cindy, I'm going to cheat a little a offer the author (and ALL the author's books) for some of these:

Read to: A.A. Milne - all the Winnie the Pooh, including the poems

Young 6-10 Eleanor Estes books - Ginger Pye, The Moffet series

Young teens - The Dark is Rising Series (can't remember author)

Young adults - well, Tolkien of course, - The Lord of the Rings

But this was really hard because I know that Charlotte's Web belongs on this list. And so do the Mary Poppins books. And what about My Friend Flicka? Oh boy! The titles are flooding in now! I better get out of here.

For "books to be read to", I didn't have that experience so I don't know any to suggest.

For older children, Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen since the stories are referenced so often in popular culture and it's helpful to be familiar with the original source.

For the early teens, Lord of the Flies by William Golding.

For older teens, I'm going to break Cindy's rule about having read it as a kid and suggest Empire of the Sun by JG Ballard. It would be interesting as an adventure story and as an illustration of what it would be like when one's safe and familiar world suddenly breaks down.

To be read to: Mother Goose

Young readers (6-10ish): Little House Books

Young teens: Little Women

Older teens, young adults: Jane Eyre

Laceyveil, the Dark is Rising books are by Susan Cooper - excellent choice. Cindy, I think the author of The Phantom Tollbooth is called Norton Juster. I'm having problems thinking of another book more suited for that age group - or indeed any other book!

My choices:

>books to be read to
Maurice Sendak, Where The Wild Things Are

>books for young readers (6-10 ish)
C.S.Lewis, the Narnia stories

>books for young teens
E.Nesbit, The House of Arden

>books for older teens, young adults
J.D.Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye (again!)

ana, you are right, sorry bout that. That book is my favorite to give to young readers, esp as they get about 9 or 10 and get more of the word plays.

joseph, do you remember what books were read to you? I agree with you about the Andersen tales. Am I dating myself if I say that everything I think of Hans C. Andersen, I see Danny Kaye in my head? :)

Oh boy...the memories!!

Books to be read to......I don't remember being read to but my son's favorite was the Berenstein Bears Series.

6-10 years old.....The Bobbsey Twins

Young Teens.....Nancy Drew

Young Adults.....Emma by Jane Austen

gbg,
Danny Kaye....Yes!!

Cindy, no, I can't remember being read to at all although I must have been in the early grades. I can remember reciting the old nursery rhymes, but whether they came from the teacher or were passed down through the kids, I don't know. Along those lines, maybe I can suggest The Oxford Book of Nursery Rhymes edited by the British folklorists Iona and Peter Opie.

Anyanka, my older son had a perhaps peculiar reaction to Where the Wild Things Are. Someone had lent us the book. Though it was highly recommended for his age group, I had not read it before (it came out long after I was at the read-aloud-to stage). DS#1 and I snuggled together in our reading chair so that he could look at the pictures and turn the pages. As I read, I felt him gulp a few times. At some point that I don't remember, he began sobbing quietly. Then the sobs escalated to a wail, so I naturally stopped reading to soothe him and try to figure out what was wrong. When he calmed down, I asked him if he wanted me to continue reading. He yelled, "NO!", then whimpered, "No, no, no, please." We shut the book; and I placed it on a high shelf, out of his sight.

When he was teenager, he and I were in a bookstore together where there was collection of children's books arranged on a table, including Where the Wild Things Are. I picked up a copy and asked DS if he remembered it. After thumbing through a few pages, he said he didn't -- then he screwed up his face with distaste and dropped the book in haste. I asked him why he did that. He said that the illustrations were distorted and completely unappealing. I looked to see what he meant; but to me the Sendak artwork was more cute than gruesome or offensive. I guess the difference could be between a child's and an adult's perceptions, though. DS possibly subconsciously remembered his initial distaste and carried that with him through adolescence. Interestingly, to me, my younger son's reaction to Where the Wild Things Are was complete uninterest -- he always preferred doing things to being read to.

Friedag, My son loved "Where the Wild Things Are". He is now reading it to his 3-l/2 year old daughter. I do remember though that he wouldn't watch Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer any more after a scene when they were making fun of poor Rudolph. I was glad he was sensitive to others' feelings. I guess it just proves how differently we are affected even at very young ages by a story.

My picks:

Books to be read to:
Robert Louis Stevenson's "A Child's Garden of Verse"

Books for young readers:
Kenneth Grahame's "The Wind in the Willows"

Books for Young Teens:
Robert Louis Stevenson's "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"

Books For Young Adults:
Mark Twain's "Life on the Mississippi"

josh

There have been several good suggestions fo far. I would go along with The Lord of the Rings (and The Hobbit), The Phantom Tollbooth, The Dark Is Rising series, and Narnia.

