Long after Carrie's successful visit reading Muncha Muncha Muncha-
My mom was a librarian. I was remembering the shelves of materials on storytelling technique and class after class where she would take a story, memorize it, and practice, practice, practice.
Just want to point out how easy most of the books on this list make it easy to do a read aloud with great storytelling skill and showmanship. They're written so well it is very obvious "how" to read them, where the tempo slows, when to chant, or whisper, or how to voice emotion, whether it's indicated by typeface, layout, character expression, whatever. There is 'music' in the reading.
Got to be good at that to hold a group nowadays... I hadn't really paid attention to the implied "reader style notes" that are written "into" contemporary 'instant classic' pbs. Demonstration of our very media savvy culture.