The books I read to my son last year

The beginning of a grand, literary adventure

Ratty and Mole on the River by E.H. Shepard

“When she was hardly more than a girl, Miss Minnie had gone away to a teacher’s college and prepared herself to teach by learning many cunning methods that she never afterwards used. For Miss Minnie loved children, and she loved books, and she taught merely by introducing the one to the other.”

-Wendell Berry, A Place on Earth

Since the birth of our first child, I had been waiting for this moment.

When our son turned four in January of last year, the moment arrived: he was finally old enough to read chapter books with us.

As I wrote in my previous essay, I believe the arts—and literature in particular—have the power to profoundly shape us. To form our moral and spiritual imaginations. To lift us out of ourselves and expand our souls.

As C.S. Lewis puts it:

“Literary experience heals the wound, without undermining the privilege, of individuality. There are mass emotions which heal the wound; but they destroy the privilege. In them our separate selves are pooled and we sink back into sub-individuality. But in reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself. Like the night sky in the Greek poem, I see with a myriad eyes, but it is still I who see. Here, as in worship, in love, in moral action, and in knowing, I transcend myself; and am never more myself than when I do.”

This is why I approach reading chapter books to my kids with a kind of serious joy. I believe the literature they’re exposed to has a tangible impact on their formation as persons.

Not only that, I believe sharing great literature with our children is foundational to their reclaiming the richness of language, which is itself eroding away in the technological age we live in.

As Wendell Berry writes:

“I am saying then, that literacy—the mastery of language and the knowledge of books—is not an ornament, but a necessity. It is impractical only by the standards of quick profit and easy power. Longer perspective will show that it alone can preserve in us the possibility of an accurate judgement of ourselves and the possibilities of correction and renewal. Without it, we are adrift in the present, in the wreckage of yesterday, in the nightmare of tomorrow.”

But more than anything, I simply love reading great books with and to my kids. You can hardly describe the delight it brings me to share stories with them that I reveled in as a child (and indeed, still do).

Without further ado, here are the books my wife and I read to our four-year-old son last year. You’ll see we leaned towards the classics, with some contemporary works mixed in. Read to the end to discover which three books were Max’s favorites!

The Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl

If you’ve never read any of Dahl’s books, you’re in for a treat. While I grew up watching many of the film adaptations, I didn’t read many of his books…until now. Dahl’s stories are wickedly witty, creative, and funny in that uniquely British way. Fantastic Mr. Fox is hands-down my favorite Dahl tale (the film adaptation by Wes Anderson is an all-timer too). This was a great first chapter book for our son since it’s pretty short, has lots of great pictures, and is utterly delightful. My wife found a lovely vintage copy too, which makes the reading experience even more enjoyable.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

Maybe the most famous Dahl book? Personally, I’m not as big a fan of this one as some of his others, but a story about a kid on a tour of a magical chocolate factory had no trouble holding our son’s attention. Best of all, after we finished the book, my wife took our son to a specialty candy store to pick out a gloriously large bar of chocolate!

James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl

Another classic Dahl tale. This one is up there for me behind Fantastic Mr. Fox. The sheer absurdity of the storyline combined with the memorable insect characters make it a thoroughly enjoyable read.

Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne

After hitting the Dahl books hard, we decided it was time to introduce a new author. And what better transition than Milne’s classic tale about Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, Owl, Rabbit, Eyore, and their adventures in the Hundred Acre Wood. Milne’s world for me is symbolic of the goodness, purity, and Shalom-ness of childhood. There is something untouchably wholesome about it.

My oldest son and daughter adore Winnie the Pooh—both the book and the movies. We have a large, lovely version (the collected stories and poems) with incredible illustrations by E.H. Shepard, which are worthy of an art exhibition in and of themselves.¹ This book is fantastic because each chapter is a self-contained story—so you can pop in and out of the Hundred Acre Wood as you like without worrying about losing the plot.

Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

For some reason, this was one of the few chapter books we stalled out on and never actually finished. I think if I had skipped along a bit, we would have made it through. We’ll try this one again perhaps when the kids are a little older.

Little Pilgrim’s Progress, written by Helen L. Taylor and illustrated by Joe Sutphin

This was the longest book we read in 2024 but probably one of the best. Taylor and Sutphin created a wonderful adaptation of John Bunyan’s classic work. Aside from updating the characters to be lively animals, Taylor’s story is fairly faithful to the original text, and Sutphin’s illustrations are remarkable. (There’s even a companion coloring book you can get.) This is absolutely one we’ll be re-reading again and again over the years.

