Links may direct to affiliate sites. Purchases made through these links support our family’s work in spreading the Gospel to unreached areas.
John Mark has reached a major, celebrated milestone— he has completed his first 100 solo reads. This is a big deal in our family, and one that we all cheer on, encouraging the child in question and playing up the significance of the accomplishment.
Not that we really need to. To mark the occasion, the reader is whisked by Momma or Daddy (their choice) to a local ice cream place that’s long on history and character. You can order anything on the menu (like the banana split that’s as big as your head), then sit and enjoy while you open your reading log and discuss those hundred books, dissecting the good, the bad, the worth re-reading, and the ones you were glad to finally put down. This little celebration has reached legendary, whispered about status amongst our pre-readers.
I’ve shared before how we create a culture of reading in our home. Today I’m going to give you a peek into what that actually looks like. Below you’ll find the list of John Mark’s first 100 books, in order of completion. I’m sharing it here for several reasons:
John Mark has some learning challenges that make reading more laborious than it might otherwise be. He works at reading; it didn’t come easily for him at five, or six, or even eight. He was an “emerging reader,” until shortly before his ninth birthday. Even today, he reads purposefully, not with the quick ease others in the house enjoy. Looking at this list, you can see a progression of his skills, but more importantly, you see a progression in his confidence. When he became an independent reader, John Mark was positive he would never read the “big books” he saw his teenage siblings sitting down with. Guess what? He ended his first hundred with a series his brother Mathaus, a creative writing major, passed down from his own pre-teen years. Victory is sweet, you all.
John Mark doesn’t read “at level” all the time. Peruse this list and note the two-step of reading level difficulty. My kids read “The Hobbit,” in a sea of “I Survived,” books. I don’t insist that because you have a reading level at X level, you abandon books below. My heart in guiding my children to literature is that they seek out things that build their love for learning. Which is why…
Sometimes, my kids read twaddle. Series books. Gag, right? Except… look a little deeper at this list. While you’ll find some epic streaks of juvenile series (Boxcar Children Mysteries, Hank the Cowdog, and I Survived being the usual suspects), nestled in the midst of those books often sniffed at by Charlotte Mason enthusiasts are some really stretching, really deep books that took my boy out of his comfort zone. So I’m o.k. with the security blanket of a formulaic read thrown in here and there. (And to be honest, Hank still makes me laugh, so who am I to judge?)
His First One Hundred Books
- Freddy the Pilot, Walter R. Brooks
- The Great Brain, John D. Fitzgerald
- Freddy and the Perilous Adventure, Walter R. Brooks
- The Adventures of Reddy Fox, Thornton W. Burgess
- The Adventures of Buster Bear, Thornton W. Burgess
- Clabbernappers, Len Bailey
- And Then What Happened, Paul Revere?, Jean Fritz
- Meet George Washington, Joan Heilbroner
- The Matchlock Gun, Walter D. Edmonds
- The Skippack School, Marguerite de Angeli
- Ereth’s Birthday, Avi
- Boxcar Children #16, Mystery in the Sand, Gertrude Chandler Warner
- Hank the Cowdog #7, The Curse of the Incredible Priceless Corncob, John R. Erickson
- Boxcar Children #2, Surprise Island, Gertrude Chandler Warner
- Boxcar Children #139, The Mystery of the Stolen Dinosaur Bones, Gertrude Chandler Warner
- Hank the Cowdog #25, The Case of the Swirling Killer Tornado John R. Erickson
- 100 Cupboards, N.D. Wilson
- The Tale of Desperaux, Kate DiCamillo
- Boxcar Children #7, The Woodshed Mystery, Gertrude Chandler Warner
- A Grain of Rice, Helena Clare Pittman
- The Bears on Hemlock Mountain, Alice Dalgliesh
- The Boxcar Children, Gertrude Chandler Warner
