Chapter Books to Read Aloud

Reading chapter books together is a daily part of our family’s homeschooling lifestyle! At home, in waiting rooms, in the car, you will usually find us with a book not far from reach.

See the small children playing in the background? Yep, that’s how it actually looks in our house! They’re listening too – more than we oftentimes realize!

In this post, I’m sharing our favorite chapter books.

This list of books includes books for a variety of different ages and stages.

Whether your child is a beginning chapter book reader or a more advanced middle schooler, there is something here for you.

Don’t worry, at the end of the post, I link to the area of our Amazon storefront where all of these books and series have been saved together in one place for you!

The Imagination Station series by Marianne Hering

These books are put out in conjunction with Focus On The Family and Adventures In Odyssey.

Cousins Beth and Patrick find themselves whisked away on historical adventures every time they explore in the Imagination Station.

If your children tend to like the Magic Tree House series of books,

but you would prefer they come from a Christian worldview, then this is the series for you!

They are short reads, accessible to young readers working on gaining confidence, and it’s amazing how much adventure is held in such slim books!

The Secret Of The Hidden Scrolls series by M. J. Thomas

Follow Peter and Mary (and their faithful dog) on their adventures as they discover the hidden scrolls.

The scrolls transport the main characters back to important moments in Biblical history!

As exciting as that is, they’ll stay stuck there in time unless they can find clues to unlock each scroll’s secrets.

The entire series of nine books is sure to encourage a lifelong love of reading.

The Boxcar Children series by Gertrude Chandler Warner

While the series today has well over a hundred titles, trust me when I say that the first set are a particularly good read.

Four orphaned children make a home for themselves in an abandoned boxcar, but they eventually meet their grandfather and the boxcar is moved to his backyard as a playhouse.

Now, the adopted children go on all manner of adventures in the neighborhood or on trips with their grandfathers – often solving mysteries along the way.

The Hardy Boys series by Franklin W. Dixon

Frank and Joe Hardy will bring your family on a whirlwind of mysteries through the books in this series.

These are classic books, similar to the Nancy Drew series, where two teenage boys, through persistence and ingenuity, solve cases that even stump the grown-ups.

A great chapter book to read aloud to young kids or let your older children read on their own.

Have a reader who enjoys the Hardy Boys books?

They may also like these vintage Brains Benton Mysteries!

These were favorites of my dad when he was a little boy!

It was really special to collect used copies of them for my sons.

The Chronicles Of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

These classic chapter books are worth reading over and over again.

Lewis tells a moving tale of four siblings that get transported to a magical land.

The first book is a well-loved classic, but it would be a shame to stop there!

New and old characters come together in each of the seven books to paint a fuller picture of Lewis’s allegory.

The World of Beverly Cleary collection

Beverly Cleary is a master of children’s chapter books.

Over the course of fifteen books, she creates a world around her well-loved characters of Beezus and Ramona, Henry and Ribsy.

Whether they are having adventures together or are the star of a book on their own, these characters work their way into your heart.

Also included in this collection are tales about Ralph, a highly adventurous little mouse from the neighborhood!

The Green Ember series by S. D. Smith

Enter a realm of fantasy, where rabbits live in a land ravaged by evil preylords.

What can small rabbits do?

Well, even the meek can be mighty when they keep the faith.

Siblings Heather and Pickett get thrust into the midst of this life-or-death struggle.

The tale told of this magical world has beautiful parallels to the Gospel story.

The Prince Warriors Series by Priscilla Shirer

If your kids love adventure, this series follows a group of young friends as they discover an unseen world.

It is there where they use their armor to battle dangers together – as the Prince Warriors!

The Blackgaard Chronicles by Phil Lollar

The Adventures in Odyssey audio drama captured many of our hearts, and this new book series explores more of that story.

The evil Dr. Blackgaard is using city officials like pawns on a chessboard, and in the midst of that, an awful computer program gets triggered.

This fun adventure pits good against evil in a book series that is sure to stand the test of time.

Young Whit (pictured here along with the Blackgaard Chronicles) is another fantastic chapter book series from Focus on the Family that my kids have enjoyed.

The Kidventures books from Focus are also great reads!

The Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Here is a unique, true story of the life of a young girl growing up as an American pioneer.

Laura weaved her real life experiences into a historical narrative of the hardships and joys she went through, from childhood through marriage.

The first books are particularly perfect to be read to a little girl, and older children will be inspired by the challenges Laura faced as she grew up.

