Are your kids bored? Here’s my trick! I stop what I’m doing and read to them for 30 minutes. Then, inspired, they go off and pretend to be kids in the book we just read. They may make a wax face and pretend to be a waxworks boy like Rufus Moffat or have a cat that can type like Pinky Pye. There is no end to their adventures when we read books together!
Here’s a list of fantastic read aloud books perfect for you to read this summer!
Chapter Books
- Lois Lenski books. There are so many!! One for nearly every state. These books give fantastic depictions of life for a child in different areas and time periods of the United States. There’s one of a Chinese boy in San Franscico, a girl on a strawberry farm in Florida, a boy in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, an Amish child in Pennsylvania, a girl on a houseboat on the Mississippi River, and so many more! They don’t have the plots of modern books, but are super sweet and inspire your youngster to pretend to live life the way they did.
- Eleanor Estes books:
- The Moffats
- Rufus M.
- The Middle Moffat
- The Moffat Mueseum
- Ginger Pye
- Pinky Pye
- The Betsy-Tacy Series by Carolyn Haywood
- Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder
- The Rose years books (sequel to the Little House books) by Roger MacBride
- Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books
- Gone Away Lake and the sequel, Return to Gone Away
- The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate and the sequel, The Curious World of Calpurnia Tate
- The Miracles of Maple Hill
- Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn
Picture Books
Your child is never too old to read a picture book! Even my college kids love to read these when they come home for the summer. I check them out every summer so it’s a tradition and brings back fond memories for them of their childhood.
- Rattletrap Car
- Who Invited You?
- Bear Wants More
- Blueberries for Sal
- Make Way For Ducklings
- Sheep Take A Hike
- Five Little Monkeys Wash the Car
- Summer Song
- One Hot Summer Day
- Fred and Ted Go Camping
There are lots more fantastic books to read out loud to your children of course. This is just a small list of some of our favorites off the top of my head. Go pick several on hold right now at your library and get started creating a tradition of reading to your children under a big shady tree. Enjoy this sacred childhood time! Create innumerable bonding moments you will never forget. Give your children that spark to be creative and adventuresome as they listen to these and many more you choose!
