My Kid's Favorite Read Alouds in 2021
Hi friends! Welcome to December! That time of year when you have about eight million things to keep track of in your heads, extra stuff on the calendar and so many events that keep popping up. It’s also time for one of my favorite things, end of the year lists! The lists of best movies, shows, music, books, things that stood out in the course of the past 12 months. I have already started seeing some lists of best books of the year pop up on social media accounts I follow, and I always think “but the year isn’t over! What if they read an extraordinary book in December??” So I won’t be sharing my list of favorite books until later this month, just in case something I pick up in the next 3 weeks is a truly standout title. But, I am able to share today a list of the best books my kids and I read together this year because we are done with reading aloud novels for 2021. In the month of December we always wrap the kids Christmas books for them and then they unwrap them one night at a time, reading stories of the nativity, snowmen, Santa, Christmas trees and old legends.
I kept track on this cute bookshelf reading tracker of the novels we read together this year and it was fun to say “look guys! Just by reading a chapter a night of most of these books we read 16 books together in 11 months!” They loved going back through the list with me the other day remembering funny or memorable things from these titles that made up our year together and then I asked each of them to pick their 4 favorite titles from this list. I’ll share the list of all 16 that we read below and then expand on our very favorites so you can know if it might be a good book for your kids at whatever stage they are in. (I should also say we started a few books this year that after several chapters I could tell weren’t working, especially for Asher, so we put those aside. I want reading together to be something we all love, and I think part of teaching them to become a reader is teaching them it is okay to put aside books that aren’t connecting with you at a given time).
The 16 books we read in 2021 together were:
1. Ramona and Her Father by Beverly Cleary
2. Henry & Beezus by Beverly Cleary
3. Ramona and Her Mother by Beverly Cleary
4. The Adventures of Nanny Piggins by R.A. Spratt
5. The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B White
6. Ramona Quimby Age 8 by Beverly Cleary
7. Ramona Forever by Beverly Cleary
8. Flora and Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo
9. Ramona’s World by Beverly Cleary
10. Nanny Piggins and the Wicked Plan by R.A. Spratt
11. The Penderwicks by Jeane Birdsall
12. Nanny Piggins and the Run Away Lion by R.A. Spratt
13. The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo
14. Nanny Piggins and the Accidental Blastoff by R.A. Spratt
15. The Christmas Pig by J.K. Rowling
16. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson
The boys narrowed down their 4 favorites from this list so if anyone is looking for some good read alouds these books passed the test of two little boys!
Asher’s favorite books this year were:
The Christmas Pig—This was actually all of our very favorite book of the year. I will say, it starts out really sad—Jack’s father moves out, he has to change schools and move far away with his mom, his mom gets remarried (to a really good guy) but that brings a step sister who is afraid Jack is going to take aawy her dad so she’s terrible to him, and then on Christmas Eve the stepsister throws Jack’s beloved stuffed pig (DP) out the car window onto the highway and he’s gone. It is a LOT in the first few chapters. But later that night Jack is magically transported to the Land of the Lost with a replacement stuffed pig (The Christmas Pig) and the two of them go on an incredible adventure to try and find and rescue DP. They travel through several towns and meet all kinds of interesting characters, all of whom are lost objects. We laughed, we all teared up, and the ending themes of belovedness, self sacrifice, and loyalty were gorgeously written. We finished it weeks ago and this morning Asher said once again “Mommy you know what was my very favorite book this year? The Christmas Pig.” Same bud, same.
Flora & Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo—Many of you may have seen the new movie on Disney+ of Flora and Ulysses, the story of a quirky little girl Flora, who is a self-identified cynic and a squirrel who develops super powers after being accidentally sucked up into a vacuum. There are laugh out loud hilarious moments, funny characters, and many adventures. I will say, we all loved this story, and the book is far better than the movie (and different!) but this was a harder one to read aloud as the paragraphs are interspersed with graphic novel style comics (Flora’s obsessed with comics and so she’s kind of writing her own as the story progresses). It was fun but harder to read aloud. The internet says it’s for 5th grade, and there were many times I thought it was a bit over Asher’s head but he loved it and said it was one of his favorite’s of the year.
