Many of the classics, while great literary works, may not suit every parent and child.
We found the best books to read aloud to your kids that won’t bore you to tears as you read them! Every night you will look forward to these interesting stories that keep kids engaged and encourage growth.
What you won’t find on this list are all the classics found on most other lists. You may find a couple of books you recognize because they are amazing and practically require reading!
Now, on to new worlds with your children, but first turn the television off!
Best Read-Aloud Chapter Books for Kindergarteners
The Chocolate Touch
The Chocolate Touch is about a boy who discovers there can be too much of a good thing. John Midas has the golden touch and anythings his lips touch turns into chocolate! Author Patrick Catling manages to turn a legend into a book perfect for kids to enjoy, even reluctant readers!
Parents can read this book to their kids to help explain moderation and help them understand how too much of one thing can be a problem. Also, parents will enjoy this zany story too! Start reading this book to your kids ages four and up, and later when they turn eight, they can read it to themselves.
Help Me Decide
This fun story is well-reviewed by both parents and teachers. While Geeger the Robot Goes to School is shorter than The Chocolate Touch, this book is more exciting and is better-suited for readers of all ages.
Geeger the Robot Goes to School
Children love robots, and they can enjoy a hilarious story with the Geeger the Robot Goes to School. Mind you, the robot goes to a regular school, not one for robots, and has tons of mishaps. Can a robot crave a snack?
Filled with silly responses and instructions, this book will have you and your family busting up in laughter. The book is short and ready to grab the attention of preschoolers to second grades. Also, you can read it in just a few days and then move on to the other books in the set.
RELATED: The Best Books for 5-Year-Olds
Best Read-Aloud Chapter Books for 1st Graders
Captain Pug (The Adventures of Pug) The Dog Who Sailed the Seas
Little kids will love the Captain Pug (The Adventures of Pug), a story about an adorable dog ready to endear anyone. With his first adventure, the crumb-loving pug finds out water is not his friend but snacks are his favorite. Read about the pug learning to navigate the water as he captains a ship along with his human Lady Miranda.
Read the other books in the stories and encourage your child to read these easy stories themselves too. The picture on the cover will give kids a great mental image to carry through the story.
Half Magic Tales of Magic
Start a new series with the Half Magic Tales of Magic set by Edward Eager. It’s the perfect summer read as it starts with Jane and her siblings having an incredibly boring summer. They want something to happen, and then their wish is granted with a coin found on the sidewalk, well, half their wish.
The story takes half wishes and double wishes and turns them into an adventure that kids will find hilarious. Parents will enjoy the timeless quality but not the artwork on the cover. Either way, the story is filled with bits of magic and mayhem, ready to get kids begging for just one more chapter, and there are seven more books in the series!
Flat Stanley: His Original Adventure!
Jeff Brown wrote the Flat Stanley: His Original Adventure! book back in 1964, and it started an epic adventure that kids will still love today. Stanley ends up flat after a bulletin board falls on him. Naturally, his parents mail him to his friend’s house in California. Soon Stanley finds the fun in being flat as he can slide under doors, reshape himself and do what no other boy can.
Kid’s who love the first book will enjoy the series of twenty books filled with adventures written over a few decades from the 1960s to 2003! Although only six of the books are available readily. Make it a game to find all 20 books and enjoy two adventures in one with your kids.
Help Me Decide
This imaginative tale has a totally unique theme, unlike Half Magic Tales of Magic or animal books like Captain Pug. or Dolphin Rescue With 2o books in the series, Flat Stanley has more stories for more fun.
Dolphin Rescue (Animal Planet Adventures Chapter Books #1)
Do your kids dream of swimming with dolphins? They can read all about it with the Dolphin Rescue (Animal Planet Adventures Chapter Books #1) book. Maddie and Atticus love living by the ocean in Maine with their father who traps lobster and helping out at a local aquarium. One summer, the kids find a pod of dolphins in trouble and try to help them out with quick thinking.
What’s great about this book is there are more in the set, and they are learning books and chapter books. Find interesting facts about dolphins too. It’s a great starter series for children who have issues reading or who are reluctant to read. Full-color illustrations and photographs help to keep the story real and relevant too.
