Thursday, May 30, 2013

Books to Read Aloud

I recently made the terrible error of discovering the site Buzzfeed, which is made up entirely of pointless articles to read when you should really be doing something else. Half their site seems to be cute animal gifs, and most of the other half is annoying celebrity articles. I should also mention that they do occasionally have some PG-13 articles or references (but none of my links do).

Seriously, what is it with cute animal videos? I mean they all have basically the same set of things happening: cats are insane, dogs are silly. And yet I can’t stop watching.

But from time to time, Buzzfeed has things actually worth reading and sharing. I thought the readers of this blog might enjoy the 38 Best Books to Read toKids

All the obvious ones are there (Goodnight Moon, The Giving Tree), but there are a few unexpected ones. And several more from my childhood than I would have anticipated. I almost forgot about The Hundred Dresses, but that one is absolutely lovely. I was a huge fan of Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books when I was little!


The only one I'd add to the list is April Rabbits.  A wonderful story about a boy who gets followed home by a rabbit on April 1st. On April 2nd, it's 2 rabbits. On April 3rd, it's three..... 
Trust me, just pick it up at your library:

(though according to Amazon, it's out of print. Very sad)

  
And, just for fun, here is an article that was going around facebook for a while, and is definitely worth looking at if you need a smile:

Oh, and this one too:

What books are your favorites to read aloud?


7 comments:

  1. Great topic! I enjoyed the link to the 38 best picture books.

    I know it is obvious choice, but I've always loved reading Dr. Seuss's book out loud. Unfortunately, my kids never really cared for him. I have no idea why. They have to be the only kids in the world who don't like him.

    My youngest loves pigs, and the Piggy and Gerald books by Mo Willems are her favorites. They really are adorable books and fun to read out loud. My favorite Piggy and Gerald book is "Listen to my Trumpet."

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  2. Half Magic and
    From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
    are two of my favorite read-alouds ever!

    My favorite picture book might be Westlandia. I've never read it to any child without their eyes glazing with the possibilities of creating their own culture. Fantastic stuff.

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  3. My son begs me on a weekly basis to read Harry Potter to him, but since he's six, I am putting it off a while longer. We'll get there, when I know he's ready.

    We do read a lot of the books on this list, but we've got our own favorites, too. Pout Pout Fish in the Big Big Dark, and Yonderfell's Castle are always popular. Oh, and for some reason they LOVE The Three Little Ghosties. One of my favorites to read them is Children Make Terrible Pets. Very cute.

    Great post. I'll have to check a few of these out next time we go to the library!

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    Replies
    1. Hahaha... "Children Make Terrible Pets" is a fantastic name for a book.

      My friend had the same dilemma with reading Harry Potter to her children, particularly since one is eight and the other six. I do believe she read the first volume to them, but it backfired a bit because now they want to read all the others, and the series gets pretty dark after a while.

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    2. I'm afraid my two youngest children grew up listening to Harry Potter. All of them. The temptation was too much for me. On the other hand, they've never had a nightmare in their life, and their vocabularies are impressive.

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    3. Yeah, I read the first one to my kids, and my daughter is 5...So I'm a bad mom now.

      I'm reading Roald Dahl's The witches to them right now, and last night as I read the Gran High witch talking about turning the children into mice and snapping their necks, I think it took a turn too dark.

      So I've lost my good mom medal, but I'm going to keep reading it, and hope they turn out okay.

      They loved Beezus and Ramona, and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. There's something amazing about my children sitting still and listening to me that makes the risk of reading the wrong book worth it.

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    4. I'm not really worried about my son being scared of Harry Potter, and he's been begging me to read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to him, too, which if I remember has some dark themes. I'd jump right in, if I thought he could sit still and listen long enough to get through a few pages. We did The Borrowers and that didn't go over well. Everyone's children mature at a different pace, so maybe yours are okay with The Witches. Mine would probably lay upside down on their beds and see how well they can do handstands. We're just not quite ready to give up picture books yet. Which is killing me, because I can only take so much Dr. Suess! Lol

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