After I told Oscar about my favourite book from my childhood, he asked that I read it to him, and so began our nightly habit of reading books without pictures that are probably mostly (but not enitrely!) going over his head. Having said that, even Joshua picks up on plenty, despite falling asleep within minutes of me starting to read each night!
Many fascinating conversations spin out of these reading sessions.
Northern Lights by Philip Pullman
It took us about 8 weeks to read the whole thing, and Oscar loved it. It’s a long book, but a fairly straightforward adventure plot. But lots of complex characters and events. His favourite bit is a big battle, where all the groups Lyra has met come together to save the children.
There are 2 more books in this trilogy, but the story and concepts get even more complex, so I’m trying to be patient before reading them!
The B.F.G.
We didn’t enjoy that one as much. It’s a very slow pace!
La Belle Sauvage
Philip Pullman started another trilogy of books in Lyra’s world, and the first was released in 2017. It’s set before Northern Lights. We loved this one, too. Lots of interesting concepts including freedom and morality.
Oscar’s favourite bit is how the Gyptians know the flood is coming, but no one else believes it… and then, of course, the flood does come.
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine l’Engle
Apparently this is a popular book in America; often read in middle school. I’d not heard of it, but turns out the movie adaptation is coming out in a few weeks! It was on a list of good children’s books, so we tried it out. We enjoyed this one a lot, too. Quite different to what I expected, and I’m quite intrigued to see how the movie turns out.
There are lots more books in this series too, so I expect we’ll come back to this one at some point.
The Hithchiker’s Guide to The Galaxy
I really didn’t expect this one to go down well, but the kids enjoyed it. They liked the computers and robots with “realistic” personalities (including Marvin the utterly depressed android, and the spaceship’s computer that’s always faaar to cheerful). They were both in fits of giggles at the computer singing during a crisis.
Oscar seems interested in robots, aliens, and various types of intelligent creatures. On reflection… I guess that’s a theme running through all these books so far!
Next we’re trying out I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov. We’ll report back in a couple of weeks what we think of that one.
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