50+ Outstanding Books to Read Aloud for the Best Childhood

A family read aloud is an amazing experience to give your family. Reading together is a simple way to create a meaningful connection with your children. We focus largely on reading to our youngest kids but kids of all ages (yes, up to the teen years) enjoy when a parent will read aloud to them. Our list is curated to include classic and high-quality literature for all ages. Including the enjoyment of the adult reader!

And, since families are composed of all ages, our groupings are very loose and flexible. A book that is in the suggested list for ‘Younger Children’ will also be enjoyed by older children. Don’t be surprised if your tween is perfectly happy listening to something a much younger sibling is enjoying!

Not every book will “click” with every family. That is okay. Do not be afraid to put it down and find something else that is more engaging. Sometimes it is just the age or stage and it will be a better option later. Sometimes, it is just the book and it is okay not to finish. You want read aloud time to be something that your family will cherish forever so make it as enjoyable for everyone as possible!

What are your favorites?

FAMILY READ ALOUD


FOR YOUNGER CHILDREN

A Bear Called Paddington (Bond)

A Grain of Rice (Pittman)

Aesop for Children (Aesop, Winter)

Babe the Gallant Pig (King-Smith)

Beezus and Ramona (Cleary)

Charlotte’s Web (White)

James Herriot’s Treasury for Children (Herriot)

Little House on the Prairie Series (Wilder)

Mr. Popper’s Penguins

My Father’s Dragon (Gannett)

Our Island Story (Marshall)

Stuart Little (White)

The Complete Adventures of Curious George (Rey)

The Hundred Dresses (Estes)

The Story of Dr. Doolitle (Lofting)

The Trumpet of the Swan (White)

Three Tales of My Father’s Dragon (Gannett)

When We Were Very Young (Milne)

Winnie the Pooh (Milne)

A LITTLE OLDER

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass (Carroll)

At the Back of the North Wind (Macdonald)

Black Beauty: The Autobiography of a Horse (Sewell)

Chronicles of Narnia Series (Lewis)

Fantastic Mr. Fox (Dahl)

Franz Schubert and His Merry Friends (Wheeler)

Heidi (Spyri)

Just David (Porter)

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (O’Brien)

Rascal (North)

Sebastian Bach: The Boy from Thuringia (Wheeler)

The Little Bookroom (Farjeon)

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane (DiCamillo)

The Railway Children (Nesbit)

The Rescuers (Sharp)

The Wind in the Willows (Grahame)

SOMEWHERE IN THE MIDDLE

Harry Potter Series (Rowling)

Kidnapped (Stevenson)

Peter and the Starcatchers (Barry)

Sounder (Armstrong)

The Little Prince (Saint-Exupéry)

The Yearling (Rawlings)

TWEENS/ TEENS

A Land of Permanent Goodbyes (Abawi)

A Long Walk to Water: Based on a True Story (Park)

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Twain)

Great Expectations (Dickens)

Jefferson’s Sons: A Founding Father’s Secret Children (Bradley)

Listening for Lions (Whelan)

Rocket Boys (Hickam)

The Charlatan’s Boy: A Novel (Rogers)

The Great Trouble: A Mystery of London, the Blue Death, and a Boy Called Eel (Hopkins)

The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings Series (Tolkein)

The House of Dies Drear (Hamilton)

The Librarian of Auschwitz (Iturbe)