Ask a Bookseller: What are the best read-aloud chapter books for kids?
** This week one of our children’s specialists, Kathy Kozlowski, tackles bedtime stories for school-age children.**
‘My child is ready for a chapter book at bedtime, a story we can look forward to reading together each night. Any suggestions?’
What a great time you are entering for both parent and child! Here are a few among the many gems we could suggest:
Enid Blyton’s Magic Faraway Tree stories read aloud wonderfully, being told in short simple chapters but so imaginatively rich.
The first is The Enchanted Wood and is now available in a big colourful reprint edition as well as in paperback with some black and white illustrations.
My Big, Big, Big Book of Tashi by Anna Fienberg is a bind-up of 10 much-loved illustrated Tashi stories, originally written for young readers to read to themselves but equally enjoyed when read aloud to younger children. So the family will get double use out of them!
Oldies but goodies like Dorothy Edwards’s Naughty Little Sister Stories are so satisfyingly naughty. The listening child can feel both involved and superior!
For sheer magic and emotional power Kate Di Camillo’s The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane is hard to beat.
And don’t forget that Australian classic for the young The Muddleheaded Wombat by Ruth Park.
Have a look at the other titles in our Chapter Books To Read Aloud To Children collection. I hope you find something that gives you and your child hours of reading pleasure.