RELATED: The Best Books for 6-Year-Olds
Best Read-Aloud Chapter Books for 2nd Graders
Sideways Stories from Wayside School
Author Louis Sachar wrote some incredible books including Holes and Sideways Stories from Wayside School. This is a zany four series set kids will eat up! A school built sideways undergoes a lot of issues with a wacky group of students inside. If you have kids of varying ages, this is the book you need to draw them all into family storytime.
Children will read this set over and over again, along with all of Mr. Sachar’s other books. Make sure to find out what happens on the 13th floor, along with all the other absurdity kids will go nuts over. Mind you, little ones will find this more humorous than adults, but it’s a perfect book to get them interested in reading and not at all boring, although quite strange in all the right ways.
Goosebumps: Night of the Living Dummy
Children love scary stories and often don’t want to admit they want a safe place to read them. Read Goosebumps: Night of the Living Dummy out loud so your kids can snuggle for the scary parts. Goosebumps books have been delighting kids for decades with creepy stories just scary enough to get the heart racing.
In the first book, a dummy comes to life, and it’s just one of the many things that goes bump in the night. From there, you have another 57 books to choose from. Maybe don’t read these just before bed, though, as your kids may find them too scary.
Slappy is an ugly ventriloquist dummy, and Lindy loves learning how to make him talk and move. Her brother Kris is jealous of her sister’s new toy, so he gets a dummy too ready to make his sister angry. He’s not prepared for what happens next when the dummy starts causing trouble on his own.
Help Me Decide
Goosebumps has been around since 1992 and many of us grew up reading these short, spooky-but-not-scary stories. The collection of stories has over 60 creepy tales, which is much more than any other book series on our list. The stories are shorter than the longTime Traveling with a Hamster and the four stories in Sideways Stories from Wayside School. Teachers report that the mystery can draw in even reluctant readers.
Time Traveling with a Hamster
Who knew you need a hamster to travel to the past and save your father’s life? In Time Traveling with a Hamster that just what Al Chaudhury finds out when he gets a letter from his father who died not once, but twice! Now Al has a mission to travel back to the ’80s to prevent his father’s second death and not get caught.
Kids and parents will have a blast reading this book filled with time-travel mishaps. Not often do kids need to save their parent’s life or do they get to meet their parents when they were children! The story is filled with laughter, love, fun characters, and an easy-to-read layout.
Mind you, the book is rather long at 448 pages, but it reads smoothly, and you will soon be caught up in this wild story. Once your children are eight and up, you can be sure they will re-read this story over and over again.
Dragons in a Bag
Have kids who want to care for pet dragons? Read them the book Dragons in a Bag. It’s an adorable story for younger children and will have you laughing too while you read. Also, it’s short at just 176 pages, making it a quick read ready to keeps kids’ attention.
Jaxon is sent to spend the day with an old lady he thinks is his grandma but is actually a witch in charge of delivering baby dragons to a world filled with magic for safe keeping. The boy needs to remember two rules while helping to deliver the dragons: keep them in the bag and do not give them anything sweet. Along with his friends, Jax has a hard time keeping the rules as the baby dragons are rather unruly!
While the book has some magic and fantasy, it doesn’t step into a science fiction novel. Moreover, the book has a sequel that kids will love too! The book ends with a lot of unanswered questions which leaves room for more books in the future.
Love Sugar Magic: A Dash of Trouble
Bring magic to the kitchen with Love Sugar Magic: A Dash of Trouble. The book is a three-part set about Leonora Logroño’s family in Texas. They love to bake cookies and cakes for special occasions like Dia de lose Muertos but not Leo as she’s told she is too young, again.
She sneaks out of school one day and heads to the family bakery to find out her family has kept her out of the kitchen because of a secret. The family women are all brujas, witches of Mexican descent, who use magic in everything they bake. Leo decides she wants to bake with magic, too, but then things go wrong as she doesn’t know all of the secrets.
No only does this book offer magic and sweets, but also Spanish words and authentic history ready to impress kids and offer diversity.
Help Me Decide
This book is partially in English and partially in Spanish, unlike any other story on this list, so whether you want to celebrate a Hispanic heritage or work on a second language, this book is a great choice.
