This Tuesday's Top Ten is about our favorite school subject, Read Aloud. I still read aloud to all my kids. Together. At one time. From our History spine, or Science text, our Bible Storybook, a Poetry book I love. It's not easy. There's a lot of, "Settle down." And, "Let's choose a quiet toy." And, "Pay attention." But it amazes me how much of my interrupted reading aloud the kids retain.
But this list is of those books that we actually refer to as 'Read Alouds.' Fun books. The books that are saved for just after lunch and afternoon chores, while the little ones are falling asleep for their naps, and the big kids are hanging out on their beds drawing, or knitting, or staring out their window at all the entertaining folks and their dogs walking down the sidewalk. ... while I, the Read Aloud-er, sit criss cross applesauce on the floor in the hallway (sometimes nursing a baby).
Top Ten Favorite Read Alouds (in random order):
1. Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo *an excellent movie
2. Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder
3. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson (in December, of course. EVERY December.)
4. Boy by Roald Dahl
5. Madeleine Takes Command by Ethel C. Brill
6. Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
7. Jotham's Journey: A Story Book for Advent by Arnold Ytreeide
8. The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare (or Sign of The Beaver or The Bronze Bow and I'm sure Calico Captive too, but we've not read that one aloud. Yet.)
9. The Year of Miss Agnes by Kirkpatrick Hill
and
10. Treasures of the Snow by Patricia St. John *also an excellent movie
