I love reading aloud and I do play favorites. I could (I have!) read Kipling's The Elephant's Child over and over. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is a seasonal pick and I was happy when Victoria wanted a part in the production of the play this year at church. Little House books. Junie B. Jones. Some books are no fun to read out loud: I couldn't make it through The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew even though I gave it several nights' effort. That was years ago and I am still annoyed. Even a rollicking adventure like The Swiss Family Robinson was a drag. Reading silently I can skip over the dad's issues and concentrate on the fascinating details. Out loud, he is unavoidably psycho.

But here's a GREAT book to read out loud and I never would have guessed it: The Princess Bride. I know, I know, you are thinking "too many asides" and I was certainly thinking "too many voices" because I only have two extra voices at my disposal: the fake girl and the fake boy. And I was frankly relieved that the Sicilian buys it early because I was trying to recall Fr. Guido Sarducci and it was not pretty. But the story outshines the shortcomings of the reader and it is a blast. So there you go, my read-aloud recommendation of the moment.