Looking for great books for read-aloud time or for Christmas gifts? We've got you covered! Jen and Steph recommend books for every age and stage and provide research-based reasons about why reading is just so good for us all! Get your pens ready, Mamas, because a flood of titles is coming your way!

They're the joyful agains our children shout on the swings, the

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exhausting agains of cooking and laundry,

and the difficult agains of discipline.

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So much of what we do

as mothers is on repeat.

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So what if we woke up with clarity,

knowing which agains we were called

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to, and went to bed believing we

are faithful in what matters most?

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We believe God's Word is

the key to untangle from the

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confusion and overwhelm we feel.

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Let's look up together to embrace a

motherhood full of freedom and joy.

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Welcome back to the again, podcast

where we believe that what moms do over

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and over again, truly matters to God.

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I'm your host, Stephanie Hickox.

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And this is brought to you

by entrusted ministries.

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This episode is going to be part two of a

conversation I had with Jen Frackman about

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the delight of reading to your children.

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And a world was so much

controversy and disagreement.

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Isn't it wonderful to have something.

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That no one says is a problem.

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And that we can feel confident

in doing for our children.

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And speaking of controversy we know this

week that many of you will be voting.

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And we just want to encourage everyone

to take advantage of that civic blessing

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that it is that we have the privilege.

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In this country and that it really is our

right and our responsibility as citizens.

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To take the opportunity that we

have to vote and to weigh in.

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For our nation's choices, the word vote.

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Does mean to choose and in voting,

we get the opportunity to say, we

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feel like this is the best choice.

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And I know it can be hard when you

have a little kiddos and sometimes

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we have to get up so early in

the morning to beat those lines.

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Or wait till evening, but I.

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Want to encourage everyone

to take that opportunity.

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All right now,

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Stephanie: I want to share a couple really

solid research based reasons that are

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fantastic for reading to your children.

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I'm getting these from All

About Learning Press one of my

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favorite reading curriculums.

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It cultivates a really sweet, simple time.

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That you can have with your child.

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If you are looking for homeschool

curriculum, I highly recommend them.

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And I found these

reasons on their website.

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Number one, reading aloud to children

creates a lifetime interest in reading.

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If you start when your children are

little, it's more likely that they will

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continue to be readers for lifetime.

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If they have this association of

happy memories reading with you,

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then they will be more likely to

push through those roadblocks.

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They experienced later in life.

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Number two reading to young children

extends their attention spans.

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Now I understand you might be thinking,

oh, but how do we even start reading?

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When they are bouncing off the wall doing

somersaults on the couch and they're

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doing handstands while I'm trying to read.

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Start in small chunks and continue

to try to build some stamina.

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Another idea is to give your

children something like Legos

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or coloring books or a reusable

sticker pack from Melissa and Doug.

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Those are great activities

I've used in my home.

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To have their hands busy while

you are building their attention

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span and reading to them.

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Number three, reading aloud

to your children, builds their

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vocabulary and language development.

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As I edit this podcast, I noticed

that sometimes I fall back on

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the same words over and over.

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And it drives me nuts.

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But when I'm reading.

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I encounter new words and I find.

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That the more I read the better

my vocabulary gets and the same

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is certainly true with children.

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Not only does it.

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Helps them to.

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Stephanie: Encounter new words,

but know how to pronounce

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them and know how to use them.

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And this working vocabulary will be

internalized and will help them become

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a more fluent reader in the long run.

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Number four, as you read aloud, the power

of a child's imagination is strengthened.

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Dan certainly spoke to this in part one.

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Of this episode.

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And we do think that as you give

children these word pictures,

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that it helps their minds to

create worlds and envision things.

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Number five reading aloud helps

build a child's comprehension.

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As you talk about this shared

book experience, you can

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talk about the characters.

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You can talk about the setting.

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Make predictions and say, how

do you think this character is

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going to handle this situation?

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What should they do?

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Make connections to your own life?

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And talk about character traits

and all of that is helping them

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have a more rich experience.

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With the text.

