- Nancy Drew by Carolyn Keene
- Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss
- Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
- Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
- The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss
- The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner
- Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
+ The Poky Little Puppy by Janette Sebring Lowrey
-Go, Dog, Go! by P. D. Eastman
- Are You My Mother? by P. D. Eastman
- Curious George by Margret and H. A. Rey
- Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
- The Little Engine that Could by Watty Piper and Loren Long
- Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
- Dick and Jane by William H. Elson
- Ramona Quimby, Age 8 by Beverly Cleary
- The Bobbsey Twins by Laura Lee Hope
- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
- Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
- The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
- The Black Stallion by Walter Farley
- The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
- Heidi by Johanna Spyri
- The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams
- A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
+ Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling
- Clifford the Big Red Dog by Norman Bridwell
+Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren
- Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery
- Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
- Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder
- The Hardy Boys by Franklin W. Dixon
+ One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss
- The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis
+Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein
- Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne
- The Baby-sitters Club by Ann M. Martin
- Horton Hears A Who by Dr. Seuss
- Amelia Bedelia by Peggy Parish
- Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss
- Mother Goose's Nursery Rhymes and Nursery Songs
- Encyclopedia Brown by Donald J. Sobol
- Mrs. Piggle Wiggle by Betty MacDonald
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
- The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
- Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans
- The Bible
- Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
- Ramona the Pest by Beverly Cleary
+ The Watson's Go to Birmingham-1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis
Lots of books hooked me at different parts of my life. I know One Fish Two Fish is the first book I could read alone. I can remember being on vacation somewhere where it rained everyday and we were in the mountains and I read Pipi Longstocking books till my eyes bleed. I used to stay up at night reading Shel Silverstein poem books and laughing like a loon. I remember distinctly the day my mom purchased Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (my first year teaching in '98) and told me my kids were going to be over the moon about it, which they were. But the book that launched my career as the best Read Aloud teacher in my school was The Watson's Go To Birmingham-1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis. I LOVE THIS BOOK with all my heart. I read it aloud every year. I have voices for everyone in the story and it never fails at making my kids readers---No matter what there were before they came to me.
