When I wrote my Family Read-Alouds post I received several questions about our book list and how we got our family (my husband in particular) to participate. As with anything new there is usually some trepidation at first but over time persistence pays off. I can’t take credit for my husband liking the read-alouds though. His mother is responsible for that. She read aloud to her children (all ten of them!) as he was growing up. In fact, it was his idea to start it with our own family.
Our personal library has grown over the years through recommendations from trusted friends and scouring book lists of companies or sites I like. Usually the older the book, think pre-1960, the better. They are cleaner, more old-fashioned, and more appealing to a wider age range. We tend to try new books from authors we already like.
Here’s a list of some of our favorite authors:
Ralph Moody
Laura Ingalls Wilder
Marguerite Henry
Wilson Rawls
L.M. Montgomery
Eleanor Estes
Eleanor H. Porter
Gertrude Warner
Elizabeth Enright
Lois Lenski
Many of these authors have written a series – Little Britches, Anne of Green Gables, Boxcar Children – which are fun to read in order through a whole winter or summer.
I scour book lists from the following sites or companies.
Sonlight is a homeschool curriculum that centers around history and literature. Each level has a list of read-alouds for the family as well as individual readers books for the student. To find the lists click on a level then click on the read aloud or readers link at the top of the page. You can also request a catalog which I highly recommend doing. I personally like thumbing through catalogs than browsing web pages.
Ambleside Online is a free curriculum designed to correspond with more Charlotte Mason approach to homeschooling. Clicking on each year’s books link will take you to a list of readers that are appropriate for that grade level. I find Ambleside’s year level runs more advanced than the corresponding grade, which I like.
Beautiful Feet is a literature based curriculum. They have wonderful book lists. I have never been disappointed with their choices. Request a catalog today!
There some other sites I’ll list later. I think the sites above will be a great place to start if you are looking for good family read alouds or even a list of excellent, not trashy, books for your children to read on their own.
Most of the books I purchase I get from the thrift store, used book stores, or paperbackswap. We’ve been able to get almost all of the Ralph Moody books through paperbackswap though it has taken over two years. If you know what books or authors to look for you will usually come home with a treasure. I do buy books new sometimes when cheaper options are exhausted and I just can’t wait any longer. But after one reading it’s used right?
Happy hunting, happy reading!
I visit those same sites to find good read aloud books. We haven’t read a bad one from those lists yet. We have years and years of great books ahead of us. It is sort of sad to think I didn’t get to read those when I was a kid. But at least I get to read them now.
Aren’t books the best! My favorite part about homeschooling is all of the wonderful books we have been able to read together as a family. It’s like going on an adventure together.
I love books. Thanks for sharing the link to ambleside, I had heard of it, but didn’t remember the name.
Thanks!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! I will definitely use those sites!
My kids read so much that I am running out of options. I’m trying to get them hooked on biographies now to give them something a little different but they’re not too sure about reading them on their own.
My ten year old son is at an age where he’s read all the good stuff for youth (I can find) but he’s not ready for adult books yet.
Thank you so much for all those sites. I can’t wait to take a look at them…(ok kids, time to take a nap at 9am 🙂 )
Great sites! We are really good friends with our local used book store. We’re in there once every couple of weeks. I’m going to start keeping a list of books I want in the diaper bag so I remember what I’m looking for when I get there each week.
I love the Boxcar Children and Anne of Green Gables, those are great reads!
Wondeful post! I love books and reading to my kids. They are still young so we are still in picture books but I have lits already made up with all the books I want to read with them as they get older. I am reading through all the Newbery medal and honor books. I’ve found that just because a book has been given an award does not mean it is a good book.
Thanks for the resources.
These are all favorite authors of ours as well. 🙂
I have been going back to books I read when I was younger. The Narnia books, Madeline L’engle, Scott O’Dell. My dad read to us regularly as well and we loved it! I have some precious memories from that time that I want my children to have as well. BY the way, love the new blog format. I haven’t been by in a while and really enjoy the color.
I LOVE the Sonlight book lists. I still pour over my old catalogs from time to time. 🙂
That’s great!! My kids are young – but we read every night!
Some of our favorite read-out-loud books is the Great Brain series by John D. Fitzgerald. I just read “Brave Buffalo Fighter”, also by him, which is a true story based on a journal kept by a 10 year old pioneer girl.
Now I’m off to check out the websites you’ve listed!
I haven’t even heard of several of these authors. I am so excited to have some new reccomendations. I love reading out loud to my girls, of course we are still in picture books but I can’t wait to share my favorites as they grow. I love browsing through Sonlight’s selections as well. I can’t wait to check out the other sites.
I also buy 99% of my books used. We are to the point that I think a librarian would be more useful than a maid in our home. =)
I also prefer the older books for reading aloud. Along with the reasons you give I’ve found the wording to be more poetic and easy to listen to, They didn’t dumb books down for kids back then and I think that makes the flow of the words smoother.