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My Top Ten Favorite Books to Read Aloud

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My Top Ten Favorite Books to Read Aloud

I’m so happy to share today my top 10 favorite books to read aloud! As a homeschooling mom of 8, I spend a lot of time reading aloud to my kids, and it’s probably my most favorite part of homeschooling!

I’ve read all of these books through at least once, and will happily read them all again as my kids grow– and then will hopefully read them to my grandkids as well!

Oh, and try out the audio books, too! I especially love hearing the accents for characters of certain books (British, Swiss, etc.), as well as the violin playing and singing in the Little House books!

Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through affiliate links in this post.

Little House on the Prairie series (all books) by Laura Ingalls Wilder

The Chronicles of Narnia (all books) by C.S. Lewis

Heidi by Johanna Spyri

Anne of Green Gables (book 1, not the whole series) by L.M. Montgomery

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Rascal by Sterling North

The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare

Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes

The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare

The Story of Dr. Dolittle by Hugh Lofting

Favorite books

If you haven’t read these, but have seen the movies, remember:  The book is always better!

Did I miss any of your favorites? Please share. I’d love to add to the list!  And if you enjoy this post, please pin it!

Download some free Bookmarks for Books to Read Aloud

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95 Comments

  1. Homeschool Parenting Summit 2.0 October 16-21, 2023
  2. I love the Little House series..I read them all as a child and have read all of them except the last one to my girls. (Haven’t gotten there yet!) Another great book that I came across is called “Joshua’s Song”. I can’t recall the author. A great story with some history about the “Great Mollasses Flood” in Boston, 1919.

    1. Since I love historical fiction, I’ll definitely look at Joshua’s Song. Thanks for the recommendation, Leanne!
      –Gena

  3. I love to start with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory!
    Snow Treasure!

  4. Great list! I like to keep lists of our favorite read alouds as well. One of our favorites last year was The Hobbit. Right now we’re reading through Pinocchio – which is certainly different than the Disney movie version!

    1. I’ve had Pinocchio on my to-read list for years, but still haven’t read it!
      –Gena

  5. Ooh I am a homeschool mom too! I am reading Charlotte’s Web out loud right now and it’s really good. I also love the Little House series! Great selections; going to pin this post.

    1. I haven’t read Charlotte’s Web in a long time! It’s on my list this year.
      –Gena

    1. I’m going to head over and read your breastfeeding post! 🙂
      –Gena

  6. We love Heidi! And we’re slowly making our way through the Little House series…we got stuck on Farmer Boy (I love it, but my daughter isn’t too interested). Great list!

    On another note–I have the same theme as you, but my comments don’t look like yours and I’d like them to. Did you use a certain plug-in or is this the default?

    1. We just finished Farmer Boy. My girls kept saying, “When can we read about Laura again?” 🙂
      I use the Comment Luv plug-in. Let me know if you can’t find it, and I’ll look up the exact name.
      –Gena

  7. Great list! As an ex-homeschooler (only one child of school age now and he’s decided on public-school this year) I love reading and your list covers some of the best books out there. My favorite was always the Narnia series, I still have them!

    1. I’m going to check out your post “What does a social media manager do?
      –Gena

  8. I love reading and I can’t wait until my kids are old enough for chapter books. I loved The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe as a kid. For now we read picture books and my two favorites are Love is a Handful of Honey and Someday. Someday always makes me tear up in the end, even after 200 readings.

    1. I love the “teary” ones–thanks for letting me know about “Someday!”
      –Gena

  9. What a great list! We also love “The Little Prince” and my favorites were Black Beauty and My Friend Flicka. What fun to read these classics aloud to your kids. I remember those days!

  10. I was going to say Where the Wild Things Are or Charlotte’s Web but those are already taken! For a young child I would recommend Dr. Seuss!

    1. If they’re still at home, you might try reading to them again. 🙂
      –Gena

    1. You’ll have so much fun reading to them as they grow!
      I’ll check out the corrected link.
      –Gena

  11. I read the Red River Series to my highschoolers one year. They were riveted! I enjoyed the books myself. It’s very important to read aloud to your kids.

    1. I’ll have to check that out. I’ve never heard about it!
      –Gena

  12. I have never read any of the books on you list. I am just now, in my adult life, finding the time to read and find books I like to read.

    1. It’s never too late! I never read any of these until I was an adult either. 🙂
      –Gena

    1. Black Beauty is on our list for this year. I’ve never read it!
      –Gena

  13. Oh I love the books! We read all Little House books aloud, and The Bronze Bow (I was just looking for that book a few days ago!), and Anne of Green Gables…I miss reading aloud with my kids.

  14. I agree with several of your choices. The Chronicles of Narnia are ones that I’m always reading to my kids. They love the series so we read them over and over.

    1. I’m excited to start that one again as soon as we finish Little House!
      –Gena

  15. Ooohh I remember Heidi from when I was a child! I need to see about buying it for my daughter.

  16. Hi – I found you today through the TGIF Linky. These books are great – I’m always looking for some new reads (and tend to forget about the classics) – thank you!

  17. Wow, a mum of 8!! Now you really are a supermum!! It’s amazing that you spend so much time with them and read to them all. My boys are under 3 but I try to read to them every day, and hope that I have many more kids to come and that I will be as patient and as educational with them as you are.

    Well done!

    Leyla
    http://www.motherhooddiaries.com

    1. Oh my goodness–No I’m not supermom! I do love homeschooling them, though. 🙂 I hope you have many more kids to come, too!
      –Gena

  18. This is a great post. I have some of the exact same copies of the classics you posted!!! I haven’t ever read Johhny Tremain, and will put that on the list to read with my son!

