Daughter #1 (14.5 years old):
Harry Potter. Her favourite.
She is also a fan of John Green.
Raina Telgemeier and the Divergent series.
Rick Riordan, The Hunger Games, Lauren Myracle, the Narnia series, and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (which she hasn’t read yet).
Everything else, arranged by colour, mostly. Close-ups below.
Son #1 and only (12.5 years old):
He would love to have the Harry Potter and Narnia books in his room, but his sister stole them for her own. 🙂
Big Nate, Captain Underpants, Gordon Korman.
Bone, Diary of A Wimpy Kid, The Hardy Boys, Gordon Korman, Gary Paulson.
Daughter #2 (10.5 years old):
She’s very organized.
American Girl, Judy Moody, miscellaneous friendship books (she didn’t get the ‘girly’ term from me!), and Poison Apple/Candy Apple.
Wendy Mass (her favourite), Pseudonymous Bosch, the Cupcake Diaries.
She also loves all the Raina Telgemeier and Lauren Myracle books, but her sister has dibs on them. (There has to be some perks to being the oldest, right?)
Overflow:
This is where the kids stuff the books that they don’t want in their rooms anymore. Some of these are ones I’ve been trying to get them to read for years, and some are ones we have read and loved but they think they are growing too old for (like Roald Dahl). And there are some classics like Heidi, The Secret Garden, Treasure Island, The Lord of the Rings, etc.
The Dear Canada series I have been slowly collecting for the kids over the years. I have read most of them, and think they are treasures, but the kids are not convinced. 😦
Over-sized books; puzzle books, craft books, atlases, Ripley’s Believe It Or Not, Search and Find, Garfield (we do love Garfield).
The best $20 I ever spent on a book.
The most disappointing $20 I ever spent on books. I don’t think any of these have been touched (not for lack of trying on my part).
A few non-fiction books that have been popular over the years. A Life Like Mine fascinated them for years!
What do your kids have on their bookshelves?
Consumed by Ink 
It’s great to see your kids are readers, and they obviously value books – they are so neat and organized! I miss those days discovering books with our two boys – we would read Happy Potter in front of the fire in winter, and in summer if there was a new HP volume out we’d read him in the tent after dark by flashlight. Of course, now I still talk books with my older son, who is an avid reader; though we have different tastes, sometimes our favorite books overlap. He lives in NYC and has access to some wonderful bookstores. What a great idea to highlight what your kids are reading.
I love that you still talk to your son about books. I’m hoping to be able to do that, too. My mother and I talk books quite often. It’s nice to have something in common.
My son and I spent about 3 years reading the Harry Potter books together (before his sister confiscated them). Every night at bedtime we would read a chapter or two, and I thought it would go on forever. It was kind of sad when we were done, but we just moved on to more good books! We have also loved reading the Cornelia Funke books; Dragon Rider and The Thief Lord.
Yeah, I thought the reading together would go on forever, too. It is sad, but good to keep it going with other books as life goes on. Reading is always be a special bond.
They’re some very orderly bookshelves! I’m pretty sure if I looked at my stepson’s they wouldn’t be that ordered or indeed tidy. Harry Potter lives on my YA bookcase, I guess that’s our ‘overflow’ as I rescued some of the ones he wanted to get rid of when he last tidied them – there was no way I was letting him send Hugo Cabaret or Coraline to the charity shop.
On his shelf there’s lots of Doctor Who, Michael Morpergo, Roald Dahl and David Walliams. Now he’s moved on from Tom Gates, I need to find him more books by women to read, I think!
Has he tried Cornelia Funke? My son loves her books. We’ve read Dragon Rider and The Thief Lord, but he also loved her Ghosthunter series.
A lot of our overflow (which isn’t so neat and tidy) are the books they don’t want anymore but I won’t get rid of them because we have loved them. We also have Hugo Cabaret in that category. Once loved, but they’ve moved on. Sigh. If only I could do that with my books…
He hasn’t but I have Dragon Rider and Inkheart on my shelf. (I used to be a high school teacher so bought and read a lot of YA fiction.)
Haha, I’ve got better at removing books now there’s just no more room and I finally admitted I owned some I was never going to read but the 9yo is much better at saying he’s done with them than I am!
