Gregory K. at GottaBook has a great post on reading aloud to children: A little library business. I completely recognize the incredible feeling when a group of children are all listening as hard as they can, caught up in the story being told. It is quite a rush to realize not only the power of the reader but the power of the read-aloud.
A large part of this tingle and success is picking the right book for the right crowd at the right time. Another part is being a good reader. Now I love to read aloud to children, make silly voices, ask them to be silly too, sing along, and much more. But when I see a great reader I know that I am only a pretender. They can capture children with the wrong book, at the wrong time. They can make words that would be stilted in my mouth come out dancing.
But never fear! You need not be a master reader to be a success. You can be like me, a fairly good reader who really enjoys children and books and doesn’t fear being a fool. That is enough to create that magical tingle that those master readers can pull from nothing and we must wait for that perfect melding of audience and book. But what a tingle it is, definitely worth striving for.