March 1, 2010
World Read Aloud Day is coming!!
“How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817 – 1862), Walden
You can check out all of Pam Allyn’s amazing work over at LitWorld.
Pam is the founder of LitWorld and has created World Read Aloud Day, scheduled for this Wed. March 3rd, as a way to promote the many benefits of reading aloud to kids…of all ages.
Make sure to leave a quick comment telling us your favorite books to read to your kids, or the ones you remember and cherish most from childhood. I’ll pick the winner of Pam’s wonderful book this Wednesday!
Again, here are a few of my favorite read aloud picture books of all time:
The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
The Seven Silly Eaters by Mary Ann Hoberman and Marla Frazee
Good Job LIttle Bear by Martin Waddell and Barbara Firth
Hayden and I are working through The Boxcar Children collection that my mom loved so much as a kid. Classic stories, adventure, a little mystery and all-around nice kids. Love them!
Oh I SO remember my fifth grade teacher reading that series to us…I thought it would be so ultra cool to be on adventures with them!
How fun that you’re passing that on:)
For 8 years olds, our current favorite is “Thank You Mr. Falker.” For toddlers, I love “Chica Chica Boom Boom” (sp?). We’ve also enjoyed the first three “Harry Potter” books . . . beautiful writing.
I love reading to Stone, my 5-year-old boy, the book, “The Louds Move In”.
It is so clever and sweet about an oddball, loud family who moves into a neighborhood and bothers the persnickety neighbors who are all quiet and need to basically get a life! In the end, the Louds are accepted and teach the whole hood how to have more fun. There are parts of it that are purposefully designed to be read REALLY LOUD so it makes it a particularly fun read-aloud choice! (Don’t enter me in the giveaway obviously since I already have Pam’s fabulous book!)
I have so many favorite read aloud books so I will choose my sons favorite book right now who is 1…he is loving Brown Bear….we are having a lot of fun pointing and reading which animal and color come next…he especially likes the children!
Okay first off…I adore chica chica Boom Boom…just never gets old:)
Jil: That book “The Louds Move In” sounds fantastic..going to find that at the book store for sure!! We are always telling my Truman that he is seriously the loudest kid we know…God made him loud for a reason, and somedayI feel sure we’ll see why.
Courtney: Brown Bear, Brown Bear what do you see? I will always remember reading that 400 times to my wee little ones. It’s a treasure.
OK – I do love The Giving Tree…but my all time favorite is ‘Guess How Much I love You”…just can’t get enough of it. Great job as always, friend!
I love this vlog post!! For me, an American mummy living overseas, I am a little out of touch on what the best reading is Stateside! so woo hoo thank you! I do have The Giving Tree, but need to find some of the others mentioned here. Here are some really cute books that are popular over here and would be fun and a little different for american toddlers/preschooler age: The Tiger Who Came to Tea by Judith Kerr and also the entire Mr. Men and Little Miss collection are really clever and funny..and teach life lessons with witty English-y humour.
*love the parrot over your shoulder too =)
Imen xoxo
Charlotte’s Web was our favorite read aloud when my daughter was little!
Danielle,
Oh, “Guess How Much I Love You” is a book you can read til your kids go off to college! simple and sweet:)
Hi Imen!
Thanks for sharing those books from abroad!!
We have friends in London and they sent us some of the Mr. Men books…my boys adore them. Love the cheeky humor and British flair:) OKay, you now spell humour all Irish-like…love that:)
I studied children’s literature for my Masters degree, it’s been a love of mine for a long time:) I’ll be sure to share more fabulous children’s book on the site!
And Miss Knitting Out Loud…E.B. White is the King and Charlotte’s Web one of the jewels in his crown!
Thanks for chiming in:)
My son (who is now 21 months) loves books. Right now he is LOVING Goodnight Moon (by Margaret Wise Brown). He’s all about looking out his bedroom window and looking at the moon at night. We read that book over and over and over again, every night it seems. But quite honestly, I loved this bedtime story too and I will continue to read it to him whenever he wants. Happy Reading to you all!
OKay, Goodnight moon is beyond wonderful.
You and that boy will never forget being out to bed to that sweet story!
Enjoy EVERY moment Stephanie:)
Our favorites change from visit to visit. But two, that almost always make it on to the “pile” are Goodnight Gorilla and 10 Minutes Till Bedtime by Peggy Rathmann. Obviously bedtime is one of our favorite times to read together, but many, many times throughout the day I hear, “Oma will you read…….” I LOVE IT!!!
My mom was the BEST out loud reader ever! When she would read The House at Pooh Corner she would do all the voices. I read a cute book called The Little Blue Truck to my nephew over skype….it’s one of his favorites.
My kids at school in grades K and 1 love “The Hungry Monster” which really is great for phonemic awareness….
I loved “The Monster at the End of the Book” when I was little!!
Allison…what a gift your mom gave to you!! Make sure you thank her for that:)
And Katymom…I don’t know those monster books, thanks for the suggestions!
Thanks for the cite to “What to Read When,” another helpful resource book is “The Read-Aloud Handbook,” Sixth Edition by Jim Trelease.
Hooray for reading!
Danni, We also love Goodnight Gorilla! It makes a great gift for a 1 year old.
Katymom, ‘The Monster at the End of the Book’ is so cute, but it really scared my 3yo!
He couldn’t understand that Grover was the monster. He also grilled me about what ‘barrassed’ means for months.
We love anything by Sandra Boynton, esp. Philadelphia Chickens! (M, you inspired me to post about WRAD.)
lol, I shouldn’t comment so late at night. That’s when I do stuff like mix up ‘Good Night Gorilla’ and ‘Little Gorilla,’ by Ruth Bornstein. Love ‘em both!
When I was a kid my mother read to us the entire series of C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia. Each night she would read a chapter and then put us to bed. It was probably one of my fondest memories!
My kids are 4,2, and 1. They love things that are song like or rhyme. My daughter’s favorite right now is Kitty Cat Kitty Cat Are You Waking Up?