Recent Family Read Alouds {Winter 2025, Age 12,10}

Our read alouds have been feast or famine this winter: either we read hundreds of pages per day until my voice gives out, or we go weeks without snuggling up together with a book! In those weeks of famine, the kids and I are likely reading independently for our homeschool co-op book club. And so, I’m including those in this list as well, as we each read them and enjoyed discussion together. Worth noting: the books we’re reading now have more of a maturity about them. Several of these I put in the middle school interest/maturity level.

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What We Read this Winter:

Breaking Stalin’s Nose. We read this 160-page Newbery Award winner in just a few sittings. This was definitely a “read together” book versus an independent novel. We stopped and discussed for comprehension and depth throughout. (And used a list of character names to help us keep everyone straight.) This has anchored our modern era history studies as we compared Soviet era Russia with other countries and freedoms. I think it’s an important book, and I’m so glad we read it. The author’s note from his own life really hit the message home.

The Winged Watchman. This is a wonderful WWII resistance novel, particularly for students who are sensitive. I read many novels of the era before settling on this one to share with my kids. It focuses on courage and hope, while portraying so many aspects of Nazi-occupied Holland. While my kids know a lot of facts about the time period, feeling those facts come to life in a fictional story is a different matter. This book handled that empathy in a skillful way. I also love that this book was written 18 years after the events the novel portrays.

The Wednesday Wars. This was an assigned reading (assigned by me lol) for our co-op. I read it years ago when it came out and had vague positive memories; when I reread it in consideration for the group, I loved it even more! Taking place in the school year of 1967-8 (each chapter is a month of the year Sept-June), it is a perfect historical fiction era book, without feeling like it! The backdrop of the story is certainly the turbulent era of the Vietnam War, assassinations of MLK and Robert F. Kennedy, and air raid drills, as well as the gentle nostalgia of the Bing Crosby Christmas special, watching Walter Cronkite, and listening to the Beatles. However, it’s primarily just a story about a boy in middle school trying to survive that turbulent era of his life. We had wonderful discussions about characterization, Shakespeare, heroes/antiheroes, how setting affects plot, and lots more. My 10yo needed a lot of prodding to persevere in reading it independently, but he did enjoy it. (Note: It has more of an upper middle grade vibe as it does take place in junior high with those first innocent relationships/dates.)

Keeper of the Lost Cities, books 1&2. I know there has been controversy over the latest book in this series (9.5, and when I googled that, I found there had apparently been some earlier upset readers); when I looked into the specific quotes, I felt comfortable for my own family, but please research for yourself. Also, this is another waay upper middle grade if not YA novel IMO.

This is a series that I feel somewhat conflicted to recommend, not solely due to the aforementioned “controversies.” Let me start with the positive. I read the first two books aloud to my kids over a period of a few weeks. That’s close to 1000 pages of text, and let me tell you I had the most delightful sore throat those weeks: earned with two boys’ rapt attention to my every word, begging for “one more chapter” for hours at a time! (We literally read through the toddler’s 2 hour naptime, start to finish, on multiple days.) My kids then snatched up the following books in the series and the house has been quiet enough to hear pages turn (when aforementioned toddler isn’t around). I love that these books have captured my kids’ interest and turned them into voracious readers who get lost in books. I have no doubt this will shape their perceptions of themselves as readers.

However, the world the author has crafted is full of so many sci-fi type questionable areas- telepathy, reading & controlling others’ emotions, genetic modification. There is quite a bit of violence for the age range (the main character is kidnapped and drugged in the first book, perhaps “tortured” but in a vague way?). I’m glad I read the first book alongside my kids to walk with them into this fantasy world and have the discussions around these issues.

Things intensify quickly into the middle school years, don’t they? I miss Winnie the Pooh. Sigh. I’ll be back soon(ish) with the continuation of my growing readers 🙂