They just don’t seem as sentimental over their books as I am. Maybe it comes with age?
I don’t know, I still own most of my childhood books but then I didn’t have that many and no one ever suggested clearing any out.
I guess I do, too. There goes my theory about age…
I love those colorful shelves! Do you have a hand in tidying them? 😉 I packed up a small amount of children’s books on this past trip to the States — it was mostly Narnia books, the Anne of Green Gables series (have your girls read those?), and other classics like Mark Twain.
The only ones I help tidy are the overflow shelves (one of which is the least tidy but hard to keep up with), and my son’s shelves. He tends to just lay his stuff anywhere and every once in a while I try to separate his books from his other stuff.
My daughters love to organize their books. As do I!
The Anne books have so far been my greatest disappointment. My oldest daughter read the first 2 a couple of years ago and declared them to be boring. Sigh. I told her to wait a year and then try the third one (because who in their right mind wouldn’t like that one?), but she hasn’t tried it yet. I console myself with the fact that the older she is when she reads them, the more she will appreciate them. 🙂
We also have Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer on that shelf somewhere. Huck Finn used to be one of my favourites.
If the Dear Canada series are anything like the Dear America series, I LOVED those things as a child! There was also The Royal Diaries series which was the same idea, but purporting to be the journals of various historical princesses. (Not just white/Western-centric either, there was one by a Wampanoag princess, one from a Nigerian princess, one from an Aztec princess…all with family trees in the back and age-appropriate historical context.) They were the best. Definitely for nerdy kids, though!
John Green is great, if your eldest daughter is reading that then she is going to be well prepared for high school.
Yes, I think my older daughter’s literary education is well underway. 🙂
We also have a few of the Royal ones – I’m pretty sure they are very similar to the Dear Canada ones. I just love them. And I learned so much that I hadn’t learned in school.
They provided most of my history knowledge until I was…er…seventeen.
Wonderful bookshelves, Naomi! I was so happy to see Artemis Fowl and Eleanor and Park in your daughter’s bookshelves – they are two of my favourites! Your children are so organized. And they read a lot – inspired by their wonderful mom, I am sure 🙂 I wanted to ask you something. Have you read / have your children read books by Nic Bishop? He is a biologist who writes books about wildlife for children. I read them as a grownup and I loved them. I think children will love them more.
We have never read any of Nic Bishop’s books, but it looks like we were missing out. It might be just as well that I didn’t know about them, because books about animals were irresistible to me when the kids were a bit younger. 🙂
Hope you get to read Nic Bishop’s books, Naomi. The first book of his that I read was called ‘Frogs’ and it had a stunning pictures of frogs and I didn’t know that frogs could be so beautiful. He is such a wonderful biologist!
The ‘Frog’ book is actually the one that caught my eye when I was looking him up. I love frogs! 🙂
How lovely to have glimpse of your children’s bookshelves, Naomi. I see lots of favourites, including Raina Telgemeier, LMM, Cornelia Funke, This Dark Endeavour, The School for Good and Evil, Gordon Korman, John Green, and A Life Like Mine. I haven’t read the Dear Canada books but since you recommend them, I’ll try them. (Also–“I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.” Love it!)
My daughter has quite a few fun bookish decorations spread around her room, most of them Harry Potter themed. The wand on her shelf was made by my son for her birthday last year. He also made her a sword to put with her Rick Riordan books. 🙂
The Dear Canada books are wonderful – and good starting around age 9 or 10. You should start with the one about the Halifax Explosion, No Safe Harbour by Julie Lawson. It’s one of my favourites! They are all written by different Canadian authors, like Julie Lawson, Jean Little, Kit Pearson, Maxine Trottier.
I love seeing well-stocked children’s bookshelves like these, with all those adventures waiting to be delved into. I love the rainbow filing too (that’s how I do mine!) 😉
I love the rainbow filing! I wish I could be so organized with my own books, but I can either spend my time organizing them or reading them. 🙂
I love this post! It’s so cute to see what each one is into at each age. And you’re so lucky all your children are readers! Mine are too young yet to really know for sure yet (5 and 2).
It is really fun to see what they get into as they get older. But, I do also miss the days of picture books. I see all the new ones coming out and want to buy them, but I really have no reason to anymore. Enjoy it!
