Two years ago, I began reading my kids books in the morning before school while they eat their breakfast. We’ve read some Judy Blume books, some of the classics, Magic Tree House books and Goosebumps. We started Harry Potter books, but the kids didn’t like them. We also read Malcom in the Middle and Mary Kate and Ashley. They especially liked the Captian Underpants series.
So, now I’m out of ideas. The kids are almost 10 and 8 years old, a boy and girl. They like scary stories and funny stories.
School is starting next week and we have planned a trip to the bookstore.
My gilrs, ages 8 and 11 really enjoyed Understood Betsy, any of the Thornton Burgess Animal stories, and the Little House books. With a boy, you might find he enjoys Farmer Boy better than tha Laura Ingalls stories. Current faves for read alouds are 5 Children and It by Edith Nesbit and The Hobbit.
I think that’s the appropriate age for A Series of Unfortunate Events**. Eventually, it should be a 13-book set, and I think the 9th book is coming out in September. They are both funny and scary (lots of humor, but a terrifying villain who wants to kill the protagonists and take their fortune, plus the occasional threat of being burned at the stake.)
DC Comics publishes some good kiddie comics, including Looney Tunes, Powerpuff Girls, etc. Of course, if your kids are older, now might be the time to get them started on your essentials: Superman, Batman, Justice League, yadda yadda.
Anything by Daniel Pinkwater (also known as D. Manus Pinkwater), Lizard Music is a perpetual favorite of mine, although critics always seem to think that Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy from Mars is his best book. But really, anything. Good for both boys and girls, very funny, and a little quirky.
For scary, try John Bellairs’s House with a Clock In It’s Walls (which is also funny). It’s the first in a series, and the books in the series alternate between a boy main character and a girl main character.
More for girls, there’s always Betsy-Tacy, by Maud Hart Lovelace. The ages of the girls go up as the series goes along, so for an 8 year old girl, I would probably jump in with Betsy and Tacy Go Over The Big Hill, because the first two might seem too “baby-ish” for your kids.
Love, From Your Friend Hannah is a new-ish book about a girl who starts writing letters to President Roosevelt (the second one), it’s a hoot. The author is Mindy Sholsky.
Check out Elizabeth Enright, both The Saturdays and its sequels and Gone Away Lake and sequel. These seem funnier each time I read them.
The Indian in the Cupboard series is pretty good, not exactly scary, but suspensful and has some creepy moments. Author is Lynne Reid Banks. The first two books are the best, the quality declines a bit as the series goes on.
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster is a wonderful book.
I would also second the Little House books selections. I read Little House in the Big Woods to my kids and we are now about 2/3 of the way through Little House on the Prarie.
JUST beat me to it. The first four of these…HALF MAGIC, KNIGHT’S CASTLE, MAGIC BY THE LAKE, THE TIME GARDEN…are great, and the protagonists are roughly your kids’ age. Just finished reading them to my six-year old, who didn’t mind the age discrepancy, but 8-10 year olds would probably enjoy them even more.
I’ll gladly second the A Series of Unfortunate Events books. Don’t read the Unauthorized Biography of Lemony Snicket till after the eighth book.
The books feature a sibling combo of a 13 year old girl who likes to make inventions, a 12 year old boy who loves to read and do research and an infant who likes to bite things.
Also the illustrations are great.
Two children’s books that I own (and actually bought for myself) are The Children of Green Knowe by L.M. Boston (and if they like that, there’s a whole series) and The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin.
This author killed me as a kid, and as he got older, his books grew up a little too. Gordon Korman wrote his first book, “This Can’t be Happening at McDonald Hall” in his mid teens, and it is really funny.
His best book in my opinion is called “I Want To Go Home”, and if you can find it, it’ll kill you. My families set of kids (me, my sisters, our cousins) all got it passed to them one year. we were between the ages of 8 and 15, and we all loved it.
I want to second Fitzgerald’s The Great Brain series. One of my childhood favorites. I also get to be the first to mention Beverly Cleary’s The Mouse and the Motorcycle, Henry Huggins, and Ramona series.
Let’s see, a few more…
Am I the only one who read the Danny Dunn books as a kid? I never see them mentioned in these threads. They are by Jay Williams and Raymond Abrashkin. Any opinions from anyone about whether they’d be too outdated for today’s kids? The best way to describe them would probably be science fiction for children.
Oh, and the two best mystery series ever written for kids: The Three Investigators (according to Amazon, written by Robert Arthur - there may have been other writers) and Encyclopedia Brown by Donald J. Sobol.
That’s probably enough for now. I’ll leave some for the others to name.
The Asterix books are great fun, although being in cartoon (plus words) format, perhaps they don’t really fit the “reading aloud” requirement. Terrific stuff though!
Along the lines of spooky/funny books, I’d suggest the Blossom Culp books by Richard Peck. Ghosts I Have Been, and The Ghost Belonged to Me are the best of the four IMO–I can’t even remember the other two titles but I’m sure you can find them at your library.
And, since no one has mentioned it yet, Artemis Fowl is pretty cool–and the second book in that series is sitting on my coffee table waiting for my son and I to finish reading Lois Lowry’s The Giver (another really good book, by the way.)
I asked Mom and Dad to read me that so many times, that several copies literally fell apart.
Some of Roger Zelazny’s books are well suited for kids. A Dark Travelling is the story of a boy whose family is part of a cross-dimensional spy organisation(they’re the good guys).
Archer’s Goon-Dianna Wynne Jones
From Author’s Note
This book will prove the following ten facts:
1 A Goon is a being who melts into the foreground and sticks there.
2 Pigs have wings, making them hard to catch.
3 All power corrupts, but we need electricity.
4 When an irresistible force meets an immovable object, the result is a family fight.
DeLaurie’s Book Of Greek Myths. Also their book of Norse Myths.
I’ve got to second the votes for the Ramona series and Great Brain books. I remember really enjoying Harriett the Spy when I was a kid, too.
Some others I loved when I was a kid (my family was big on read-alouds), and my young cousins and nieces & nephews are loving today:
The Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle series, by Betty MacDonald. Each book features Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, a kindly, kooky, stern old lady who fashions creative “cures” for childhood ills or misbehaviors. Each chapter is a different story about a different child, and later chapters often include kids who have been cured and are now friends with Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle and share her adventures. Ones I remember particularly liking were cures for crybabies and a girl who never cleaned her ears. They’re hilarious.
Coraline, by Neil Gaiman. There’s a thread about this book somewhere in Cafe Society-- see what other Dopers said about it, too.