Whatcha reading aloud to your kids?

Over the summer, I tried to read aloud a lot to my kids. I was inspired by Shirley Ujest’s thread. It wasn’t as easy to find the time as I’d hoped, but we had some fun times.

We are currently finishing up Robin Hood, the Roger Lancelyn Green one, and I’m debating what to read next. The Silver Chair? King Arthur? A Green Knowe book? Heidi? Oh dear.

So anyhow, what are you reading aloud at the moment? And did anyone else have a read-a-riffic summer?

I’m reading The Chronicles of Narnia to my nine year old son right now. After that I’m thinking The Tripods Trilogy by John Christopher, or The Wily Witch by Godfried Bomans.

As usual, I’ll put in a plug for John Bellairs as well!

Ooh, I love John Bellairs. I just asked for one of his first, adult novels, The pedant and the shuffly, on ILL–I’ve never seen it.

We’re currently on the second Borrowers book. I’d forgotten how entertaining they are.

A whole lotta Sandra Boynton books. I highly recommend Belly Button Book.
Whaddaya want…she’s only nine months old.

My daughter is seven and currently in love with Jack and Annie from the Magic Treehouse series. Every night before bed we read at least one chapter from the ongoing series; we’re currently in the middle of Buffalo Before Breakfast.

I also, in a fit of sentimentality, picked up a copy of Where The Sidewalk Ends, and have been forcing those poems on her at regular intervals.

The Ear, the Arm and The Eye by Nancy Farmer is a good one, my teacher read it aloud in fourth grade. The Wizard of Oz and all of the other Oz books are great, ie Ozma of Oz ect. Roald Dahl is also still one of my favorite authors.

When my son was about the age of your daughter, he thought* Blue Hat, Green Hat* was absolutely hilarious. The turkey’s “Oops” never failed to elicit gales of laughter.

He’s now 11 and still wants to be read to at bedtime, which I’m enjoying, because I know the day is coming…

Right now, we’re reading the latest in the Charlie Bones series (Yawn! A poorly-done Harry Potter rip-off) and Walter Farley’s The Black Stallion.

In my homeschool program, we’re reading Seuss books, books by Verna Aardema, Jeff Snith’s BONE and Mildred D. Taylor’s ROLL OF THUNDER, HEAR MY CRY.

Children like it when I read Seuss.

We’ve just finished Philip Pullman’s The Scarecrow And His Servant; next up is probably The Horse And His Boy: lowercase likes C. S. Lewis more than I do…

We’ve been reading a lot of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. We’re 18 months old. I have that damn verse echoing through my head late at night when I can’t sleep. I think it’s time to go get some new books. :smiley:

“A told B and B told C, I’ll meet you at the top of the coconut tree…Chicka chicka boom boom, will there be enough room?” :smack:

I used to make up stories on the fly. Their favorite was a terrifying tale I called “The Chicken House Rat” complete with sound effects. Hell, it was so frightening I scared myself.

Iantheoptimist and I are about to finish “Midnight on the Moon”

I feel bad now - I stopped reading to my oldest at the end of third grade. Maybe I’ll start again, he’s only 10 and although he reads semi-constantly, it is kinda fun reading to them, isn’t it?

I’m not a parent but I’ve been reading The Dark is Rising to my little brother. He really enjoys it, but the chapters are really long and if we start too late, he’ll fall asleep halfway through the chapter.

Speaking as a teenager who is just this side of living at the library, I think reading to your children is such a good thing to do. It is a point of pride for my parents that I not only read Lord of the Rings when I was eight, but also that I could discuss what I had read. I firmly believe that all of the reading aloud from my parents made me such a voracious reader and it saddens me deeply that a large segment of the youth population has no interest in reading.

Well, of course! After all,

sits down on the floor, looks at astro expectantly

I just started reading The Day My Butt Went Psycho by Andy Griffiths to my boys. It’s pretty bizarre - people’s butts detach and revolt against the human race, with the main character’s butt being some kind of Hitler/Che/Manchurian Candidate and leading the revolt. It even has a glossary of butt-related terms used in the book.

I’m not kidding.

ROFL, I followed the link and noted that the sequel is called Zombie Butts from Uranus.

Somehow, I think my daughter would appreciate this series, being a devoted fan of Captain Underpants.

We’re currently on Once Upon A Curse, which is apparently part of a series of books about a teenaged witch not named Sabrina.

This summer I read my son (6) Carbonel , and the sequel, **The Kingdom of Carbonel **by Barbara Sleigh - these were childhood favourites of mine; Captain Underpants, and A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond.
We’re currently reading Fantastic Mr Fox by Roald Dahl.