Books for Dads to Read With Their Kids: 10 Years of What Worked

I have been reading to my kids for over ten years. Started when my oldest was about three, sitting on the floor with a stack of picture books, doing bad character voices that made her laugh. She is 13 now. She reads on her own, faster than I do. But some nights she still asks if we can read together. Different books, same couch.

My son is 11. He went through a phase where reading felt like homework. Then we found the right books and he started devouring them on his own. The trick was never forcing it. It was finding stories we both actually enjoyed. Not books I tolerated while waiting for bedtime to end. Books I looked forward to reading as much as he did.

This is not a “best children’s books” list. You can find those anywhere. This is the stuff that worked for us, organized by the stage when we read them, with honest notes about what made each one stick.

The picture book years (ages 3-5)

Picture books get a bad reputation with dads. They look simple. Some are. But the good ones are genuinely funny, well-written, and designed to be read out loud. The key is finding the ones where you are not bored on the fifth reading. Because you will read them five times. In one evening.

The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson

A mouse walks through the forest and invents a monster to scare away predators. Then the monster turns out to be real. The rhythm is perfect for reading aloud. My daughter memorized it before she could read. We would do it together, her filling in the rhymes before I could get to them. I still know most of it by heart.

Donaldson and Scheffler made a whole library of books in this style. We reviewed the best Julia Donaldson books here.

Goodnight Already! by Jory John

A bear wants to sleep. A duck will not stop talking. That is the entire book. It is hilarious. The frustration on the bear’s face mirrors exactly how you feel at 9pm when your kid asks for one more story. My son thought the duck was the funniest character in any book ever written. He was four.

Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin

Dragons love tacos. Do not give them spicy salsa. That is the plot. It is absurd in exactly the right way for a three-year-old. My kids both loved this one, and I appreciated that it was short enough to read twice without losing my voice. The sequel is fine but the original is better.

Press Here by Herve Tullet

An interactive book. It tells the reader to press a dot, shake the book, tilt it sideways. The dots change color and multiply on the next page. No screens, no batteries, and my kids acted like it was actual magic. This book taught me that the best picture books make the kid part of the story, not just a listener.

For more picture book picks by age, see our books for 3-year-olds and books for 4-year-olds guides.

Early readers (ages 5-7)

This is the transition phase. Your kid is starting to read on their own but still wants you there. The best books for this stage work as shared experiences, where they read some pages and you read others, or where the illustrations carry half the story.

Dog Man by Dav Pilkey

Half dog, half police officer. The humor is deliberately juvenile. The art looks like a kid drew it. And my son consumed the entire series like it was oxygen. Dog Man is not literary fiction. But it got a reluctant reader excited about books. That matters more than prose quality when you are trying to build a habit. We read the first three together, then he started reading ahead without me. Mission accomplished.

See our guide to graphic novels after Dog Man for what comes next.

The Bad Guys by Aaron Blabey

Villains trying to be heroes. A wolf, a snake, a piranha, and a shark form a club to do good deeds. Nobody trusts them. The books are short (maybe 15 minutes each), illustrated like graphic novels, and genuinely funny. My kids loved arguing about which villain was the best. I voted for the shark every time.

The Wild Robot by Peter Brown

A robot named Roz washes up on an island and learns to survive by observing animals. Then she accidentally becomes the mother of a gosling. It sounds strange. It is beautiful. Short chapters, clean prose, and a story about parenting that hit me differently than it hit my kids. They saw an adventure story. I saw a book about learning to be a parent in a world that does not come with instructions.

Chapter books together (ages 7-9)

This is the golden age for reading together. Your kid can handle longer stories but still wants you to read aloud. Bedtime becomes a chapter a night. You start getting invested in the plot. You find yourself sneaking a look at the next chapter after they fall asleep.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling

We started this when my daughter was seven. One chapter per night. She would fight to stay awake for “just one more chapter.” By book three, she was reading ahead during the day and I had to catch up at night. Harry Potter is not underrated or undiscovered. But reading it aloud to your kid, doing the voices, watching them react to the twists you already know are coming, that is a different experience than handing them the book. We spent six months in that world together.