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And certainly this is one

we have definitely hit on.

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Reading aloud builds a great bonding time

as a family, whether it's just you and

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your child or you and your whole family.

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Reading books provides great

memories to look back on together.

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And a wonderful shared experience.

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You can have an adventure, right from

your couch, right from your living room.

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Snuggled up in front of the fire,

outside on a picnic blanket in

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the middle of a nature preserve.

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Or even in the car while you're

waiting for a doctor appointment,

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the opportunities are endless.

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One more benefit that is.

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Absolutely powerful is that when we

read a books of good and beautiful.

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Virtuous characters.

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We are putting before our children,

examples of who we want them to become.

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And providing many experiences

with virtuous characters is

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truly formative for our children.

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When they, we are raising them in a world

that is screaming a character examples

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of what we really want them to avoid,

even when a character is a wrestling,

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with vices and sin or selfishness.

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But then the character change is produced.

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It is a great teaching opportunity.

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Watching.

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And of green Gables having a tantrum

And not thinking before she speaks,

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has provided fantastic opportunities

for me to talk to my children.

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About James and our tongue being a fire.

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One of the greatest blessings.

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Of choosing.

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Wonderful literature for our children

is that it provides them with

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excellent displays of character.

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And it is a guide for them along

with scripture of the kind of men and

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women that we are calling them to be.

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Stephanie: Now Dan and I

are going to bring you.

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Some of our favorite books that we've

read with our children and most of

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them we've probably read over and over.

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We want to take you from those little

board books, all the way to books that

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are bringing us hope in our adulthood.

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First, I'm going to talk about some

board books that I have loved with

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my children and Sandra Boynton.

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It's going to top the list

for some rhyme time fun.

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she is clever and unexpected,

and her books have brought us

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lots of giggles over the years.

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Blue hat green hat as

well as snuggle puppy.

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15 animals.

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The belly button book.

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Moved by LA.

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And pajama time or some

of our family favorites.

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And I know that the way that I read

them might be even different than she

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intended, but I think it's so fun to

just create your own style and your

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own little chance with your kids.

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And we definitely sing that

snuggle puppy song quite a bit.

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Dear zoo is a sweet lift.

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The flat book by rod.

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Campo that we were gifted from an aunt

and uncle when the kids were babies.

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I find that the repetition in that

one really helped my kids feel

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like they were reading confidently.

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On every page it says I sent him back

chanting that out on every page and

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made them feel like little readers.

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Time for bed by mem Fox.

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Is a precious bedtime story.

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And the runaway bunny is a silly

one by Margaret Wise, brown.

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About a sassy little bunny that thinks he

would be more content in other situations.

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Doesn't that certainly

apply to our children.

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That.

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Little bunny learned to

embrace his circumstances.

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Let's talk about some of our favorite

picture books or picture book authors.

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Books for young children that we've

really delighted in our homes.

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Probably my favorite children's

author is Kevin Henkes.

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I believe that's how

you say his last name.

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I searched for years.

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So that was A children's author that my

mom read to us when we were little, he

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wrote Sheila Ray, the brave and Julius,

the baby of the world and Chester's way.

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And Lily's purple plastic purse.

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They're sweet little funny books.

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And he is the illustrator as well.

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They're really enjoyable.

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I have.

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Such a stack here that I'd like to

talk about, but I wanted to recommend

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a reading curriculum that we found.

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when they were quite little

It was called five below.

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and you have a one book each week.

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And they provide

activities connected to it.

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And you're rereading the book every day

and noticing new things and connecting it.

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Maybe to a different subject.

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A lot of these books are out of

print, but I found a package on eBay

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when I found their curriculum and

I wouldn't recommend them unless

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I thought they were super sweet.

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So some of the books that we.

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Learned about through five

below our Jessie bear.

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What will you wear?

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By Nancy White Carlstrom.

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Angus lost by Marjorie flack.

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I asked Mr.

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Bear also by Marjorie flack.

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Katie, no pocket.

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By Emmy pain.

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Corduroy by Dan Freeman.

