Reading Aloud in 2014

I've been reading aloud to my son since the day he was born. I've always loved sharing precious books from my own childhood but the beauty of having a child who loves reading and being read to is that we can discover new authors together and it gives me a wonderful excuse to indulge myself with some fabulous children's fiction.

I loved it when my parents or teachers would read 'chapter books' aloud. There is a perverse, exquisite pleasure in having to wait for the next reading session to find out what happens next. I've always loved our bedtime story routine but now we are sharing chapter books I find that often I am looking forward to the story just as much as he is. It isn't hard to twist my arm for 'just one more chapter pleeaasseee...'

It can be difficult to select quality reading material for kids once they move on from picture books as they are harder to vet without reading the whole book yourself. There are plenty of books that appeal to kids of a certain age (often game, movie or tv spin-offs) but they are just not very well written and are very difficult to read aloud. I've been looking at book reviews on Goodreads but find that often reviews of kids books are written by adults who seem to miss the point that children's books are actually written specifically for kids.

I thought it might be fun for us to review some books together, as we read our way through our ever-expanding library. I have promised to faithfully type his reviews exactly in his own words without any fussy-mummy editing.

I'd love to see reviews of other books for shared reading so join in, link to your blog in the comments on this post and share some of your favourites for reading aloud.