Kindergarten
Kindergarteners (typically five and six years old) love their families, animals, playing and friendship. The recommended books below reflect these topics and weave in themes of kindness, empathy and interdependence. Readers will relate to the main characters as they work through familiar dilemmas or make them laugh. A recent Scholastic study found 52% of children ages 6-17 want to read books that entertain them and make them laugh.
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Bob Books have withstood the test of time in their reputation of promoting phonics-heavy reading since 1920. Their relatively unchanged, old-school illustrations reflect that history. The characters and words alike are simple and uncomplicated. Bob Books specialize in the mastery of CVC words (consonant-vowel-consonant) and words progress in difficulty throughout each series to incorporate more sight words and phonetic complexity.
The very first book in the series, Mat, is a great first reader for Kindergartners with repetition of a handful of rhyming CVC words.
Quick stats: 24 total words, 6 unique. 3 CVC words (mat, sat, sat) and 2 sight words (on, the). 1 challenge word (end).
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The books in each series focuses on a short vowel and a common spelling pattern like -ig or -at. This series is very approachable for young readers in terms of format. On the left side of each page there is one word to sound out, which is then incorporated into a simple sentence on the right side of each page.
Quick stats: 21 total words, 11 unique. 5 CVC (big, dig, pig, jig, wig) and 5 sight (he, a, can, is, has).
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Author Pam Mehlin has created a small book series around short vowel sounds. Tam, for example, is a part of the ‘short a’ vowel sound series. The books have large, clear texts which make it easier for beginning readers to concentrate on decoding. The illustrations incorporate some extra humor and words which parents may need to help decode. In Tam, kids will love that she has technology with her such as her laptop and phone. The phone screen even looks like the Uber app!
Quick stats: 43 total words, 18 unique. 11 CVC (tam, tap, bag, fab, had, lap, nap, pad, rap, sal, sat) and 7 sight words (a, can, in, the, has, is, can).
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There are ten books in total in the red set – five of which focus on each of the five vowels one at a time, and five which integrate all short vowels together for review and practice. The books are longer compared to other kindergarten books and may help to build a reader’s stamina. Ben Bug, for example, has 264 words in total. Despite this relatively long length, the text is highly controlled all words are either common sight words or CVC.
Quick stats: 246 total words, 54 unique. 46 are either a VC word or a CVC word. 7 sight words (a, and, bus, of, the, to, was).
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Primary Phonics Complete Set 1[kindergarten]
Primary Phonics Complete Set 3 [best suited for early first grade]
Primary Phonics Complete Set 2 (best suited for middle first grade)
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Kindergarteners who now all letter sounds and can sound out CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words will love this series. Every word in every book is highly decodable with very few sight words. The illustrations are colorful and vibrant, and with the exception of the book entitled, “Ribs,” the book topics are high-interest and relatable.
At the end of each book there are excellent pages dedicated to enhancing readers’ comprehension, phonics and phonological awareness.
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Pug has to “go” (literally and figuratively) but none of his humans make a move until a very funny and pivotal point in the story. Ultimately, Tad avoids a messy situation and takes Pug outside where they meet Peg and another pug.
The text is mostly repetitive with varying short vowel words and basic sight words.
Quick stats: 30 total words, 11 unique. 6 short vowel words (dad, mom, peg, pug, tad, yap); 3 sight words (to, no, go) and 2 challenge words (sees, wants).
For fun follow-up activities, visit holidayhouse.com/I-Like-to-Read/
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This book centers around an adorable, patient and yes, large cat, which is abruptly awoken from a nap to be squeezed, hugged and forced to play dress-up by her overly affectionate human. Fantastic illustrations bring life to the immense “love” to which big cat is repeatedly subjected.
Quick stats: 46 total words, 14 unique. 7 CVC words (big, cat, fun, hug, nap, run, sit); 3 sight words (can, be, see) and 4 challenge words (dance, fly, hide, wake)
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Though mice are generally afraid of cats, the two characters discuss whether they will become friends. The story offers ample opportunity to discuss the concepts of comparison and perspective, especially when Sam says he can be both little and big (depending upon the context).
There is an adorable activity at the end of the book called “Make a Friend” which involves making a puppet and interacting with a friend or a loved one at home.
Quick stats: 71 words total, 24 unique. 7 CVC words (cat, mat, Jack, Sam, big, hat, sad); 11 sight words (a, I, am, see, on, are, you, is, it, the, your) and 6 challenge words (friend, funny, happy, little, surprise, tail).
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Our protagonist Matt the squirrel has just moved and feels lonely with no friends. Fortunately, he meets Pam at his new home and they become friends.
The text is easily decodable with some basic sight words. Readers will benefit from knowing the “magic e” or “silent e” at the ends of words like “here” and “home” means they’ll be pronounced with a long vowel sound.
There is a fun activity at the end of the book that shows how to create your own suitcase and pretend you’re moving. What would you pack? Can your friends or family members guess what you packed? This question is even fun for adults to entertain – if you could only pack five things, what would be in your go bag?