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

I read this book for the first time a few years ago and absolutely adored it. It’s now one of my all-time favorites. Reading it to my son this past year was pure joy. The language in The Wind in the Willows is a feast in itself. To me, this book is, as Lewis would say, a kind of “echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we’ve never visited.” It is utterly sublime. Here’s a taste:

“[The mole] thought his happiness was complete when, as he meandered aimlessly along, suddenly he stood by the edge of a full-fed river. Never in his life had he seen a river before—this sleek, sinuous, full-bodied animal, chasing and chuckling, gripping things with a gurgle and leaving them with a laugh, to fling itself on fresh playmates that shook themselves free, and were caught and held again. All was a-shake and a-shiver—glints and gleams and sparkles, rustle and swirl, chatter and bubble. The Mole was bewitched, entranced, fascinated. By the side of the river he trotted as one trots, when very small, by the side of a man who holds one spellbound by exciting stories; and when tired at last, he sat on the bank, while the river still chattered on to him, a babbling procession of the best stories in the world, sent from the heart of the earth to be told at last to the insatiable sea.”

Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright - An Animal Poem for Each Day of the Year

I found this excellent book through a conversation with my friend Ross Blankenship (who has a great Substack of his own, by the way). As a lover of poetry, and as someone who is endeavoring to work poetry into the contours of our family life, I knew we had to get it. In case you can’t tell, it’s a massive, coffee table book. And that’s exactly where we keep it—on the coffee table in the living room of our home. Though we don’t always read the day’s poem, we have read far more poems than we would have otherwise.

I am proud to say my son learned his first poem through this book, the last line of which sends him into fits of laughter.

Upon this cake of ice is perched

The paddle-footed Puffin:

To find his double we have searched,

But have discovered—Nuffin!

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

As a huge fan of Lewis and the Narnia series, I couldn’t help but hold my breath as I first started reading this one to my son. What if he didn’t like it? Thankfully, he took to it marvelously, especially when Aslan bounded onto the scene. I can’t wait to read him the rest of the books in the series (we’re currently working our way through The Voyage of the Dawn Treader).

Hilda by Luke Pearson

My wife and I greatly enjoyed the TV adaptation of Hilda that came out years ago, and I couldn’t wait to show my kids the comic series it was based on. Rooted in Scandinavian folklore, the story follows the fearless, free-spirited Hilda as she finds new friends, adventure, and magical creatures alongside Twig, her faithful deerfox. These stories are splendidly whimsical, and the illustrations are so fun. We read our son the first six graphic novels in the series, and he totally dug them.

Little Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

For a few years now, I have tried to make it a practice of reading Dickens’ classic story around Christmastime. And after reading School of the Unconformed’s excellent essay on reading it as a family, we are set on making it an annual family tradition. As I mentioned earlier, I adore Sutphin’s illustrations, so when I saw the same team who did Little Pilgrim’s Progress published a version of A Christmas Carol, I wasted no time in picking it up.

The illustrations are fantastic. And in case you’re wondering, the text is largely the same (with minor modifications to adjust for the animal characters), which is a treat because Dickens’ language is about as good as it gets.

“Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grind-stone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shriveled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. A frosty rime was on his head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry chin. He carried his own low temperature always about with him; he iced his office in the dog-days; and didn't thaw it one degree at Christmas.”

The Princess & The Goblin by George MacDonald

This was technically our first read in January of 2025. Even my two-year-old daughter got into this one a bit (although she mainly liked the illustrations). We have a great copy I got through The Rabbit Room. The kids seemed to enjoy this fun tale of Princess Irene and Curdie fending off those troublesome goblins.

Max’s Top Three Books

When I asked my son about his favorite books we read together over the past year, there were three clear answers:

• Little Pilgrim’s Progress (which inspired much imaginative play, especially when paired with a knight’s sword, shield, and armor)

• The Fantastic Mr. Fox (a special answer, since it was the first chapter book we read him)

• The Wind in the Willows (an answer which made this dad’s heart sing)

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What do you think of this list? What chapter books have you read to your kids or plan to read to them one day? What would you recommend we read this year? Let me know in the comments below!

1. And indeed they have been. A few years ago we got to see a wonderful, special exhibition of Shepard’s original Winnie the Pooh sketches at the HIGH Museum here in Atlanta.