Best Read-Aloud Chapter Books for 3rd Graders
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone: The Illustrated Edition
We promised fun books, and what book could be more fun than Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone: The Illustrated Edition (Harry Potter, Book 1)? If you don’t know the story, orphan Harry Potter lives with his aunt, uncle, and cousin, who treat him like a housekeeper instead of a family member. On his eleventh birthday, he learns he’s a wizard and leaves his unloving home to move into a boarding school for wizards and witches.
From there, adventure overwhelms his young life as he makes new friends, learns about his past, practices magic, and leaves his old life behind. Children love imaginative stories filled with magic and oddities like no other world. Moreover, kids can learn about friendship, loyalty, and many other skills from this incredible story.
Once your kids have read the book, watch the movie! The first movie follows the book very well and adds an incredible sense of wonder. Do not watch past movie three until you have watched them yourselves to gauge what your child can handle. Best for children in elementary school and up.
Kids will love this illustrated version filled with pictures to spur on the images in their imagination.
Help Me Decide
Harry Potter is a cultural phenomenon for good reason. These books are easy to listen to and appeal to adults and kids alike, while books like The Secret Zoo and Pages & Co.: The Bookwanderers are better for shared reading or independent reading. Plus, it’s not as odd or dated as the classic Matilda.
The Secret Zoo
The Secret Zoo is a story of best friends who live next door to a zoo, and they find out the animals are not quite normal. When one of the kids disappears, her brother and best friends head out on a mission to find her with a series of clues in the zoo. Kids will love listening to this story from a very young age of around five years old and up and may be able to read it on their own as young as seven years old, depending on their level.
Keep in mind, the story does have some death and injury, which may make this not the best option for sensitive children. If your kids do love it, then you can move on to the other five books in the set. Even better, the author Bryan Chick came up with the idea for the book when he was a child himself, which can inspire future authors!
Pages & Co.: The Bookwanderers
We love book series because they add new layers to an incredible story and delay the ending. Children will love the Pages & Co.: The Bookwanderers series as it’s a unique story about an eleven-year-old girl who also loves books. Tilly Pages grew up in a book store, falling in love with stories, especially when she found out she could go into the books and wander around.
Before long, Tilly finds out the secret to what happened to her mother lies in the pages of a book, and the mystery is on. Will Tilly solve the mystery of her mom and a mysterious librarian? Find out from this unique book about a magical bookshop written for kids ages 8 to 12.
The book is rather long at just over 300 pages but enchanting enough to keep kids begging for more, and you will want to find out what happens next, too!
Wish
You will be surprised the book Wish is about a girl making a wish. Charlie Reese, at the age of eleven, makes the same wish every day, and she even has a list of ways for the wish to come true. When she gets sent to the mountains in North Carolina to live with family, she hardly knows she thinks her wish will never come true.
She meets a dog named Wishbone and a boy named Howard, who help her cope with life on the mountain and surprise her often. Soon, she finds out the wish she had is changing, and she’s not sure what to do.
The novel may be a little slow for little kids in lower grades, but the poignant story will endear parents and older children. Moreover, the story will help kids to understand that what they think they want and what they need are often two different things entirely. This is a stand-alone book, so after, you can move on to a more humorous book, but this one is well worth the read.
Matilda
Roald Dahl is famous for a variety of children’s book but the best is Matilda. Little Matilda is a genius living in a family woefully short of intelligence. Her family does not like her because they are so different from the little bookworm, and they ignore her to eat tv dinners in front of the tube.
After a lot of begging, Matilda finally goes to school, where she meets a wonderful teacher, makes new friends, and deals with a horrible principal who is abusive to students. As Matilda’s intelligence starts to show, her teacher fights for her until a secret from the past comes out, and Matilda has to fight for herself and her teacher! Soon Matilda finds she can fix all of her and her teacher’s problems with a little bit of intelligence and magic.
When you finish reading about this spunky little girl, you can watch the movie too, making it an extra special experience. Kids will love the fun antics and will find the book easy to read. Follow up with others from Roald Dahl like James and the Giant Peach that also has a movie.
