The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease

The Read-Aloud Handbook has been a gold standard in books about children’s books for decades; we recommend older editions of this book.

The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease, revised and updated. Penguin, 1994. 340 pages.

• Reading Level: Adults
• Recommended For: Adults

The Read-Aloud Handbook was first published in 1979 and based on Trelease’s own observations of children in classrooms. Trelease essentially pioneered a movement of reading aloud to students beyond the point at which they could read for themselves. Speaking personally, I remember my mother reading aloud to my sister and me well after we could read on our own. She was an avid follower of Gladys Hunt’s recommendations from Honey for a Child’s Heart, but Trelease’s recommendations were “in the air” at the same time, influencing schools and homes alike.

Like Hunt’s book, The Read-Aloud Handbook is half essays and half booklists. The first half of the book outlines the case for reading aloud, offers advice on when and how to read aloud, and encourages parents and educators to pay attention to the “print climate” of their children and students. The second half of the book is all lists! Most titles are annotated and all are selected with reading aloud in mind; that is, they all work well in that environment. Selections are broad and expansive, ranging from preschool through high school.

The Read-Aloud Handbook has just entered into its 9th edition, a prodigious feat for any book. However, Trelease is no longer alive and hasn’t edited the most recent editions. The 6th edition is the latest edition we can recommend due to the shifting cultural assumptions of what connotes acceptable themes in literature. The Read-Aloud Handbook has always been a resource for the masses in that it never pretended to be a “Christian” book. But when the book was first published, children’s literature standards were more traditional in terms of violence, sexual issues, language, etc. We do not categorically recommend every title recommended, even in the 6th and earlier editions (we haven’t read them all!), but we have found these earlier editions to be reliable. The essay portion is also solid.

Bottom Line: Earlier editions of The Read-Aloud Handbook are worth seeking out as a solid resource for books to read aloud.

Recommended Reading at Redeemed Reader

• Reviews: We also enjoyed Sarah Mackenzie’s The Read-Aloud Family and Meghan Cox Gurdon’s book The Enchanted Hour. Both of these titles are about the benefits of reading aloud.
• Resource: Did you know we have a category of books we think make excellent family read alouds? Browse it here.
• Resource: The Read-Aloud Handbook is a “Literary Nightstand” title: books about books.

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You may purchase The Read-Aloud Handbook on amazon. (Note: we have linked to the 6th edition.)