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Our family’s favorite read alouds right now

We read out loud a lot to our younger two all year, but we do many more family read alouds during the colder months. When it’s light and warm out after dinner, we’re playing outside. When it’s not, we’re cozied up with hot tea and good books.

These are the books my younger kids are loving right now. (My older kids love to listen in, and sometimes they’ll even do the reading.)

Our favorite read-alouds right now | Modern Mrs Darcy

The Day the Crayons Quit, Drew Daywalt and Oliver Jeffers

All of my kids–ages 3 to 10–love this book and think it’s hysterical, especially the Peach Crayon. (You’ll see what I mean.) We checked this one out of the library so many times we finally gave it to the kids for St. Nicholas Day.

Our favorite read-alouds right now | Modern Mrs Darcy

Press Here, Henré Tullet

My three-year-old adores this unique book. (Last year he was still a little young for it, but it’s perfect for threes and fours.) We get to the end and we read it again (and again). But it’s so fun to read together I don’t min

Our favorite read-alouds right now | Modern Mrs DarcyGoodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site, Sherri Duskey Rinker and Tom Lichtenheld

This whimsical book just came out in 2011, but it feels like a classic, and for some reason it always comes into heavy rotation in the winter months. My three-year-old is obsessed with trains, but he still likes this book much more than the newly released Steam Train, Dream Train from the same authors.

Reading aloud to the older kids

We read aloud to the older kids too, especially during the colder months. We try to pick books that will engage my eight-year-old and ten-year-old without boring the younger kids to tears.

Past successes include The Hobbit and The Chronicles of Narnia, which we started next winter and are picking back up again where we left off.

We’re reading through the Ivy and Bean books with my six-year-old (and whoever else wants to listen), because she sees my eight-year-old enjoying them but can’t yet read them by herself.

I’m trying to talk the kids into reading (or listening to) The Mysterious Benedict Society. I read it and loved it and think they would too, but they don’t like the cover. (Sigh).

When this has happened in the past, the most effective strategy has been to just start reading it out loud when everyone’s in the living room, and seeing if their ears perk up. (They usually do.) I hope they’re interested, because I’ve had Book 2 on my nightstand for a few weeks, but I’ve been waiting to dive in, hoping that we can read it together.

What are you reading aloud right now ?

15 comments

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  1. Laura says:

    I try to read aloud to my two (7 and 10) most nights as we tuck them in. Recently I’ve read Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library, Fortunately the Milk, and The Year of Billy Miller. Right now we’re a few chapters in to When Santa Fell to Earth by Cornelia Funke.

  2. Courtney says:

    Thanks for a great list – will add some of these read-alouds to my kids’ list! Thanks also for the heads-up about the ebook sales…I picked up both of them and am looking forward to reading them!

  3. Shelly says:

    Some of our favorite family readalouds this year have been Little House in the Big Woods (even my 13 year old son enjoyed this), Treasure Island (the abridged version since some of my kids have ants in their pants), A Wrinkle in Time, and the jury is still out on Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, which we haven’t finished yet.

  4. I’m sharing this post on FB as in the past I’ve mentored young moms and some of your reading recommendations for all your children will be just right for some of them. Also, Bittersweet and A Million Miles are two of my all-time favorites.

  5. Erin says:

    My mom read the Laura Ingell’s books aloud in the winter it seems like. I think I’ve mentioned it before but if not, “Homer Price” was another of our favorite books she read aloud. It is written in, but he has a funny accent or something and it would leave us giggling. Plus, his antics are great!

  6. Anne says:

    We’re not reading anything aloud yet except our nightly Advent book countdown book (see blog- it has this year’s reading list – one of two posts, don’t be jealous of my awesome blog!! lol). I’ve been meaning to interlibrary loan a complete copy of Pooh for reading aloud.

  7. We loved the Mysterious Benedict books. We did the whole series on audio when our youngest was seven through nine, oldest 11 through 13. The series was great for that span of ages.

  8. Jennifer says:

    Samuel’s (10) favorite read-aloud this year was Rascal by Sterling North. I know this because when I asked him which book he wanted to give to the school book exchange, this was it. We read it earlier in the year, so apparently it made quite an impression.

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