My favorite read-alouds of the 25-26 school year
Each school year, I read aloud to kids over 1,000 times. Literally.
At the end of the year, once the dust has settled on the school year, I love to look back at everything we read and note the true standouts. I love some for their raucous joy; others for offering something gentler but memorable in their own way. Note that for this year’s ranking, I omitted the deeper backlist titles that I read aloud every year — I’ll share a roundup of those perennial favorites in a separate post next week.
My read-aloud favorites
Without further ado, here are my 10 personal standouts:
I was particularly intrigued to note some genre/category trends in my favorites, including strong showings in sci-fi, absurdist fantasy, punchy nonfiction, and even horror.
(10) My Friend Andy by Emma Chinnery: this book is a powerful example of using the picture book form to depict an important social issue without being preachy. We get a dog’s-eye view of an unhoused person — the child reader sees homelessness in motion and is left to make their own (positive) inferences.
(9) Meet the Wild Things Series by Hayley and John Rocco: This has become one of my all-time favorite nonfiction series for kids. Each book features one animal, and the series has a wonderful balance of high-interest animals and curiously obscure ones. The text is short and engaging, with a great balance of cool facts and quick, direct appeals to the reader. (6 books in series so far)
(8) Bored by Felicita Sala: This one reads aloud like a dream — the text feels like delivering a sequence of “your mom” jokes, and the art feels like a silly and surreal slide into an absurdist Fantasia. It’s that sweet spot of short, snappy text with puzzling art that leaves a lot of meaning-making (and fun!) for the kid reading.
(7) The Slightly Spooky Tale of Fox and Mole by by Cecilia Heikkila, translated by Polly Lawson: Gothic horror masquerading as cozy animal friendship? Yes! This story dances on the line between too scary and just right and is the perfect spooky season read for 4th-5th grade classes.
(6) Cranky, Crabby Crow (Saves the World) by Corey R. Tabor: This is a story that starts as one thing, then becomes something else entirely and grants that elusive feeling that “Wait — a book can do that!?”
(5) Space: The Final Pooping Frontier by Annabeth Bondor-Stone, illustrated by Lars Kenseth: The book that completely horrified everyone (in a good way). Floating space turd? Poopcorn? Something the Apollo astronauts had to do that you will never forget once you read about it? Yes, yes, yes!
(4) Cabin Head and Tree Head by Scott Campbell: For months, I struggled to get this book to circulate in my library. But when I read the first two chapters aloud as part of our weird books unit, the obsession spread like wildfire, especially among my fourth grade boys. This was a great reminder that whenever I’m feeling puzzled by a book, I should read it aloud and see what happens. Long live the read-aloud!
(3) Is This a Plum? by Dan and Finn Ojari: a visual guessing game (with a bum on page one) that has quickly earned its place as one of the top-circulating books in our library.
(2) Tom Nancy by Mac Barnett, illustrated by X. Fang: this book stays wicked til the very end, and I LOVE IT. Not out til September, but a definitive favorite of the year for both me and the readers in my library.
(1) The Future Book by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Shawn Harris: I am on record as not completely loving this one based on my own personal taste, so how the heck did it land at the top of my list!? The power of read-alouds, baby! Over and over and over, I witnessed its electric effect on kids. It has saturated the vocabulary of the kids in my library, many of whom continue to quote it months later. What a feat; what a joy.
From the archive
Want to go hog-wild with your library holds? Here’s a roundup of all my read-alouds ranked posts from this school year, featuring 100+ picture books:
Bits & Pieces
I just finished and loved this novel, new from the author of one of my past favorites. I’m still processing, but for now I’m blown away by the way she so effectively rendered so many relationships in one book (out 11/3).
I’ve felt unsettled about making and sharing video content of myself since reading this essay, all the more-so with this week’s Muse AI brouhaha. (Yes, I’ve done the settings adjustments.) I haven’t pulled all my public videos (yet) but I sure am thinking about it. I shudder to imagine the stuff that malicious users — from students to book banners — could make of teachers and librarians…
I’m still thinkinging about this remarkable essay about breast cancer and Beatrix Potter. Taylor Sterling writes, “I’m not looking for an escape, not exactly; I’m looking for the truth—stories that are whimsical and dark, with missteps, mischief, and bad luck, but also warmth, charm, and a sense of humor. I don’t want to be shielded from the truth: I want facts and wonder. Potter’s characters may be tiny and fanciful, but they’re also imperfect, desirous, and complicated; they face real-world challenges, often fighting for survival in a harsh and beautiful world.” Thank you, Taylor, and wishing you a smooth and successful surgery.
Did you spot any favorites on today’s list, or have a read-aloud favorite of your own you’d like to share? I’d love to hear them!
Happy reading,
Chrissie
