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Reading Aloud Chapter Books during Holidays or Family Trips


One of my favorite childhood memories is from one winter when all our family (mom, dad, me, and my younger brother) got a nasty flu and stayed home for a week or so. We were all feeling miserable, the four of us lying and resting in our parents' bed... it wasn't the best of times. Until my dad came up with the idea of a family read-aloud - and my mom chose a book for the occasion, and a great book at that - "Treasure Island" by Robert Louis Stevenson.
All of a sudden, our miserable week was transformed. Mom and dad took turns reading, for 20 minutes or so at a time - they were also sick, after all! - and my brother and I listened and talked about the adventures of Jim and his friends and the pirates between the reads-aloud. In his beautiful poem "Block City" Stevenson described this sweeping feeling of a child's imagination running wild during imaginary games:

What are you able to build with your blocks?
Castles and palaces, temples and docks.
Rain may keep raining, and others go roam,
But I can be happy and building at home.

Let the sofa be mountains, the carpet be sea,
There I'll establish a city for me:
A kirk and a mill and a palace beside,
And a harbor as well where my vessels may ride.

Family read-aloud requires a time and space shared by all family members. This can be challenging in our daily lives. We're short on quality family time because our schedules are complicated and demanding. The problem with space is often the opposite: when we're finally all home together, it's an equal challenge to get everyone on the same couch or even in the same room.
Holidays, and especially family trips, provide both time and space. We typically have a lot of time on our hands, and our hotel or vacation rental spaces tend to be smaller than our homes. This is why it's so great to have a chapter book ready for a family read-aloud during the holidays.

So how to choose a chapter book to read aloud together?
  • Each chapter should be engaging enough as a stand-alone story, but the whole should be interesting as a big story—it'll be great to look forward to what happens in the end!
  • Age group: Use an average of the kids' ages. I have two kids with a pretty big age gap, so when they are 4 and 10, for family reading aloud, I will choose books aimed at 7-year-olds: comprehensible for the younger kid but still enjoyable for the older kid. 
  • Parents or caregivers reading aloud should love this book—you're the one doing the job, so you should read something you love!
  • Illustrated editions would be helpful. 
  • Book series are great for read-alouds and reading in general—they keep us in suspense, and we want to read more... and more... and more!
How to tell the story?
  • Introduce the characters, the settings, and the time period.
  • Repeat, repeat, repeat—especially when reading more complex stories or when you have younger siblings who have trouble following the story.
  • Discuss - this may be the best part. Recap what happened before, imagine what could happen next, and try to figure out how the story could end - together.
There are many lists with helpful suggestions for books to read aloud together as a family (here's the one from the goodreads). Some of the books we've tried and loved are:
  • The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis 
  • Emil and the Detectives by Erich Kastner 
  • Thomas the Tank Engine by Wilbert Awdry

The memories from reading together a great story would intertwine with the memories from the family vacation and the time spent together. Stevenson finishes the "Block City" with this depiction of a lifetime memory:

Now I have done with it, down let it go!
All in a moment the town is laid low.
Block upon block lying scattered and free,
What is there left of my town by the sea?

Yet as I saw it, I see it again,
The kirk and the palace, the ships and the men,
And as long as I live and where'er I may be,
I'll always remember my town by the sea.
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