See our Harry Potter illustrated books guide for the stunning illustrated editions.

Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

Greek mythology made accessible. Percy is twelve, has ADHD and dyslexia, and discovers he is the son of Poseidon. Riordan writes with humor and action that keeps kids engaged while teaching them mythology almost by accident. My son learned more about Greek gods from Percy Jackson than any textbook could have taught him. We read the first two together, then he blazed through the rest of the series on his own.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney

Greg Heffley is not a good person. He is selfish, lazy, and makes terrible decisions. That is the point. My kids found it hilarious. I found it uncomfortable in a productive way. We would read a chapter and then talk about why Greg’s choices were bad. It became a conversation starter about friendship, honesty, and how not to treat people. The books are light enough to read quickly but sticky enough to think about afterward.

Middle grade and shared reading (ages 9-12)

Around age nine or ten, reading together changes. Your kid reads independently now. The shared experience shifts from “I read to you” to “we both read this and talk about it.” It is more like a two-person book club. I started reading what my kids were reading so we would have something to discuss.

Amulet series by Kazu Kibuishi

A graphic novel series about two siblings who discover their great-grandfather’s house holds a portal to a fantasy world. The art is incredible. Studio Ghibli-level backgrounds with action sequences that rival any manga. My daughter tore through the first five volumes in a weekend. I read them after her and we spent dinner conversations debating character decisions. These books prove graphic novels can be just as deep as prose.

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

I read this myself at ten and wanted to share it with my kids. We did it as a family read-aloud. The prose is old-fashioned, which means it sounds great when you read it with dramatic pauses. Bilbo’s reluctant heroism resonated with my son, who was going through a phase of not wanting to try new things. Sometimes a hobbit who leaves the Shire says more than a lecture about stepping outside your comfort zone.

Naruto manga by Masashi Kishimoto

This was the bridge from books to manga for my son. An underdog ninja who earns respect through pure determination. We watched the anime first, hit the filler wall, and switched to manga. He read all 72 volumes in about three weeks. It is not traditional “reading” in the literary sense, but manga taught my son that books can look different and still tell powerful stories. He reads more now than he did before Naruto.

See our Naruto manga reading order for the complete guide.

Books my teens picked for themselves

At some point your kid stops needing your recommendations and starts making their own. That is a good thing. Here is what my kids chose on their own, and what I read after them so we could keep talking about books together.

Spy x Family manga

My daughter found this one. A spy, an assassin, and a telepathic kid form a fake family, each hiding their secret identity. It is funny, heartwarming, and the action is clean enough for a 12-year-old. We watched the anime together after she read the manga. It was the first time she recommended something to me instead of the other way around. That felt like a milestone.

Fruits Basket manga by Natsuki Takaya

My daughter’s favorite. A girl moves in with a family cursed to transform into zodiac animals. On the surface it is a comedy. Underneath it is a story about abuse, healing, and learning to accept yourself. She cried at the ending. We talked about the family dynamics in the story for weeks. Some books entertain your kids. This one changed how my daughter thinks about people.

How we kept reading together

Here is what actually worked for us over ten years of reading together. None of this is scientific. It is just what I learned by doing it.

Do the voices. Even badly. Especially badly. My Hagrid impression is terrible. My kids loved it precisely because it was terrible. Bad voices make reading feel like play, not education.

Let them quit books. Not every book clicks. If they are bored after a few chapters, move on. Forcing a kid to finish a book they hate teaches them that reading is a chore. We have abandoned probably twenty books over the years. No guilt.

Read what they read. Once they start picking their own books, read those books too. You do not have to love Diary of a Wimpy Kid. But reading it gives you something to talk about. Shared context matters more than shared taste.

Manga counts. Comics count. Graphic novels count. Audiobooks count. If your kid is consuming stories, they are reading. The format does not matter. My son went from Dog Man to manga to prose novels. The path was not straight but it got there.

Keep a spot on the couch. Even when they are teenagers. Even when they can read everything themselves. The offer to read together should always be open. Some nights my daughter still sits next to me and we read our own books in silence. That counts too.

What’s next

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