Did your parents read to you when you were little? Do you remember the books they read, or the ones you might have read to your little ones? Our parents opened up worlds and dimensions, history and adventure by reading to us until we could read for ourselves.

We kids didn’t know we were supposed to read age-appropriate books. We read everything we could get our hands on. We grew up in Germany and Italy and didn’t have a television in the house. We checked stacks of books out of the post library every week, and read them all.

I read Ernest Hemingway and Robert A. Heinlein before middle school. I cried for Anne Frank and Corrie Ten Boom, and wanted so much for Scarlet O’Hara and Rhett Butler to live happily ever after. I read classics and romances, mysteries and fantasy epics. I soared over Pern on Anne McAffrey’s dragons and fell in love with the natives of Fletcher Christian’s Pitcairn Island.  I traveled to new worlds, traversed time and dimensions, and found my faith through the written word.

I found this treasure of an article with a list of 25 read-aloud books. There are some I haven’t read yet! I will, though. I certainly will. Grandkids, gather around. Gramma wants to read to you.