Read Aloud Chapter Books for Kindergarten/1-2 Grade

One of my favorite memories of being homeschooled was the time that my family all gathered together for Read-Alouds. My parents selected Sonlight Curriculum as our homeschooling curriculum, which boasts a prolific read aloud book list each year. I remember crowding into my parents room every afternoon after lunch and laying down to listen to the read aloud chapter book that my Mom or Dad read. I remember begging for just one more chapter and being so thrilled to read the book again myself once we were finished reading it aloud.

I’ve been so excited to introduce read alouds to my kids, and as soon as Tera was able to sit still long enough, we dove into reading aloud chapter books. Remember that every child is different and some children are ready for read aloud books without pictures before others. Kiah is 3.5 and is still not sitting still through our reading times. I usually let him play while we read, as long as he is doing something that is not disruptive.

I have found it tricky to find books that are long enough and interesting enough to keep the attention of Tera (age 5 and in Kindergarten) but that don’t have mature content and vocabulary way over her head. My goal is to find chapter books that cannot be read in one sitting, preferably so we can read one chapter a day. This is so helpful for brain development because it requires the child to use memory, and also to immerse themselves in a story that is not immediatly resolved. They can spend the day between chapter readings thinking of what may come next and building their imagination. Read aloud without pictures are also helpful for the child to paint a picture in their own heads. For Tera’s age, I particularly love read aloud chapter books that have a picture every few pages. It gives just enough picture information to give the imagination a boost.

We have been doing read alouds for a little over a year now, and I thought I would just compile the list of books we have read so far- the good, the bad and the ugly! At the end of this post I will include resources for my favorite places to find age-appropriate book lists.

Books we have Read

Zoey and Sassafrass

Ok, hands down THIS has been our favorite read aloud series yet!!! We have all loved and devoured the Zoey and Sassafrass books! In fact, we have just one left to read and I’m already feeling sad about finishing it. Zoey is a sweet young girl who gets into all kinds of adventures with her pet cat, Sassafrass. Zoey’s adventures aren’t just normal kid adventures, though. She finds out that she can see (and sometimes talk to) all sorts of made up magical creatures. These creatures sometimes come to her and need help, and Zoey uses the scientific method to discover what their problem is and how to solve it. I originally stayed away from these books because of the use of “magical creatures”, but once we started reading it felt safe and more like “whimsical creatures” rather than magical ones. There are things like unicorns, “monsters”, merhorses and the like. Obviously very made up and they never have magical powers.

A Boy Called Bat

A young boy who has autism is the main character in this story. His mother works at an animal hospital, and therefore Bat gets to interact with a lot of animals. His mother takes in a young skunk kit, and of course Bat bonds with it and wants to keep it forever. We really enjoyed this one! I loved how the book was written from Bat’s perspective, so we got a little peek into how his brain was working and what he was thinking. The kids loved the whole idea of a pet skunk, and I loved the problem solving that had to be done by Bat to decide whether or not a skunk kit would make a good pet!

Little House in the Big Woods

I remember these books so fondly as a child, so I was eager to dive into the series! I found that it was a little bit over Tera’s head and there were some practices described in the book that I did not remember at all! I had to stop and explain a lot of things to Tera, but I think she enjoyed it overall. We will go back to this series soon!

Junie B. Jones

I remember reading these as a kid, and Tera has fallen in love with them! She giggles when it’s funny and can follow the entire story as it goes. She LOVES them! As an adult, I find Junie B. slightly annoying and not exactly the height of literature, but as long as Tera loves them and they are not doing any harm, I’m good with continuing to read them to her!

Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle

Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle is a silly book about a neighborhood lady who solves all the children’s problems with her “magical” fixes. The fixes are not magical at all, but rather, brilliant strategies to get children to do their homework, take a bath, eat their veggies, etc. I think I read this one to Tera a little bit early because most of it went over her head. We will revisit it again soon!

Gooney Bird Greene

I picked this up at the Greater Homeschool Convention as one curriculum booth was handing it out for free. I read it through to Tera and she thoroughly enjoyed it. In case you haven’t noticed, she has a tendency to pick books about young girls around her age. No harm there!

Charlotte’s Web

We read this one and Tera loved it! She sat through the entire thing and was delighted to watch the movie once we had finished reading the book!

Mercy Watson

This is SUCH a cute series that both Tera and Kiah love! This is a chapter book but the chapters are only 1-2 pages long and have pictures on every page. I feel like this is more of a picture book than a chapter book and we usually fly through it in less than four days, but the story is adorable and the kids love it.

Nancy Clancy

Tera LOVES Fancy Nancy, and this seems to be a series by the same author. It’s basically Fancy Nancy books in chapter form, and I think this might be Tera’s favorite read aloud we’ve done yet! She loved this one!

Winnie the Pooh

I was very excited to dive into Winnie the Pooh, but we actually ended up quitting this one. I KNOW, RIGHT? Who quits Winnie the Pooh?!? Well, I found that the vocabulary was wayyy over Tera’s head and she wasn’t able to follow along with the story. I will for sure revisit this one another time, but might wait a few more years.

Rainbow Magic Fairy

These books take up almost an entire shelf at our library, and Tera is very drawn to their colors and the fairies on the front. I started to read one to her, but I just wasn’t loving the attitudes that the characters portrayed and the plot was…lacking. That being said, I absolutely let Tera check these books out to look at herself. But there is so much good children’s literature out there to read that I just didn’t want to spend time on these. Sorry :/

Sugar Plum Ballerina Series

This is the most recent read aloud we have done, and it took us a loooong time to read through it. I loved that we were reading about characters of different ethnicities from ours and Tera loved the ballerina story line and pictures throughout the book. I ended up having to “edit” the book as I went because some of it was just waaaayyy over Tera’s head (one friend constantly spoke backwards, the girls teased another about her Mom’s boyfriend, etc). Not inappropriate, just not Tera’s level.

A few books that we have on our list to read next:

Pippi Longstocking

Princess in Black

Dolphin Adventure

The Family Under the Bridge

James and the Giant Peach

Other Read-Aloud Resources

Read Aloud Revival (podcast and blog)

Everyday Reading

Sonlight Curriculum Reading List

Big Books Little Ears Blog