Get Free Books for your Summer Reading

Ashley, my oldest, got her summer reading list from her new Honors English teacher at the junior high a few days ago. It was 2 pages long and included the list I read in AP English in high school, many moons ago. I was shamed to admit that out of all the books, (and I have thousands....), I did not have some of the best classics like A Tale of Two Cities. Why not? I even loved that book! So I headed down to the local Borders to check out the inventory and ultimately to purchase the new Stephenie Meyer novella "Bree Tanner"--not included in the required reading, duh....and came across a fabulous deal!!

It's Border's Summer Reading "Double Dog Dare". If your kids read 10 (yes...only 10) books during the summer, write down the titles and return to the store, they can choose a free book from the 10 choices that the store will be giving away for bringing back the list. FREE BOOKS. That's a small bit of heaven in my world. This deal is good for children under the age 12 and under. So I picked up 5 forms--one for each of the kids. We are going to do this as a family and make a day out of getting our free books. Some of the free books that the kids get to choose from are childhood classics like: Ramona the Brave by Beverly Cleary, Miss Daisy is Crazy! by Dan Gutman, Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown, Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes, The River by Gary Paulsen, etc. There are options for all ages...which suits me fine. They can trade with each other and that's 5 books I didn't have to buy to entertain the troops.

I know that Barnes and Noble does something similar--so we may be combining efforts for 2 books per kid with one reading list. Ever thought "2 birds with with 1 stone" would apply to free books? Nice. So with the free tickets to Silverwood for their reading logs during the school year and coupons for free books for summer reading...I think that my kids are catching on to how reading pays off handsomely. As a parent, I'm just pleased that there are avenues to reward good behavior and choices that aren't directly instituted by me. These rewards validate what I've been preaching the whole time and do it in a way that the kids are looking forward to participating. Yeah!!