    Thanks for sharing. These are some great books for both girls and boys!

    1. Johnny Tremain is a great one to read with boys–deals with the American Revolution and with the sin of pride.
      –Gena

  19. Love this list of books, especially Little House and Anne of Green Gables. Can’t wait to start cuddling up with my kids and reading the novels that I loved as a kid.

  20. I loved the Little House on the Prairie and Heidi books as a young girl. They were some of my favorites. As an adult I think the The Chronicles of Narnia and The Hobbit books are an excellent read and appeal to young and old readers alike.

    1. Totally agree! These aren’t just books to read to kids.
      –Gena

  21. What a wonderful set of books. I remember reading Heidi as a chid. Thank you for sharing.

  22. What a great list. I love Little House on the Prairie. My kids are adults but I use to read to them all the time. We would go to the library and they would pick out books from the children’s section. Great memories and lots of nice bonding time.

  23. The Little House series brings me back to my childhood. I loved the books and the series. I still re-read my Anne of Green Gables books as an adult. I love them so much. Another of my favorite books from when I was younger were The Borrowers series.

    1. I’ve never heard of The Borrowers–will have to look into that!
      –Gena

  24. Love your list! I have to say Charlottes Web, Black Beauty, Little House were always my favoirte. My daughter loves the Junie B Jones and Ralph the Mouse. Thanks for the reminders of some awesome books to introduce to the kids.

    1. I haven’t read Junie B Jones or Ralph the Mouse. Thanks for the ideas!
      –Gena

  25. Wow. This list took me back to my childhood. I loved most of those books and read them over and over. Now I will have to go to the library and check some out and relieve my youth. Thanks.

    1. OK–definitely adding Black Beauty to my read-aloud list for this year.
      –Gena

  26. Summer of the Monkeys was always a favorite of mine! I am currently working on introducing Bible Stories to my little one so they will be ingrained in her 🙂

    1. I’ve never heard of Summer of the Monkeys. I should’ve added that before my husband and I read aloud each night (he to the older boys and me to the younger kids) we read a chapter or so of the Bible. We’ve read through many books of the Bible this way!
      –Gena

  27. Great list! We are reading through the Little House series right now. Honestly I’d like to take a break and read something else, but my son wants to keep reading! I think we are on book 4. Reading outloud (to him particularly, while my daughter naps) has truly become one of my favorite times of the day. I’m not familiar with all the books on your list, so I’ll keep them in mind when my son tires of Ma, Pa, Laura, Mary, and Carrie (or when we turn the last page of the last book and my son doesn’t want to start all over again)!

    1. I think that The Sign of the Beaver or Dr. Dolittle would be good ones to read to the younger set.
      –Gena

  28. Great choices on all of these books! I also love Where the Wild Things Are and my mom used to always read us Goodnight Moon.

  29. Little House on the Prairie was always my favorite. My kids are just getting into chapter books. They each read a book of their choosing each night, and then either me or my husband reads a chapter from a book that we all agree on. It’s really nice to snuggle and read together.

    1. What a great technique! I love the switch-off idea!
      –Gena

  30. This is a great list of classics. I need to be better about reading to my children. They have “reading time” at night before bed, but it’s not me reading to them usually. I need to change that. Thanks for sharing this great list.

  31. Thanks for the trip down memory lane. The last book I read aloud was the first Harry Potter book, and it was to my granddaughter. The little stinker could read, but liked to have me read to her. She would “sneak read” ahead, and we would have to continue where she left off. It made following the story very difficult for me. I loved the time I spent reading to my children and grandchildren. I am happy to say that I raised children who are still readers as adults, and they raised children who are still readers as adults. So worth it. Enjoy your time together

    1. Funny story!
      What a blessing that you’re kids are still readers! I pray that my kids will be as well!
      –Gena

  32. You and I share a love for many of the same stories. Have you ever read Five Little Peppers and How They Grew? If not, I highly recommend it!

    1. I have read Five Little Peppers! What a precious story.
      –Gena

  33. Ah, I had forgotten about Farmer Boy! I still have my old copy somewhere.

    We’ve just started reading Flat Stanley and we are going to Exchange Flat Travellers with other families. I can’t wait!

    Other books we love are Little Critter, Berenstain Bears and Clifford. We love classical like Good Night Moon as well!

    1. I need to read Flat Stanley! My niece from California did that with us last year. 🙂
      –Gena

  34. I love Little House and Anne of Green Gables to read aloud too. We are doing those in our homeschool this year. Reading aloud to my daughter has helped her so much. Great list!

  35. Love this list! I can’t wait until mine are bigger and I can read more to them! Some of these are my favorites. One that my Mom read to my brother and I while growing up was “Where the Red Fern Grows”. I still remember sitting on the bed together reading!

    1. Oh, yes, that’s a good one, too. But a tearjerker!
      –Gena

  36. I LOVED the Lara Ingalls Wilder books when I was younger. I wonder if they’d be as interesting to my boys… 🙂

  37. Wow! You are such a good Mom! My kids love to read but I am a slacker on providing the classics. I know my boys would love Dr. Dolittle, I’m going to have to dig that one out. I haven’t read some of these, thanks for your great list! Reading is such a big part of our day, we should include some better stuff in there too 🙂

  38. I love to read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory aloud. That’s the one i always recommend to beginners. One of my favorites is Snow treasure!

    1. Thanks for those suggestions, Michelle, I’ve read Charlie but not Snow Treasure.
      –Gena

  39. Many of these are my favorites as well. But I just realized I’ve never read Heidi to my kids! I need to add that to our list. 🙂

    Thank you for linking up.

    1. It’s not on the list, but I think I’ll read The Secret Garden next. 🙂
      –Gena

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