If you’ve been reading here for awhile, you know that I love books. My husband loves books. My kids love books. We are nothing without our books – on shelves, in the car, in our travel bags, everywhere.
I love reading books to my kids, and while the short books and early reader books we’re now are fun, there are several chapter-length books I am itching to read my girls. These are books I grew up loving and have such rich memories of reading as a child. Most of these I read on my own, with exceptions noted below.
These books top my list, but I would love to hear what books you are eager to read with your children, too. I’m always on the lookout for new titles!
The Harry Potter series. I love, love, love this series. Its remarkable success (more than 500 million copies sold, the best selling series in history) is a testament to its awesomeness – perennially so. I hope my girls love it, too; seeing as Toddler has requested to listen to a Harry Potter soundtrack twice in the last week, I think we’ll be at least 1 for 2. My husband gave me this illustrated copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone for my birthday last year, and it is delightfully charming.
Pride and Prejudice. That first line … need I say anything else? Classics are classics for a reason, and this, in my mind, is the cream of the crop. I own a drippingly beautifully illustrated 1945 edition. If my children don’t cry tears of joy when we read this together, I swear I will disown them.
One of the many fantastic reads in this series!
Nancy Drew series. I have fond memories of reading this series with my mom when I was in elementary school. Every night we’d settle into a settee in our sunroom and delve into one of the 100-ish titles; I can’t remember if it was just my mom who read or if it was both of us, but I do remember they were great reads!
The book that started it all….
The Baby-Sitters Club series. Raise your hand if you read this series. Five times? Me too! I wanted to be a babysitter and run my own club thanks to this series that taught me so much about friends and life and middle school drama. Solid gold, am I right? My copies are literally sitting and waiting on Toddler’s bookshelves.
The BFG. That’s the Big Friendly Giant, for those who aren’t familiar. This is the best Dahl book, in my opinion, not Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. This book is a fun, fantastical journey, isn’t it? I haven’t read it in years, which will make reading to my girls all the sweeter.
So what’s on your list??
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I was OBSESSED with the Baby-Sitters Club when I was in late elementary school, more or less the way I’m obsessed with dog food now. I talked about the Baby-Sitters Club nonstop to my dad for 3 years and read him the first 20+ books. He was so nice about it. Seriously, that man was amazing about my brain. I wish I were half the parent he was when it comes to patience with things like that. I’ve told my kids about these books, but haven’t read them with them. Oh, but Brainiacal and I DID listen to Rain Reign by Ann M. Martin together, and I enjoyed it very much.
When Brainiacal was in first grade, I checked out the audiobook version of the first Harry Potter book to keep her busy on a road trip, thinking most of it would go over her head. It didn’t; she blew through the entire series before the end of first grade (on audio, as her comprehension skills were ahead of her actual reading skills back then), and she has been a huge fan ever since.
I have a small beloved collection of children’s picture books my kids and I have enjoyed together, many of which were not read to me as a child, either because they’re new or because my parents didn’t know about them. As far as chapter books, we’ve been through Beverly Cleary’s Henry Huggins and Ramona Quimby books twice–and could, I think, go a third time. We also read all of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books, but there’s a chapter in Little Town on the Prairie that I was WHOLLY UNPREPARED for because I had absolutely no idea what it meant when I was a kid, but, um, I do now, and, um, wow, that was an incident. Oh and I read them Sydney Taylor’s All-of-a-kind family series, where I loved the first book as a kid but had never read the others, and there’s a similar OMG OMG OMG OMG scene in one of the later books that I could barely say out loud. I’m now reading L’Engle’s Meet the Austins to Brainiacal and we are both enjoying it. L’Engle is very hit or miss for me, but when she hits, she hits.
Some of the books I loved as a kid, I’m a little hesitant to read with my own kids….Judy Blume has so much inappropriateness, Roald Dahl’s themes are so dark, Bridge to Terabithia is so sad….There’s a book by Francine Pascal from before she got famous for the Sweet Valley High, called The Hand-me-down Kid, which I loved as a kid because it’s about sibling rivalry and I was an only child; but the older siblings really are so mean, it doesn’t seem right to pass it on….Actually, A WHOLE LOT of the books I liked as a kid were about siblings and sibling rivalry, meant to satisfy my own mad curiosity, and I’m not sure I want my own kids to read them since they already have enough of a hard time getting along without catching any more ideas. Sorry this is so long; I have a thing for books myself 😉
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Another book fan! 🙂 That’s amazing that your daughter went through the HP audio books so quickly! I assume she’s read them now??