My picks:

Books to be read to: Dr. Seuss books

Books for young readers: Beverly Cleary's "Henry Huggins"

Books for Young Teens: H. Rider Haggard's "King Solomon's Mines"

Books For Young Adults: Any of Wodehouse's "Bertie and Jeeves" books.

I can think of numerous others that have stayed with me, so I'd probably have different picks on a different day. I know my wife loves several series: Anne of Green Gables, Little House on the Prairie, and All-of-a-Kind Family.

Frieda, interesting story about your son's reaction! I love Sendak's artwork and was delighted when I found out that he was inspired by William Blake. There are some Blakean monsters that bear striking resemblance to the Wild Things.

It has always been my belief that reading to a child early, and I mean from the cradle, promotes a love of reading. However, this is not always the case. Maybe it's more important, or just as important, that the child simply sees other family members reading. My mother bought a fairly large collection of adult books from the People's Book Club, my father read two newspapers front to back every night, and my older brother and sister were busy with their schoolbooks. At no time was I ever read to, nor did I own an age-appropriate book, yet I craved books almost instinctively. Thus forced to choose from my mother's collection as soon as I could read well enough, I chose Sterling North's So Dear to My Heart. It was a good choice since, while it is written on an adult level, the main characters are two children, a wonderfully fatherly character called Uncle Hiram, and of course, an unruly black sheep named Danny. Some family members scoffed at the idea that I might be "really reading." The first time through I naturally didn't understand every word, but with each subsequent reading, more was understandable to me. Jeremiah became a good friend who filled some lonely hours and this book became beloved to me. Years later I read it aloud to my own children (who had a plethora of children's books right from birth.) It's strange how circumstances can put a book in a forefront position of one's mind and fill it with such good memories.

So I guess I'm saying our choices are very much subjective and one's pleasant memories help cull the field.

read to: Goodnight Moon Margaret Wise Brown

young readers: The Bad Beginning Lemony Snicket (the theory being, when they read the first, they'll keep on reading the series.)

young teens:The Door in the Wall Marguerite De Angeli

older teens: The Iliad Homer

>So I guess I'm saying our choices are very much subjective and one's pleasant memories help cull the field.

No question here. Would you like to put your very subjective choices on the list? :)

BTW, many experts say it is not enough to read to your child. You, or someone in the home, needs to read and the child needs to see you read. Children want to copy the adults they love and often will copy what they value. However, your mileage may vary. There are some kids that are just not interested in reading. Period. No matter what you do!

Books to be read to......the phenomenally popular Olivia books by Ian Falconer! Instant classics! I don't know who loves that irrepressible and cheeky little pig more, my daughters or their mommy.

6-10 years old.....Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones, which theoretically creates a love for DWJ that lasts forever. Thankfully, she wrote over 40 books. I'm reading her latest Chrestomanci book now.

Young Teens.....Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, a graphic novel that about a young girl growing up in Iran that illustrates that we really are all the same, no matter where we live.

Young Adults.....Life of Pi by Yann Martel, for the clever ending that makes you reflect and wonder.

To be read to - it has to be The Very Hungry Caterpillar. (I had to look up the spelling of caterpillar - nothing looked right!)

6-10 - Roahl Dahl for sure. Which one? I think perhaps Matilda. But then again - perhaps Dick King-Smith? Oh, this is hard....

Young Teens - hmmmmm.....Cindy nicked The Phantom Tollbooth already (which by the way is by Norton Juster - they don't call me picky for nothing!)...so I think The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. (But can someone else please put down The Railway Children by E Nesbit?)

Older teens - well, we're getting towards adult books - the book that had the biggest impact on me at that sort of age was Animal Farm by George Orwell.

Cjoseph - do you honestly think that Lord of the Flies is a book for young teens??? Older teens perhaps, and adults - but young teenagers? I read it at fourteen or so, and completely missed most of it.

Lord of the Flies is an assigned book for our 7th graders-12 or 13 years old. It is, of course, then discussed in class-but it is one book that almost all of them actually READ.

I read it my first year in HS, so I was 14. However, I was reading very adult type books by that time. I could see it would be problematic for some kids - but heck, I don't think most kids would be shocked or troubled by what they read in that book, at least not to the extent that we might think.

>it has to be The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Hee, I almost put that one down - its one of the first books I buy for a child passed toddlerhood. But I figured someone would, so I chose another fav! And yes I know Juster - the book wasn't in front of me at the time.

When I think 'older teens' I think of books marketed as Young Adult, tho they don't need to be. I so agree about Animal Farm, thats when I read it.

