Every day after lunch I read aloud to all my children, as my mother did to all 6 of hers, and as her father did to all 14 of his (but he divided them into three age groups).
I’ve listed the ages of the children involved in brackets, but older and younger people can also enjoy and learn from these books. I enjoy every single one of our read alouds (I pick them after all!) and I’m well past 40.
This is what we read aloud in 2012:
- First of all, and over and over: the Bible.
- The Secret Mission by A. Van der Jagt (9-16)
- By the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder (9-11)
- Kon-Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl (9-16)
- The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder (9-11)
- Wambu: The Chieftain’s Son by Piet Prins (9-16)
- Wambu: In the Valley of Death by Piet Prins (9-16)
- Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder (9-11)
- Wambu: Journey to Manhood by Piet Prins (9-16)
- These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder (9-11)
- The Railway Children by Edith Nesbit (9-16)
- Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame (9-17)
- Rozemarijntje Gaat Naar School by W.G. van der Hulst (9-14)
- Sebastian Bach: The Boy from Thuringia by Opal Wheeler and Sybil Deucher (9-17)
- Summer with the Moodys by Sarah Maxwell (9-11)
- L’Abri by Edith Schaeffer (9-17)
- Little Britches by Ralph Moody (9-17) (language warning; you’ll need to edit as you read)
- The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis (9-17)
- Letters of a Woman Homesteader by Elinor Pruitt Stewart (10-17)
- Man of the Family by Ralph Moody (10-17)
- The Home Ranch by Ralph Moody (10-17)
- Mary Emma and Company by Ralph Moody (10-17)
- Old Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott (10, 12)
- Hitty, Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field (fascinating romp through the world and history, but with a bit of an attitude about Christianity) (10-17)
- The Fields of Home by Ralph Moody (10-17) (language warning; you’ll need to edit as you read)
- The Story Bible for Older Children by Anne De Vries (8-12, spread out over several years)