Our Favorite Read-Alouds This Week: 1

I've wanted to share some of the books that we enjoy reading during the week for a while now. Once I start new posts they tend to sit as drafts for so long they nearly become books themselves. I have the bad habit of adding to posts for months on end without ever publishing them.

My new endeavor is to try to post weekly or no-weekly about our favorite read-alouds.

This week we continued reading from Peter Pan. We're reading a chapter a night, simply because it takes so long to explain what everything means to the boys. I'm also learning new vocabulary words in the process. Who knew perambulator is what the English used to call a baby carriage? And that pram is short for perambulator?

I added scales, feathers, and a skirt where there was previously a whole lotta skin.

There are some "gross out" parts I've skipped so far, like the part in the beginning where it talks about the kiss in the corner of Wendy's mouth. They're boys, they freak out a lot right now about that kind of stuff, so I try to avoid some of the drama. This particular edition is an illustrated copy found at a thrift store, and I had to "edit" a few of the illustrations with a black pen to make them less scandalous.

Here is read-aloud version of Tikki Tikki Tembo

We really enjoyed Tikki Tikki Tembo, which is a story I remember from public school. All I retained from the story this many years later was the name of the little Chinese boy, which was fun saying over and over again: Tikki tikki tembo-no sa rembo-chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo. And all you have to say is Tikki, and the boys start saying it over and over again! It's a Chinese proverb about a boy with a really long name who falls down a well.

Gorilla was a Christmas gift of Liam's, and the boys loved the illustrations the most. It's the story of a little girl who loves gorillas, and feels neglected by her father. We were trying to figure out if the story is part of the little girl's dream or happened in real life by some kind of magic.

The Story About Ping is a Chinese tale from 1933 about a little duck who gets lost because he didn't want to receive a punishment. The boys were quite scandalized that someone would actually spank a cute little yellow duck.

Stone Soup, first published in 1947, is based on an old French story about three road-weary soldiers who trick a whole village into sharing what little they had to make a big batch of soup to feed the lot of them. It's a fun story, but even the older boys were shaking their heads at how adults could be so dense as to be duped like that.

Finally, Hi Tom (1962) is another classic story found at a thrift store. It's the adventures of a lonesome boy, Tom, and his dog, Trailer, who disturb the legendary Old Man of the Mountain by yelling "HI TOM!" into the mountains to hear the echos. In this story it talks about Tom's mother preparing spoon bread (which we made to see what it's like--recipe here), along with ham hocks and turnip greens.

What are some of your favorite read-aloud books? Are there ways you try to bring the story to life for your listeners?