What are the books you most enjoy reading with your kids?
4 answers
Oh this one is so hard to answer because there are so many great books. I can’t wait to read other response! I’ve selected the ones that we’ve read over and over, or that had a powerful impact on us.
Picture Books
Dr. Seuss books. Some of our favorites are Wacky Wednesday, Are You My Mother?, The Best Nest, Wocket in My Pocket, Fox in Socks, Green Eggs and Ham, Apples Up on Top. One thing that was really great is they had read these so many times that when my oldest were in kindergarten and first it made these easy readers. They still had to sound out the words but because they already somewhat knew the cadence and story, it made it a lot more comfortable.
The Book With No Pictures. My kids think this one is SO funny, and I love hearing them crack up every time we read it. https://www.amazon.com/Book-No-Pictures-B-Novak/dp/0803741715
Richard Scarry books. We especially love the what people do storybook. I think I’ve read every story in there at least 10 times. https://www.amazon.com/What-Do-People-All-Day/dp/0008147825
Berenstein Bears. We’ve been through multiple copies of the storybook collection. https://www.amazon.com/Berenstain-Bears-Storytime-Collection/dp/0593177320
What Should Danny Do? My kids have had me read this SO many times. They love being able to make the choices for Danny. https://www.amazon.com/What-Should-Danny-Power-Choose/dp/069284838X
Journey trilogy. This is a series with no words, but instead it tells a wonderful story just through illustrations. My sister recommended it when my kids were little, and it is definitely one of my favorite books. https://www.amazon.com/Journey-Aaron-Beckers-Wordless-Trilogy
Press Here. This books is falling apart because we’ve read it so many times. I love how interactive, but simple it is. https://www.amazon.com/Press-Here-Board-Herve-Tullet/dp/1452178593
An Anthology of Intriguing Animals. This book is beautifully done, and has just the right amount of facts about each animal to read out loud to my kids. And I learned so many interesting things too. It’s also a perfect reading level for early elementary school. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1465477020
The Dinosaur Book. Beautifully illustrated. WE loved looking at this and reading about dinosaurs. The whole series by the Smithsonian is great. https://www.amazon.com/Dinosaur-Book-DK/dp/1465474765
Illustrated chapter books I’ve loved reading TO my kids
Dragon Masters series. Starting reading to my kids when my oldest two were 4 years old. I was shocked when they sat for 45 minutes straight because they kept asking for one more chapter. Amazing! Now that my oldest are 8, they enjoy reading these on their own. https://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Masters-Books-1-5-Branches/dp/1338777262
The Chocolate Touch. my kids LOVED this one. Great for reading out loud to ages 4-7 or so, and a really good early elementary reader as well. https://www.amazon.com/Chocolate-Touch-Patrick-Skene-Catling/dp/0688161332
The Fabled Stables. The artwork in this is so beautiful and the story is cute. It was also a great early reader when they started reading on their own. https://www.amazon.com/Willa-Wisp-Fabled-Stables-Book/dp/141974271X
Charlotte’s Web. Amazing characters and so much emotion in this book. I loved exploring this world with my kids. https://www.amazon.com/Charlottes-Web-Trophy-Newbery-White/dp/0064400557
The Last Firehawk series. We read this right after dragon masters. Cute story. Beautiful illustrations. https://www.amazon.com/Ember-Stone-Branches-Book-Firehawk/dp/1338122134
Flat Stanley. Cute silly story. https://www.amazon.com/Flat-Stanley-His-Original-Adventure-ebook/dp/B002BY77AE
More advanced chapter books that need a bit of verbal editing
Wings of Fire. This one needs quit a bit of editing if you read the full books, as I found it was described a little too much violence for my kids. But then we were gifted the graphic novels, and they were lovely. Pictures are beautiful, and the story is so good. My kids loved the characters, and go so into these stories. I would still recommend the full books if you are ok filtering as you read out loud. https://www.amazon.com/Wings-Fire-Graphix-Box-Books/dp/1338796879
Harry Potter. So you kind of need to edit this as you read because it can be a bit scary, and it is a slow start for kids. But once we got into it, this one was magical. The later books are too scary for my kids (oldest kids are 8) so we haven’t gone past the first book, but they LOVED it. Having the illustrated version definitely helped. https://www.amazon.com/Harry-Potter-Sorcerers-Stone-Illustrated-ebook/dp/B073QTXDBZ
- ritu—Whoa. I didn’t know there was an illustrated version of Harry Potter! That’s neat!
- rachel—@ritu the illustrations are so pretty!
- jsirenica—Omg we have had so much trouble with the violence in Wings of Fire. My older kid got really into them (in audiobook form) when she was FIVE. I had gotten them for her as yoto cards because everyone said they were great, and then a few days later my husband walks into my room like, “Have you listened to this new card she’s been listening to?” It’s literally so much creative ways for dragons to harm/kill/dismember each other. But the problem is that the plot is really compelling, and also Dragons, so we COULD NOT peel her away from it. We finally figured out that the graphic novels are (haha) less graphic, so that’s what we’re on now. And I really want to give her the audiobooks for books 4&5, but there’s literally people getting tortured and a castle whose walls are covered with enormous rotting dragon corpses on spikes. It’s rough. Also a side effect of this being her first exposure to this type of fantasy plot is that she’s now convinced that all queen-princess relationships are antagonistic and all princesses must grow up to kill their mothers in order to ascend to the throne and we just cannot convince her otherwise. So princess play is now… really edgy.
- jon—@jsirenica thanks for this. Wings of Fire was on my “consider” list for our 6yo daughter, sounds like we need a bit more time.
- jon—@rachel this list is amazing, thanks for sharing it!
perla1802
Child’s pick! We go to the public library and read all types of topics
- courtcarp380
Largely I love letting them pick at the library based on their interests at the time.
For reading practice, I LOVE the Usborne Reading Library Series. We read those in addition to reading send home from their teachers. I really appreciate that they are classical folk stories with a short paragraph at the end to inform us about where the story originated from. The earlier books in the library are also phonetically focused and help with basic developmental reading skills. The more advanced book series sets contain simplified versions of classical literature, like Frankenstein, Pride and Prejudice or Hamlet.
I also enjoy finding audio books to listen to with my 1st graders at bedtime. We are currently listening to a dramatic reading of Anne of Green Gables that I found on Audible and we all look forward to it every night.