Am Abend lese ich meiner Nichte ein Bilderbuch vor.

Am Abend means in the evening or in the evenings, depending on context.

German often puts a time expression at the beginning of a sentence. When that happens, the sentence still follows the verb-second rule, so the conjugated verb must come next:

• Am Abend lese ich ...
• not Am Abend ich lese ...

Starting with Am Abend gives the sentence a natural emphasis on when the action happens.

Because German main clauses usually follow the V2 rule: the finite verb must be in the second position.

Here, Am Abend takes the first position, so the verb lese must come second:

• Am Abend | lese | ich ...

If the subject comes first, then you would say:

• Ich lese am Abend meiner Nichte ein Bilderbuch vor.

So lese ich is not unusual here at all; it is required by normal German word order.

Am is a contraction of an dem.

So:

• an dem Abend → am Abend

In expressions of time, German often uses am with parts of the day:

• am Morgen = in the morning
• am Nachmittag = in the afternoon
• am Abend = in the evening

This is just a standard time expression.

Because meiner Nichte is in the dative case.

In this sentence, meiner Nichte is the indirect object: it tells you to whom the book is being read.

• Ich lese meiner Nichte ein Bilderbuch vor.
• literally: I read my niece a picture book aloud
• more naturally in English: I read a picture book to my niece.

The noun Nichte is feminine, and the possessive mein- changes in the dative feminine:

• nominative: meine Nichte
• accusative: meine Nichte
• dative: meiner Nichte

Because ein Bilderbuch is the direct object, so it is in the accusative case.

What is being read aloud?
→ ein Bilderbuch

Since Bilderbuch is neuter (das Bilderbuch), the indefinite article looks like this:

• nominative: ein Bilderbuch
• accusative: ein Bilderbuch
• dative: einem Bilderbuch

So here ein Bilderbuch is correct because the book is the thing directly affected by the action.

Because the verb is vorlesen, which is a separable verb.

In a main clause, separable verbs split apart:

• Ich lese ein Buch vor.
• base verb: vorlesen

So in your sentence:

• lese = the conjugated part
• vor = the separable prefix, placed at the end

That is why you get:

• Am Abend lese ich meiner Nichte ein Bilderbuch vor.

In an infinitive or subordinate clause, the verb stays together:

• Ich möchte meiner Nichte ein Bilderbuch vorlesen.
• ..., weil ich meiner Nichte ein Bilderbuch vorlese.

Not exactly. Vorlesen means to read aloud to someone.

Compare:

• lesen = to read
• vorlesen = to read aloud, especially to another person

So this sentence does not just mean that the speaker is reading silently. It specifically means they are reading the picture book aloud to their niece.

German often places the dative object before the accusative object, especially when both are short noun phrases:

• meiner Nichte = dative
• ein Bilderbuch = accusative

So this order is very natural:

• Ich lese meiner Nichte ein Bilderbuch vor.

This is similar to older or more literary English patterns like I read my niece a picture book, though modern English often prefers I read a picture book to my niece.

German can sometimes vary the order for emphasis, but the version here is standard and natural.

The cases tell you that:

• meiner Nichte = dative → the recipient
• ein Bilderbuch = accusative → the thing being read

So:

• to whom? → meiner Nichte
• what? → ein Bilderbuch

This is one reason case endings are so important in German: they show the role of each noun phrase in the sentence.

Yes. That is also grammatical.

German word order is flexible as long as the main rules are respected, especially the verb-second rule in main clauses.

You could say:

• Am Abend lese ich meiner Nichte ein Bilderbuch vor.
• Ich lese meiner Nichte am Abend ein Bilderbuch vor.

The difference is mainly focus:

• Am Abend ... emphasizes when
• Ich ... emphasizes who

Both are natural.

German very often forms compound nouns by writing them as one word.

Here:

• Bilder = pictures
• Buch = book
• Bilderbuch = picture book

This is completely normal in German. English often writes similar ideas as two words, but German usually joins them into one compound noun.

By itself, Am Abend can be understood in more than one way depending on context:

• this evening / in the evening
• in the evenings

In an isolated sentence, learners often translate it simply as in the evening. Context would tell you whether it means a one-time event or a habitual action.

For a clearly habitual meaning, German might also say:

• Abends lese ich meiner Nichte ein Bilderbuch vor.

That often has the sense of in the evenings or every evening / evenings in general.

Because the subject is ich, and lesen is conjugated like this in the present tense:

• ich lese
• du liest
• er/sie/es liest
• wir lesen
• ihr lest
• sie/Sie lesen

So lese is simply the correct first-person singular form: I read or I am reading, depending on context.