Favorite Sonlight Book? An Impossible Question....

Luke, over at the Sonlight Blog (Sonlight Curriculum being our curriculum of choice for the boys), posed a question on his blog today -- What is your favorite Sonlight book? He challenged us, his readers, to blog the answer.

I told him I can't do it.

See, the thing is, Sonlight books are amazing. Wonderful. Awesome. Choosing a favorite is like choosing a favorite child. I can't do it. I love all my boys, equally. In different ways, yes. Different things about them, yes. But do I love one less than the other? No way. Not possible. Not even on the worst of days, when I was sleep deprived and stressed and depressed and angry and completely not enjoying motherhood -- not even on those days would I have said with any honesty that I loved any one of my children less than the others, even the one who was the source of all the stress at the time.

So it is with Sonlight books. Some days, I've wished we weren't reading about the Civil War - again. Still. For the hundredth time. Some days I wanted to chunk a book across the room because I was sick of crying every time I turned the page. Some days I admit to being bored, even while my boys absorbed information I knew they needed. Some days I admit to being driven to distraction by the cartoon style, 'jump around the page' layout of the various Usborne books that Sonlight includes in their curriculum, nevermind those are the very books my boys go back to over and over and over again. And yet, ask me to choose a favorite and I can't do it. There's not a single one I love any more than any of the others.

We have used 8 different programs (called Cores) over the years. Each one of those programs includes roughly 50 books. That's around 400 books I've read over the years, all as part of school for the boys. To choose a favorite is impossible. In fact, it is easier for me to tell you books I didn't like --I can count on one hand those titles-- than to name books I loved more than the rest.  But that's not what Luke asked, so I'll try and do the impossible.

Now, the favorite book I've ever read, of all time, is To Kill a Mockingbird. It does happen to be a title that Sonlight uses, though we aren't there yet. Anyone who's read TKaM though knows it is fabulous. Still, as I read it outside the scope of Sonlight, I don't feel it's fair to talk about in this post.

Instead, I sit here looking at my bookshelves, full of Sonlight Cores. We're currently using three programs - Core K, Core 3 and Core 5. I see so many favorites.

From Core K - Twenty and Ten, a story of school children helping one another during World War II. Or The Hundred Dresses, a story of a little girl, growing up in poverty but choosing to create her own contentment rather than be saddened by the reality of her situation.  Or Capyboppy, a fun tale of a boy and his very strange pet. Or Fun Tales, which are helping The Adventurer realize that each letter does make a certain sound, and will one day (soon?) give him the confidence that he can, in fact, decode those mysterious letters and turn them into words.

Or from Core 3 - Johnny Tremain, which I loved so much when I was a child that I couldn't wait for my boys to read it. Or Calico Bush, so heart-wrenching I bawled like a baby. Or Carry On, Mr. Bowditch, which weaves a lesson on daring to challenge the norm, be a problem solver, use your brain even when people are skeptical, and the ability to succeed if you put your mind to it - all set in amongst life, and family, and friendship and the stark realities of life on the seas and the tragedy that so often befell sailors of years gone by. With a history lesson thrown in there, too.  Or how can I forget a seemingly boring book called "If You Were There When they Wrote the Constitution," full of facts and knowledge and information, but presented in such a way that The Artist has this week drawn a picture for art class that depicts the revolutionary war and just last night said, "I can't wait to learn about the revolution...." -- all sparked by one little "boring" book about the Constitution.

And then there's Core 5 - The Hobbit. The Incredible Journey. A precious gem called The Cat Who Went to Heaven. Aladdin and Other Favorite Arabian Night Stories. Books so good and so well known they need no description.  And on it goes. You see how hard this is - the books just get better and better each year.

The best part is, they last. The appeal crosses over the years. A book that was a "read aloud" in K will be read again, on the child's own choosing, in later years. Our "books the kids read" shelves contain Sonlight books from all across the ages. Greek Myths for Young Children, scheduled in Core 1, is currently being devoured by both older boys. Usborne Book of World History, also from Core 1, is one of The Artist's favorite books to read and re-read. The many delightful treasuries chosen as part of the earlier Cores get re-read so often I can't keep them on the shelves.

So, Luke, I'm sorry, but I just can't answer your question. I simply don't have a favorite Sonlight book. There are scarcely any I didn't like and way too many I did. Just mark my answer as All of the Above, if you would.