Favorite Elementary Read-Aloud Books
April 17, 2008
In the spring of every school year, I am also looking to try some new read-aloud books, since I’ve already read my absolute favorites to the students. I’ll divide my favorite books into 4 categories:
Lower Elementary Picture Book: The Monster Bed (Honorable Mention: Tikki Tikki Tembo)
Upper Elementary Picture Book: Weslandia (Honorable Mention: Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch)
Easy Chapter Book: Stone Fox
Advanced Chapter Book: Holes (Honorable Mentions: Frindle, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Danny: The Champion of the World)
Parents and fellow educators: What are your all-time favorite read-aloud books?
Entry Filed under: Education, Elementary Education, Fifth Grade, First Grade, Fourth Grade, Learning, Read-Aloud, Reading, Second Grade, Students, Teaching, Third Grade, school. .
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1.
Mathew | April 17, 2008 at 9:30 pm
Mine are all lower elementary:
David Weisner’s Tuesday, Sendak’s Where the Wild Things End, Viorst “The Tenth Good Thing About Barney” (sad book), Viorst “Alexander and the Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day”, “There’s a Nightmare in My Closet.”
Just a few that come to mind.
2.
missmondor | April 17, 2008 at 11:03 pm
Picture books:
Rough Face Girl
Plantzilla
Manual of House Monsters
Imagine A Day
Many Coloured Days
Diary of a Worm
Josepha
Most books by Jon Scieszka
The Worry Stone
3.
oreneta | April 18, 2008 at 1:33 am
The BFG…also Dahl,
Swallows and Amazons, Arthur Ransome, pre-read it though, there is some rather victorian language about savages etc that needs either editing, or better still, discussion…nothing really dreadful though.
The Enchanted Forest series by Patricia C Wrede
Any and all fo the Alfie and Annie Rose books by Shirley Hughes, picture books
A Wrinkle in Time, and on with that series, I can’t come up with her name, but it is so well known
I may be back with more…great post.
Does my Head Look Big in This, by Randa Abdel-Fattah, upper el.
I’ll stop there.
4.
eyeingtenure | April 18, 2008 at 10:40 am
The Hobbit. My dad read this to me before I was even in school. There is no other.
Well, except maybe The House With a Clock In Its Walls, or The Great Horn Spoon. Teachers read those to my class in 5th and 4th grade, respectively.
5.
Jen | April 18, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Half Magic by Eager
Time Cat by Alexander
(L’Engle is Wrinkle in Time and she has others that are not science fiction-y that would also be good read alouds).
Ummm, Nancy Farmer, too, haven’t read them myself, but both my boys loved her stuff. I think The Ear, The Eye and The Arm would be the recommendation from them.
From the Mixed-Up Files of …. by Konigsberg
And here’s a link to a not at all recently updated site, but it pretty much pulls together a great selection of books:
http://hometown.aol.com/tea73/goodbks/booksforgifted1.html
6.
Blue State Teacher | April 21, 2008 at 4:59 pm
Bud Not Buddy, by Christopher Paul Curtis. The Watsons Go to Birmingham by the same author.
The kids are absolutely thrilled that this guy is from Flint, Michigan. But the books are great everywhere.
7.
Paul Bogush | May 10, 2008 at 9:20 pm
Gerald the Giraffe
and of course,
The Giving Tree
Also…and I am having a total brain freeze–the Dr Seuss story about the sneetches with the stars on their bellies.
8.
Marjan | August 14, 2008 at 8:43 pm
I’m so excited…two books that I am considering starting the year with are mentioned here. I am returning to teaching after raising 2 girls, so am aware that 4th graders have altered even in this short a time. Can’t find my Frindle..but I just picked up The House with a Clock in It’s Walls…haven’t read it in years. I have to add The Westing Game…I loved that one and still remember doing an oral book report dressed up as the lawyer reading Sam Westin’s Will.
9.
mrsrroom14 | August 25, 2008 at 10:48 pm
I would love for someone who has enjoyed The Westing Game to help me enjoy it. I see it recommended on a lot of reading lists…I began it…got a few chapters in and just did not get into it at all. Any thoughts folks?
10.
rebeccatilt | September 20, 2008 at 6:19 pm
I LOVE the book Somebody Loves You Mr. Hatch !! I read it to my daughter’s first grade class (several years ago), I liked it so much I bought it for my future classroom. You have great taste Mr. Pullen!
11.
Jim Hansen | September 21, 2008 at 10:03 am
Some of the books that I enjoy reading to my fourth graders are:
“Love That Dog” by Sharon Creech
“Sideways Stories from Wayside School” by Louis Sacher
“The Tale of Desperaux” by Kate DiCamillo
“Tracker” by Gary Paulson
12.
institutrice | January 16, 2009 at 8:27 pm
Intermediate/Novels:
“All About Sam” by Lois Lowry – your kids will be howling with laughter
“Fever 1793″ by Laurie Halse Anderson
“The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrboe” by C.S. Lewis
“From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler” by E.L. Konigsburg
“The Moorchild” by Eloise McGraw – you will have to do a lot explaining at the beginning, but once they get it and get into it, they will beg you to keep reading. I could read for an hour straight with this book!
“Golem” by David Wisniewski – Caldecott winner – great story, and makes a good compare/contrast with Pandora’s Box
“The Secret Garden” by Frances Hodgson Burnett – my sixth grade teacher read it to us, and we were all fascinated.
“Love That Dog” by Sharon Creech (not as crazy about the new one, “Hate That Cat”) but other narrative poetry that might be good to real aloud include “Heartbeat” by Sharon Creech, “Pieces of Georgia” and “The Trial” by Jen Bryant, and “Witness” by Karen Hesse (only for mature kids, there is some racism in it)
Picture Books:
“Skippyjon Jones” by Judy Schachner – a Siamese cat who thinks he is a Mexican chihuahua – it’s a riot, and even better if you can fake a Mexican accent!
“Roxaboxen” by Alice McLerran – kids make up a town in a desert dirt lot – a sweet story about a time when kids had to entertain themselves without electronics!
“Going Home” and “Smoky Night” (Caldecott winner) by Eve Bunting and David Diaz
Oh I know there’s more, but it’s been a while since I taught the little ones!
Thanks for the challenge! I love books.
13.
dana | July 23, 2009 at 9:01 pm
“The Wish Giver”, by Bill Brittain is always a favorite of my fourth graders. Great character development, and fun to read around Halloween.
‘Skinnybones” by Barbara Park is a great read alout-very funny, the boys especially enjoy this one. I like to read it at the first of each school year.
14. A blog I just found about favorite books | Our Favorite Books | October 4, 2009 at 5:26 pm
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