Books are one of the main ingredients in The Paladini Potpie. Every one of us love to read. We all read all the time.

When the kids were little, we had family reading time almost every night. As soon as the dishes were done we would hurry into the living room and John would read out loud to us. 

I know it sounds like a corny scene from The Waltons…but to be honest, I don’t know.  We never watched The Waltons or even Little House on the Prairie because we didn’t have television.

We agreed with Groucho Marx, who said, “I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.”

Corny though it may be, I wouldn’t trade those memories for anything!

John would sit in his chair and one of the kids would bring our book over to him. John would surreptitiously flip the book upside down and begin to utter nonsense words in a sonorous reading voice.  The kids would scream with laughter and run across the room to snatch the book from him and turn it right-side-up. 

I wish I has a picture of it, but I wasn’t as camera-crazy then as I am now.  But it’s firmly locked in my memory since I think I witnessed the scene more than a hundred times over the years.

John read aloud and the rest of us listened. Sometimes the kids played with beads or we made those little woven potholders or knitted. Sometimes we just sat and listened.  They were golden hours.

One More Chapter, our family business has grown out of those years of reading together.  As we state on our web site:  “When it was time to put the book away, and put the children to bed, a chorus of “ONE MORE CHAPTER!” was their impassioned plea.  Every book lover has experienced that same dilemma – sleep or read? Oh well, maybe just One More Chapter!”

We started reading to Matthew when he was little, but it didn’t occur to us to keep track of the books we read until years later.  Some of the books in this list are repeats of those we read to Matthew when he was younger, and he enjoyed them just as much when he heard them the second time.

 

Paladini Family Book List – Beginning in 1990 –

Matthew was 12 and Monica was 4 and David was 2.

“Little House” Books by Laura Ingalls Wilder (series of 8 books)

Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder

On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder

By the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder

The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder

These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder

The First Four Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder

The Chronicles of Narnia (series of 7 books)

The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis

(*The real book number 1 in the series)

Prince Caspian by CS Lewis

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by CS Lewis

The Silver Chair by CS Lewis

The Horse and His Boy by CS Lewis

The Magician’s Nephew by CS Lewis

The Last Battle by CS Lewis

Heidi by JoAnn Spyri

The Water Babies by Charles Kingsley

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

Pollyanna by Eleanor Porter

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgeson Burnett

Dangerous Journey (children’s adaptation of Pilgrim’s Progress)

The Railway Children by E. Nesbit

Little Women by Luisa May Alcott

Little Men by Louisa May Alcott

A Little Princess by Frances Hodgeson Burnett

Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell

Elsie Dinsmore by Martha Finley

The Borrowers by Mary Norton

The Borrowers Afield by Mary Norton

The Borrowers Aloft by Mary Norton

The Borrowers Avenged by Mary Norton

Elsie’s Holidays by Martha Finley

The Helen Keller Story by Catherine Owens Peare

Pilgrim’s Progress adaptation by James H Thomas

Elsie’s Girlhood by Martha Finley

Elsie’s Womanhood by Martha Finley

The Baronet’s Song by George MacDonald

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

Black Beauty by Anna Sewell

Hinds’ Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard

Pilgrim’s Progress in today’s English By John Bunyon (James H Thomas)

Passport to Life City (a modern pilgrim’s progress) by Sherwood Eliot Wirt

The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis (Repeat)

Prince Caspian by CS Lewis (Repeat)

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by CS Lewis (Repeat)

The Silver Chair by CS Lewis (Repeat)

The Horse and His Boy by CS Lewis (Repeat)

Through Gates of Splendor by Elisabeth Elliot

The Robe by Lloyd C Douglas 

The Magiacian’s Nephew by CS Lewis (Repeat)  

The Last Battle by CS Lewis (Repeat)

The Cross and the Switchblade by David Wilkerson

Elsie’s Motherhood by Martha Findley

The Yearling  by Marjorie Kinnon Rawlings

 A Man Called Peter by Catherine Marshall

Christy by Catherine Marshall

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

Out of the Silent Planet by CS Lewis

The Year of the Dream by Jane Collier

The Dawn of a Tomorrow by Frances Hodgeson Burnett

The Persecutor by Sergei Kourdakov

The Big Fisherman by Lloyd C Douglas

January 1998

Shane by Jack Warne

That Reminds Me of a Story by Gale D Erwin

George Muller by Basil Miller

Tale of Three Kings by Gene Edwards

An Old Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott

Harvest by Chuck Smith

By the Great Horn Spoon!  by Sid Fleischman

The Ballad of Lucy Whipple  by Karen Cushman

God Happened to be in the Neighborhood by Ken Jones

The Mystery of the Brass Bound Trunk by Carolyn Keene

Hind’s Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard (Repeat)

The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare

The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare

January 1999

Under the Lilacs by Louisa May Alcott

No Graven Images by Elisabeth Elliot

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle

Rip Van Winkle byWashingtonIrving

The Hobbit by JRR Tolkein

Little Goodie Two Shoes by Oliver Goldsmith

Murder for Her Majesty by Beth Hilgartner

The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom

Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes

The Cat of Bubastes by GA Henty

I Thought my Soul Would Rise and Fly Away  (DearAmerica)

Diary of a Freed Slave Girl (DearAmerica)

Across the Wide Prairie (DearAmerica)

The Winter of Red Snow (DearAmerica)

Titanic Girl (DearAmerica)

January 2000

Riders of the Silver Rim Brock and Bodie Thoene

With Lee In Virginia G.A. Henty

David Livingstone – Foe of Darkness Jeanette Eaton

Across Five Aprils – Irene Hunt

Journal of Sean Sullivan – (DearAmerica Series)

Joni – Joni Earekson Tada

Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck

Girl of the Limberlost – Gene Stratton Porter

January 2001

This Present Darkness by Frank Peretti

The Fellowship of the Ring by JRR Tolkein

 

 

 

 

 

 

Books on tape we have listened to in the car as we did errands or went on vacation trips

Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates  by Mary Mapes Dodge

Left Behind Series books 1-4

Exodus by Leon Uris

All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot

Travels with Charlie by John Steinbeck

Laddie by Gene Stratton Porter

The Fellowship of the Ring JRR Tolkien

The Two Towers JRR Tolkien

Return of the King JRR Tolkien

One More Chapter sells used books online at   AbeBooks, Alibris,  Half Price Books, Barnes a& Noble, and Amazon.  We also sell from our own web site OneMoreChapter.org.  We have thousands of titles for sale.

In another post I’ll tell you about our newest adventure: One More Chapter Publishing.