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What are your favorite read aloud books?


Guest mrs. logic
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My favorites of all-time (so far) have been the Kate DiCamillo books (Because of Winn-Dixie, The Tale of Despereaux, and The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane). I suspect this might change when we finally get around to reading the Harry Potter books. :001_smile:

 

We also really enjoyed Tiger Tiger, by Lynn Reid Banks.

 

The kids really liked The Spiderwick Chronicles. The books were much better than the movie.

 

The best ones we've read for this school year so far have been Little Pilgrim's Progress and Calico Captive.

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Oh, so many! Lots have been named already.

 

We have a certain tradition here of reading things in this order:

 

Egermeier's Story Bible, followed by The Children's Story Bible by Catherine Vos, a story a day until both books are done, starting at around the age of 3 to 4, concurrent with other read-alouds

 

Charlotte's Web is the first big (long) read aloud

 

The Boxcar Children series comes next (the first 20 or so by the original author, not the rest)

 

Little House on the Prairie series (first 6 or 8 about Laura and Farmer Boy, not the extensions for other characters)

 

The Chronicles of Narnia (starting, like a ritual, on the 6th birthday)

 

A Cricket in Times Square, some time before 4th grade

 

The Hobbit, sometime before 4th grade

 

The Lord of the Rings trilogy, beginning with the start of 4th grade (at over 1000 pages, this is a bear to read aloud, but my kids never forget that their mom did this for them, it was bonding!)

 

 

I have followed this routine with three so far, and my fourth child (5yodd) is now in the Egermeier/Boxcar Children stage.

 

In between the ones already mentioned, there are soooo many others that fit in, just to mention a few...

 

The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

Baby Island (Brink)

Andy Buckram's Tin Men (Brink)

Heidi (Spyri's original, no updates or adaptations)

Where the Red Fern Grows (Rawls)

Summer of the Monkeys (Rawls)

Trumpet of the Swan (White)

 

My goodness, I could just keep going... this thread should keep you busy for a while!

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The biggest hits here have been The Twits, Farmer Boy, George's Secret Key to the Universe, Time Cat, Series of Unfortunate Events, and any of the Oz and Narnia books we've gotten to so far. We also read regularly from Usborne's Greek Myths and a DK Children's Bible that the kids never seem to tire of.

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Some books are best experienced as read alouds.

 

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

The Magic Pudding (NYRB Children's edition)

The Wind in the Willows

The Kind of Ireland's Son (well, anything by Colum, but this is particularly good)

The BFG and The Twits

Little Grey Men (B.B., and sequel Down the Bright Stream)

Haroun and the Sea of Stories (we liked this one so much, we gabe a copy to friends with appropriately aged kids)

Here Be Monsters (Snow... must be read with a variety of accents)

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So far my favorite is A Wrinkle in Time and the two that follow it, A Wind In the Door and A Swiftly Tilting Planet. All by Madeleine L'Engle. The 4th and last of the series is sitting on the shelf as we are reading The Saturday's and have The Happy Hollister's next in line. We also loved reading and listening to The Phantom Tollbooth, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, and The Cricket in Times Square. We have read a ton of Boxcar Children and they are a favorite for the kids to listen to on tape at night too.

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Burgess Children's Bird Book

Burgess Children's Seashore Book

Miller Story series

Madeline books

Dr. Zeuss books

James Herriot's picture books

Happy Hollister series

Understood Betsy

Little Men

Cheaper By the Dozen

Ginger Pye

Cricket in Times Square

Homer Price

Call of the Wild

 

What age is good for listening to Happy Hollister books? I have many from when I was a kid but am currently too lazy to go get one and reread to see if it would be good for my ds or not, lol. (I also have Bobbsey Twins books out there, and I think all my Little House books are there so I guess I have to not be lazy if I want to get those)

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Dh does most of the read-alouds here, at least those that are for fun more than school related. He and the children have enjoyed E.B White's books, N.D. Wilson's books (100 Cupboards and sequel), Mysterious B. Society and sequels, Narnia, Hobbit and currently LOTR, Little House series, Meindert DeJong's books. Oh and E. Nesbit's books, any and all!

 

My favorite with the kids, I think, has been Wind in the Willows. We're currently reading F. H. Burnett's The Lost Prince and that's really great.

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Roald Dahl is so much fun! Matilda is one of our favs. So much outrageous dialogue. lol We also like Big Friendly Giant and The Witches.

 

The Mary Poppins books crack us up. Mary is such a little snit, but the dialogue is interesting and the prose is lovely.

 

Secret of Platform 13 is a great read.

 

Winn Dixie, and Tale of Despereaux are other read-aloud treats.

 

The Dragonling books are wonderful to read out-loud. Much better than My Father's Dragon (although we like those as well), I think.

 

Anything by Cynthia Rylant. Makes my mouth happy.

 

That's far more than 10. :)

 

I have an older kid list as well. Starting with anything by Mark Twain or Louisa May Alcott.