The Candymakers
Add chocolate to anything, and it makes it better, including books! No, you won’t be eating The Candymakers book, but you will start craving chocolate along with four children who are chosen for a national candy competition. Of course, none of the children are normal, which is what makes this book so much fun!
Logan, Miles, Daisy, and Philip are all quirky and ready to choose the best tasting candy while making new friendships, solving mysteries, and enjoying a little gossip too. If kids love the first book, they will love the sequel too. Start reading this adventure to kids in elementary school and instill a love of books early on!
Help Me Decide
Many teachers (and some homeschool parents) use The Candymakers as a great unit study. You can read the book and then do fun projects like designing an advertisement for your own candy, making your own candy, and then having a taste-off to see whose candy is the best.
The Menagerie
The Menagerie is part of a trilogy ready to excite kids with a fantastic fantasy story. In a small Wyoming town sits a top-secret facility called the Menagerie, home to unicorns, phoenixes, dragons, and other mythical creatures. Then some griffin cubs escape, and it’s up to Logan and Zoe to find the cubs or the entire building will be shut down!
Children who dream of zoos filled with epic animals will adore this unique book. The engrossing book ends with a cliffhanger as wonderful as the book, and kids will be begging for book two. Read on to find out who let the griffins out of the Menagerie and why!
Your kids can read the book again when they turn nine, as this will soon be one of their favorites. It’s a great choice for kids who loved Fablehaven or the Spiderwick Chronicles. More importantly, parents will not mind reading this book either with all the mythical mayhem!
Best Read-Aloud Chapter Books for 4th Graders
Fish in a Tree
The Fish in a Tree is a necessary read as it’s about a girl who cannot read. Ally moves to new schools all the time and finds ways to hide her inability to read from her teachers and the other kids until one teacher really sees her and helps to find out she has dyslexia. Now Ally can begin to be herself and find a world full of possibilities.
Lynda Mullaly Hunt writes a couple of emotionally charged novels perfect to help children feel more comfortable in their own skin. While this book may not be the funniest you will ever read, kids need to know they are not the only ones with troubles in school. Kids ages nine and up can read this on their own, but you can read it as early as first grade and give kids a boost of confidence.
Help Me Decide
Fish in a Tree deals with more complex emotions than Savvy and From the Notebooks of a Middle School Princess, this book does a lot to shed light on the needs of children with different needs and abilities. If you or one of your children struggle with dyslexia or another learning disability, this book is a must-read.
Crenshaw
If you ever wanted an giant imaginary cat then read Crenshaw by Katherine Applegate. Jackson, his parents, little sister, and their dog live in their minivan as they are broke and not for the first time. Crenshaw shows up to help Jackson cope with the tough life he is in.
The book is relatable for children who have experienced a rough life and wish they had someone to help them through the tough spots. For kids who have never experienced such issues, this book will help them to empathize with others in worse situations, which can help in a multitude of ways. Reading about children who do not always have food makes it real to other children and helps them to have a deeper understanding of the problems facing so many in society.
Furthermore, a giant imaginary cat guarantees a little humor in the midst of problems. The cat isn’t always warm and fuzzy but rather persnickety, and he helps Jackson to understand his problems better. If your kids like this book, you can read The One and Only Ivan by the same author.
Savvy
Who doesn’t want superpowers? In Savvy, everyone in the family even grandpa have a superpower that comes when the children turn thirteen. Some can move mountains, others cause hurricanes or electricity, and much more.
Mib waits for the day she will get power, too, and then her dad gets into an accident just before her 13th birthday. She sets out to prove her power will be saving her father’s life. Along the way, she gets lost and sets out on an odyssey that will help her to grow up and find out some secrets too.
The book is rather long at 364 pages and better for slightly older children. Don’t worry, kids love reading with their parents, and many younger kids with the ability to sit will find this story enthralling and endearing. We love stories that encourage children to put others’ needs first.
From the Notebooks of a Middle School Princess
Fans of Meg Cabot’s Princess Diaries will love introducing their daughters to a new princess in From the Notebooks of a Middle School Princess. The short chapter book shares Olivia Grace Clarisse Mignonette Harrison an average girl who loves animals and drawing. She doesn’t know her father and lives with her aunt, uncle, and cousins.
