A Summer Reading List for Our Kids

(Love, Your Parents)

My son reading Dr. Seuss

Tomorrow is July 4th - Independence Day- and here at Restore Childhood we’re celebrating independence from government agencies.

Recently, two court cases inflicted a blow to the power of regulatory agencies, including the CDC and the Department of Education, which have been at the center of our attention since 2020.

First, on June 28, the Supreme Court overturned the Chevron doctrine, a 1984 decision which gave deference to the interpretation of agencies for ambiguous statutes. The reasoning given in support of the doctrine was that government agencies were staffed by experts, and they were better equipped to make such decisions than judges.

However, as we’ve seen over the past four years, the so-called experts at these agencies are fallible just like you and me (or worse!), only they have the might of the federal government at their disposal.

Now that the Chevron doctrine has been overturned, judges are required to give their independent opinion and agencies are not simply given deference on cases involving the interpretation of unclear statutes passed by Congress. This may give us, regular people, more power to redress our grievances as it pertains to the manner in which agencies implement laws.

Then, just yesterday, on July 2, a federal judge issued a ruling blocking the Department of Education from enforcing its changes to Title IX. This means 14 states have now rejected the attempts of Biden administration to replace sex with gender identity.

These court rulings got me thinking:

What is an expert?

Who are the experts when it comes to our children?

Certainly, we need experts, but parents are experts, too - and no one knows our children and what they need better than we do.

So, this summer we’re leaving behind all of the summer reading lists curated by a so-called expert and instead we’re listening to the real experts:

Parents.

In a post on X, we asked you to recommend your favorite titles and authors. A common theme among the responses were suggestions to read older book series and authors who are no longer with us.

Lower Elementary School:

• Dr. Seuss

• Leap Frog phonics series

Upper Elementary School:

• Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne

• The Littles series by John Lawrence Peterson

• Goosebumps series by R.L. Stine

• Horrible Histories (various authors)

• Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry

  

Tweens:

• Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

• Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery

• Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury

Teens:

• Dune by Frank Herbert

• Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

• Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson

• Thomas Paine and the Clarion Call for American Independence by Harlow Giles Unger

• The Essential John Locke Collection

• anything by James Herriot

All ages:

• U.S. Constitution

• Bethany Mandel and Rachel Reeves’s excellent Substack is a helpful resource for identifying great books for kids.

Let’s keep building our list. Leave a comment below with your favorite books and authors.

Remember YOU are the expert.

Happy Independence Day!

Picture from @2AEducator on X showing what they’re reading this summer with their children.