Two great books for reading aloud

On long car trips, we like to read aloud to one another. Sometimes we just get an audio book, but more often we just bring a book along, and whoever is not driving, reads. We pick some really strange books sometimes. Once I remember we read one of the Halo novels, and enjoyed it.

On this recent trip, we read most of The Small Woman, by Alan Burgess, on the way east. It's the story of a middle-class Englishwoman who sets out pretty much on her own to be a missionary in China between the wars.

And then, on our way home, we read Louis Sachar's Holes out loud. It's a great story! I had never seen the movie and now I'm glad I waited to read the book first. I'd really highly recommend it. If I say much about it, it will give away a lot of good stuff that you will really want to read on your own. Yes, it's for "young readers," but it's really worth reading.