Lively Listening (read aloud) Program

This post is actually a cheat, because I’ve posted on this topic before.  I think reading aloud to kids of all ages is just as important as it is to babies and toddlers.  This week for our Lively Listening program I focused on informational texts, biographies, and historical fiction.  These categories are often overlooked and have a large number of amazing stories that kids would absolutely love – if they knew they existed.  So if you want to know more about my opinion on reading aloud to children look back to my previous post on the matter and as for this – here’s a list of books to good to pass up!

I read aloud to the kids Queen of the Falls by Chris Van Allsburg about the first person (a woman) to travel over Niagara Falls in a barrel.  The second book I read aloud was Owen & Mzee: The True Story of a Remarkable Friendship by Isabella Hatkoff, Craig Hatkoff, and Dr. Paula Kahumbu about a baby hippo and an Aldabra tortoise who became close friends.  Both of these are true stories written in a more story-like way, similar to that of a picture book.

Below is a booklist of other books that are either informational texts, biographies, or historical fiction stories that you should definitely take a look at:

• The Day-Glo Brothers: The True Story of Bob and Joe Switzer’s Bright Ideas and Brand-New Colors
  By, Chris Barton
• Spiders
  By, Nic Bishop
• Bodies from the Ice: Melting Glaciers and the Recovery of the Past
  By, James M. Deem
• The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins
  By, Barbara Kerley
• Snowflake Bentley
  By, Jacqueline Briggs Martin
• Kakapo Rescue, Saving the World’s Strangest Parrot
  By, Sy Montgomery
• Nurse, Soldier, Spy: The Story of Sarah Edmonds, A Civil War Hero
  By, Marissa Moss
• We are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball
  By, Kadir Nelson
• Bad News for Outlaws: The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U.S. Marshal
  By, Vaunda Micheaux Nelson
• The Houdini Box
  By, Brian Selznick
• Polar The Titanic Bear: A True Story
  By, Daisy Corning Stone Spedden
• Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream
  By, Tanya Lee Stone
• Balloons Over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy’s Parade
  By, Melissa Sweet
• Mailing May
  By, Michael O. Tunnell