books to read to your kids Archives

One of my favorite times of the day is when I get the kids settled in a night and it’s time to read. Bedtime reading has been a tradition that we’ve done for the last 20+ years. We make sure all electronics are turned off, the kids get ready for bed, and we sit down as a family to read. It’s amazing how many wonderful books we get to share as a family!

In honor of Read Across America, here’s a list of 50 picture and chapter books to go through as a family!

Picture Books

1) I’ll Love You Forever by Robert Munsch

2) Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman

3) Fox in Socks by Dr. Seuss and Theodore Geisel

4) The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes and Louis Slobodkin

5) The Cricket in Times Square by George Selden and Garth Williams

6) Tacky the Penguin by Helen Lester and Lynn Munsinger

7) Miss Suzy by Miriam Young and Arnold Lobel

8) The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster and Jules Feiffer

9) If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff and Felicia Bond

10) The Book with No Pictures by B.J. Novak

11) The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey by Susan Wojciechowski and P.J. Lynch

12) The Monster at the end of this Book by Jon Stone and Michael Smollin

13) The Big Picture Story Bible by David R. Helm and Gail Schoonmaker

14) Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey

15) Silly Sally by Audrey Wood

16) Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina

17) You Are Special by Max Lucado and Sergio Martinez

18) Barnyard Dance by Sandra Boynton

19) Bombus the Bumblebee by Elsie Larson, David & Helen Haidle

20) The Giant Jam Sandwich by John Vernon Lord

21) Tikki Tikki Tembo by Ariene Mosel and Blair Lent

22) Could Be Worse by James Stevenson

23) When We Were Very Young by A.A. Milne

24) The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White and Fred Marcellino

25) Was it a Good Trade? by Beatrice Schenk de Regniers and Irene Haas

26) Louise the Big Cheese and the Back-To-School Smarty-Pants by Elise Primevera and Diane Goode

27) Jeremy: The Tale of an Honest Bunny by Jan Karon and Teri Weidner

28) A Porcupine Named Fluffy by Helen Lester and Lynn Munsinger

29) Let Papa Sleep by Emily Reed

Chapter Books

30) Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder

31) The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom and Elizabeth Sherrill

32) Carry On, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham

33) Johnny Tremain by Esther Hoskins Forbes

34) Black Beauty by Anna Sewell

35) The BFG by Roald Dahl

36) Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White

37) The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

38) Prayers that Changed History by Tricia Goyer

39) The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare

40) The Golden Goblet by Eloise Jarvis McGraw

41) Savvy by Ingrid Law

42) Heidi by Johanna Spyri

43) Watership Down by Richard Adams

44) Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

45) The Giver by Lois Lowry

46) Gone-Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright and Joe & Beth Krush

47) Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls

48) Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

49) The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks

50) The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare

What’s your favorite books to read aloud as a family? Share in the comment section below!

Great Read Alouds for K-2nd Grade {+ Printable!}

I LOVE reading aloud to my kids. And they love it, too! According to Jim Trelease, author of Read-Aloud Handbook, reading aloud is not only fun, it gives your child a huge advantage when it comes to learning. Children who start school with a larger vocabulary tend to do better than the child with a low vocabulary. And how do children learn and expand their vocabulary? By hearing words used at home! Often, our conversation speech is “verbal shorthand,” whereas books offer complete sentences and more complex language. Trelease points out that:

Reading aloud also increases a child’s attention span. Finally, reading aloud to your child is a commercial for reading. When you read aloud, you’re whetting a child’s appetite for reading . . . .A child who has been read to will want to learn to read herself. She will want to do what she sees her parents doing. But if a child never sees anyone pick up a book, she isn’t going to have that desire.

Learn more about the benefits of reading to your kids here.

With that in mind, I started compiling a list of my favorite books to read to my children and my Facebook followers to share their go-to reads. Here’s my list of great read alouds for K-2nd grade:

Happy Hollisters by Jerry West

Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch by Alice Caldwell Hegan Rice

Five Little Peppers by Margaret Sidney

Bobbsey Twins by Laura Lee Hope

Box Car Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner

Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder

That’s Nat! by Dandi Daley Mackall and Lys Blakeslee

Meghan Rose by Lori Z. Scott

Adventures of Lily Lapp by Mary Ann Kinsigner and Suzanne Woods Fisher

Fancy Nancy by Jane O’Connor

Superstition Mountain Mysteries by Elise Broach

Stuart Little by E. B. White

Grandma’s Attic by Arleta Richardson

Ramona the Pest by Beverly Cleary

Amelia Bedelia by Herman Parish and Lynne Avril

Henry and Mudge by Cynthia Rylant

We Are In a Book by Mo Williems

Just in Case You Ever Wonder by Max Lucado

The Tale of Three Trees by Angela Elwell Hunt and Tim Jonke

Imagination Station by Paul McCusker and Marianne Hering

The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

Download the Great Read Alouds Checklist for more great books and to keep track of what you’ve read and what you should check out!

@TriciaGoyer shares her favorite read alouds for K-2nd grade here:

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