In my family, we enjoy reading. Ever since my kids were little I have read to them. They would sit for long stretches of time listening to one book after another. Even as my kids enter into the tween years
My kids love fantasy stories and quirky books. We also enjoy getting lost in a series. So when we are looking for read-aloud stories they tend to be fun, unusual, and often part of a series or by a favorite author.
10 Books Your Kids Will Love
Nooks and Crannies by Jessica Lawson
The story is about a girl named Tabitha Crum. Tabitha is a girl with great imagination and a love of a good mystery. However, she struggles to fit in at school and at home. Her life is far from ideal. One day she is immersed in a real-life mystery with five other children. She and the five children are summoned to a remote mansion where the Countess is determined to find out which of them is the heir to her estate.
There are lots of surprises around every corner and quite shocking twists and turns. Tabitha needs to rely on her sleuthing skills to get to the bottom of the mystery.
I will start off by saying this book has a similar style to Roald Dahl’s books. The kids in the story have their own quirky personalities and unhappy lives. The ending is similar to a Roald Dahl story where things work out the way you hope. That being said, this book kept us on our toes and wanting to read more. It is bizarre and is kind of dark, but the ending makes up for it.
The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place series by Maryrose Wood
Here is another fun and mysterious book. The story is about a young lady named Penelope Lumley who becomes a governess for three unusual children. The children have been taken in by the Ashton family who found them running around the woods of their estate acting as if they were wild animals. Miss Lumley must try to educate, and civilize, these strange children. A mystery not only surrounds the children’s past but also Miss Lumley’s. Ashton Place holds many secrets of its own, too.
We enjoyed the first book and will continue to finish the series. Your kids will be laughing at the strange behavior of the kids and rooting for them to be successful at the ball. There is enough mystery to keep you wanting to read the next book so you can find more answers to questions left unresolved.
The Hero’s Guide series by Christopher Healy
The Hero’s Guide series is about the League of Princes that set out on wild adventures. The League is made up of the various Prince Charmings found in the fairy tales. Prince Charming isn’t just one person, you know. They find themselves being loved and despised by the people in their kingdoms as they flounder from one misstep to another.
We laughed our way through this series and couldn’t wait to get to the library for the next one. The Princes are hilarious. They have you rooting for them and hoping things will finally go their way which it doesn’t. We all had a favorite Prince and a princess we despised. It was so much fun reading this together.
Half Magic by Edward Eager
The siblings in this story are having a boring summer until one of them finds a magic coin. The children are all eager to give the coin a try to help liven up their summer. The problem, though, is the coin may grant a wish but it is only half a wish, so things never turn out quite as planned.
At first, my kids were not super excited about reading this book. Once I started reading, though, they wanted me to continue. They couldn’t wait to find out what the next wish would be and how it would go wrong. It was a fun story with a nice ending.
The Adventures of Nanny Piggins by R.A. Spratt
The Green children go through nannies quite frequently and their father is desperate to find someone, preferably someone cheap. One day Nanny Piggins, a former circus pig, shows up at their door and is hired. For once the children do not chase off this nanny because she is not a stuffy, proper nanny. She is all about having fun.
I know some people didn’t like this book or the series. It is a funny book. Nanny Piggins is, well, a pig so why you would try to critique it as high literature is beyond me. It is a fun story with so many adventures the Nanny and the kids are involved in and at times have you gasping at the things they do. Kids will love the outrageous behavior of Nanny Piggins and find the humor in it and not think it is an endorsement for things they should go out and do.
Fortunately, The Milk by Neil Gaiman
The father tells an outlandish tale of what happens to him when he goes out to get milk for the family. He runs into a pirate, wumpires, and other fantastically things while out that morning. The kids don’t know whether to believe their father’s tale or not.
I have to say this book was nothing like I expected and certainly shorter than I thought it would be. It was a good, quick read that had us waiting to see what strange thing the father would say next. You are always wondering if the father really did go on this strange adventure or did he make it up.
The BFG and any other Roald Dahl books
My family is a huge Roald Dahl fan. As a teacher, I did unit studies on Roald Dahl books. Later, I read them to my own children. His stories are interesting with fun characters, plots, and interesting twists and turns.
I know some people don’t like his stories. He has mean people in them and kids that are mistreated. However, his books always show the kids coming out the winners in the end. They get through it with perseverance or the help of someone that truly cares for them. You are always rooting for the underdog to come out on top, and they do.
Some of our favorite books by Roald Dahl are:
- Danny the Champion of the World
- The BFG
- Minpins
- Esio Trot
- James and the Giant Peach
- Matilda
- The Enormous Crocodile
- The Twits
- George’s Marvelous Medicine
- Fantastic Mr. Fox
- Charlie and
the Chocolate Factory - The Witches
I could go on forever because we really enjoy reading his stories together. My kids read many of his books on their own, too. Again, we tend to like quirky and unusual books.
The Sisters Grimm by Michael Buckley
Two sisters, Sabrina and Daphne Grimm, have been living in the foster care system for a year and a half ever since their parents went missing one night. One day a grandmother they thought was dead arrives and takes them home with her to Fairyport Landing.
Ferryport Landing is no ordinary town. It is a town with average people, but it also has people known as Everafters, fantasy and fairy tale characters. Sabrina and Daphne are descendants of the Brothers Grimm and a long line of detectives that solve cases involving the Everafters.
These books revolve around the storyline of solving cases they come upon in their unusual town but also trying to discover who kidnapped their parents. At the same time, they need to keep the Everafters from breaking through the town’s barrier into the rest of the world.
We are getting ready to read the fourth book in this series. It is always interesting to see how the fairy tale characters are portrayed, what their real stories are like, and what new twists the books will take. Each book adds in new characters and brings back some of the old favorites.
The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
The Westing Game is an older book that is a good mystery. It is about a group of people that unwittingly were hand-picked to live in a new apartment building. Soon all the tenants are thrust into solving the murder of an old man named Sam Westing and trying to figure out which one of them is his heir.
We had so much fun with this book. We wrote down clues and tried to figure out the mystery before we reached the end. The book has a lot of eccentric characters and takes unexpected turns in the plot.
The Jewel Fish of Karnak by Graeme Base and any other of his books
We read The Jewel Fish of Karnak as part of our Egyptian study. It is a good story that teaches a lesson and shows a little bit of the mythical creatures and beliefs of Ancient Egyptians. It also has the kids trying to solve a challenge at the end of the story. This is common in many of his books.
What I love about Graeme Base books is that they are “picture” books for older kids. He has wonderful stories with animals as the main characters. His version of an alphabet book, Animalia, contains a large vocabulary that is suitable for older elementary kids. I love his books.
There are so many good books. I could go on forever. We love reading together as a family. It is our time to hang out and have some fun laughing at the antics of characters in a book or trying to solve a good mystery. I will be sad if they ever get too old for me to read to them.
What are some of your family’s favorite books? Comment below.
