Pick Chapter Books Like a Boss! 7 Tips for Choosing a Chapter Book To Read Aloud

How do you pick a read aloud???

Every Year I come up with a go to list of books I think my children would enjoy hearing in the coming six months to a year. No matter what my motivation, I select a few, because I know how to pick chapter books like a boss.

This does not mean my selections are set in stone. Who knows, maybe plans or interests will change. But I make my pile of books and I record them in my planner (Check out the planner I use here).

1. Should Your book list be set in stone?

You're reading Tom Sawyer to your children and you love how they have gotten so into Mark Twain’s characters. So excited you plan on jumping straight into Huckleberry Finn. But as you start it, you notice your kids are not actively listening to the story. What’s going on? What happened? Where did you go wrong?

You look up from the book to see the boys tiptoeing around with magnifying glasses and pretending to be detectives. Don't take this as an insult but a blessing and say hello to Sherlock Holmes.

2. Read More Than One Book

Now don't get me wrong, if there is a topic or subject matter that you really want the kids to get a healthy dose of (such as family work), then that is fine. But doesn't mean it has to be the only book. You can have more than one book going at a time. That's right, more than one book. So do one chapter of Emma and Company and then Sherlock Holmes. The kids will listen to Emma and Company because they are wanting to get to Sherlock shortly after ;) .

I also have my children chose books they would like read to them. For my oldest, he picked a huge list of books that he plans on reading himself. These are also great books to pull from for one-on-one reading time or Read aloud. Sometimes we will have up to four or even 5 books going at once.

3. Do You Want To Strengthen Your Family??

-Are there any Core issues that need to be addressed at this moment.

-Is there a lot of fighting?

-Are children not willing to help with family work?

-Has there been a family trial?

-Are family members having trouble being self-absorbed or caring to much about what other people think?

These are all great motivators to help guide a book selection. Little Britches is a great book on responsibility. Emma Is a wonderful book about thinking about one's self before others. Emma and Company is about a family dealing with the trial of losing a father/husband. Spiderwick is great for seeing siblings come together and working to fix a problem. Books can heal and open up opportunities for people to talk about lives problems through the eyes of a character.

There Are So Many Great Classics! Find a huge lists of classics on here.