I love reading aloud and seeing kids get drawn into a story. When I was a teacher, it was my favorite part of any day. From 3 year olds to 5th graders, I have worked in lots of classrooms, and I never found a group of kids who couldn’t be drawn in by a good story. So I decided to share some of my favorite books to read aloud. These are all good for keeping kids entertained, and they are lots of fun to get into and perform.

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Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus

Written and illustrated by Mo Willems

Mo Willem’s Pigeon is a bit of a trouble maker. All he wants to do is drive the bus. When the bus driver steps away for a moment, he asks the reader to make sure that the Pigeon does not drive the bus. The story is told through the Pigeon’s words, pleading, begging, and trying to trick the reader. His increased begging and shouting is a lot of fun to read out loud, and kids love saying no to every crazy trick the Pigeon tries to pull.

The Monster at the End of This Book

Written by Jon Stone and illustrated by Mike Smollin

This book stars the adorable and lovable Grover from Sesame Street. Grover is frightened by the Monster in the title of the book. So he keeps begging the reader to not turn the page. He doesn’t want to get to the end of the story and face the monster. As you continue turning pages, his attempts to stop you get more desperate, which makes it really fun to read out loud. Kids will not only love the frantic pace of the story, and the silly situations, but will also love the sweet, surprise ending.

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Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Written by Judith Viorst and illustrated by Ray Cruz

This story follows Alexander, a young boy who struggles through a long, difficult day where everything goes wrong. Each bad thing that happens to him makes him more upset and hopeless about the day. The text flows beautifully, and the repetitive phrase “terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day” gives you a chance to really emphasize and draw kids into the story. This was one of my favorite ones to read aloud when I was in classrooms, and kids always enjoyed it.

Why?

Written by Adam Rex and illustrated by Claire Keane

This story is currently my daughter’s favorite story to read along with me. The story follows a young girl who is at the mall with her mom, when a super villain crashes in and threatens to take over the world. Instead of being afraid, the young girl asks him “Why?”. No matter what explanation he gives, or how deep into his background he dives, she just keeps asking the same question. The super villain’s dialogue is really fun to read and be extra dramatic with, while the little girl’s sweet repeated refrain is my daughter’s favorite part to say.

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Bear Snores On

Written by Karma Wilson and illustrated by Jane Chapman

We are big fans of Karma Wilson’s series of Bear books. The beautiful rhyming and soft illustrations make these books a perfect bedtime story. No matter how many times we read them, the rhymes and the rhythm of the story always feel beautiful and easy to read, and they have such a soothing quality. Plus, my daughter adores the animal characters and the funny endings to the stories.

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Unstoppable

Written by Adam Rex and illustrated by Laura Park

This book is so funny and unpredictable that I immediately encouraged everyone in my family to read it out loud as well. I can’t give a ton of information about the story without giving it away, but it starts with a group of animals that decided one by one to join forces. As they gather together, they try combining their names to come up with a new name for their hybrid creature. This leads to tons of hilarity as the reader is forced to sound out some crazy made up words. As the story goes on, it gets more ridiculous, and I could barely finish it because I was laughing so hard. My daughter now quotes this one constantly and asks me to read it all the time.

The Book with No Pictures

Written by BJ Novak

This hilarious book is so much fun to read aloud, and kids love it. The premise of the book is that a book with no pictures can still be fun to read, because the text in the book tells you what to do, and you have to do what it says, right? My daughter thinks it is hilarious when I have to read some of the silly lines out loud, and the large, colorful fonts just encourage you to read things in big voices.

What are your favorite children’s books to read aloud? Share them in the comments below!

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