20 Chapter Books I Read with My Kids in 2024
Here’s our 2024 family reading list, complete with our reviews and recommendations to inspire your family’s next literary adventure. Perfect for parents seeking engaging chapter books for kids!
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If you’ve been around here very long, you know how much our family loves books. Reading aloud together has always been an important part of our family culture, even though my kids are more than capable of reading on their own. Whether we’re snuggled up at bedtime or listening to audiobooks on long car rides, sharing good books with my kids is one of my favorite parts of motherhood.
This year, we listened to a lot of audio books together, and I read aloud to the kids some, too. Over the course of the year, we read 20 chapter books together!
Want to know how we get in so much reading? Check out this post: How to fit in more time to read aloud to kids, even when you’re busy.
Some were unforgettable favorites that made my kids groan in protest every night when I closed the book and sent them to bed. Others fell flat, and we were happy to forget them and move on.
For your enjoyment, here’s our 2024 reading list—complete with our family’s review of each one. I hope it sparks ideas for your own family’s reading adventures in the coming year!
Happy reading!
Chapter Books I Read Aloud with My Kids in 2024
The Castle of Llyr & The High King by Lloyd Alexander. These are books three and five in the highly acclaimed Chronicles of Prydain series (of Black Cauldron fame). We read the first two books at the end of 2023, and my boys loved them so much that we kept going. Due to parental error (oops), we accidentally skipped book four, but they loved all the books we read! They are classics in the high fantasy genre for good reason, and The High King even won the Newbery Medal in 1969. They are epic, action-packed, funny, and teach great life lessons. Highly recommend listening to the audiobook narrated by James Langton. He’s so good!
The Giver by Lois Lowry. Another classic that I decided my kids were old enough to appreciate this year. And they did…sort of. They enjoyed the dystopian genre, and thought the premise was interesting, but some of the concepts definitely went over the younger boys’ heads. It was absolutely worth reading, and it led to some interesting discussions, but they weren’t super excited about continuing on to the rest of the series.
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry. I didn’t set out to make this the year of reading Newbery Medal winners, but it kind of happened anyway! This one, again by Lois Lowry, is a short historical fiction book about a young girl in Denmark who helps her Jewish friend escape the Nazis. My boys were captivated by the suspenseful plot, and the lessons the main character learns led to some good discussions about standing up for what’s right. It’s a quick, impactful read we all enjoyed.
Odder by Katherine Applegate. This poetic novel suprised all of us by being fascinating and completely delightful. It’s the first chapter book I invited my (then) six-year-old to listen in on, and he was completely entranced by the story of an adventurous little otter who gets rescued by the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It’s packed with interesting facts about otters, so it’s perfect for animal lovers, and I dare you not to fall in love with the charming main character. It also made me want to plan a family trip to the Central California coast!
The Last Mapmaker by Christina Soontornvat. We listened to this one on a roadtrip in the spring, and it was a hit! All Thirteen, by the same author, was one of my favorite books of 2023, and while this one is a completely different type of story, I really enjoyed it. It’s a Thai-inspired fantasy adventure about a mapmaker’s young assistant and their voyage beyond the known world to search for the dragons of legend. It did have a bit of a slow start, but once we got into it, we couldn’t wait to find out what was going to happen next!
The Twenty-one Balloons by William Pene du Bois. This one is a classic I read as a child, and I still love it! I had read it to my oldest son when he was younger, but my two younger boys hadn’t ever heard it, so it became the perfect pick for a read aloud while my oldest son was out of town for a week in the summer. They couldn’t get enough of this outlandish tale about a hot air balloonist who discovers a remarkable civilization hidden away on the island of Krakatoa. It’s the perfect pick for kids with big, adventurous imaginations or who dream of inventing something amazing.
The Castle in the Attic by Elizabeth Winthrop. Here’s another classic from my own childhood. It’s the tale of a boy who discovers that his incredibly realistic model castle is actually part of a real kingdom…and he can access it with the help of a magic token! My boys loved this adventure story. I mean, what child doesn’t dream of being the hero of an epic adventure story? Such a fun one, and accessible for young listeners.
Five Children and It by Edith Nesbit. I randomly downloaded this short book one day before we headed out on a day trip so my kids would have something to listen to as we drove (audiobooks = significantly less fighting in the car). It’s an old book, originally published in 1902, but we all enjoyed the outlandish story of five children who are granted wishes by a cantankerous little sand fairy. It reminded me a little of Half Magic, although not quite as good. Was it my favorite book of the year? No. But it was an enjoyable listen as we passed the time in the car.
Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt. This was one of three audiobooks we listened to on our family roadtrip this summer. All the descriptions of the woods around the Tuck’s little cabin made for perfect listening as we drove through the forests of Washington state. My boys loved the story, and we had some interesting family discussions about whether we would want to drink from the spring and live forever…or not.
Far North by Will Hobbs. This was audiobook number two of our roadtrip, and I chose it specifically because it was about survival in the wilderness of Canada, which is where we were at that point in the trip. It was a fascinating action-adventure story (similar to Hatchet or Bearstone if you’re familiar with those) and all the boys loved it. It does have a couple of intense parts, so this one is probably best suited for ages 8+. It was right on the edge of what my seven-year-old could handle.
Framed (series) by James Ponti. Imagine a young Sherlock Holmes getting recruited by the FBI to help solve crimes. That’s the concept behind this series by James Ponti. Despite not being entirely realistic, it’s a fun, fast-paced story that quickly became a favorite of the whole family. Bonus: It made my kids start trying to develop their own powers of observation, like the main character in the book.
Zoey and Sassafras: Dragons and Marshmallows (series) by Asia Citro. I’ve loved this beginner chapter book series for years, and I regularly recommend it to parents of kids who are just starting to read chapter books. They are the cutest stories that combine learning the scientific method with clever stories about unique magical creatures. Several months ago I read the first book in the series to my own first-grader, and he devoured the rest of the series in a matter of weeks! In fact, we just requested the latest installment (book 10) from library, and all my boys are anxious for it to arrive.
Related: More easy chapter books for kids in the early reader stage
The Menagerie (series) by Tui T. Sutherland. My sister told us about this book series at our family reunion this summer, and so of course my boys wanted to listen to it on the five-hour drive home. It’s the story of a boy who gets tangled up in the troubles of a mythical creature preserve, which gave me major Fablehaven vibes. The kids devoured all three books in the series over the course of a month and loved them all. Note: It’s by the same author as the incredibly popular Wings of Fire series, which was a serious selling point for my middle child.
Running Out of Time by Margaret Peterson Haddix. We read this one because it’s on the Battle of the Books list this year. The premise—13-year-old Jessie discovering her 1840s village is actually a modern-day historical experiment and escaping to save her community from a diphtheria epidemic—was intriguing and kept my kids engaged. We liked it enough to read the sequel (written nearly 30 years later), but that one didn’t quite measure up. While not bad, it felt too much like a rehash of the original and leaned a bit too heavily into melodrama for my taste.
The Family Under the Bridge by Natalie Savage Carlson. This was our Christmas read aloud this year, and while it came highly recommended, I thought it was just okay. The story of an old hobo helping a struggling family had its moments, and my boys enjoyed the humor in the old man’s character. However, the slow pacing and some outdated elements made it hard for them to fully connect. It wasn’t a bad read, just not one that stood out for us.
And the winner is…
Just for fun, I asked each of my boys to pick their top three favorite books from the year, and here’s what they said:
Will (12): The Menagerie series, Framed series, and Number the Stars (this last one surprised me, but I’m so glad he liked it!)
Logan (10): Chronicles of Prydain series, Odder, and The Menagerie series.
Max (7): The Menagerie series, Framed series, and Tuck Everlasting (he loved the idea of the magic spring).
I asked all of them separately, and without knowing what the others chose, they ALL said they loved The Menagerie series. So I guess that’s our winner for the year! If your kids like mythical creatures and adventures with a dash of mystery, give it a try!
It was no surprise to me that in general my kids gravitated toward books that were part of a series; this is true for lots of kids! Why? There are two main reasons:
First, spending more time with the same characters and world helps kids form stronger connections to the stories.
Second, series are great for building reading comprehension skills—kids can dive into a new plot without needing to process entirely new settings and characters, allowing them to focus more on the storyline and enjoy it even more.
Related: Favorite short chapter book series for kids that will keep them reading
Curious about my favorites? Choosing favorites is hard, especially where books are concerned, but I loved Odder, The Last Mapmaker, and the Chronicles of Prydain books.
Well, that’s a wrap on another great year of reading. Here’s to more great books in 2025!
What did you read with your kids this year? Tell me YOUR favorites in the comments below!
Want more book recommendations for kids? Try these!