For the younger crowd (K and younger), one of our favorites was the Mr. Putter & Tabby series (our very favorite was "Mr. Putter & Tabby Pick the Pears").

After that (elementary age), an author I have loved is Kate DiCamillo (Because of Winn Dixie, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, The Magician's Elephant). Her writing is like poetry, and makes for great read-alouds. Also very hard to go wrong with Roald Dahl.

p.s. Have Kleenex handy for Edward Tulane

For the younger crowd (Grade 1 and under), we loved the Fancy Nancy books for our daughter or any non-Little Critter books by Mercer Mayer (One Monster After Another, The Wizard Comes to Town, Professor Wormbog, etc.) for our son.

One book that was around when I was little that both my son and daughter loved in preschool or younger was Richard Scarry's Cars and Trucks and Things That Go--it's great to read aloud, and there is SO much to look at in that book--especially if you have a little one who loves trucks and tractors and things that go!

My third grader has moved on to the 39 Clues series (he loves learning facts in his fictional works), the Warrior series, and his absolute favorite series (the one that he asks me to check Amazon daily to see if the third book is being release anytime soon) is the Simon Bloom series by Michael Reisman. Something else that we've found our son (third grade) enjoys are the Top Secret Adventures packets made by Highlights. You subscribe to them, and every 4-6 weeks you get a new packet which involves solving a mystery in one particular country, so in the process of finding clues and solving puzzles, you learn a lot about that country.

I would especially love suggestions from families for books for boys (ages 10+) that aren't necessarily non-fiction, but which have interesting facts or puzzles built into them, as well as any suggestions for setting up a book club for boys of this age!

Stef-Great list of books! I am a book-aholic as well and reading has always been and continues to be an essential part of our days. In fact, because we celebrate both Chanukah and Christmas in our house, we decided, when our oldest was born, that on Chanukah-instead of toys, clothes,etc. each kid gets a brand new book each night for eight nights. It is inevitably the best money we ever spend.
Some ideas for 4-6 grade:Earth Dragon Awakens, The Giver, Dragon of Loney Island, Phantom Toll Booth,A Single Shard and Running Out of Time, to name a few. Parent child book groups are also fun!

I love the idea of a book club for 10 year old boys! I would think the hardest part of that would be getting them to all finish the book in time for discussion!

My boys are struggling a bit with reading so they are working on the basics. For this we are still into Dr. Seuss in the day and Dr. Seuss in the night, Green Eggs and Ham by the bay and Hop on Pop in the moon light! The teacher in me says the repetition of reading the same books over and over and over and over is the best thing for my emerging readers. The non-teacher in me says, "Please kid, give me something new to read! I can't take it any more!"

The kids' favorites are the comic book compilations. Not my favorite to read, but that's OK. My favorites have mostly been mentioned already. One of my favorite read-aloud books is All About Sam by Lois Lowry. Your older readers can read it by themselves and will love hearing what it's like to be a baby from the baby's perspective! It's a classic. Speaking of classics, the boys love all Syd Hoff books. Danny the Dinosaur is one of the all time favorites! My kids scare easily so we're more into Mo Willems than Roald Dahl at this point, but some day... I hope!

I love all the suggestions. I already have a very long list of books I want to read. Now I'm starting a list of books I want my kids to read!

Here is a list of picture books that all have really positive messages. These are the ones my kids (6 and 3) ask me to read over and over:

Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney
Roxaboxen by Alice McLerran, illustrated by Barbara Cooney
Listen to the Wind by Greg Mortenson and Susan L. Roth
Chicken Sunday by Patricia Polacco
A Chair for My Mother by Vera B. Williams
So Much by Trish Cooke, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury
Ruby's Wish by Shirin Yim Bridges, illustrated by Sophie Blackall

I agree with Kim on all the Kate DiCamillo books--first grader LOVES from her Mercy Watson books. More greats are the Tacky series by Helen Lester and for girls, the Pinkalicious books. We've also been reading a lot of the American Girl Doll books. I like them because they bring history to life, particularly for girls.

And if your kids are a little older, the Roald Dahl books are fantastic--we've even done little "studies" where we'll read the book, then rent the movie and talk about it.

My son (almost 5) is in love with Dr. Suess. He does like the classic beginner books like Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham, but he really prefers the longer stories with the moral at the end. Some of his favorites are The Lorax, The Sneeches and Other Stories, Horton Hears the Who, Yeartle the Turle and Other Stories, The Butter Battle Book and How The Grinch Stole Christmas (of course). The stories are fun, I even enjoy reading them and they gave a great message for children. His other favorites right now are the Nate the Great books by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat. Nate is a detective and my son always has fun trying to solve the cases with him.

These book suggestions are great. Thank you all for sharing and keep them coming. My son participates in book group. The best part of the book group is that the boys are boys who just have a love for reading. They are not necessarily friends at school. Unfortunately, we do not meet as often as we did in 2nd/3rd grade. We rotate which child picks the book and they lead the discussion. Sometimes the questions are developed by Mom, other times by the child. Sometimes there is an activity. All the boys have had the unique opportunity to read books they might not normally read. Believe it or not, they really enjoy talking about the book AND it really is special Mom/Son time.
Amy - other genres to check out are Historical Fiction. At the school library they mark them with a sticker that stays "Historical Fiction". Also, don't discard the Advanced Picture books. The writing is written at a much higher level than chapter books with many complex subject matters. (Keep in mind that many picture books are written for adults to read to their child, so the writing is much harder.) Happy Reading!

Great Suggestions! As a youth librarian it really excites me to see such great discussion about books and reading! Thank you Stefanie for the Wayland Library "plug"! There is so much libraries offer but many people don't know all that they provide. At the Wayland Library we are always happy to suggest titles. Please come and ask! From home you can browse lots of suggestions and book lists from our Reader's Corner http://www.waylandlibrary.org/children/readers_corner.htm
You can also place holds from home and check out ebooks and downloadable audio books from the library. We love hearing your suggestions as well. As we all know, the best way to get turned on to a new book is to hear someone else talking about how great it is!
Some books that I have recently enjoyed are:
Il Sung Na's picture books. The stories are wonderful and the illustrations are gorgeous.
I just read Mo Willems' I Broke My Trunk (another Elephant and Piggie book) and it made me laugh out loud, just like all his other books.
I enjoyed listening to both Brixton Brothers books by Mac Barnett. These would be great for young boys around age 10-12. Humor, adventure and mystery...what more could you want?
Both The Grimm Legacy by Polly Shulman and A Tale Dark and Grimm by Adam Gidwitz bring classic folk and fairy tales to life in different ways. These are not watered down versions!
The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place, by Maryrose Wood, was so good I am anxiously awaiting the sequel, The Hidden Gallery!