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Blueberries for sale by Robert McCloskey.

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Caps for sale.

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Bye Esper slow.

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But Inca

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and the red carpet by Rex Parkin.

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Those are some classic stories that

are just sweet and innocent that

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we loved reading over and over.

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Some more modern ones that we

loved are the David Kranz quit.

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And the David Kranz came

home by oliver Jeffers.

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And . drew de Walt.

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Hugs from Pearl by Paul Schmid

is not only a sweet story, but

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so beautifully illustrated.

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The colors are so soothing,

like a piggy and Gerald palette.

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A little Elliot, big city by Mike Corrado.

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Prado is so darling that I actually

designed an entire birthday party around.

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It had a Manhattan cupcake theme

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tom Lichtenfeld is an incredible author.

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He wrote steam train, dream, train.

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And goodnight construction site.

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We also loved Cloudette by him.

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And I wish you more.

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He also is an amazing illustrator.

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Lauren child, I think is one

of the funniest children's

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authors I've encountered.

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I love her books about Charlie and Lola.

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I will never not ever eat a tomato.

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Is a really spunky one.

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That's brought us lots of giggles.

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And also provides an opportunity

for a British accent.

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Cars and trucks and things

that go by Richard scary.

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Is a fun one because on every page,

there is a little bug named Goldbug.

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My kids just loved looking

and looking for gold bug.

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And there are some pages where

it's very hard to find him.

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I actually made a little

gold bug in my home.

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And when my boys were little, I would

hide it around the house and then

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I would teach them that you have

to be observant to be a servant.

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So it was training them

to have eyes to see.

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That's a little activity we did

when they were really little.

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The story of Ferdinand by Monroe leaf

might be a little bit more commonly

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known a bad case of stripes by David

Shannon is a new one, but it talks

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about not changing to please others,

but being true to who you are.

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And obviously there would be a

great biblical connection there.

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The pigeon books by Mo Willems

the back and forth between

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the reader and the listener.

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The pigeon books just provide a

wonderful opportunity for that.

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Let me hold you longer by Karen Kingsbury.

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Is.

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An absolute tear jerker.

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If you can get through

that book without crying.

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I'll be surprised, but it talks about

you don't know when these last things

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are going to come for your kids.

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The last time.

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That they ask you to tuck

them in the last time.

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That they need you to kiss their alleys.

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And I think it helps you to save her.

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Those little moments.

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I always felt that one of the best things

I could do for my children as their mother

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was to provide great books all the time.

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Even when money is tight, we can go

to the library and and I can provide

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great experiences for my kids.

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Stephanie: And we're just going

to have great books all the time.

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And we had like a mile from our house,

one of the best libraries in the state.

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That was such a blessing.

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So we'd regularly go and the bottom

of the stroller would be filled

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with 60 books or or big crate.

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And but they just read and

they love to look through them.

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And we would read those.

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And so I think we actually

ended up reading more books.

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picture books than chapter books quite a

bit because that was so engaging for them.

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And then even as we've started with

homeschooling, we've read a lot of

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history and science picture books as well.

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And it's a really engaging way to learn.

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And they've always loved that.

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, we'll keep that list shorter.

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Yeah.

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Jen: There is one book that makes

us laugh every time we read it.

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It's a picture book by Ted Arnold

called Parts and it just, oh my

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goodness, it makes me laugh so hard.

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It's a little boy who is confused

about the sayings that adults say

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and how he takes it very literally.

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And so everything is of literal.

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He thinks when this happens, that

this is literally going to happen.

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And so just seeing the way that he does

it is, oh man, we laugh every time.

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So that's a good book for.

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Youngers to have a good laugh at.

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I remember when my kids were little and

we would ride our bikes to the library

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and everybody would have a backpack and

we'd put them in the backpack and in

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my bike basket and we would load up all

the picture books and I would always

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take my copy of Honey for a Child's

Heart and I would just quick take a

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look at okay, what ones should we look

and see if we can check out and just

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peruse through them to see if they were

appropriate for them because Sadly, a

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lot of them nowadays are not appropriate.

