Children 0-3: Babies and toddlers enjoy books with simple, bold illustrations and sounds, words, rhythms, or rhymes which are becoming familiar: noisy books, nursery rhymes, and song books are wonderful to read together with young children. Babies love books that offer different tactile experiences; toddlers, books that allow them to interact physically by pulling tabs, lifting flaps, peeking through holes. For children aged two to three, stories with strong, simple plots are very satisfying, especially those involving separation and reunion.
Children 3-5: Preschoolers are ready for more, in every way: more words, more feelings, more complex plots, more detailed illustrations (especially ones that provide a narrative not contained in the text). Some are ready for a handful of simple folk tales, while others will find them too frightening. Stories about real children like themselves are generally satisfying, especially when they can illuminate the growing complexity of emotions that the characters in these books—and those reading them—now feel, though those real children may often appear in the guise of rabbits, bears and frogs. Poems and rhymes are very pleasing still. And nonfiction books about the real world are immensely valuable, too, reassuring as they inform. Some children around age four will be ready to hear their first chapter books.
Children 5-8: Children in the early elementary grades (K-2) who are only just beginning to read need the support and encouragement of stories to listen to, because their capacity for understanding stories far exceeds their ability to decode print. But what would they like to hear? Picture books remain a solid foundation, but more and more, these children are ready for stories with fewer pictures and more text. Family stories, stories about beloved toys, folk stories, all of which often allow the listener a certain smug superiority that is steadying at the end of a tiring day, are much appreciated. Broad humor, often involving plays on words, is met with uproarious laughter. And any beginning reading books encountered at home should be genuinely compelling stories, rather than tedious exercises.
Children 8-11: Children in the later elementary grades (3-5) tend to be increasingly independent readers. For this reason, they can get in over their heads with books that are sometimes too hard for them. Reading aloud with them allows you the chance to talk about tangled plots, difficult themes, or complex ideas. In general, they are ready for books with conflicts at the heart of them—tragic flaws, the presence of evil, social injustices—though they are not necessarily ready for an unflinching examination of those same issues in a familiar context. Fantasy and historical fiction are popular among these readers because they allow for such examination at a remove.
But of course you know your child best. Some children are drawn to minutely detailed illustrations at a very young age, others prefer a strong bold line, some demand precise language, others words with great aural impact, words that pop and hiss and click. Children develop individual tastes in literature at an early age, tastes which can be respected. At the same time, keep sampling a variety of books. As with food, what is not pleasing at one moment may become a favorite the next. Most important, perhaps, is not to push children out of old familiar books too quickly. There is plenty of time in which to grow, plenty of time in which to encounter the new—and little in which to savor the comfortable and familiar haven that a book can be, while building deeper and more complex associations.