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
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.
Beautiful photo – what a great way to remember the times with dad! (I recognize lots of those titles from when Matt was little! I had to save a lot of his childhood books because they have such strong family memories tied to them – I just can’t give them away!)
My son LOVED Jo’s Boys (Jo from Little Women). Even my daughter loved it.
I need to get that. I loved Little Women when I was a girl. I am reading “Little House on the Prairie” to my daughters right now… and loving that classic too.
At my house I read, and read, and read aloud to my children. We started a new summer reading adventure and to jump-start this, we are beginning with an unusually fun book called
“Tal, His Marvelous Adventures with Noom-Zor-Noom” by Paul Fenimore Cooper. We are about 3/4 of the way through but this one will be a classic in our family.
One of mine and my children’s favorite picture books is “The Little Mouse, the Red-Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear”.
“The Little Mouse, the Red Rip Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear” is on our short list of favorites too! I love all the Don and Audrey Wood books. We also love “Quick as a Cricket,” “The Napping House,” “Piggies,” and “King Bidgood’s in the Bathtub.” When my son started saying a few bad words we got the wonderful “Elbert’s Bad Word.” I am excited to check out Tal.
So sweet! Having my dad read to me was one of my favorite things too. Sam (our one yr. old) got his dad a book for father’s day, which he’s too young to share now, but hopefully some day will be able to read with him:)
My kids absolutely love, The Scrambled States of America, by Laurie Keller. The illustrations are very fun, and my kids make sure I read all of the extra phrases that surround them. They never get tired of it. She has a few other books out that are really cute too.
We have and love Do Unto Otters but we don’t have Scrambled States… sounds like we need to get that book too.
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