Family Read-Alouds

    One of the great pleasures of life with children is reading books aloud. Over the years there are certain books that we read again and again. If we could only have 150 books on our shelves these are the books we would choose:

• Aiken, Joan: The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, Blackhearts in Battersea, Nightbirds on Nantucket, The Whispering Mountain, The Cuckoo Tree, Midnight is a Place
• Alexander, Lloyd: The Prydain Chronicles, Gypsy Rizka
• Barrie, James: Peter Pan
• Beatty, Patricia: The Nickel Plated Beauty, Something to Shout About, O the Red Rose Tree, By Crumbs, It’s Mine, Bonanza Girl, Hail Columbia, Eight Mules from Monterey, A Long Way to Whisky Creek, How Many Miles to Sundown, Master Rosalind
• Burnett, Frances Hodgeson: A Little Princess, The Secret Garden, The Lost Prince
• Carlson, Natlie Savage: The Happy Orphelines series
• Colum, Padraic: The Children’s Homer
• Cooper, Susan: Over Sea, Under Stone and rest of the Dark is Rising series
• Dahl, Roald: James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, The Fantastic Mr. Fox
• De Angeli, Marguerite: The Door in the Wall
• Dickens, Charles: Tale of Two Cities, A Christmas Carol
• Doyle, Arthur Conan: The Complete Sherlock Holmes
• Eager, Edward: Half Magic, Knight’s Castle, Time Garden, Seven Day Magic, Magic by the Lake, Magic or Not, The Well Wishers
• Eliot, T.S.: Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats
• Estes, Eleanor: The One Hundred Dresses
• Fleishman, Sid: By the Great Horn Spoon, The Whipping Boy
• Foster, Genevieve: George Washington’s World, Abraham Lincoln’s World, The World of Christopher Columbus and Sons, Augustus Caesar’s World
• French, Allen: The Lost Baron
• Gilbreth, Frank B. and Carey, Ernestine Gilbreth :Cheaper by the Dozen, Belles on their Toes
• Henry, Marguerite: The White Stallion of Lipizza
• Jaques, Brian: Redwall series
• Kendall, Carol: The Gammage Cup, The Whisper of Glocken
• Konigsburg, E.L.: From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
• Lawson, Robert: Ben and Me
• Lenski, Lois: Strawberry Girl
• Lewis, C.S.: The Narnia Chronicles
• MacDonald, Betty: Mrs. Piggle Wiggle books
• MacDonald, George: The Princess and the Goblin, The Princess and Curdie
• Marshall, H.E.: Our Island Story
• McSwigan, Marie: Snow Treasure
• Milne, A.A.: Winnie the Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner, Once Upon a Time
• Montgomery, L.M.: Anne of Green Gables
• Moody, D.L: Little Britches series
•  Mowat, Farley: Owls in the Family, The Dog who Wouldn’t Be
• Nesbit, E.: The Five Children and It, The Phoenix and the Carpet, The Story of the Amulet, The Magic City, The Enchanted Castle
• Norton, Mary: The Borrowers books
• Parish, Peggy: Pirate Island Adventure
• Robinson, Barbara: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, The Best School Year Ever
• Rodgers, Mary: Freaky Friday
• Sharp, Margary: Miss Bianca series
• Snedeker, Caroline Dale: Theras and His Town
• Speare, Elizabeth George: The Bronze Bow
• Stevenson, Robert Louis: Treasure Island
• Streatfeild, Noel: Theater Shoes, Dancing Shoes, Ballet Shoes, Traveling Shoes, Tennis Shoes, Skating Shoes, Thursday’s Child, Gemma series
• Tolkein, J.R.R.:The Hobbit and the Lord of the Ring Trilogy
• Travers, P.L.: Mary Poppins and sequels
• Twain, Mark: The Prince and the Pauper, Tom Sawyer, Tom Sawyer Abroad, Tom Sawyer, Detective, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
• Washington, Booker T.: Up from Slavery
• White, E.B.: Stuart Little, Charlotte’s Web
• White, T.H.: Mistress Masham’s Repose
• Wilder, Laura Ingalls: Little House series
• Williams, Ursula Moray: The Three Toymakers
• Winterfeld, Henry: Detectives in Togas and Mystery of the Roman Ransom