Harry Potter

Do you recognize Harry Potter and Hermione Granger above?  Ethan's wearing Amara's witch costume from Halloween a few years ago, and Amara's wearing a witch costume given to us by a cousin last year.  Lately, we've been reading the Harry Potter series.  I started out wondering if it'd be too intense for Amara, and thinking that we'd only read the first one, then stop awhile before getting too far into the series.  But... I'm not doing too well.  We're on book 3, and Amara's really enjoying the books.  Reading picture less books to a 5 year-old can be an interesting experience.  Sometimes I wonder if she's listening at all - she'll be wiggling or humming while I read.  Other times she won't stop asking questions long enough for me to get through an entire sentence.  I often have to create a "question time" at the end of every page or two and encourage her to save her questions for then so that we can avoid breaking up the story too much.  Despite the humming and excessive questions, she often makes insightful connections that surprise me.

Anyway, the obsession is growing around here.  We have costumes, our bed has transformed into a flying car, feathers found on the beach are used as quills, wands are abundant - you get the idea.  Good times. 

I'd also love to hear good book suggestions for this age range.  We're also planning on Narnia and The Little House on the Prarie, but I know there are so many other fun ones...