One day the mean girl in school beats up Olivia, the principal punishes her, and she gets knocked down at the bus stop making for a horrible day. Then a limo pulls up with Mia Thermopolis the princess of Genovia, who takes her to meet her father. Soon she moves in with her dad, Mia, grandmother, and two dogs, ready to start a whole new life.
Girls love princess stories, and this is one you will feel at home in if you ever watched the Princess Diaries movies. It’s adorable and ready to make little girls’ dreams come true with dreams of castles, gowns, and crowns.
Best Read-Aloud Chapter Books for 5th Graders
Percy Jackson The Lightning Thief
We love books with a movie like Percy Jackson The Lightning Thief and kids do too as they can see how their imagination plays out on screen. Furthermore, books about mythology for kids are hard to find and Rick Riordan has done an amazing job of bringing mythology to life with dozens of books in multiple series.
Percy Jackson thinks he is just an ordinary boy with dyslexia until he finds out he is the son of a myth. He’s accused of stealing Zeus’ lightning bolt and needs to find it to prove his innocence and stop a war from happening among the gods. Along with a couple of friends, they set out to find the lightning bolt and save Percy’s mom from the underworld too.
The book is better for older kids but not out of the realm for younger kids who like adventure as it’s based on a high school student but doesn’t contain too much older content. There are some magical beasts and enemies though, that may be a little scary for younger kids. Parents will enjoy the story, too, making this a great choice to read aloud.
Help Me Decide
Percy Jackson books have been popular from the moment they first came out. It has more action and adventure than Diary of a 6th Grade Ninja and gets kids ready for bigger, better books.
Diary of a 6th Grade Ninja
Girls may dream of being princesses, but boys (and some girls too) dream of being ninjas. In Diary of a 6th Grade Ninja, they can experience ninja life without ever putting on a mask! Kids will love this short chapter book made for middle-aged kids as they follow Chase Cooper’s story.
Told in the first person, Chase tells how he starts at a new school with his cousin and gets recruited by a clan of ninjas. He chronicles his journey in a diary format to warn kids about the dangers of becoming a ninja. It’s hilarious and totally fun for boys, girls, and parents too.
If your children love this first book, they will love the eleven other books in the series and soon be rereading them on their own.
Best Read-Aloud Chapter Books for Middle Schoolers
The Family Nobody Wanted
While The Family Nobody Wanted may not be the typical bedtime story to read aloud to children, it’s definitely going to become a favorite. Written decades ago, Helen Doss catalogs her journey as a pastor’s wife and through the adoption of a dozen kids. Kids will love the antics of the children in the story, and parents will love the wholesome feel of the story.
What makes this book special, is back during a time of racism, this family changed the world by taking in unwanted children and giving them a loving home. Despite a lack of money, the family had everything else and tons of humor especially from their little boy Donnie who never let trouble escape him! Your own kids will love the situations these kids manage to cause and all the loving adventure.
The Family Nobody Wanted allows families to explore uncomfortable topics in a safe space with a safe story they can identify with as a whole. You can talk to kids about what it’s like for families who have very little money, multiple children, race, and other topics that kids wonder about, and parents wonder how to bring up in conversation. It’s a beautiful story and a true story!
Help Me Decide
The Family Nobody Wanted is an unconventional children’s book for sure, but trust us, you’ll love it as a read aloud. It’s harder to read independently compared to The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl, but it’s got real content rather than entertainin, fictional fluff.
The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl
Did you ever wonder what would happen if you were struck by lightning? In The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl, Lucy Callachan finds out, and it changes her life as she suddenly becomes a math genius. She was homeschooled, and now she’s smart enough to skip straight to college thanks to a bolt of electricity!
First, though, Lucy’s grandma makes her go to middle school to make a friend, read a book that’s not about math, and try out new activities. The question is, can a genius really learn anything from middle school?
The book is perfect for slightly older kids who think they gain nothing from attending school. Parents will enjoy a book about a child who actually enjoys math and doesn’t require any help with math homework! It’s truly a unique book that kids and parents will wish there was a sequel to. It will be read again and again.
