Children's Books discussion

I am a strong believer in reading aloud to any age to strengthen reading strategies and comprehension, but am surprised to find that I am really enjoying some books more when read aloud. It takes more time, but with some stories we seem to catch more when we have to pause, etc.... of course it could just be the discussion that is so fun, but either way!

The two I am really enjoying this way right now are THE INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET by Brian Selznick and GOSSAMER by Lois Lowry.

Anyone else have suggestions or thoughts on great read-alouds - or any that are just better off read silently!?!?

I still love being read to, but no one (meaning my DH) will read to me. So I've taken to books on tape. You may already know about these, but the Harry Potter books on tape are amazing. Jim Dale, who does the reading, is phenomenal!

Good to know Harry Potter is good on tape. I've always struggled with listening to those - maybe because they're not interactive, no discussion - but they are so much better in quality and dramatic effect now that I will have to look back into them. Thanks!

I recently came upon this book at my local library. It is called "365 Bedtime Stories" by Christine Allison. It has stories for every day of the year. Perfect for reading out loud.

Reading aloud is the best way to spend time together. I remember my mother reading to us all the time and it didn't seem to matter what the book was the younger kids listened to the Hobbit and the older kids listened to Little House on the Prairie. Some of my favorite read alouds are, the Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander, Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, any books by Jean Craighead George and Zilpha Keatley Snyder. There are lots of books out there!!!

I have been reading aloud to my kids since they were babies, and i enjoy it as much as they do. My nine year old daughter loves reading, but still enjoys our cuddle in bed whilst i'm reading aloud to her. Her current favourite is Anne of Green Gables. My eight year old son loves listening to me reading aloud from Harry Potter. And both of them enjoy The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. My youngest, who's three, enjoys looking at the words and pictures whilst i read, and loves all the Winnie the Pooh illustrated books.

I've started using Sonlight as a guide for read aloud books, because there are just so many to choose from I don't know where to start. Right now, we are doing the Lion Storyteller Bedtime Book. At random times during the day, I'll read my five year old a story from it. It is really good!

My husband & I used to read aloud to our kids every night until they were into their teens. Narnia, Pooh, Anne of Green Gables, Little House were all favorites for us too, as well as the Oz books, Roald Dahl... As they got older, he started reading things like Huck Finn & Tom Sawyer, Oliver Twist, Animal Farm, Jane Eyre, etc. - books that were a step ahead of what they were able to read on their own, but really enjoyed listening to (and talking about).

I'm so happy to see this topic! I'm a Kindergarten teacher and I have seen first hand how much reading aloud helps children at any age. Here are some of my favorite read alouds!

Picture Books:
Knuffle Bunny (Mo Willems)
The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog (Mo Willems) anything by him
Love You Forever (Robert Munsch) anything by him
Chrysanthemum (Kevin Henkes) anything by him
The Music Inside Me (written by a group of students at Marvin Elem. in Norwalk, CT)
I Will Never Not Ever Eat a Tomato (Lauren Childs)
Leo the Late Bloomer (Robert Kraus)
The Hello, Goodbye Window (Norton Juster)

Chapter Books (I've read all of these to Kindergarteners):
The Mercy Watson Series (Kate Dicamillo)
My Father's Dragon (Ruth Stiles)
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane (Kate Dicamillo) - one of my all time favorites! By the time I got to the last page I was whispering and we were all in tears.
Stink (Megan McDonald) - he's Judy Moody's brother
Judy Moodby books

I just finished Roxie and the Holligans (Phyllis Reynolds Naylor) and I think it would be a great read aloud.

The Hank Zipzer series is great for boys. Written by the Fonz.

I also love Andrew Clements' books for older readers. He writes school stories about upper elementary grades (3-5). I'm reading No Talking right now, but my favorite is Frindle.

Oh no, Amy, you have given me so many new ideas!!!! I can't afford it!!! ;-)

One of my problems is that we live out of the country and while our libraries do have English books, they don't have the vast selection a typical American or Canadian library would have. I really want the Mercy Watson books, but they are just too darn expensive. Our library does have My Father's Dragon and its sequels, though.

Hi Kirei,
You are lucky; when I lived out of the country there one or two small libraries open a couple of hours a day when they decided to open at all, and you couldn't take the books with you. I had to settle for reading everything in Spanish, and my fluency is adequate but not perfect, so it didn't flow too well. Plus the books were old and in awful shape, not to mention poor selection. I could only get newer English language books in a major city two hours away, and they cost about fifty dollars. I was totally starved for literature. Of course, everything else made up for that.

But I came to really appreciate American libraries!

