40. The Reading Promise: My Father and the Books We Shared by Alice Ozma

My friend, Terri, recommended this heartwarming book. I listened to the audiobook version, and the narrators were excellent. Who wouldn't love a book about a father instilling a love for literature in the heart of his daughter by a nightly reading "streak" that lasted 9 years? 

Almost halfway through the book, I realized that the author was also the narrator. She was great! What a talented young woman and also an endearing story about a girl and her single-parent dad. 

My husband and I always joke that the one thing that we did "right" as parents was that we read aloud to them long after the "standard" time. We think that my oldest was about 17 or 18 and youngest 14 or 15 when we quit (mainly because they started going to bed WAY later than us!). 

As a result of reading this book, last night we had a fond time remembering those mornings with me (always looking to see if I could make it through the WHOLE book without crying - never) and evenings with dad (always looking to see if he could make it through the whole reading time without yawning - never). 

I have a list of all the read-alouds from 2002 (other years I just combined them within my own reading list). The numbered ones were my read-alouds, and the symbol ones were George's:

Kid’s Read Alouds

1. 100 Dresses
§ Box Car Children
§ Granny Hans Breakfast
2. Alice in Wonderland
3. Peter Pan
4. Twenty and Ten
5. Jame’s Herriott’s Treasury
§ Surprise Island
§ Yellow House Mystery
6. In Grandma’s Attic
7. Johnny Appleseed
§ The Story of Dr. Doolittle
§ Children’s Book of Virtue
8. Richard Scarry’s Please and Thank You Book
9. Capybobby
§ Mystery Ranch
§ Mike’s Mystery
10. Heidi
§ Prehistoric Pinkerton
§ Be A Wolf!
11. The Hidden Jewel
12. Centerburg Tales (On tape)
13. Kidnapped by River Rats
14. Homer Price
15. Oh, The Place’s He Went
§ Prince and the Pauper
16. The Story of the World Volume 1: Ancient Times by Susan Wise-Bauer
§ Fables
§ Leif Erikson
§ Robin Hood of Sherwood Forest
§ Minstrel in the Town
§ All the Tin-Tin Books
17. Follow My Leader

(This didn't include all the science books that I read for homeschool.)

And one last thing, a picture of my precious man reading to my precious boys in 2007: