Travis Jonker raises up the best titles for reading aloud. “Some will be obvious and popular. Others lesser known,” he writes on “100 Scope Notes,” his blog. “All will be story time gold.”

From his latest entry, Jonker, a blogger, author, and elementary school librarian, opines:

When it comes to picture books “timeless” can often be code for “maybe kids 100 years ago would have liked this story, but that’s not the case anymore” The real trick is creating a book that feels like it could exist in any era AND pull readers in each and every time.

Loren Long accomplishes that rare feat with Otis. I know this book about a little tractor gets a good amount of love (heck, you see that sticker on the cover—they even made it into a television series), but I still feel like we still don’t talk enough about this book and the near-magical powers of storytelling it possesses.

Perfect for World Read Aloud Day and every day, these books have made the “Read Aloud Hall of Fame” (thus far):

• Anansi and the Moss-Covered Rock retold by Eric A. Kimmel, illustrated by Janet Stevens
• Dandy by Ame Dyckman
• Hug Machine by Scott Campbell
• Let Me Finish! by Minh Lê, illustrated by Isabel Roxas
• The Monster at the End of This Book by Jon Stone, illustrated by Michael Smollin
• Jabari Jumps by Gaia Cornwall
• The Full Belly Bowl by Jim Aylesworth, illustrated by Wendy Anderson Halperin
• Hare and Tortoise by Alison Murray
• Saturday by Oge Mora
• Monsters Go Night-Night by Aaron Zenz
• Potato Pants by Laurie Keller