I love reading aloud to my kids. And they love it too. Even if I'm reading Cat in the Hat to the youngest, which they've all heard a bazillion times, I find them coming from around the house to sit around me while I read. Reading aloud draws them to me and keeps them there. So, we read aloud a lot. And their dad reads to them at bedtime. We choose mostly fun books, but will occasionally read a history or science book "for fun".
Here is a list of books I plan on reading to the boys. Some we have already read, some we have not. Some only the older boys have heard, others they have not. I plan on starting at the beginning and working my way through. When we're done, we'll start over again so the littler ones will get a chance to hear it again, and hopefully understand it better. I'm sure we'll hate some and take them off the list. And we'll find new favorites to add. As we read them I'll be posting my reviews at Goodreads. If a title is in
bold, we have read the book.
Children’s Book of Virtues – William Bennett
Classic Tales of Brer Rabbit – Joel Chandler Harris
Complete Adventures of Peter Rabbit – Beatrix Potter
Lion Storyteller Bedtime Book – Bob Hartman
Stories from Around the World – Heather Amery
Uncle Wiggle’s Story Book – Howard Garis
Mike Mulligan Treasury and More – Virginia Lee Burton
Living Long Ago – Felicity Brooks
Eric Carle’s Animals Animals – Eric Carle
Mother Goose
Boxcar Children – Gertrude Chandler Warner
Dolphin Adventure – Wayne Grover
Dolphin Treasure – Wayne Grover
20th-Century Children’s Book Treasury – Janet Schulman
Five True Dog Stories – Margaret Davidson
A Grain of Rice – Helena Clare Pittman
House at Pooh Corner (read the others too) – A. A. Milne
Hundred Dresses – Eleanor Estes
James Harriet’s Treasury for Children – James Harriet
Encyclopedia Brown books – Donald J. Sobol
Aesop’s Fables – Milo Winter
My Father’s Dragon – Ruth Stiles Gannett (Elmer and the Dragon is the sequel)
Richard Scarry’s Please and Thank You – Richard Scarry
Riki Tiki Tavi – Rudyard Kipling
A Treasury of Children’s Literature – Armand Eisen
Story of Dr. Dolittle – Hugh Lofting
Capyboppy – Bill Peet
Thomas the Tank Engine stories
Great Brain books – John D. Fitzgerald (read first one)
Wonderful World of Oz – Frank Baum
Andersen’s Fairy Tales – Hans Christian Anderson
Mrs. Piggle Wiggle – Betty MacDonald
Hidden Tales from Eastern Europe – Antonia Barber
Charlotte’s Web – E.B. White
A _______ Fairy Book – Andrew Lang (choose a color)
Follow My Leader – James Garfield
Henry Huggins – Beverly Cleary
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
Homer Price – Roald Dahl
Little Britches – Ralph Moody (read others in series too)
Little Pear – Eleanor Frances Lattimore
Mountain Born – Elizabeth Yates
Mr. Popper’s Penguins – Richard Atwater
Mrs. Piggle Wiggle’s Farm – Betty MacDonald
Understood Betsy – Dorothy Canfield Fisher
Year of Miss Agnes – Kirkpatrick Hill
Gooney Bird Green – Lois Lowry (there are others in the series if we like)
Narnia – C. S. Lewis (have read them 3x now)
Wheel on the School – Meindert De Jong
A Big Ball of String – Marion Holland
Bravest Dog Ever – Natalie Standiford
Mrs. Piggle Wiggle’s Magic – Betty MacDonald
Cricket in Times Square – George Selden
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh – Robert C. O’Brien
A _______ Fairy Book – Andrew Lang (choose a color)
Books by Sam Campbell (http://www.samcampbell.com/ to read online)