I FORGOT ABOUT LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE!!! I have a set of those as well. They were some of my favorites as well. I read them all at least twice.
L’Engle as only so-so for me. I think I read Bridge, but was unimpressed. My 6th grade teacher wanted me to read them, but I couldn’t do more. I remember being obsessed with Christopher Pike at that point, lol.
Hmm, sibling rivalry books. Yep, I bet I’d be interested in those themes if I was an only child, too.
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Oh, one more thing: Matilda was my favorite Roald Dahl book, and Danny the Champion of the World was my dad’s favorite. The Witches was my friend L’s favorite, and I know my husband likes James and the Giant Peach. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is fine, but I don’t know that it’s anyone’s favorite. I confess The BFG was not at the top of my list either, but whatever floats your boat 🙂
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Fabulous!!! There are sooo many to choose from out there!
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Good list. We’ve had a lot of fun reading some of the greats from my childhood. They really never get old!
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I agree … Reading a book you read and loved in childhood is so special. They really never do get old. They’re like old friends with which you can pick up right where you left off!
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Nice list, Katherine! I recently had the dilemma of whether to let my 12-year-old read Stephen King. So you also have that to look forward to!
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Ah! My husband has read all of his novels, I think – and they sit on our bookshelves. I’ve only read 11/22/63 and The Long Walk, maybe 4y ago, but he started reading King at 15yo. Did you let yours read at 12? A mature, not-scaredy-cat kid could handle it, I bet.
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I carried Stephen King’s bags once. I’ve probably mentioned that! I was going to let her read The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, but I couldn’t find my copy of it!
Of course, that’s a story of a little girl getting lost in the woods.
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The stuff of nightmares … lol!
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Can you imagine?
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Harry Potter OF COURSE. And The Princess Bride. And Little Women. And The Mixed Up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler.
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I loved the Mixed Up Files!! Wow, that takes me back way too many years….
I never read The Princess Bride (thought the movie was classic, of course) or Little Women… Maybe I’ll read them first with my girls! Thanks for the ideas!
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The Baby-Sitters Club, yes! I had every book once upon a time. Wish I would’ve kept them for my kids.
I looked forward to reading The Great Brain and Encyclopedia Brown series, but that ship seems to have sailed with Little Man, who doesn’t look too favorably upon “kid’s books” these days. I’ll keep my fingers crossed with Baby Girl.
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I am also thinking of writing a blog post about the books I want my daughter to read and Harry Potter is included in the list 🙂 I hope it is okay to update you once my post is up 😉
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Please do!!! Hey, you can even link to my post, too, and then I’ll make sure to see it, too. I LOVE posts about books!
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Thanks! 🙂
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LOVE this! You know my infinite love for books…lol. Nancy Drew and BFG are awesome! I can wait to share Beverly Cleary’s books and other books like Pippi Longstocking and Farmer Boy…the list goes one. 😉
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Books are heaven, really … heaven on earth.
Those are great ones, too, yes. They weren’t my faves, but I did enjoy them, especially Beverly Cleary.
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As I grew up in Italy, reading Italian stuff, I only discovered English children’s book when I had my own kids. I love The BFG and all Roald Dahl books, I also love Jeanne Willis’ “Wind in the Wallows”, Julia Donaldson’s picture books and Michael Morpurgo. As well as Andrea Ardizzone’s classics about Tim’s adventures. Do you know them too?
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Wow, I haven’t heard of any of those others you mentioned – I will check them out. Thanks!!
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Im desperately excited to read my collections to the little one. Along with Harry potter and pretty much anything by Roald Dahl I’m waiting for for the day we can start reading lord of the rings, Lewis carroll and Terry Pratchett’s collections.
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Good choices! My husband will be excited to read The Hobbit with mine, I’m sure. I haven’t read any Terry Pratchett even though I’ve heard it’s great!!
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Thank you for sharing your fav books. I absolutely loved the Baby-Sitters Club and Sweet Valley High as a young girl! Matilda was my Ronald Dahl favorite. I also loved the book, Black Beauty, and had every Care Bear book that existed. Because my eldest son was a struggling reader, I found that using audible with the echo dot was a great way to get him excited for bed time. He can choose any book to listen to. He’s shared rich children’s stories that are new to me (Shiloh comes to mind) and the listening experience can be shared by both parent and child.
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Ah, Sweet Valley High… so 1990s… 🙂
What a great way to read together! I’m glad you found a system that works.
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