I've been reading bedtime stories to my son every night for almost fourteen years now. We've read hundreds of books that way, including The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, the Doctor Dolittle books, the Narnia series...I could go on and on. Want to swap suggestions on good books to read to your children?
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I have a 11 year old and a 7 year old we live in barns and nobles , and the library. Any good books you can suggest would be great.
There's a wonderful old book that I've read to my son (and to children at the library and other events) all his life. In fact, my parents read it to me when I was young. It's _Mister Penny_ by Marie Hall Ets. It was first published in 1935 and it has been out of print for a long time, but a lot of libraries have it and you can still find used copies for sale online.
It's the story of a poor old man named Mister Penny who lives with a bunch of farm animals - his "family", as he calls them. The animals talk to each other, but Mister Penny doesn't know that they do. One day they get naughty. They go into the neighbor's garden and eat everything they can find. The neighbor catches them, and demands that Mister Penny pay him a large amount of money, or give him the animals ("the pig would do for bacon, and the lamb for stew"), or do a lot of work around his house. Since Mister Penny has no money and has to work at a factory to feed his animals, he doesn't know what to do. But the animals overhear, and sneak out at night to do the neighbor's chores. After that...well, it's one of the happiest endings I've ever read.
It's a really charming story. The author also illustrated it with beautiful black and white line art. Each animal has a very unique "voice", which makes them a pleasure to read aloud. Every time I've read it in public, younger children come crowding around me so that they can see the illustrations as I read (although I always show them to everybody anyway). There were two sequels; neither is quite as good as the original, although my son also loves _Mister Penny's Racehorse_.
@InMyDreams I will look for that book thank you my daughter will like it. My son is into history American, world anything. I like that my kids love to read it’s great.
I still love that you do this. This is the COOLEST thing ever.
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While I'm at it: although these aren't books, they're wonderful for children. Back in the 1960s there was a wonderful series of LPs for kids called "Tale Spinners for Children". They were recorded in England, and included all sorts of stories and songs. I grew up listening to several of them - particularly the stories of the lives of Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart. But there are also fairy tales of all sorts. It's really a wonderful collection, with dozens of hours of material.
They were never released on CD or digitally. But you can download the mp3s freely from http://www.artsreformation.com/talespinners/ . The sound quality isn't always the greatest, but they're still great records with some outstanding voice acting.
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@InMyDreams -we read many of the books you mentioned plus, of course read Harry potter lol -now my boys are much older, but we are reading on our own/together lol 'game of thrones series!!
How about "The Giving Tree," Shel Silverstein's wonderful classic. Illustrations are great too.
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@anniecastiel -great! Another two on my list lol 
This is a great post *inmydreams* I've been trying to figure out what types of books to read with my boys, I look forward to everyone's suggestions!
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@truffles_15 How old are your boys? I’m not up on too many modern books, but my knowledge of pre-1980 children’s literature is fairly exceptional. And I’ve read more books to a boy than most people, I’m sure.
What sort of books do your boys like? The Three Investigators series is pure brain candy; I remember thinking exactly that when I was in third or fourth grade. I was sitting in the school library, reading The Mystery of the Talking Skull, and suddenly realized that the book was pure brain candy in the truest sense. Reading it was ecstasy. I particularly recommend the earlier books in the series, written by series creator (and very under-appreciated author) Robert A. Arthur. Look for older editions; they feature Alfred Hitchcock. Later re-issues of the series were poorly rewritten to replace Hitchcock with an ersatz character. It’s also worth getting copies with the original illustrations by Harry Kane. They’ve very evocative and memorable.
There’s also The Portmanteau Book by Thomas Rockwell (illustrated by Gail Rockwell), but I’ll save that for next time. And - well, once I get started, it’s hard for me to stop! 
One thing that I find interesting is judging when a child is ready for a particular book. I tried reading one of Heinlein's juvenile science fiction books to my son - I think it was "The Rolling Stones" - when he was about ten. It totally didn't work for him, and we switched to something else. But two years later he loved it.
InMyDreams IS a wonderful man, and I am an expert in these things so I would know =)
@MagiaMoonlight Hey, I blush easily! I was born a redhead, you know.
I just thought of one more: The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery. The movie is wonderful too. It can be read by adults too. It is about a little prince from another planet, maybe an asteroid, who comes to earth and befriends a pilot who is stranded in the Sahara Desert. It is just wonderful. I watched the movie and read the book several times. I highly recommend it.
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-'Harold and the purple crayon' -it's for young kids but I still love to read it lol
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Thought I'd add some of my favorite kids books, although I'll list the authors (and some series') rather than the books since they're mostly fairly prolific authors. These would be for older kids through to teens/young adult.
Tamora Pierce, has written several series' all very good.
Susan Cooper 'The Dark is Rising' series
Alan Garner (only titles I remember are 'The Weirdstone of Brisingamen' and 'The Owl Service', but I enjoyed all his books)
Terry Pratchet has some good kids books
Diana Wynne Jones 'Hexwood', 'The Homeward Bounders' books and 'The Dalemark Quartet' 'Chrestomanci', 'Howls Moving Castle' series'
Eoin Colfer 'Artemis Fowl'
Anthony Horowitz 'Alex Rider' series
Tom MCaughren 'Run Wild' series
David Clement-Davies 'Fire Bringer', 'The Sight'
Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell 'The Edge Chronicals'
So many others I love, but try to think of them and the names escape me...
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@Davii -love so many of them!!