Revival Premium is available to watch on replay with closed captions right when you join. Members oftentimes join and then just start binge-watching because it's so exciting. It's so fun to have access to all of these masterclasses and author access events we've done before. (26:09): Remember you can join us now. Registration has opened up and you can join us at rarmembership.com. You should be able to find answers to your questions there as well. You can grab our one page Fall Premium Calendar so you can see all the books we're reading and everything happening in Premium this coming season at a glance. (26:34): Now it's time for let the kids speak. This is my favorite part of the podcast where kids tell us about their favorite stories that been read aloud to them. Lorelei (26:47): Hi. I'm [Lorelei 00:26:49], age eight from Tennessee. My favorite book is Ramona the Brave by Beverly Cleary and I like it because Ramona is very mischievous. Jagger (26:57): Hi, I'm [Jagger 00:00:27:01], age five from Tennessee. I like The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis because I like Aslan because he's based on God. Wyatt (27:14): Hi. My name is [Wyatt 00:00:27:15]. I'm seven years old, almost eight. I live in Fayetteville, North Carolina and my favorite book is Juni B Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus. I like it because at first when she meets her teacher, she licks her shoes before putting them on and it was really funny. The next funniest part, she stays in school for about an hour and that's how much I like it. Shane (27:44): Hello. My name is [Shane 00:27:46]. I'm five years old. I live in Fayetteville, North Carolina. My favorite book is Captain Raptor and the Moon Mystery. The reason I like it is because it has lots of dinosaurs and it has this big squid and it has these fighting dinosaurs that have suits on and thank you. Bye Bye. Speaker 8 (28:09): All right. What's your name? Dennis (28:11): [Dennis Christine Court 00:28:12]. Speaker 8 (28:13): Where do you live? Dennis (28:14): Blackfoot, Idaho. Speaker 8 (28:15): How old are you? Dennis (28:17): Four. Speaker 8 (28:17): What's one of your favorite books that we've read? Dennis (28:19): Today. Speaker 8 (28:21): Today by Julie Morstad. Why do you like today? Dennis (28:24): Because I like answering the questions. Lincoln (28:31): My name is [Lincoln 00:28:32]. I live in Blackfoot, Idaho. I am eight years old. One of my favorite books is The Mysterious Benedict Society. I like everything about it. Levi (28:40): My name is [Levi 00:00:28:47]. I live in Blackfoot, Idaho. I am nine years old. One of my favorite books is By the Great Horn Spoon because I like how Jack and Praiseworthy find gold by digging a grave. Keller (29:02): My name is [Keller 00:00:29:08]. I live in Blackfoot, Idaho. I am six years old. One of my favorite books is The Koala Who Could because I love koalas. Milk (29:14): Hello. My name is [Milk 00:29:19]. I'm four years old. I live in North Carolina. My favorite book is Sleeping Beauty because I love it so much. Speaker 14 (29:28): What do you love about it? Milk (29:29): Phillip. Speaker 14 (29:31): What about Phillip? Who's Philip? Milk (29:33): The man with the hat and the sword. Speaker 14 (29:36): Yeah? What is so special about him? Milk (29:39): Fighting. Speaker 14 (29:40): What is he fighting to do? Milk (29:41): Killing the pigs. Speaker 14 (29:46): Who's he trying to save? Milk (29:48): The princess. Speaker 14 (29:48): Yeah. Okay. Bye. Milk (29:48): Okay. Bye bye. Sarah (29:57): Thank you kids. I just love your recommendations. Remember that you can grab the show notes for this episode at readaloudrevival.com/135. We're going to have all the books I recommended. They are all listed there. You also want to check out episode 134 if you missed it because that's the episode that's going to give you a really good feel for what an author access and family book club is like in Read Aloud Revival Premium. We have the family book club guide for Goldfish on Vacation by Sally Lloyd-Jones as well as the video replay of the author access with Sally Lloyd-Jones. (30:31): If you're thinking, "I wonder if these would be a good fit for my family?" That's going to give you a really good idea of whether or not it is. That's at. readaloudrevival.com/134. Premium is open now and we'd love to have you join us. You can find out more at rarmembership.com. (30:51): That's it for now. In two weeks, I'm going to be back with another episode. Really excited about this one. Not going to give you any teasers. You're just going to have to come back here. Same time, same place. Can't wait. Until then, go make meaningful and lasting connections with your kids through books.