Great books for boys

One of my favorite things to do is read aloud to my kiddos.

I just love it!

I love to see them playing chess or Lego*s or doing some other creative thing while I read.
I love when they get so into the the story that they beg for one more chapter!

There is a quote I read once that said something to this effect:

"If you don't read books aloud with your children, then you won't know who their friends are." (being the characters in the book) Isn't that sweet!?!

Our 'new friends' are Peterkin, Ralph and Jack.

And we've just finished reading The Coral Islands and are about to start the sequel The Gorilla Hunters. These were written by R.M. Ballantyne in the 1800's.

Vision Forum's catalog introduced me to R.M. Ballantyne and his books for boys. And when I read this I had to give them a try!

R. M. Ballantyne "was perhaps the most influential writer of boys' literature of his generation. He was also a devout Christian....And the only outspoken advocate for Christian boyhood to have a monument paid for and dedicated in his honor by grateful children."

I was so glad to find that our public library had two of his books. Now, this particular one took about twenty chapters to get exciting but when it did, it was full of adventure! We stayed up way too late and I read so much that I just about had a hoarse throat but it was fun.

I loved how the importance of scripture memory was emphasized and courage was displayed and dangers were risked to protect women.

All this and an adventure that included pirates, cannibals and the South Sea Islands!

The one thing that surprised us was that it was rather graphic and gory in places but that was due to the whole cannibal thing. And except for those parts, Joy enjoyed the story as well as the boys.

I found that these books are available here for free as ebooks.

Joy may be outnumbered but sometimes we read girl books too. And these were excellent. The boys enjoyed them as much as Joy did.

~Becky