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So I would just quickly take

a look before we took it home.

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One of my favorite authors is Max Lucado.

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His book, You Are Special and another

one called Just the Way You are some

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of our favorites and just talking

about how God sees them and that.

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He loves them just the same.

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He knows everything about

them and loves them.

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And I love that.

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But yes, trips to the library.

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Oh, I love it.

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Max Lucado is also one of my favorites.

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Stephanie: And I agree with you that

we have to be increasingly aware.

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I honestly will skip by almost completely

the new section at the library because

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Jen: Agreed.

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Stephanie: It's probably the section

that is going to be the most, radical.

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and I'll be naive about it, like we were

studying, I think, pronouns a couple years

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ago with homeschooling and I saw like a

book like about, it wasn't labeled just

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pronouns, but I was like, oh, how helpful.

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And then I realized, no,

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Jen: No,

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Stephanie: not the same thing.

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Jen: Not the same.

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Stephanie: yeah.

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Jen: I have a friend she

has like a fabulous strategy.

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Where she doesn't buy any books.

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She only rents from the library

and she will go to the library and

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ask them to purchase these books.

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Any book that she wants to read,

she asks them to purchase it because

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they often don't have what she wants

to read on hand and she reads it.

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And then returns it obviously to the

library and she's I'm putting good

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books on the shelf because they're

not there unless you request it.

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And I thought that was a brilliant idea

in, and to get more books into your

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library that are good, wholesome books.

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Stephanie: Yeah.

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I finally recently filled out like

five book requests for my library.

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I'd never done it before.

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And I'm like, I just

need to take the time.

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And I haven't heard anything back because

I've, I know we have a couple of friends.

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Yeah.

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That do that.

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And they're like, Oh, I've

never been turned down.

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And I'm like, they're not

responding to any of my requests.

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I really want to read these books.

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Jen: Oh yeah.

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Stephanie: also, I remember as we were

doing all these library trips and it

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would be like once a year a book would

get ripped or something and we'd have

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to pay for a book and I've used to

think oh no that's really expensive and

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then when I thought about it like the

cost of literacy is so low here that's

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really such a low price to pay for my

children to have all of these books so

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Jen: Yeah.

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Stephanie: even though it's like Painful

to pay 30 for a book replacement.

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Really, actually, if I've rented

2, 000 books from the library

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this year, that's nothing.

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And I'm happy to do that,

so that's really helped me,

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Let's talk about some books that we've

enjoyed as a family when our, as our

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children are getting a little bit

older, past the picture book scene.

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Jen: Yeah, I love that.

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I know we mentioned the

Chronicles of Narnia.

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The Gram in Grandma's Attic series is a

really sweet series by Arlita Richardson.

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We mentioned the Boxcar Children

series, Ginger Pie, The School Story,

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Number the Stars by Lois Lowry.

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That's wonderful.

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Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by

Kate Douglas Wiggin is wonderful.

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Because of Winn Dixie by

Kate, how do you say that?

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Stephanie: That Kate DiCamillo.

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Jen: Okay.

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Kate to Camelot.

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There we go.

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Cattywood lawn.

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Stephanie: her.

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Yeah.

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Jen: Oh yeah.

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Okay.

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Sarah, Plain and Tall.

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I love that one.

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Johnny Tremaine, The Sign of

the Beaver, Little Bridges.

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I love Little Bridges.

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Oh, The Singing Tree.

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That is such a good book.

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It is such a good book.

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The Courage of Sarah Noble,

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Mrs.

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Piggle Wiggle.

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That's a fun one.

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Miracles on Maple Hill.

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There's so many.

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Stephanie: That's great.

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My daughter and I are really enjoying

the original American Girl books right

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now, reading some of those together.

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Jen: yes.

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Stephanie: And I think some of my

very favorite chapter books that I

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ever read with my kids were the E.

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B.

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White books like Trumpet of the

Swan was such a sweet one, and

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Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little.

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We loved those.

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So I really, a lot of those

classics are just fantastic.

