What My Tween Girl Likes To Read

My twelve year old daughter loves to read. She has some favorites that she will read more than once just because she loves them so much. I love that she loves to read since I also love to read. She has read some books that I read when I was her age.

Mandie Books ~ These books are set in the state (north Carolina) we live in. I read these books when I was her age and had a couple of the books that I gave to her to read through. She got hooked, so I decided to buy the collections (there are five books in each collection) for her and to save them for future readers (my 7 year old  and hopefully granddaughters one day).

There are also a few movies that go with these books and my daughter has enjoyed watching them.

My daughter also loves books by Marguerite Henry. She has read several including Misty  of Chincoteague, Stormy, Misty’s Foal, and Brighty of the Grand Canyon.

She has also watched the Misty movie and enjoyed it. She wanted to know if there were more movies for any of these books and I found out there are some, but they are hard to find (especially on DVD). She loves anything that has to do with horses.

Some other books she ahs read and enjoyed are classics. Anne of Green Gables and Little Women are at the top.  She has also read The Secret Garden and several Little House on the Prairie books. We go to our local library sale whenever they have it (usually two times per year) and she picks out several books that she thinks she would like to read. The majority of the books she picks out are animal related. She loves animals and will read anything that has animals in it.

I just wanted to make a list of a few of her favorites in case you are looking for something for your tween daughter to read.

Weigl Publishers

We were recently given the chance to review three media enhanced children’s books (A Lion's World, There Once Was A Cowpoke Who Swallowed An Ant, and Glaciers) from Weigl Publishers. They offer several books that have codes to unlock media content for the book.

Each book has a special code that you put in on a certain website and then you are able to view the media for each book. Each book has different media like videos to watch, activity pages you can download and print, or have the book read to you.

There Once Was  A Cowpoke Who Swallowed An Ant is a story that is designed for children in grades K-2. It is about a cowboy that swallows an ant but soon figures out that it was not the best thing to do. He then swallows other animals and even himself to get the ant.

The media on this book is just the story being read to you. There is a narrator’s voice and the cowpoke’s voice. There are also different sound effects as the story is being read to you. The words are highlighted as the story is being read. You can see what it looks like on the computer in the picture below.



A Lion’s World is also designed for children in grades K-2.  This is a simple one sentence on each page with a picture that a child could read alone. When you log onto the EyeDiscover website with your special code, you will see a video of the lion’s in the background while the story is being read by a narrator. You will also be able to hear the lion roar in some of the videos.  There are some things included in the book that are not on the website. The book includes some lion facts and keywords. The media on the website just shows video of lions and reads the book.



Glaciers is a book that is designed for children in grades 3-6. The book tells about the size of glaciers, where glaciers can be found, and different aspects of glaciers. The media found on the website includes videos, interactive maps, web links, slideshows, activities that can be downloaded as a pdf, and much more.

Side note: Because this is not a Christian science book, the book does talk about millions of years ago. I don’t keep my children from reading books that talk about this because I tell them from an early age that we don’t believe in that, but they can still the read the book, but remember what we believe.

This book and website has a lot of great information and I would definitely use it to teach my children more about glaciers.



My youngest daughter looked at and read through A lion’s World and There Once Was  A Cowpoke Who Swallowed An Ant. I had her go through the books on the website and she enjoyed having the books read to her and seeing the videos of the lions. She thought the cowpoke book was the funniest and had a good laugh as the story was being read to her.

I looked through the glacier book and website myself and liked that there was so much information that can be used for future studies with my youngest. I did show this to my oldest daughter who will be starting 8th grade in the fall. She said she would enjoy parts of the book and website if her studies included glaciers.

Overall, we enjoyed the media enhanced books and will take a look to see if there may be other books that we would enjoy.

B is for Books

Well, I love books! And since I homeschool, that means I have a lot of books that I have collected over the years from different places.

I have everything from children’s book to chapter books to high school classics. I also have paper books, hard back books, and books on a Kindle.

Some of my favorite children’s books are ones that I read when I was a child. I’ve introduced my children to the Little Critter books, which is one of my favorites from when I was a child. Some other favorite children’s books are Berenstain Bears, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and any of the Dr. Seuss books.

Some chapter books that my children have read over the last few years are Charlotte’s Web, Anne of Green Gables, Huckleberry Finn, and several others.

One of my favorite authors, who lives 30 minutes from me, is Nicholas Sparks. I have read almost all of his books and even won a whole set of his books a couple of years ago.  Right now, I am reading through the Heartland series and my 12 year old daughter will probably be reading them after I do. She loves everything about horses. She borrows  e-books about horses and always wants to buy horse books at the library sale.

I’ve also shared some new favorites over the past several weeks and we can’t wait for more of the new books in the series to come out. If you want to find out about some of our other favorites you can click here and read through some posts.

