Posts Tagged ‘great books for children’

With Father’s Day coming up, I asked the kids what they loved best about their Dad.  Without hesitation Ben said, “I love when Daddy reads to me.”

Every night since Ben was a baby, Drew has read him a story.  In Kindergarten, they started reading “chapter books.”

It’s something both of them look forward to each night.  Over the last eight years, they have read an astonishing number of wonderful books together.  Here are some of their favorites by age…

Age 1

• Good Night, Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann
• Dinosaur Roar (Picture Puffins) by Paul and Henrietta Stickland
• Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear? by Nancy White Carlstrom and Bruce Degen
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Age 2

• Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
• How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? by Jane Yolen and Mark Teague

Age 3

• Skippyjon Jones by Judy Schachner
• How I Became a Pirate by Melinda Long and David Shannon
• “Stand Back,” Said the Elephant, “I’m Going to Sneeze!” by Patricia Thomas and Wallace Tripp

Age 4

• The Snail and the Whale by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler
• The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler
• The Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler (Yes I know all three books are from Julia Donaldson… we got on a kick that year… and we still love her books)

Age 5

• Story of Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman and Christopher Bing  (My husband and I were shocked to discover that one of our favorite children’s books when we were kids was now considered controversial and racist!  Then we found this wonderful illustrated version from Christopher Bing. He gives an interesting explaination of the controversy at the back of the book.  I don’t think anyone could find fault with this version…)
  
• Knots on a Counting Rope by John Archambault, Ted Rand, and Bill Martin Jr.
• Paul Revere’s Ride by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Ted Rand

Age 6

• The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien and Michael Hague
• Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling
• The Great Brain by John D. Fitzgerald
  

Age 7

• The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
• Summer of the Monkeys by Wilson Rawls
• The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread by Kate DiCamillo
  
• The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo
  

Age 8

• The Ruins of Gorlan by John Flanagan
• Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series by Rick Riordan (We are on Book 3 and loving it)

Keep in mind these book were read aloud, so they are not reading level appropriate.  I would love to hear your favorite read aloud books.