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I am piecing together my read aloud books for next year, and would appreciate any recommendations from any of the 3 sets from Beyond. While I'm sure they are all fantastic, which were your absolute favorites?

FYI: The listeners will be 2 boys, then ages 5.2 and 6.8, if that matters. I also have girls coming down the line so it doesn't matter which package they come from. Also, I we will be using books for the following year from Beyond as well, so if any should be saved until they are older, that woud be excellent to know too.

Thanks!
Amy

Every family is different in what they like.
I also pieced together our read alouds for Beyond - here are our winners:

1. Sword in the Tree - Adventure
My son really enjoyed this one because it was 'boyish' enough for him. There was a slight reference to magic, but my son understood that.

2. Mr Popper's Penguins - Humor
One of my favorites as a child carried over to my boys! I highly recommend this one to anyone.
(Famous penguins, traveling, and 'sensationalism - yes, my boy loved this.) There is a difference between the original & movie versions.

3. Charlotte's Web - Fantasy
My son LOVED having a pig and a spider as main characters. He begged for more story each day.

4. Key to the Treasure - Mystery
This was the mystery when we used it, and is now out-of-print, but is well worth reading if you find it. Our library has it.
I read it from my childhood collection of books. I loved having a chance to follow the clues before reading how the 'almost triplets' figured it out.

5. In Grandma's Attic series - Folk Tales
Favorites of mine growing up, and both my sons (at the time 7 & 4.5), loved them as well. Full of a lot of adventure even though it is a girl.

6. Trumpet of the Swan - Fantasy
After reading Charlotte's Web, they wanted more like it so we moved on to this in our extra time. They enjoyed it.

Some others I enjoyed, but not my children so much were -
1. Mountain Born - Realistic Fiction
2. Follow My Leader - also Realistic Fiction
My sons don't think much of the genre, so it's not the books.

The remaining genres I used what I had and they weren't HOD choices. They were okay, but I firmly believe they would have enjoyed the book packs more, and I plan to fill in the gap with the missing books before my younger son starts Beyond this fall.

I think we have loved every one that we have read - House at Pooh Corner, The Sword in the Tree, Mr. Popper's Penguins, A Lion to Guard Us, Paddington... just to name a few!

I think my kids' favorites were The Cricket in Times Square, Key to the Treasure, and Follow My Leader.

We've liked them all, too! Favorites were Benjamin West, Helen Keller, and Sarah Witcher's Story. We also really enjoyed Little House in the Big Woods, Charlotte's Web, Squanto, Sword in the Tree, If You Lived 100 Years Ago, Mr. Popper's Penguins, The Apple and the Arrow, The Cabin Faced West, If You Traveled West in a Covered Wagon, Paddington, and In Grandma's Attic. King of the Wind was good, too, but was probably the hardest read and took a little time to get into.

HTH,
Kathy

Sword in the Tree and Apple and the Arrow were huge faves with ds. I loved Sarah Whitcher too.

My ds 7, a bit more on the sensitive side, enjoyed:

Sword in the Tree-Adv,
Trumpet of the Swan-Fantasy. ( not so much my fav. Don't care for many books in this genre myself)
Squanto-Biography,
Castleberry farm- Mystery (Carrie has Footprints in the Barn listed. They have excellent character trainig qualities )
In Gramma's Attic-Folk Tale
Paddington- Humor
N.F.-slipped my mind, lol
R.F. -My own selection (also chuck full of character training)
H.F. - My own selection

The ones he enjoyed most have this symbol , but all in all story time is a favorite in our home

Success

We sometimes read 2 books in a genre. My children loved all the ones we read. I think Pagoo was their favorite.

I found "still more stories from Grandma's Attic" at Goodwill. Do I really need the volume listed to match the plans? Or would this substitution work?

I think "still more stories in Grandma's Attic" was scheduled in a later guide as one for the child to read, or maybe in one of the book packs.

We also loved Mr Popper's Penguins, Grandma's Attic, we read Ginger Pye for mystery which was a pretty interesting one. My girls liked the "boy interest" titles just as well as the girl interest. Trumpet of the Swan was pretty fun. I have enjoyed that many are classic titles that I read myself, though not at their age.

Our favorites were:
Key to the Treasure (we bought the rest of the series)
Cricket in Times Square
Mr. Poppers Penguins
Helen Keller (my DD asked to read this again on her own when we were done)
In Grandmas Attic (we bought the rest of the series)
The Twenty-One Balloons (we've read this 3 times already)