I’m linking up with:
Hopkins Homeschool

Carole P. Roman Book Review

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We have reviewed books from Carole P. Roman in the past, so I was excited to be chosen to review some different books this time. We received Oh Susannah: It’s in the Bag and Can a Princess Be a Firefighter? to read through.

Oh Susannah: It’s in the Bag is the first book in a new chapter series. This book is geared toward the lower elementary age. This story is about Susannah Maya Logan who is in the third grade. It starts out with her having trouble with her homework. She feels like she can’t talk to her parents about not understanding the math problems because they are too busy with their own work. She leaves for school the next morning with a feeling of dread. Her problems keep getting bigger as the day goes on and she doesn’t know what to do. She keeps stuffing all of her school work into her backpack until it can’t hold anymore. When she gets home from school, she stuffs the full backpack under her bed hoping it will just disappear and make all of her problems go away.  When she goes to bed that night, she starts thinking about that full back pack and eventually falls asleep. The back pack haunts her in her dreams and becomes so big that it just explodes all over room. Her parents rush in when they hear her scream. They stay with her and make her talk about what is going on. Will they listen? Will things change? How can they help her still be a little girl but remember her responsibilities also?

Oh Susannah: It’s in the bag is a short 34 page, nine chapter book. It is an easy read and I read this to my 6 year old daughter in a couple of days. We both looked forward to finding out how Susannah would deal with her problems. This book gave me an opportunity to talk with my daughter about not hiding her problems from me, but coming to me to talk them over. W can’t wait to read the next book in the series to find out more about Susannah.

Can a Princess Be a Firefighter? is a story about two daughters asking their dad if they can be something when they are older, but still be a princess. The dad tells his daughters that they can be anything they want to be when they grow up and that they will always be a princess to him.

My daughter loved this book. She has mentioned that she would like to be a firefighter when she grows up, so I knew she would enjoy this book.  It is a short, easy to read picture book that can be read in one sitting. It is ideal for preschool age, but really anyone who has daughters would love this book.

Carole also sent us two bonus books to look over and read. We were sent One to Ten: Squirrel’s Bad Day and The Crew Goes Coconuts: A Captain No Beard Story.

One to Ten: Squirrel’s Bad Day is about a squirrel who is rushing around trying to gather acorns when she loses them all. She is frustrated, but her friends try to help her by measuring how bad a problem is from one to ten. After hearing about her friend's problems, she realizes that her problem is not so big after all. Her friends plan to help her gather more acorns so she won’t be without.

The Crew Goes Coconuts: A Captain No Beard Story is Volume 6 in the Captain No Beard Series. This series is about the imagination of two cousins who are playing with their stuffed animals. This story begins with the crew being thirsty. They are docked at an island, but there is nothing to drink. They couldn't find any water to drink and their juice on board is all gone. They blame a goat that one of the crew members brings with them and start making fun of the goat.  Captain No Beard hears them and asks what the problem is. They let him know. He comes up with a solution that will make everyone happy.

Books

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As I continue in my Blogging through the Alphabet series with Marcy, I had no trouble coming up with a post for letter B.

I love books! I have many books of all different genres. My favorite books to read are Christian fiction novels. I remember going to the library as a child and picking out some great books. I was always excited to join in the summer reading program at the library just so I could pick out a brand new book at the end (the prize back then). I still do love going to the library and looking through all of the books. I love to help my kids pick out some books.

I've tried to instill my love of reading into my children. They do love books, but my boys would rather read non-fiction than fiction. That is fine, because they are still reading and they are learning something while reading. My oldest daughter likes to read fiction books. She picks out a couple of books at the library and sometimes finishes them fast, but sometimes she doesn't. My youngest daughter loves to sit down and flip through a book and look at the pictures. Sometimes I ask her to "read" me the story and she does a good job just by looking at the pictures.

Since I love to read in bed (some days it's my only free time), I got myself a Kindle Paperwhite for my Mother's Day gift this year. :) I love it already. I have a Kindle app on my iPod, but the words were so tiny, I couldn't read any books. I love the Paperwhite. It is easy to read and it is not heavy so I can lay down in bed and read.  The back-light is perfect for reading when the lights are off.

 Some of my favorite Christian authors are Karen Kingsbury, Janette Oke, and Francine Rivers. I have also read several Nicholas Sparks books and The Hunger Games trilogy along with many other fiction books. I'm trying to get into the Divergent series right now.

My boys favorite non-fiction books are any book that has to do with science. They love science and animals. My oldest daughter loves reading stories about horses and other animals.

I really hope that they will always have a love for learning and a love for books.

Two Favorite Authors

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I have read many books over the years, but there are some that I could read and read all over again many times. These are two of my favorite authors and my favorite books from them. I have a much longer list of favorite books and will post that another time.

Books by Karen Kingsbury:

One Tuesday Morning (9/11 Series)

Beyond Tuesday Morning (9/11 Series)




Books by Nicholas Sparks:

The Last Song



The Longest Ride