Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, featuring a new top 10 theme each week. While the “official” topic is slightly different, I thought I’d focus on books that I loved reading with my kids. Now, bear in mind that both (sadly) have outgrown the reading-aloud phase, but I did diligently read to both of them every single day from infancy onward.
First, here are some books that were perfect for my sweeties in the baby and toddler days:
1. Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown — so perfectly sweet.
2. ALL books by Sandra Boynton: I especially loved The Going to Bed Book, But Not the Hippopotamus, Moo Baa La La La — but they’re really all terrific. And years later, I can (and do) still quote them by heart!
3. The poetry of Winnie the Pooh: A good friend gave me a beautiful set of the Winnie the Pooh books when my daughter was born, and what we ended up especially loving were the poems in the books. Lines and Squares is amazing!
4. Richard Scarry’s Cars and Trucks from A to Z: You haven’t lived until you’ve read this book with a 2-year-old! The adults in the house were on the floor completely incapacitated by laughter the first time we read this with my son, who tried his best, in his adorable 2-year-old voice, to repeat the names of all of the very silly cars. (The 2-year-old is now 15 and I’m sure would deny having any part in this, but I have video proof!)
5. Tumble Tower – a wonderful picture book that we loved to pieces.
6. Tumble Bumble – Unrelated to Tumble Tower, it’s just such a wonderful sing-songy read, and so much fun.
As the kiddos got older, we moved on to chapter books and book series, and here are some we loved:
7. Harry Potter — of course! I read the entire series out loud to my son when he was about 7 or 8. I was so proud of myself! (He loved it too.) We had such a good time with reading and discussing these books — it was an amazing experience.
8. The Hobbit — another fun read-aloud.
9. The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman – I read this one with my daughter. She was definitely old enough to read it on her own, but the concepts involved are pretty complex, and it was a good choice for a book to share.
10. The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede — The dragon and princess trope turns upside down in these magical tales. Book #1 is really the best, but all make for a great shared read.
What books did you love reading with the kids in your life… or which would you want to read with your future kids? Please leave me your link!
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I imagine it would be cool to share favourite books with your kids! Especially Harry Potter 🙂 good effort for reading them all together! How long did it take you?
It took about 10 months! We typically read one chapter per night, but sometimes my son would beg me to keep going. 🙂 It was really super fun.
I love your book choices for this week!!
Here’s a link to my TTT post for this week: https://captivatedreader.blogspot.com/2017/11/top-ten-tuesday-top-twelve-books-i-want.html
Thanks!
Also have the hobbit on my list! Awesome
The Hobbit will never go out of style. 🙂 And it’s remarkably fun as a read-aloud.
Some great series on here – HP is a great series to share.
Lynn 😀
Definitely! It also brought out the secret ham in me — I got pretty goofy with the voices. 🙂
Lovely list, Lisa! Even when kids are old enough to be able to read by themselves, it’s still such a wonderful experience to read with someone else – I can still remember how sad I felt when my dad announced I was ‘too old’ for him to read with me at bedtime. If I ever have children I’d love to share some of my childhood favourites with them. ^_^
YES! I read to my kids well past the age when they were independent readers. It allowed them to get into books that might have been too long or complicated to tackle on their own, and most importantly, there’s just something so magical about the time spent sharing books with kids! My daughter because a total bookworm, and my son never reads voluntarily, but both absolutely loved our reading time together.
Great list!!! Gosh I LOVED Richard Scarry as a kid!
My TTT
Richard Scarry rocks! There’s so much silliness there — perfect for shared giggles. 🙂
Great list! Love the progression from baby to more adult books!
Just goes to show how many years I spent reading to my kids. 🙂
Everyone should read the Hobbit! I love the Hobbit, the world, the magic, the adventure, everything is awesome.
I absolutely agree! I think I’m about due for a reread of the LOTR books.
I love that you included books for younger kids. I’ve seen a lot of YA-only lists today.
Some of my favorite times were reading board books with my kids! Definitely a treasured memory.
Great choices and some of my favorites are on your list! After raising 4 boys, our Richard Scarry’s Cars and Trucks book got a lot of use. I’m lucky because I work in a library and I often get to see my favorite children’s books – All the Boynton board books are great!
I do love revisiting the old favorite kids books! The Cars & Trucks book was just so delightful for our family — I’m glad to hear you enjoyed it too!
Now I’m just waiting for the grandchildren (it will be a while) so I can bring those books out again!
LOL, me too! Meanwhile, I tend to give Boynton and Scarry books to all the new moms I know. Have to spread the joy!
I love that your list is filled mostly with actual children’s books. Mine is full of middle age to adult books in the hopes that my future children will come out of the womb being able to discuss bookish topics with me! Nice list!
Wouldn’t it be nice if kids were born already ready to be bookworms? The great thing about reading with them from birth is that they keep talking books with you throughout their lives! (Well, I had 50% success, in any case — my daughter is just as obsessed with books as I am, and my son will only pick up a book if absolutely forced to.)
Great list! We’ve read most of the picture books — I’ll have to check out those two Tumble books though 🙂
How old is your little one? Tumble Bumble is just adorable, and my son loved reciting it along with me as he got older.
2 1/2! I’m all over the place with the recommended age for picture books though — some that seem way too advanced/long he loves and others I think will be perfect won’t hold his attention 🤷♀️
That’s such a great age for sharing books together! We used to come home with a stack of 15- 20 picture books from the library each week. I miss those days!
Aww that’s so lovely that you read all of Harry Potter with your son, what a great thing to share!
My TTT: https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2017/11/14/top-ten-tuesday-133/
It was really a special experience — and hey, any excuse for me to reread HP! 🙂
Ha ha very true!
Hi! Richard Scarry is THE BEST!! I totally forgot about the corn car. lol I loved all those characters and those books!
Leslie