Great Books to Read to Your Kids

 

A list of my all-time favorite books to read to your children:

Bible stories – there are any number of children’s Bible stories books. I had a great collection put out by Arch books when I was a child which I saved and read to my child as well. I read one a night plus one fiction book. It is good to show your child where your priorities and your heart are and seal those stories away in their minds.

Dr. Suess – they are all great but I especially love 1 Fish, 2 Fish, Red fish, Blue fish and Green Eggs and Ham. All of his books are bright and colorful and encourage imagination and rhyming. Plus they are just fun to read! (Oh the Places You’ll Go is better for an older audience and a great gift idea for when your child is graduating.)

Little Critter books by Mercer Mayer – all of these are imaginative and enjoyable. They are also great for interaction because in the pictures you can search for a little mouse, spider and/or grasshopper.

Love you Forever by Robert Munch – I have trouble reading this book without a tear in my eye. It is so heartwarming and shows the love of a family. This is the type of love you want to develop with your child.

Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingles Wilder – this is a great book to get your child interested in history. It takes you back in time with heartwarming clarity. I love all the books in this series including the ones that came afterwards by other authors depicting the life of other people from Laura’s family tree. Laura grows up in this series of books so you might want to read the first three and by that time your little one will be reading on their own and will want to finish the series on their own.

Junie B. Jones – I love this whole series. They are just a pleasure to read because they bring you joy. No matter the situation it is always told in a humorous way. These books present you with the opportunity to talk to your child about how they would react in this situation or how they would feel about it – great teachable moments can come from reading these books to your child or with them.

Reading to your child and having your child read to you is a great way to encourage your child to read. They love to spend time with you and they have done studies that say if you read to your child they do better in school. I always read a bedtime story to my daughter and when she started school she would also read one to me as part of her homework. As she got a little older she would read to herself and it became a habit to read before going to sleep. During the summer months I would encourage her to read by offering her money for new books. She would keep a list all summer and at the end I would give her a dollar for each one and we would take it to the bookstore to buy more. It was a system that worked really well and we both looked forward to it every summer.

Being a self-proclaimed book worm we always had lots of books around our house. A trip to the mall was never complete without checking out the bookstore and we were always browsing second hand book stores as well. Now that my child has grown, these are the books that I have kept to (hopefully) read to my grandchildren one day.