- Who Stole the Wizard of Oz?, Avi
- Henry Huggins, Beverly Cleary
- The Three Weavers, Annie Fellows Johnston
- The Year of Miss Agnes, Kirkpatrick Hill
- Henry and Ribsy, Beverly Cleary
- The Cabin Faced West, Jean Fritz
- Hank the Cowdog #44, The Dungeon of Doom, John R. Erickson
- Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, Judy Blume
- Superfudge, Judy Blume
- Double Fudge, Judy Blume
- Shiloh, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
- Casting the Gods Adrift, Geraldine McCaughrean
- Who Was Isaac Newton?, Janet B. Pascal
- Gooseberry Park, Cynthia Rylant
- Who Was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart? Yona Zeldis McDonough
- Gooseberry Park and the Master Plan, Cynthia Rylant
- Hank the Cowdog #35, The Case of the Saddle Horse Robbery, John R. Erickson
- The Borrowers, Mary Norton
- Following Grandfather, Rosemary Wells
- The Governor’s Dog is Missing, Sneed B. Collard III
- A Mouse Called Wolf, Dick King-Smith
- The Chocolate Touch, Patrick Skene Catling
- The Whipping Boy, Sid Fleischman
- Stone Fox, John Reynolds Gardiner
- The One and Only Ivan, Katherine Applegate
- The Big Wave, Pearl S. Buck
- The Cat Who Went to Heaven, Elizabeth Coatsworth
- Li-Lun, Lad of Courage, Carolyn Treffinger
- The Black Star of Kingston, S.D. Smith
- Boxcar Children #6, The Blue Bay Mystery, Gertrude Chandler Warner
- Beat the Story Drum, Pum-Pum, Ashley Bryan
- Samuel Morris, Lindley Baldwin
- The Rat-Catcher’s Son, Carolyn London
- Hatchet, Gary Paulson
- Mr. Tucket, Gary Paulson
- The River, Gary Paulson
- I Survived: The Bombing of Pearl Harbor, Lauren Tarshis
- I Survived: The American Revolution, Lauren Tarshis
- I Survived: The San Francisco Earthquake, Lauren Tarshis
- Giant Pumpkin Suite, Melanie Heuiser Hill
- I Survived: The Eruption of Mt. St. Helens, Lauren Tarshis
- The Stowaways, Meghan Marentette
- The Kite Fighers, Linda Sue Park
- Born in the Year of Courage, Emily Crofford
- I Survived: The Nazi Invasion, Lauren Tarshis
- Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, Eleanor Coerr
- I Survived: The Chicago Fire, Lauren Tarshis
- Poor Richard, James Daugherty
- I Survived: The Battle of D-Day, Lauren Tarshis
- The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien
- I Survived: The Destruction of Pompeii, Lauren Tarshis
- I Survived: The Attacks of September 11, 2001, Lauren Tarshis
- Outlaws of Time, The Legend of Same Miracle, N.D. Wilson
- I Survived: The Shark Attacks of 1916, Lauren Tarshis
- I Survived: The Battle of Gettysburg, Lauren Tarshis
- I Survived: The Sinking of the Titanic, Lauren Tarshis
- I Survived: The Hindenburg Disaster, Lauren Tarshis
- Outlaws of Time: The Song of Glory and Ghost, N.D. Wilson
- The Castle in the Attic, Elizabeth Winthrop
- Outlaws of Time: The Last of the Lost Boys, N.D. Wilson
- The Battle for the Castle, Elizabeth Winthrop
- The Gammage Cup, Carol Kendall
- The Key to the Indian, Lynne Reid Banks
- On the Edge of the Sea of Darkness, Andrew Peterson
- North! Or Be Eaten, Andrew Peterson
- The Sword in the Tree, Clyde Robert Bulla
- The Rise and Fall of Mount Majestic, Jennifer Trafton
- Parzival, Katherine Peterson
- The Lightning Thief, Rick Riordan
- Henry and the Chalk Dragon, Jennifer Trafton
- The Monster in the Hollows, Andrew Peterson
- Kingdom’s Dawn, Chuck Black
- The Princess and the Goblin, George MacDonald
- The Adventures of Robin Hood, Roger Lancelyn Green
- Son of Charlemagne, Barbara Willard
- The Sea of Monsters, Rick Riordan
- Mars Diaries: Mission 1: Oxygen Level One, Sigmund Brouwer
- Mars Diaries: Mission 2: Alien Pursuit, Sigmund Brouwer
Notes: This covers 19 months of reading for John Mark. At the time of completion, he was 11 years, 4 months of age and in roughly the 5th grade. He is in his second year of Masters in CC. In order to be written into a reading log, a book must have chapters, and be read entirely independently. You’ll notice that some sequels appear on the list, without the original book in question. Those were family read-alouds that sparked a curiosity to follow the tale.