Read aloud for the car

[banana_pants]

We're planning a 6 hour car trip (or two) in the near future, and I'd like to pass some of that time reading aloud to banana_plants and our stowaway. :)

Any recommendations for fun, light books that would be good? I'm in favor of Young Adult, Fiction and Short, but it need not be all of those.

Comments

[julianyap]

Well, as you know, I totally recommend When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead which I posted about in my LJ. It'd be great as a read aloud book.

I also reread James Thurber's The Thirteen Clocks yesterday because of a post in a friends LJ, and I am amazed it's never been a long at SR (though at about 100 pages of very large text, it might be a bit short). It's a delightful book, filled with wonderful passages for reading aloud.

I haven't read it in a while, but Whales on Stilts by M.T. Anderson, is great light fun. Feed is great and heartbreaking as well, but I'm not sure how good it'd be read aloud.

I think that Ann Patchett has a wonderful voice, so I'd definitely recommend Bel Canto, the best of her books, if you haven't read it. Truth and Beauty is also by her, beautiful and sad, but is non-fiction. In the same vein, I love Alice Hoffman and Barbara Kingsolver's prose, which also lends itself to being read aloud, and I don't think you could go wrong with any of their books, though I'd particularly recommend AH's Practical

[julianyap]

I should note that neither Bel Canto nor Truth and Beauty are terribly light. Still, great books though.

[emilymorgan]

novawolf read Thirteen Clocks as a stealth long, actually. :)

[julianyap]

Ha! That's excellent, I always knew she had phenomenal taste.

"I am the Golux, and not a mere device!"

[gee_tar]

I always thought Roald Dahl's short stories worked quite well being read aloud (I'm thinking of the anthology of Henry Sugar and six others). And "The Hitch-hiker" from that collection is especially appropriate for a car trip :)

[viking_cat]

They do. Many of Neil Gaiman's work well, too.

[lemurtanis]

The House With a Clock In Its Walls, by John Bellairs, is one of my favorite YA books. Also, War for the Oaks by Emma Bull. Any Emma Bull, really.

[un_petit_mot]

Austin is reading me Four Freedoms, John Crowley's new book, and it is FANTASTIC. Although actually not about fantasy--it's about a makeshift city of WWII plane builders and all the bizarre and wonderful people who are deemed unfit to fight wars. The writing is beautiful, as always.