Long read alouds for preschoolers?

[Sk8ermaiden]

Please forgive me if I'm in the wrong place. I've never started a thread here.

 

My mom always (pretty much up until high school) had a chapter book going with me. Every night she'd read as much as I could convince her to. We read to DD every night (and day), but I'd love to start the ongoing-book thing with her.

 

But is there such a thing as a LONG book written to a preschool/K level?

 

The only thing springing to mind is Uncle Wiggly, which was a childhood staple for me. Not a chapter book exactly, but pretty close.

 

Thanks.

[Arcadia]

We read Aesop Fables and abridged version of children classics for bedtime reading at that age. We also did children's version of Hans Christian Anderson, Grimm Brothers and Enid Blyton.

[Aurelia]

The colored fairy books (The Blue Fairy Book, The Red Fairy Book, etc.) and Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales are good. DD really enjoyed The Milly-Molly-Mandy Storybook, and Raggedy Ann Stories. Both books have self-contained plots in each chapter, so they're a good first foray into chapter books. From there, I read DD regular chapter books, but I'd briefly recap the previous events until she was good at remembering the story from the night before. The Boxcar Children series and the My Father's Dragon trilogy are good books to begin with.

[Julie Smith]

Thornton W. Burgess and his Green Forest series.

 

Here is a site with the most complete list of books available online:

Various Burgess books can be found at the link: http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=Burgess%2C%20Thornton%20W.%20(Thornton%20Waldo)%2C%201874-1965

[besroma]

My children enjoy A Hive of Busy Bees and Another Hive of Bees.

 

They also enjoy the higher levels of Pathway readers (grades 3 and up).

 

All of these are engaging and contain excellent lessons on morals and character.

 

ETA: We use all of the Pathway readers. The reason I specified grades 3 and up is that I read those levels aloud to them above their grade level.

[Mystie]

The Little House books, especially the first 3 or 4, would be great!

[Black-eyed Suzan]

The classic Winnie the Pooh books.

[chicagoshannon]

In Grandmas Attic is another good series. We also read a lot of the Wizard of Oz books.

[Kathryn]

We started reading the Little House books to our son at that age. And E.B. White's books.

[momtoamiracle]

I read EB WHite along with Mr Popper's Penguins and KIpling's Just So stories.

 

There are tons of children's books for free on this site: http://www.booksshouldbefree.com/genre/Children

You can get the ebook and the audiobook.

 

My son also loves the Raggedy Ann and Andy books. Another sweet little book is The Tale of Benny Badger. I don't recommend the audiobook tho, the reader is terrible, tho my son doesn't mind. It drives me nuts.

[Jen in PA]

We started the Oz books at that age.

[Clarkd]

Wind in the Willows

[beaners]

Oh, I could think of so many choices.

 

I have a 5 year old, an "almost 4" of my own (Easter birthday here), and a 2 year old with some delays, plus a baby.

 

They all love our nightly stories. The 2 year old's favorites recently were "Mopsa" and "Bambi," although he's strongly expressed that he enjoys others also. He's been essentially nonverbal until recently, so that's saying something. They enjoy listening to a lot more than they can discuss.

 

We never really paid too much attention to what level a book was aimed at, and my children don't seem to have noticed either. Some of the gentler reads we've done have included a group of animal stories by Burgess. We've done the Lang Fairy Stories, but I wouldn't exactly call them all gentle. We've done a lot of E. B. White and similar stories, like Dodie Smith's 101 Dalmatians. I'd stretch some of the traditional expectations a bit. I wouldn't stretch them based on "scary" stuff, but based on what might hold the interest of a child. Mine like the deeper, more complicated stories best.

[reign]

We started with magic treehouse books when my oldest turned 4. My youngest has grown up listening to chapter books. Lately they have enjoyed "A little princess" and Bunnicula books.

[Sk8ermaiden]

Thanks so much guys! There's enough here to keep us busy for a year!

[PeterPan]

My dd got Little House, the Lang Fairy tales, Uncle Remus, Teddy Robinson, etc. Then I put stuff on audio (Charlotte's Web, etc.). If you haven't seen Teddy Robinson yet, check it out. She's at the perfect age. :)

[Rosie_0801]

My dd will listen to just about anything. She had seen the BBC production of Pride and Prejudice so enjoyed listening to me read it. She's seen Anne of Green Gables, and we're now up to Rilla of Ingleside. She enjoyed Tarka the Otter more than The Magic Faraway Tree, which I thought was odd, and I can tell you she's definitely not advanced in language. Read whatever you like until they complain, I say. :)

[Kathryn]

I forgot we did the Paddington books then too.

[knittingmama]

We've done most of what has been mentioned so I won't mention them again. But we also liked the Borrowers for my kids at that age. We also read Mary Poppins. My kids at that age have also listened to the Narnia series since I have older kids too and we just do read-alouds as a family, but if my oldest were 4, I would probably save it for later.

[Greenmama2]

Another vote for the original Winnie the Pooh and Paddington books. My current three year old is loving Pippi Longstocking.

[alisoncooks]

My preschooler has enjoyed: Paddington, Beatrix Potter, My Father's Dragon trilogy, Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, Little House in the Big Woods...

[nmoira]

Jenny and the Cat Club

Mr. Popper's Penguins

The Twits

Fantastic Mr. Fox

James and the Giant Peach

Milly-Molly-Mandy

Children of Noisy Village and Happy Times in Noisy Village

Pippi

[Shmead]

The early Betsy-Tacy books ought to be in here, too: Maud Hart Lovelace.

[Tracy]

My kids like these around that age:

 

Pippi Longstocking

Winnie the Pooh

My Father's Dragon

Mr. Popper's Penguins

Magic Treehouse

Wizard of Oz

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

[LaCEmom]

So many good ideas here! And some I need to look into for my own 3yo.

 

We haven't read them yet, but another series that was highly recommended to me were the Mrs. Piggle Wiggle books.

[MidwesternMom]

My kids' favorites at those ages were Teddy Robinson, Mrs. Piggle-Wigge, Dr. Doolittle, The Enormous Egg, Mr. Popper's Penguins, and Avi's Poppy, Poppy and Rye kind of books. We also had a lot of fairy-tale collections, and those were well loved.

[4Kiddos]

There are so many good ones mentioned already! We have also enjoyed the Brambly Hedge books by Barklem, Just So Stories by Kipling, For the Children's Hour by Bailey, and James Herriot's books.

 

If you are interested in a more science type of book, my boys have LOVED the Eyes and No Eyes Series by Arabella Buckley. We have the ones published by Yesterday's Classics. I am surprised by how much of this they remember! It is very wonderful and descriptive writing.

[UrbanSue]

The list you have already is great, just another voice of encouragement to dive in without being overly concerned about reading level. A read aloud is just a much different experience than what you'd excpect them to read independently or expect them to do anything with for "school." Just choose books that you like that are of high literary quality and if she's still complaining on the fourth day, put that book aside for a bit and choose a different one. Keep the sections short--it's okay to divide up chapters! And maybe don't expect her to beg for more right off the bat. But she might! My kids have always surprised us with their ability to take in understand complicated stories.

[tld]

My boys' favorites have been the Thornton Burgess books. Really short chapters and they learn about animal characteristics amidst the adventuresome stories.