My oldest daughter is the biggest reader. My younger one does like to read, but mostly only at night when she’s supposed to be sleeping. During the day she’s too busy bouncing off the walls. And my son mostly likes to be read to (even at this age). And, since he still lets me read to him, I keep doing it because I love it. He will read the graphic novels and comic books himself, but that’s about it.
How I love this post! I will make sure my kids will take a look, because their bookshelves are nowhere near this organized. You have given me some ideas for new books to check out, too, since I see a bunch of books my kids like (especially Kid #1, who’s closest in age). My kids love anything from the National Geographic Society. Their nonfiction for kids is fantastic.
I didn’t even mention those, even though they have been a favourite around here as well (there are just too many to mention!). They love the “Weird but True” books, and will read them over and over. We also have an Amazing Animals book from National Geographic. I have to be careful when it comes to those books, or I will spend all my money on them!
Tell me about it…!
Love this! Daughter #1 has arranged her books so nicely. Could she come over and help my kids be more organized? 🙂
I bet she would LOVE to come organize your book shelves! I’m pretty sure she takes more care with it now than she did when she was younger, so I think your girls might still grow into it. 🙂
That was so fun! I love seeing what they all have on their bookshelves. Serious points to Daughter #1 for the HP memorabilia displayed alongside the books. Definitely there are perks to being the oldest. Even if they don’t always want to read everything you want them too (they are missing out on those Dear Canada books and one is never too old for Roald Dahl) you’ve obviously done a great job getting them to enjoy reading!
Thanks! I was kind of nervous to post this one. It was super fun for me to do, but I didn’t know how much interest other people would have in my kids books. I should have known better. I know that I love to look at other people’s bookshelves, regardless of whether I even know them or not. 🙂 And, they just look so pretty, don’t they?
I have to give credit to my son here for being the one to make the wand and sword for my daughter to display next to her Harry Potter and Rick Riordan books. And, my daughter made the Luna glasses when she dressed up as her for Halloween one year. 🙂
Surely they will eventually get around to some of those books they think they don’t want to read. I haven’t lost hope. I also think they will re-read Roald Dahl someday – how can they not? (Am I the only one who can never remember how to spell his first name?)
I love this post, Naomi! Your kids have great taste (Gordon Korman! There’s a name I hadn’t heard in ages), and I love their organization. Also, this makes me feel much better about the massive number of books our son has accumulated . . .
I’m glad I could make you feel better about your son’s book collection! The books in this post don’t even include the boxes of books in the basement that I have kept from their earlier years. I have gone through them over and over, but there are still so many that I can’t bring myself to get rid of.
(Gordon Korman is as good as ever! And has written so many things since I used to read him.)
My kids are almost 40 (egad) and 36 and the oldest grand is only 7 1/2, They all have loads of books but nobody has time to organize them! I do get to read to them when I visit but none lives nearby. Sigh. I didn’t like AofGG until I was an adult, so give your daughter a couple of decades….
Yes, I will try not to lose hope over the A of GG books. Thank you. 🙂
I love this! As much as I want time to slow down with my daughter in general, I can’t wait to read more chapter books!
Love the color coordination. Pretty organized with their shelves. I’m impressed by their books.
The colours and the books make such pretty pictures, don’t they?
Neat post, and lots of similiarites between your kids’ taste and mine (15.5 and 12.5), both in terms of what they’ve liked and wanted to showcase and, also, the “shoulds” that I’ve urged them towards which were less popular overall (although the older did actually like, but not love, the Dear Canada stories and sometimes still picks them up when she’s seen them second-hand, the collecting aspect stil has some appeal). That footprint book was a hit, and the DK Firsts were sometimes even chosen as bedtime books (especially the Animal one, but also Human Body and Dinosaur). Neither of mine were/are remotely interested in LMM either, nor most of the classics which we’ve attempted over the years, other than some folklore stuff which was a hit. Oh well!
I feel better knowing that it’s not just my kids who aren’t interested in LMM or some of the other classics. I’ve felt like I must have done something fundamentally wrong as a parent (even though I know that’s not the case!). 🙂
Interesting to hear about the overlaps! Have your kids read anything by Kenneth Oppel? I’ve been collecting his books when I see them, because I feel sure the kids would like him, but they’re not interested. What about Eric Walters?