How to Choose Read-Aloud Chapter Books
Age-Appropriate
While you should reach for a target age when reading aloud to your children, this is the time to broaden their horizons. Books above their level give them the opportunity to learn new ideas and vocabulary. With you reading out loud, they can do so safely, and you can define words they do not know.
Keep in mind that some topics may be too old for your child, which only you can gauge as their parent. Try to find books that you will enjoy too, or you will not enjoy reading out loud! Otherwise, challenge your children with slightly older books and open up conversations.
Reading aloud to older kids is a great way to enjoy family time as you can learn how they think and process information. Let your kids help to find books too to find out their interests. If your child seems bored with a book, it may not suit their interest or their age, and you can always table the book for later.
Sequels Available
Books with sequels or in series are a great choice as kids will want to read more in the series as they fall in love with a character. While stand-alone books are fantastic, series allow kids to learn more about a character and make it easier to find the next book to read together! Often kids will re-read books, as do many adults a book can feel like a friend, and re-reading is like visiting an old friend you have not seen in a while.
When possible, choose series to encourage growth. Often the books grow more intense and in age like Harry Potter, for example, and help kids to grow comfortably.
Varying Interests
Try to choose books that align with your child’s interests. For example, kids who are into fantasy, try to pick a fantasy series. Some kids cannot stand fantasy but love animals and so on.
You will have a much better experience if you find a series that your child will enjoy. Try reading the plots to kids and find a book that will interest them. Also, consider reading books to them that interest you and help them out of their comfort zone a little.
Not all kids will sit for reading, while others will want to read chapter after chapter until you think your vocal cords are going to fall out. Follow their pace and make it a fun experience.
Benefits of Reading Out Loud
Reading aloud to children can help them in so many ways. First, reading out loud models fluency and helps kids to improve their vocabulary. Second, it exposes kids to more of everything in life, from ideas, imagination, and genres.
Kids can even learn awareness and empathy from books that offer important life lessons they may not have the chance or desire to experience. Moreover, reading out loud gives you the opportunity to explain what your kids do not understand and start discussions about a variety of topics that come up in books.
Reading out loud can improve your relationship, too, as quality time. Helping your kids to read out loud can improve their self-confidence and speaking voice, helping them through their own lives by reducing awkwardness with words.
Finally, kids can increase their attention span by sitting and listening, which allows their mind and their imagination to grow.
FAQs About Best Read-Aloud Chapter Books
Which chapter books have the most books in the series?
Compared to other books for younger kids, the Flat Stanley series has the most books in the series, with 20 total books.
For slightly older kids, the Goosebumps original series has a whopping 62 books, which is more than most other books out there!
The beloved Harry Potter series has 7 massive books, while the also-popular Percy Jackson series has 5 big books.
At what age should I stop reading to my child?
Never! Just kidding, but honestly, you can read to your child as long as they are willing to sit and listen. Some kids will only sit until they can read on their own, while others will continue into their teen years.
From there you can take turns reading to each other and improve their speaking voice.
How many chapters should we read a night?
The amount you read each night depends on how long you have to read and how much you are willing to read. Try to shoot for a chapter or maybe even two a night, or about 20 pages. Always look for a decent stopping place to keep your kids excited about reading more.
My child doesn’t seem interested in a book, should I skip it?
Absolutely, for that matter, if you aren’t interested in a book, then skip it! There are no rules to reading out loud to your kid, and you need to find what works for your family. If a book is boring and no one is enjoying it, do not feel like you need to finish the book (unless it was very expensive!).
Do I have to read the classics?
No. You do not have to read any book you do not want to read. Your kids will read the classics in school or on their own if they have any interests. Only read the classics you enjoy or that your child enjoys.
Wrap Up
Reading out loud to kids is a fun bonding experience that improves vocabulary and strengthens your relationships.
Chocolate Touch is a wonderful read for younger kids, while blossoming readers will be enthralled by silly tales like Matilda and Sideways Stories from Wayside School. And no matter what age, kids are sure to enjoy listening to the magical Harry Potter series.
Only you know what books will interest you or your children. However, we suggest trying a variety of books in several genres to help your child find what they like, and you might find a new genre, too!
