We are weeks into a stay-at-home order here in Washington—I don’t even know how many weeks. Six? A lot. We are a lot of weeks in.
And while there are days when we feel desperate for the friends, family, and church community living outside our walls, and days when the news weighs so heavily on me that it’s almost physically painful, there are also ways in which we’ve settled into new routines. We have celebrated everything from Easter to May the Fourth (and four family birthdays) since the order took effect, and it hasn’t been horrible. Some of us have taken up crochet; some have formed an alliance with watercolor pencils. We have gardened a lot. And we finally—after months of squeezing it in around ballet lessons and youth group and home group and evenings out—finished Farmer Boy.
Reading aloud has become one of the sweet spots in our days again. We did not forsake it when the girls started school again—oh, no. But we did not have time to read as much as we had read before, and that was one of the things I missed most. These weeks of enclosure have been softened by lots of little excursions into stories and the discussions that have sprung from them.

I thought it would be fun, then, to compile a short list of great family read-alouds for this particular season—books that will appeal to a wide variety of ages, that you’ll want to sit down to night after night, that will make your world feel a little bigger and broader right now.
The Tales of the Kingdom Trilogy, by David & Karen Mains

Because we live in a kingdom still under construction, but our king is here with us (if we know how to sight him). (Read the full review.)
The Little House Books, by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Because those who came before us faced hardship and isolation, too, and still played the fiddle at the end of the day. (Read the full review.)
The Wilderking Trilogy, by Jonathan Rogers

Because sometimes you just need to laugh and be reminded to “Live the life that unfolds before you.” (Read the full review.)
Little Pilgrim’s Progress, by Helen L. Taylor
Because we are in one valley of a much longer journey, and the Celestial City is still ahead. (Read the full review.)
The Wingfeather Saga, by Andrew Peterson

Because I will take any opportunity to convince you to read this series. (Read the full review.)