Edited by LibraryLover
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What age is good for listening to Happy Hollister books? I have many from when I was a kid but am currently too lazy to go get one and reread to see if it would be good for my ds or not, lol. (I also have Bobbsey Twins books out there, and I think all my Little House books are there so I guess I have to not be lazy if I want to get those)

 

Most dc read Hollisters themselves but my dh read them aloud when our dc were about the ages of your dc or a bit older. :001_smile:

 

The only book you need to read in order is the first one The Happy Hollisters after that the order doesn't matter. My dc LOVED those books! I bought a bunch from ebay since they are OOP. I still have them and will not sell them.

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Here is a link to many that kept our squirmy ds's attention. They actually looked forward to evenings when dh would read these aloud. (I hate to read aloud. :tongue_smilie:)

 

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=jim+corbett+books&tag=googhydr-20&index=stripbooks&hvadid=3587270355&ref=pd_sl_8msur9l01c_e

 

 

We've also enjoyed reading books written by (or about, sometimes) missionaries in foreign countries. Mostly, older books. Dd and I are reading one now about Henry Martyn. Here's a link to some. Usually, older books are more interesting, IMO.

 

http://www.wholesomewords.org/biography/bio.html

 

We never read too much fiction aloud, for some reason. But we did listen to a lot of it via audio books. My favorite one there was "The Hobbit", read by some British actor (??).

 

Forgot: Little Britches series by Ralph Moody and Cheaper By the Dozen

 

 

Kathy

Edited by ksva
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Most dc read Hollisters themselves but my dh read them aloud when our dc were about the ages of your dc or a bit older. :001_smile:

 

The only book you need to read in order is the first one The Happy Hollisters after that the order doesn't matter. My dc LOVED those books! I bought a bunch from ebay since they are OOP. I still have them and will not sell them.

 

Thanks!! I remember reading them (and collecting them in hardcover) when I was a kid I have 31(wow!) of them in a box just waiting. I guess I will go through that box this evening and pull them out. Now to wonder on Nancy Drew (given that DD is 4 I think it will be awhile before those come out).

 

I'm a bookaholic and never ever wanted to get rid of any of my books growing up. I've got Encyclopedia Brown, Happy Hollisters, Bobbsey Twins, Maida books, Nancy Drew (55 of them), and who knows what else all in hardcover. Took most of my childhood to collect them all via various booksales but I'm glad I have them :)

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WWE 1 has The Happy Hollisters as a sample lesson for sentence copy work and narration. So, I'm assuming it is fine for a young audience. We haven't gotten to it yet to read, but have had the lesson in WWE. It must be good for K-3rd.

 

Thanks! I shall have to go get them, maybe he'll read them himself if I interest him in it enough.

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Oh wow, I may self-destruct. From all time periods and for all ages? Ummmm. Ummmm. For kids up through eighth grade? These are not my favorite picture books, nor my favorite books of short stories, just the chapter books.... Well, I guess The Bronze Bow.

 

Definitely Sutcliff's books (do we have to count those individually?), such as her series: Eagle of the Ninth, Silver Branch, and Lantern Bearers. My son *cried* when we finished because he didn't want them to be over!

 

Must that count as four? Ummmm. Ummmm. Coolidge's Trojan War (goes into many more of the side stories than other versions of the Iliad).

 

The Story of Comock the Eskimo, Robert Flaherty. (True, too; probably OOP....)

 

Genevieve Foster's books, like Augustus Caesar's World.

 

The White Stag, Seredy (boybarian in nature; shorter work; probably OOP....)

 

Two more? Let's come into the modern era.....

 

The Broken Blade, William Durbin! Can't wait to read it again, next year!

 

Shipwrecked! Rhoda Blumberg

 

(and can't leave out The Cat Who Went to Heaven, Coatsworth).....

 

So that's 10, sorta. I wouldn't say the same ten again tomorrow, but that's my list right now.

 

For younger children, doing fun reading that has nothing to do with history, etc. I'd include things like Frog and Toad; Amelia Bedelia; the Narnia series; all of Thornton Burgesses' books; Uncle Wiggily, etc. I'm stopping now....

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I'm a bookaholic and never ever wanted to get rid of any of my books growing up. I've got Encyclopedia Brown, Happy Hollisters, Bobbsey Twins, Maida books, Nancy Drew (55 of them), and who knows what else all in hardcover. Took most of my childhood to collect them all via various booksales but I'm glad I have them :)

 

 

Oooo, I'm jealous! ;)

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all the Peter and the Starcatchers books, there are 4 now, I think

Chronicles of Narnia series

Bartimaeus trilogy by Jonathon Stroud

Across Five Aprils

Animal Farm

anything by Roald Dahl

Little House series

Betsy-Tacy series

Cricket in Times Square and sequels

Warrior series

Guardians of Ga'hoole series

City of Ember (sequels, not so much)

Redwall series (although it is better to take breaks between the books, they all start to seem the same after a while)

 

I'm sure there are lots more that I am not thinking of right now. We love read alouds and have done them together as a family since the kids were little.

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Great ideas here. One of our favorites was Owls in the Family by Farley Mowat. It was hilarious. Kids just don't get to have those kinds of childhoods anymore.
Both my girls were in stitches over this. I'm currently reading The Dog Who Wouldn't Be to my eldest. It's all about Mutt, though written at a much higher level than Owls.
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