Nanny Piggins and the Runaway Lion—I’m not entirely sure why Asher loved this Nanny Piggins more than any of the others we read but Nanny Piggins made all of us laugh out loud all year long. There are 8 books in this relatively unknown series and we read the first four. Nanny Piggins is a former circus performing pig who spent her life being shot out of a canon multiple times a day. She runs away from the circus in book 1 and sees a sign posted in a front yard that they are hiring a nanny to care for human children. She’s a pig. But she doesn’t see why that should discount her from the job. She meets Mr. Green, a widower who really is a terrible father (he just doesn’t like kids so he tries to stay at work as much as possible so he doesn’t have to take care of his own). She takes the job and hilarity ensues. Her main goal in life is to eat as much chocolate cake as possible, flat out disregard every rule set before her (she has MANY run ins with the truancy officer because she believes sending children to sit at desks all day is a form of torture) and the three Green children find themselves on all kinds of adventures with their unorthodox nanny. They also find themselves being truly loved. All that being said, I do feel like I should offer a content warning! Nanny Piggins is unorthodox and says things that might make some cringe. She’s also a pig and makes all kinds of comments about her weight and how proud and beautiful she believes she is, however there were times when I found myself cringing a bit at some of her more colorful comments about other people. All that went over the kids’ heads but I will say that some might be more sensitive than I might be in terms of what they want their kids to hear so just proceed with caution—but I promise your kids will LAUGH at her antics!
The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo—This was on all of our lists as a very favorite of the year. I knew nothing about this one when I picked it up this summer but it looked like a fun read aloud. It was delightful. Despereaux Tilling is a mouse who doesn’t always behave as a mouse ought to behave and who sets out on a quest to rescue a human princess from the rats. This book was the perfect read aloud. The chapters were short, so we could get through several in a night which always helps kids feel like they are making progress in a book, and we all absolutely loved this story. So beautifully written and guaranteed to keep you turning pages!
Aidan’s favorite books of this year were:
The Christmas Pig
The Tale of Despereaux
The Trumpet of the Swan by EB White—I have read Charlotte’s Web numerous times over the years but I had never picked up his other book The Trumpet of the Swan. I think it always looked kind of dull to me, I don’t really know why, but it’s never looked like a book I thought I’d love, For some reason I bought a copy this summer when I bought Despereaux and told the boys we were going to try it and see how it was. We were all hooked after the first chapter. EB White knows how to write a story for kids. I don’t know why I was surprised by how much we all loved this, we all loved Charlotte’s Web, but we all really loved this book. Louis the trumpeter swan is born without a voice. Without being able to trumpet he can’t attract a mate or communicate. Louis learns to read and write to try and communicate but his fellow swans can’t read so that doesn’t help him feel a part of the community either. His father finally breaks into a music shop and steals a trumpet for Louis who then learns how to play it and becomes an exceptionally gifted musician in order to win the heart of Serena, a fellow swan. From Canada to the east coast of America and back to Montana this sweet sweet story will keep your family turning pages together!
The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall—I’ll be honest I didn’t expect this one to be a favorite of my boy’s, this story of a family with 4 sisters, but Aidan really loved this one. It wasn’t Asher’s favorite but he enjoyed it enough to sit through it. Aidan really liked this story of four sisters on vacation with their widower father where they have all kinds of mishaps with the son of the woman who owns their rental cottage. There are a few other books in this series but I think we’ll wait another year or so before getting those, I think Asher will enjoy them more a year from now, but any 8-11 year old would probably enjoy this series!
Aidan and I also read aloud the rest of the Harry Potter series this year which was just my absolute favorite thing we’ve done together. I loved seeing him uncover these adventures, characters, and little tidbits of information along the way that all came together as the series concludes. I cried my way through several chapters which gave him permission to tear up too as tragedy befell some of the characters we had come to love, and I love that I got to share the experience of reading these aloud to him these past 3 years.
We’d love to hear from friends! What have been some of your kid’s favorite read alouds recently? We always have a list and we’d love to add to it! Happy reading my friends!