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Fantastic.

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For years, one of my sons, his

favorite book to read other

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than the Bible was ASAPS fables.

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We had a book about 200 of them written.

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And a little bit easier format and he

loves animals and he has absolutely

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just read that book over and over.

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So anytime you find an ASAPS

fables book, I think that I would

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definitely recommend that because it

has such great such great lessons.

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And you can talk about, does this

line up with scripture or not?

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And then have a couple other.

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Chapter books, the great illustrated

classics, like the count of Monte

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Cristo, and they have so many, so

Sammy Robinson, but those are great

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at introducing classics to your

kids, but at a more age appropriate.

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Level for them.

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By the great horn spoon by Sid Fleischman

was a fun one about the gold rush.

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Of course, we have to talk about.

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The.

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Little house on the Prairie books.

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And my kids also really

loved the secret garden.

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And I think that one was

neat for talking about.

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There was a little bit of an element

of the supernatural in there.

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And the reason I was excited to read

this with my children is that someone

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in our homeschool co-op had said that

the little boy named a dicon in this

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book, Reminded her perhaps of what

Jesus would have been like as a child.

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And so I was so excited to

look into it with my kids.

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That might be something that you

would consider disgusting if you

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think that holds true or not.

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And I want to mention a series that

I definitely wouldn't recommend

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for children that are too young.

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This is, I would say probably 12 and up.

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They're written by a believer and they're

totally appropriate, but they are very

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suspenseful and they are about more

intense subject matter like kidnapping.

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Tim Shoemaker.

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I wrote the code of silence series.

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It's code of silence.

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Below the surface and back before dark.

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And my son devour these and

read them over and over.

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And he actually I'm at the back

of the book, Tim Shoemaker.

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He provided some great tips

about how to keep yourself safe.

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And it was neat to hear my

son really latch on to these.

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Protective devices and be thinking,

I just saw him become very aware

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of how to protect our family.

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In different circumstances and.

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So I think it was just

very clever how the author.

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That in and to help teach kids wise

decisions and how they can be safe.

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Tim Shoemaker also has some great

devotional books, but we'll talk

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about those another episode.

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I'm sure.

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Jen: I love that.

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Some of my favorite For my teens

that I was actually just thinking

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today that I'm going to assign for

Josiah to read this summer is the

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Bonhoeffer book by Eric Metaxas.

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It's fantastic.

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It's probably one of my top

three favorite books ever.

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That is just such a good

book and teaches so much.

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In the Presence of My Enemies by Gratia

Burnham is a really good book about

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missionaries and the plot of their lives.

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Really one of the spouses dies and so how

they handle that is just unbelievable.

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Becoming Elizabeth Elliot by

Ellen Vaughn is fantastic.

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Again, one of my top five books.

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Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson.

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The Hiding Place by Cory Tinboom.

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The Watchmaker's Daughter,

which is also really good.

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About the same thing.

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Godsmuggler.

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This book, if I could only read one book.

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To my preteen and teen kids, it would

be God's Smuggler by Brother Andrew.

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This book had all of us around

the table just, Oh my goodness,

439

what's going to happen next?

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It was so good.

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It's about Brother Andrew

who would sneak Bibles.

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He would smuggle Bibles

into the Iron Curtain.

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It was absolutely fascinating read.

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Stephanie: that's great.

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It made me think about

the Christian hero books.

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Yeah, Christian heroes then and

now, or there's also like heroes

447

of history by Janet and Jeff Benj.

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I think that's how you say their

name, B E N G, but those are so great.

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The light keepers.

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Sets, there's 10 boys

who made a difference.

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Those are for younger or

for, yeah, growing boys.

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Those are great ones.

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And I think they also have a set

10 girls who made a difference,

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Jen: Yeah.

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Those are really good when you're

having a hard time and you're going

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through just a really hard time, a

hard season with your kids or a hard

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season with God where you're just

like, I don't feel like you hear me.

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You're not answering my prayers.

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I'm not connecting with

you like I want to.

