493 Books: The Most Suggested Books for Kindergarteners
What should Kindergarteners read? As we approach the beginning of our Kindergarten school year I decided to compile a list of books for us to embark upon. Where do you begin? With a bunch of other smart people’s work. So, naturally, I googled “book list for kindergarteners.” Thanks 3,620,000 choices!? I chose only the best and the brightest. The six lists I used were from the top search options; they seemed to be more national than local (except for the Houston one, but it’s my list so…); and, they had a lot of options.
From here I spent an hour or so compiling the lists by book name (I felt it would be easier to search for redundancy this way) and deleting all the extra info (synopsis, awards, etc.). I was left with 493 options!
Kindergarteners Need A Lot of Books
Say, “What!”
I suppose I shouldn’t have been so surprised; there are thousands of children’s books available and being printed all the time. The truly surprising part was the lack of redundancy. Kindergarteners have a lot of options!
There were, of course, a few books that appeared on more than one list, but not as many as you would suppose for having five hundred options. And, of the six lists I used, only one book appeared on three lists (lest you wither in suspense, it was Strega Nona by Tomie dePaola) – all the other duplicates only appeared twice.
What was also interesting embarrassing was that of the 493 we had only read 13 14 (woo hoo, I realized I skipped one!) – and we read – a lot!? Honestly, I haven’t even heard of most of them. I guess Superheros and Transformer books are not highbrow enough for reading lists.
Anyhoo, if you would like to peruse the ginormous list check it out here. If you just want a more concise list of twenty-six suggested books for Kindergarten reading, here are the books that were awesome enough to make multiple lists:
(The book titles use referral links. Read our disclosure policy for more info.)
26 Must-Read Books for Kindergartners
- A Ball for Daisy, by Chris Raschka
- Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, by Judith Viorst
- Blackout, by John Rocco
- Book! Book! Book!, by Deborah Bruss
- Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault
- Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, by Mo Willems
- Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site, by Sherri Duskey Rinker
- Harry the Dirty Dog, by Gene Zion
- Ira Sleeps Over, by Bernard Waber
- Julius, the Baby of the World, by Kevin Henkes
- Leo, the Late Bloomer, by Robert Kraus
- Library Lion, by Michelle Knudsen
- Little White Rabbit, by Kevin Henkes
- Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, by Virginia Lee Burton
- My Side of the Car, by Kate Feiffer
- Naamah and the Ark at Night, by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
- Pete’s a Pizza, by William Steig
- Strega Nona, by Tomie dePaola
- Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, by William Steig
- Tell Me the Day Backwards, by Albert Lamb
- The Cazuela that the Farm Maiden Stirred, by Samantha R. Vamos
- The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs, by Jon Scieszka
- Tikki Tikki Tembo, retold by Arlene Mosel
- Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak
- Where’s Walrus?, written and illustrated by Stephen Savage
- Wild About Books, by Judy Sierra
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