I read Lord of the Flies when I was 12, and I took it as an adventure story and as confirmation of my opinion that kids are "nasty, brutish, and short", to misapply Hobbes. Only later did I appreciate what Golding meant by the story. I thought about proposing Treasure Island, but it didn't stick in my mind like the other book.

Fair enough. Seems that I'm underestimating modern kids a little.

You know, it's years since I read LOTF...I'll have to dig my copy out. Could anyone be tempted by a discussion of it?

Teens vary so much in their reading levels - I know 14-year-olds who are on a pure adult novel level, and ones that are still buried in the various fantasy universes designed for their age range.

No 1 daughter had to read LotF for GCSEs; i.e. around 15. She understood it alright, but got very very fed up with it. I tried to re-read it to help her, but also found it too 'made for analysis'; everything is a symbol, and I think it's way too easy to decipher. Very suitable for English GCSEs because of that (she got an A!), but not our cup of tea.

Btw, Martin, the Hungry Caterpillar would have been my second choice right after the Wild Things! The artwork is wonderful, and the rhythm of the words makes it a joy to read out.

I'm suprised that no one has mentioned Lewis Carroll yet. I received considerable harassment from other boys for reading Alice in Wonderland and Alice through the Looking Glass (in one volume): "Isn't that a book for little girls?".

I second CeCe's suggestion that older teens are mature enough for Homer.

My dad read us the Odyssey one summer holiday when big bro & I were somewhere in the 8-12 year old range. Loved it, especially the rhythm of the language.

Sorry, the proper titles of Lewis Carroll's works are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass.

books to be read to - I do not have much experience with this, but I know when I read to my friends three year old, he seems to enjoy interactive books and books that he has to find/do things in. But I would think for the little older to be read to's Shel Silversteins poetry collections Where the Side walk Ends and A light in the Attic - the funny poems and illustrations appealed to me at that age (lol and still to this day)

books for young readers (6-10 ish) - Ramona Series by Beverly Cleary. These are wonderful books!

The next two were harder, as I tried to base them on more modern books. I ended up picking the two that were my nephews favorites that we read and discussed when he was that age. He didnt enjoy reading, but read these two several times.

books for young teens - The Thief of Always by Clive Barker. This is a great book for kids who like the horror genre, but arent ready for Stephen King :) I believe the reading age is 10 and up, and I believe we read this when he was around 12. A wonderful story about a boy that is bored with his life and ends up at Mr. Hoods Holiday House, where all the seasons pass in a day and you can do and have everything your heart desires - for a price.

books for older teens, young adults - Miracle's Boys by Jacqueline Woodson. This is an amazing book for people of all ages, although it is geared specifically towards YA. It is a great story about the struggles a young man must face with his brothers after his mother dies.

Wanted to put a Jack London book on here, but was not sure if that would be considered a childrens book, even though I read it when I was quite young (10 or 12 I think)

chownrott, I think the Silverstien books are better for upper elementary, the younger kids don't quite get his humor.

Don't you just love reading to other people's kids? I get a kick out of it, since I don't have my own. And now most of my friend's kids are too old to be read to! But - I am still the 'auntie' who buys them books.

>I tried to base them on more modern books

Actually it might have been interesting to do what martin did and make a pre 1900 and 1900+ for each group. Modern is good. There's lots of excellent stuff out there.

Jack London Call of the Wild? Uh hu, I read that at about 10, and I have a niece who is 12 and has read all of his work.

Chownrott, is Clive Barker's Thief of Always also a 'proper' book? I've just read it as a graphic novel; good story, but fantastic graphics.

Anyanka - I am not sure what you are asking about a 'proper'book. The copies I have (they are older ones) only have pictures at the beginning of each chapter. Is there a newer version that is done in picture form?

I don't know how new - I borrowed it from the library - but yes, it's a graphic novel version. I hadn't realised that it was based on an actual story, as a lot of graphic novels have original storylines. Here's a link that shows some of the images -

Here is a link that might be useful: Thief of Always

I don't think I can fill in many of these categories, but I wanted to add Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh by Robert O'Brien and Roald Dahl's The BFG. Both were read to me when I was young and I remember feeling excited when I knew it was time to hear more of the story!

oh wow anyanka - thanks for that link! There is also a book form of the story. Not sure which came first. I believe my copy is from 1992 or 1993.

angelini - great chioce on Mrs. Frisby and the rats of Nimh.

Oh Dahl - the only thing I've read by him was Willy Wonka (which is much darker than the movie, but still excellent). But his works are considered classics for kids. What other children's authors are missing here?

Philip Pullman's 'Dark Materials' trilogy should be in the list; Astrid Lindgren needs to be represented, and I'd also like to see Tove Jansson included.