I am embarrassed to say that only recently have I realized how popular My Father's Dragon and its sequels are. I grew up with my mother's copies and passed them down to my daughter; we read them together so much since the age of 2 or 3 that she can recite entire chapters word for word. I thought they were just random books from that era that we happened to stumble upon; I had never heard of them and didn't know they were now classics until two or three years ago.

The Mrs. Piggle Wiggle series by MacDonald are great read alouds, since each chapter completes a story.

This is such a fabulous topic! It is as timeless as the books themselves. Here are some our favorites ...

Picture Books
I'll second/third/... the Mercy Watson books. Chris Van Dusen (illustrator for those titles) has also produced a great series of his own featuring Mr. Magee

Noises at Night by Beth Raisner Glass and Susan Lubner
Ruthie Bon Bair! Don't Go to Bed with Wringing Wet Hair also by Beth Raisner Glass and Susan Lubner.
Think Dr. Seuss for this one: VERY clever and perfect for little girls like mine who want long hair but no tangles!

Chapter Books
Bubba Begonia, You'll be Sorry by Gerry O'Brien
Robin the Lovable Morgan Horse by Ellen Feld
Mia the Meek by Eileen Boggess
Any of the Young Patriot books, an historical fiction series published by Patria Press (some of us might remember them as "the little orange biographies")

Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babitt which was later made into a Disney movie is a good book to read outloud. My daughter is 6 and son is 10 but I think it would be appropriate for both though my son is more into the sci fi type of books and would probably think this one is too "girly". It is a short book at only 139 pages and could easily be finished in two sittings.

For older elementary/middle grade children, Sea of Trolls by Nancy Farmer is a wonderful read aloud. It is an adventure story set in Scandinavia in the time of Vikings and Trolls. Almost like a fairy tale. GREAT audiobook if you prefer to 'read' it that way. Also, The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle is a good adventure story with a strong girl character. Written by Avi.

I always found that the best judge of a good read aloud was a 3-5 grade classroom. Some of the favorites that I've read to my classes are:

Leon and the Spitting Image (Kurtzweil), Search for Delicious (Babbit), and Where the Red Fern Grows (Rawls).

Each Little Bird That Sings by Deborah Wiles is a wonderful read aloud, too.

For kindergarteners, two books I'd suggest for read-alouds are Roonie B. Moonie: Lost and Alone & The Way I Feel, both by Janan Cain. Both are really great for helping kids understand and put words to their feelings.

For older kids, I have very fond memories of my 6th grade teacher reading The Giver by Lois Lowry to us. That's one classic that everyone should read.

Thanks for all the great suggestions. We are trying to read aloud to 4 of our kids ages 6-13 each night (we have a 2 year old also but she usually falls asleep). We started with Hatchet which was perfect for them and everyone loved it. We read The Chalk Box Kid next and it wasn't a big of a hit. I am now doing Tuck Everlasting. They were a little slow getting into it but they didn't want me to stop reading tonight.

Do you read poetry?

Beyond the childhood basics there are some lovely collections.

My family's favorites are by Shel Silverstein, although we also throw in limited bits of Robert Louis Stevenson, Poe and Frost.

My 6 yo son even joins in, so that we all take turns reading poems on Poetry Fridays :)

Just read "The Secrets of Droon" book #1 and it made a good read-aloud if you run some of the short sentences together.

I second The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane (Kate Dicamillo). Kate Dicamillo writes beautiful stories! The Tale of Despereaux is another one of hers that I love and is soon going to be in the theaters!

LeAnn, did you see that Dicamillo has a new book coming out. It's about a chicken.

And you might want to look at "Cabinet of Wonders". I really liked it.

I'm an environmental educator as well as a book lover and I just read Jeanne DuPrau's "City of Ember" aloud to a group of elementary and middle school students. It's a great read aloud book with many 'voices' and the suspense in the story kept their interest.

I second the Kate Dicamillo recommendation and would also suggest Maiya Williams- "The Golden Hour" and "The Hour of the Cobra"

Deana, I'll have to check Ms. Williams.

btw, my library had "Louise, the Adventure of a Chicken" by Kate D. and we snatched itup. My kids loved it. They laughed themselves silly.

It was definitely more light-hearted than her other books and geared more for younger kids.

Our favorites in a nutshell, Laura Numeroff's books starting with "If you give a Mouse a Cookie" and Judy Schachner's "Skippyjon Jones" books.

Among the favorites for Chapter books are "Stuart Little", "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and of course the "Winnie the Pooh" series. "The Little House on the Prairie" series is right up there too.

Check out "The Read-aloud Handbook" by Jim Trelease. (repeating myself, sorry!)