Do you have go-to books on your shelf? You know the ones that your kids will love and you actually don’t mind reading 2,458 times?
Our go-to book is Elephant’s Big Ride (and Noah’s Stormy Adventure). I know, it’s not classic literature and the illustrations are a little Sunday School-ish. But this is one of my kids’ favorite books!
I remember reading it to Lydia, remember hearing my husband read it to her, remember Lydia begin to read quote it to herself. Now Asa sits in Lydia’s lap and listens to her read the story. And Asa loves to pull it out and read it to himself, too. Just today, I took it to entertain Asa while Lydia was in ballet class. He snuggled down in my lap and listened and giggled through the whole thing.
I think one reason they like it is because of the way I read it. I read it the same every single time–the same inflections, the same sound effects, the same voices. Here are some of our favorite parts & the ways I like to spice it up:
Boom! Boom! Boom! stomps the elephant all through the ark
{This is when I bounce my legs up and down so the kids fall over in my lap}
Pitter, patter, pitter, patter! Here comes the rain!
{Here I tap my fingernails on the back cover. I still don’t think Asa knows where that noise comes from.}
Squawking and roaring and mooing and snoring echoed inside the boat.
{I make the appropriate noise while saying each word so it becomes SQWAAAAAKing and RoooAAARing and Mooooooing and SnOOOring!}
“Feeling a little seasick?” asked Noah. “Hold on tight! God promised to keep us safe!”
{Then I tip them over on each side of my lap so they can feel the pitch of the boat!}
Adding sound effects, voices, noises and other fun interaction to your stories will make even the most bland book come alive! For some really great read-aloud tips visit Mem Fox’s Ten Read Aloud Commandments and And Do It Like This with audio helps!
Our favorite read aloud was The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Hungry Bear for the same reasons. She LOVED (and actually still does at 8) the voices I did when I read that one. Ahh… I miss the reading picture books days sometimes.
Oh, yes! LOVE that book. *sigh* Are you sure my kids have to grow up?!
One of my kids’ favorite read-alouds is Sandra Boynton’s “Barnyard Dance.” I have to read it with them in my lap, and we sort of do the motions as we read the book. There are always lots of giggles!
Sandra Boynton has written tons of great read alouds! Ours is the belly button book! 🙂
Moo, Baa, La La La! by Sandra Boynton is currently our go to book. Although it’s missing half of its cover due to our lab having a recent book fetish.