The Rush Revere series by Rush Limbaugh

A book series written by a radio talk-show host?

Trust me, these new books do an spectacular job bringing history to life for young children!

You’ll follow substitute history teacher, Rush Revere, as he actually goes back in time to live key moments in America’s colonial and revolutionary history.

Another Great History Series We’ve Loved

The American Adventure Series is a fantastic way to walk through the history of America!

This series travels through time in chronological order – fictional characters placed in real historical events!

We have loved reading through this series together.

This is an older series of books, and it took a bit of hunting to build our collection.

We shopped these books used on Amazon, used from Thrift Books (I’ll drop a code at the end of this post!), etc.

Mrs. Piggle Wiggle by Betty MacDonald

Although there is a whole series based around the adventures and lessons of Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, the first book is particularly endearing.

She lives in an upside-down house in a neighborhood filled with children with some bad habits.

But never fear – she has a magical pirate’s chest of cures! These cures are all funny with a side of truth, making it a great book for children without overbearing the point.

The Christian Heroes: Then & Now books by Geoff and Janet Benge

Each book in this publication dive into the lives of many heroes of the Christian faith.

From missionaries to martyrs, writers to reformers, these books look at how God uses the unique gifts in each person to further the Gospel.

However, don’t imagine that these are dry, historical biographies.

They are accurate and true, but they are far from dry!

You truly feel immersed in the story of the saint.

More Christian Heroes Books Worth Checking Out

These first two books pictured here are not technically chapter books – but have made for fantastic read-aloud books to use in our homeschool.

The Mercy Watson series by Kate DiCamillo

Katie DiCamillo has a gift for writing some of the best read-aloud chapter books!

This New York Times best-selling series contains six adventures of Mercy Watson, an endearing pig!

Always getting into scrapes and finding ingenious and hilarious ways out of them, this chapter book series is becoming a quick classic.

When other families ask me where to start with beginning chapter books, I usually always mention the Mercy Watson series – with Tales from Deckawoo Drive following!

Geronimo Stilton by Geronimo Stilton

I have such sweet memories of my oldest first learning to read and falling in love with this series!

I loved taking him to the library to gather new ones he hadn’t yet read!

We typically stuck with the original series, but we did read a few of the Special Edition books. The holiday ones were his favorite!

The Mysterious Benedict Society series by Trenton Lee Stewart

This four-book series follows the adventures of four children, banded together by the mysterious and eccentric Mr. Benedict.

They are each gifts in some way, but they are also each either orphaned or unwanted.

They must work together to stop Mr. Benedict’s sister from taking over the world!

The Penderwicks series by Jeanne Birdsall

If you’re looking for a great read-aloud series that reminds you of the sweet childhoods of long ago, the Penderwick series is exactly that.

It’s often compared to books by Louisa May Alcott and Edith Nesbit, although in a more modern setting.

This family of four sisters and their father (and their dog, of course!) have beautiful ties of truth and honor, yet keep winding up in troubles.

Wild Robot series by Peter Brown

This series is action-packaged, but also very heartwarming!

A robot learns to survive in the wilderness, making friends with the animals along the way.

A few more chapter books I’ll share snapshots of in case you want to check them out!

Have a reluctant reader?

While, of course, encouraging them to read independently by finding great books that fit their interests, I always recommend:

• reading aloud to your child – no matter their age!
• providing them with silly-seeming things to read – yes, joke books might just do the trick!
• creating opportunities for audiobooks, audio stories to be listened to – at meal times, during afternoon quiet times, in the car, at bedtime – whatever would work best for your family’s lifestyle.

Want to shop all of these chapter books saved in one place?

As you browse each book or book series, you will be able to read more about the stories, the age recommendations provided, and more.

We hope you and your family will discover new stories and characters to love.

You will also see some recommendations there that were not included on this list, and we plan to continue adding new finds there as we discover them and want to share them with you!

We are part of the Amazon affiliate program and do receive a portion of each purchase made through our affiliate links. Thank you for your support.

Interested in shopping these chapter books used?

I’ve got a referral code for you to use if you’re new to Thrift Books!

For some of the out-of-print/out-of-stock titles we’ve been on the hunt for over the years, we’ve had a lot of success finding them on Thrift Books!

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• Advent Resources for December

Free Book Report Projects for You to Access and Print

Also, don’t forget! We offer these project-based book report options to our email subscribers – Definitely NOT your typical book reports!