Red Sails to Capri – Ann Weil
Twenty-One Balloons – William Pene DuBois
White Stallion of Lipizza – Marguerite Henry
Amelia Bedelia – Peggy Parish
Big Balloon Race – Eleanor Coerr
Daniel’s Duck – Clyde Robert Bulla
Greg’s Microscope – Millicent E. Selsam
Tales from the Arabian Nights (find a suitable version)
Hill of Fire – Thomas P. Lewis
Nate the Great – Marjorie Weinman Sharmat
Keep the Lights Burning, Abbie – Peter Roop
Last Little Cat – Meindert De Jong
The Littles – John Peterson
Tippy Lemmey – Patricia McKissack
Black Stallion – Walter Farley
A _______ Fairy Book – Andrew Lang (choose a color)
Along Came a Dog – Meindert De Jong
The Indian in the Cupboard – Lynne Reid Banks
Children of Noisy Village – Astrid Lindgren
Trumpet of the Swan – E. B. White
Frindle – Andrew Clements
Grimm’s Fairy Tales – Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm
Tell Me a Story – Deseret Book collection
Henry and Ribsy – Beverly Cleary
Laddie – Gene Stratton-Porter
King’s Equal – Katherine Paterson
Heidi – Johanna Spry
Llama in the Family – Johanna Hurwitz
Benjamin West and His Cat Grimalkin – Marguerite Henry
McBroom’s Wonderful One-Acre Farm – Sid Fleischman
Toothpaste Millionaire – Jean Merrill
James and the Giant Peach – Roald Dahl
Whipping Boy- Sid Fleischman
A _______ Fairy Book – Andrew Lang (choose a color)
Cheaper by the Dozen – Frank Gilbreth (probably won't read this)
By the Great Horn Spoon – Sid Fleischman
Little Lord Faulteroy – Frances Hodgeson Burnett
Half Magic – Edward Eager (if we like read Knight’s Castle, Magic by the Lake, Time Garden)
Great Turkey Walk – Kathleen Karr
Pinnochio (use abridged version) – Carlo Collodi
Castle in the Attic – Elizabeth Winthrop (sequel is Battle for the Castle)
Old Yeller – Fred Gipson
Journey to the Center of the Earth – Jules Verne
All Sail Set – Armstrong Sperry
The Great Wheel – Robert Lawson
My Side of the Mountain series – Jean Craighead George
Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun – Rhoda Blumberg
Exploring Planet Earth – John Hudson Tiner
Around the World in 80 Days – Jules Verne
A _______ Fairy Book – Andrew Lang (choose a color)
King of the Trees series – William Burt (won't be reading)
Ali and the Golden Eagle – Wayne Grover
Redwall – Brian Jacques
Incredible Journey – Sheila Burnford
Terrestria Chronicles and Tales from Terrestria – Ed Dunlop
Just So Stories – Rudyard Kipling
King of the Wind – Marguerite Henry
Swiss Family Robinson – Johann Wyss
A Wrinkle in Time – Madeleine L’Engle
Westing Game – Ellen Raskin
Secret Garden – Frances Hodgeson Burnett
Phantom Tollbooth – Norton Juster
Samurai’s Tale – Erik Christian Haugaard
Marvellous Land of Snergs - E.A. Wyke-Smith
The Wonderful O - James Thurber
Viking Quest series – Lois Walfrid Johnson
Best Christmas Pageant Ever – Barbara Robinson
Robinson Crusoe – Daniel DeFoe
It’s a Jungle Out There – Ron Snell
A _______ Fairy Book – Andrew Lang (choose a color)
Who Was That Masked Man, Anyway? - Avi
Tarzan – Edgar Rice Burroghs
Peter Pan (probably an abridged version) – J. M. Barrie
Jungle Book – Rudyard Kipling
Tanglewood Tales – Nathaniel Hawthorne
Ranger’s Apprentice – John Flanagan
Fable Haven series – Brandon Mull
Tennis Shoes Among the Nephites - Chris Heimerdinger
Septimus Heap series – Angie Sage
John Carter of Mars – Edgar Rice Burroughs
Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien
Lord of the Rings triology – J.R.R. Tolkien
