Chapter Read-alouds: We finished another one!

I'm proud of us -- this school year I've really been trying to do more chapter read-alouds with the kids. Dh also reads to the kids in the evening before bed (rather than turning on TV).

We have gotten through 24(!) chapter books since August! Not bad, huh? If you'll look at the list in the sidebar to the left, you'll see each book we've read. We just finished one that I think deserves special mention: Freddy the Detective by Walter R. Brooks. We had borrowed this one from the library but the kids enjoyed it so much that I've order the Freddy Anniversary Collection (which includes Freddy Goes to Florida and Freddy Goes to the North Pole in addition to Freddy the Detective).

Now if you've never read Freddy, you really need to change that as soon as possible. Freddy is a pig who lives on the Beans' farm with other very intelligent (and often, humorous) animals who help the Beans run their farm. The writing is wonderful and you can almost believe that animals would be able to solve crimes, hold court to judge innocence or guilt, and place them in the barn's jail. Wonderful stuff for kids!

By the way, Walter R. Brooks wrote many magazine articles about animals -- including short stories which led to the 50s TV show, Mister Ed!