Summer Reading List : 2021 Roadtrip

Time to get some good ham­mock (or camper) read­ing into our sched­ule.  Since my fam­i­ly recent­ly returned from a road trip, I’m shar­ing books that are per­fect for life on the road. Whether it’s a read aloud for the fam­i­ly or an intro­vert’s dream vaca­tion, let’s end this sum­mer with some great new books!

As always, these are in no particular order:

1. Peace Like a Riv­er by Lief Enger : This book was rec­om­mend­ed to me more than once before I actu­al­ly read it. The sto­ry is com­pelling and thought pro­vok­ing. I read it and then pur­chased the audi­ble so that my fam­i­ly could lis­ten to it on the road. It was just as enjoy­able the sec­ond time around. This is not a book for younger chil­dren, some descrip­tions and themes are more dif­fi­cult for younger audi­ences to com­pre­hend. For old­er chil­dren, though, it’s a great dis­cus­sion starter on jus­tice, right­eous­ness, action, and miracles. 
2. Boy by Roald Dahl : Last sum­mer my guys laughed through Dahl’s encoun­ters in his book “Going Solo”. The audi­ble ver­sion read by Dan Stevens is mas­ter­ful. This sum­mer, we went back­wards and lis­tened to Dahl’s child­hood encoun­ters, again read by Dan Stevens. It was a short light­heart­ed lis­ten with a quirky British twist. While I’d rec­om­mend this book for most kids over 5, some of the church lead­ers ref­er­enced are harsh and Dahl’s result­ing ani­mos­i­ty is not hidden. 
3. The Insan­i­ty of God by Nik Rip­ken  : Do you like to be inspired and chal­lenged when you are on vaca­tion? I do. Road trips espe­cial­ly help me refo­cus. This book will remind you that we all have a call­ing. While I’m read­ing it aloud to my kids, some parts are hard to get through with­out crying. 
4. The Bark of the Bog Owl by Jonathan Rogers : A great all around fam­i­ly book. This sto­ry is per­fect for road trips. The audi­ble ver­sion is even read by Mr. Rogers him­self. This adven­ture book is a fun imag­i­na­tive twist of the clas­sic David and Goliath story. 
5. All Crea­tures Great and Small by James Her­riot : It is with my last sug­ges­tion that I real­ize my chil­dren are old­er. No more pic­ture books or begin­ning read­ers dot my sum­mer read­ing lists. Instead we get the clear and some­times gross descrip­tions of med­ical pro­ce­dures, albeit per­formed on cows. This is a cap­ti­vat­ing sto­ry and, with the new BBC series, the audi­ble ver­sion is read by the actor. 

Few things in this world will tell you that I’m a par­ent of old­er boys than this book­list. How­ev­er, these sto­ries all have some­thing to share with the world and are worth the time even for us ladies. I hope that your sum­mer road trips are full of laugh­ter and great sto­ries shared with friends and family!