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favorite books to run to during

those times is actually I listened

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to this one yearly through the

eyes of a lion by Levi Lesko.

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I listen to him on audio.

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He does the audiobook of it.

464

It's fantastic.

465

And by the end of the book, you're like,

okay, bring on the trials, the Lord,

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because I know what you're going to do

through them is going to be so remarkable.

467

And it just helps you to feel like you're

putting on the armor of God and just,

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Gearing up for battle and taking the

hard time that you know you're going

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to be going through and giving God

glory in it and using it for his glory.

470

And it is such a good book.

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War of Words by Paul David

Tripp is really good.

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The Five Languages of

Apology by Gary Chapman.

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That's helpful when you're

like, we are not communicating.

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are not going well.

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How to understand what a true apology is.

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is and how to do a, give a

true apology is super helpful.

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And then suffering is never for

nothing by Elizabeth Elliot.

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In fact, for that book, I just.

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Any book that I read, actually, I

will take and highlight different

480

portions and I make it my own.

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But then I go through and at the end of

the chapter, I'll go through and be like,

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what were my favorite quotes out of here?

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And I'll take those and put them

in the very front of the book

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so that I can peruse through

easily to find those quotes.

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With this book for suffering

is never for nothing.

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I was like, Oh my word, the entire

front page, front, back, front,

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back, were all full of quotes

because it was just so rich.

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Stephanie: Yes.

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I love that book.

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So

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Jen: Another good one was The

Gift of Tears by Corey Russell.

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There were a few things that his

theology was a little bit different

493

from mine, but I don't mind reading

things like that because I think it

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makes me think more and dive deeper

into scripture to be like, wait, okay.

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What?

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What do I believe God's

word is saying about this?

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But in that book, it has made me see how

the Lord uses tears and how the tears of

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a nation he uses those to draw us to him.

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And so that was just a really good

read, a very different book than

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anything I'd ever read, really.

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Stephanie: Those are great.

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I feel like I have to recommend Sarah

McKenzie and the Read Aloud family.

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If you're feeling like, okay, I need to be

convinced that this is, a worthy endeavor

504

and worthy of my time, or if you're

saying, I'm convinced it's worthy, but how

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do you really have conversations with your

kids when they're reading all different

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books or how do we talk about books?

507

It's a very practical resource

and she'll give you 10 questions.

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These are great questions that

work with almost any book, what

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does the main character want?

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And it's very helpful.

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So I love that one.

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I think Jim Trulise, The Read Aloud.

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What is it?

514

It's the

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Jen: yeah, I have it.

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The Read Aloud Handbook.

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Stephanie: thank you, The Read Aloud

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Handbook.

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Sarah MacKenzie relied upon that and

then now she's created resources

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then, inspired by him, but through

her own years of research as well.

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Jen: And then also adding to that

list is Honey for a Child's Heart.

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She has a wonderful list

of books in that as well.

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I also love Anything by Sally Clarkson,

The Life Giving Table, Mothering

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by the Book by Jennifer Pepito.

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So many.

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The For the Children's

Sake by Susan Schaefer.

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Macaulay.

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Mere Motherhood by Cindy Rollins.

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She Calls Me Daddy by Robert Wilgemuth.

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Entrusted with a Child's

Heart by Betsy Corning.

531

Stephanie: We know you're busy,

Mama, so we are truly grateful you

532

joined us for this episode of Again.

533

If you're looking for more information

about building your home on the

534

foundation of Jesus Christ, head to www.

535

EntrustedMinistries.

536

com to learn more about our study for

moms, Entrusted with a Child's Heart.

537

This scripture saturated study

has blessed families around the

538

world, and we want it for you, too.

539

Before you go, I want to pray

this benediction over you

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from 2 Thessalonians 1, 11 12.

541

We're rooting for you.

542

To this end, we always pray for you,

that our God may make you worthy of His

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calling, and may fulfill every resolve

for good and every work of faith by

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His power, so that the name of our Lord

Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in

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Him, according to the grace of our God.

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And the Lord Jesus Christ.

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Amen.

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Until we meet again.