Favorite read alouds for 8 to 10 year olds?

[lulalu]

We have read a lot of books for family read aloud. We have done repeats as well. Right now I am reading Treasure Island. But the different voices and pirate talk are hard to do reading aloud for me. I found The Secret Garden easier to do voices with. 

Anyways I try to read above ds' level. But I am running out of ideas. So please list your top 3 to 5 read alouds for the 8ish to 10ish crowd. We like a wide variety of genres and topics. 

I don't connect our read alouds with our history. I like to just pick good books to read. We did two books that tied in to history this year. But we read aloud about 14 novels a year depending on the size of the books. 

[Lori D.]

Five Children and It (Nesbit) -- or -- The Book of Dragons (Nesbit)
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Carroll)
The Secret of Platform 13 (Ibbottson)
The Twenty One Balloons (du Bois)
The Black Stallion (Farley)
The Great Wheel (Lawson)
By The Great Horn Spoon (Fleischman) -- or -- The Whipping Boy (Fleischman)
The Rescuers (Sharp) -- or -- Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (O'Brien)

Edited May 26, 2020 by Lori D.

[El...]

The Reluctant Dragon by Grahame

The Light Princess by George Macdonald 

[wendyroo]

We just finished Cheaper by the Dozen and my 8 and 10 year olds thought it was hilarious.  Also, The Black Stallion, Farmer Boy, Dr. Dolittle, Alice in Wonderland.  We are currently reading The Hobbit.

[8filltheheart]

We read different things for different reasons.  Bedtime stories are more along the lines of Redwall, Mysterious Benedict Society, Princess and the Goblin, etc.  Stories that I read aloud during the day for school are ones that we spend more time discussing like Narnia, stories from Journeys Through Bookland (which she loves and has fostered a love of Norse mythology), Wind in the Willows, The Secret Garden, etc.

[Lori D.]

Oh! Forgot two more -- I've been trying to list things that perhaps are less likely that you've already done 😉 :

- The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (Aiken)

- The Extraordinary Flight to the Mushroom Planet, and sequel: Stowaway to the Mushroom Planet (Cameron)
The Mushroom Planet books are OLD now (written in the mid 1950), but there's something so charming and innocent and appealing about the 10yo boy protagonists in a spaceship just their size, visiting a planetoid just their size 😄 

[hs03842]

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Edited June 8, 2020 by JoyKM

[wendyroo]

51 minutes ago, JoyKM said:

I can’t wait to start the Hobbit!  What ages of your kids are tuning in and enjoying it?  I don’t want to do it too early but do want to do it as a family.  

I'm reading it to my 4, 6, 8 and just turned 11 year olds who are all experienced read-aloud listeners. 

They are all enjoying it, though clearly some of it is going over the 4 year old's head.  I think if I were just reading to my 4 or 6 year olds, than I would choose something different and save The Hobbit for later.  But it is going well, and I will probably read it aloud again in a few years when it will speak to everyone (including myself) on different levels.

[egao_gakari]

Anything Joan Aiken, anything Roald Dahl, my kids also liked City of Ember and its sequels!

[ScoutTN]

The Chronicles of Prydain

The Green Ember

The Jungle Book

Swallows and Amazons

Johnny Tremain

Robin Hood - Robert Lancelyn Green

Eagle of the Ninth

A Wrinkle in Time

Redwall

The Arabian Nights - any kid appropriate version

Little Men

 

[Meriwether]

Some of our favorites for this age group:
Summer of the Monkeys
My Side of the Mountain
The Hobbit (and LOTR actually)
The Chronicles of Narnia
The first three Harry Potter books (we have just allowed HP in our family recently, but they all enjoyed the read alouds)

Dd10 is currently enjoying Redwall. I also read aloud some history/historical fiction/nonfiction books during school. She is not a big reader. She can decode fine, but we think she may have tracking issues because my husband has tracking issues and she is slow and gets tired easily. So, I read more of her school books to her than I did the others. She prefers our novels from family read alouds.