Reading is a wonderful family activity you can share with your kids all the way through adolescence. Reading to kids even after they are able to read for themselves has countless benefits, and the options are nearly endless. Below you will find the list of books I have read to my children at each age and stage of their lives. This list does not include all the picture books that occupied the bulk of their early childhood; rather, it encompasses our reading journey from the point I began reading them chapter books and classic literature. I try to choose each new book intentionally, with an eye for exposing my kids to books they may not read in school, but which nevertheless will expand their vocabularies, give them a sense of history and cultural context, enable them to recognize common literary characters and references in popular culture, and open them up to a wide variety of examples of really great storytelling.
Ages 5-6
Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne
Pippi Longstocking - Astrid Lindgren
The Magician’s Nephew - CS Lewis
The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis
The Horse and His Boy - CS Lewis
Charlotte’s Web - EB White
Stuart Little - EB White
Three Tales of My Father’s Dragon - Ruth Stiles Gannett
ages 6-7
Kavik the Wolf Dog - Walt Morey
Misty of Chincoteague - Marguerite Henry
Stormy, Misty’s Foal - Marguerite Henry
Little House in the Big Woods - Laura Ingalls Wilder
Farmer Boy - Laura Ingalls Wilder
Little House on the Prairie - Laura Ingalls Wilder
On the Banks of Plum Creek - Laura Ingalls Wilder
By the Shores of Silver Lake - Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Long Winter - Laura Ingalls Wilder
Little Town on the Prairie - Laura Ingalls Wilder
These Happy Golden Years - Laura Ingalls Wilder
The First Four Years - Laura Ingalls Wilder
Prince Caspian - CS Lewis
Island of the Blue Dolphins - Scott O’Dell
The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
Heidi - Johanna Spyri
ages 7-8
Along Came a Dog - Meindert DeJong
The Yearling - Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
Flora and Ulysses - Kate DiCamillo
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - CS Lewis
Man O’ War - Walter Farley
King of the Wind - Marguerite Henry
Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahamme
A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
The Lemonade War - Jacqueline Davies
ages 8-9
The Lemonade Crime - Jacqueline Davies
The Bell Bandit - Jacqueline Davies
A Single Shard - Linda Sue Park
Nancy and Plum - Betty MacDonald
A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L’Engle
Where the Red Fern Grows - Wilson Rawls
Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry - Mildred D. Taylor
Stuart Little - EB White
The Silver Chair - CS Lewis
Black Beauty - Anna Sewell
Winterdance - Gary Paulsen
Number the Stars - Lois Lowry
A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
ages 9-10
Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson
The Way of a Dog - Albert Payson Terhune
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain
The Witch of Blackbird Pond - Elizabeth George Speare
The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
Bridge to Terabithia - Katherine Paterson
Wonder - R. J. Palacio
ages 10-11
The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
The Doldrums - Nicholas Gannon
Little Women - Louisa May Alcott
The Swiss Family Robinson - Johan Wyss (We didn’t finish this one—got several chapters in but decided it wasn’t a favorite.)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain
The Hiding Place - Corrie ten Boom
Ages 11-12
Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage - Alfred Lansing
Little Men - Louisa May Alcott
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
Ages 12-13
For the Glory: Eric Liddell’s Journey from Olympic Champion to Modern Martyr - Duncan Hamilton
More Than a Carpenter - Josh McDowell
Unbroken - Laura Hillenbrand
The Screwtape Letters - C.S. Lewis
Seabiscuit - Laura Hillenbrand
The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien
The Fellowship of the Ring - J.R.R. Tolkien
ages 13-14
The Boys in the Boat - Daniel James Brown
Ages 14-15
Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy - Eric Metaxas