Quick stats: 46 total words, 17 unique. 5 short vowel words; 6 sight words (a has, is, no, the, this); 2 “magic e” (here, home) and 5 challenge words (friend, friends, new, oh, lost).
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Between the engaging text and illustrations, it’s clear why this book received a Theodor Seuss Geisel award.
This text is a wonderful mix of decodable words and sight words.
Quick stats: 76 total words, 30 unique. 10 short vowel words (dig, run, it, fun, mud, big, get, mad, will, bath); 14 sight words (and, is, we, come, me, no, see, go, I, they, this, all, what, them) and 7 challenge words (now, splash, splat, again, need, stop).
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This intrigue is part of the reason young readers will be drawn to this story. In Come Here Tiger, a young girl searches for her cat named, as you might guess, Tiger. In her search, she finds a long series of other pets, but no Tiger. Finally, she finds her cat and they all come together.
Quick stats: 63 total words, 22 unique. 6 short vowel (cat, it’s, bed, box, hat, tub); 10 sight words (come, are, is, that, in, no, the, where, you, look) and 6 challenge (tiger, here, frog, rabbit, Scotty, turtle).
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In addition to solving the mystery of here Pup has gone, there’s an extra and fun challenge for readers, to find the hidden letter P on each page. The book itself feels very much like a beginning graphic novel where the text is entirely dialogue between characters in speech bubbles.
Quick stats: 64 words total, 22 unique. 3 short vowel words, 12 sight words and 7 challenge words (done, here, know, lost, thank, help, me).
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Rick is sick in bed, so Jack gets him a warm drink. Unfortunately, Rick becomes overly hot from the drink, so Jack gets him some ice to cool down. But then, unfortunately, Rick becomes too cold! Poor guy can’t do anything right. Jack must problem solve until the very end of the book. This story is wonderful - it makes readers think about cause and effect as well as make predictions.
There is a fun activity at the end where the reader can create a friendship award for someone who is helpful. There are also comprehension questions.
Quick stats: 53 words total, 25 unique. 10 short vowel words; 9 sight words and 6 challenge words (cannot, help, wants, play, cold, tired).
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So Bob uses his back feet to do the opposite, kicking dirt back in the hole. The end result is a perfect fit.
This story is excellent for thinking about cause and effect and making predictions. There are great comprehension questions at the end of the book.
Quick stats: 71 total words, 36 unique. 15 short vowel words, 14 sight words and 7 challenge words (likes, tree, find, help, oh, thank, treetop).
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Luckily, the story ends happily when a girl lets Hot Dog cool off in her pool. Readers can think critically about how each character stays cool. For example, why are the sheep not hot? Or the boy? And why is it that those things help reduce body temperature?
In addition to the happy ending, readers will enjoy the rhyming text. And for parents, the phonemic awareness of rhyming will also help readers decode as they think about how certain words make similar sounds even when spelled differently.
Quick stats: 68 total words, 26 unique. 6 short vowel words; 9 are sight words, 11 challenge words (shoo, chilly, oh, cool, play, pool, sheep, silly, skunk, slow, way).
PS … a science experiment which can be fun alongside Hot Dog – stick a thermometer in water and take the temperature, then add ice and take the temperature again. By how much did the temperature drop?
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Bill pulls Jack and Jill up the sledding hill twice, but by the third attempt is too tired! So if falls to Jack and Jill to do the pulling, until they too become too tired!
Quick stats: 173 total words of which 30 are unique. 10 short vowel words; 11 sight words and 7 challenge words (says, stop, bump, plop, woof, home, oh).
Though this book is long for this stage of reading (at 173 words) there are only 30 distinct words throughout the book. This high level of repetition makes Jack and Jill and Big Dog Bill excellent for fluency practice.
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Max’s fish can do all kinds of cool things, like eat, hide and blow bubbles. However, Max cannot get his multi-talented fish to dance. And here comes the funny part: Max himself dances and at one point even wiggles his butt! (Every young reader will giggle at this, which, in turn, will make readers want to come back to this book to reread time and again.
Quick stats: 75 total words. 32 unique. 7 short vowel words; 11 sight words and 14 challenge (dance, looks, cannot, shakes, arms, bear, blow, bubbles, dancing, eat, every, hide, wants, wiggles).
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This egg is so large compared to the hen’s others that she doesn’t believe it belongs to her. She sets off to ask the other farm animals if the egg belongs to them, but none of them believe it is theirs. However, when asked about the egg, the sly fox sees an opportunity to eat! Luckily, readers will be relieved that out of the giant egg pops a giant chick who scares the fox away, phew!
Quick stats: 103 words total, 36 unique. 14 short vowel words; 12 sight words and 9 challenge (says, small, cow, goat, peep, rest, crack(s), loves, squawk).
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When Zip pulls out all of the stops to fly, roll and run to escape his mom, Zip’s crafty mama catches up every time. The story includes a small amount of dialogue and rhyme. This funny and sweet story is reminiscent of The Runaway Bunny, which could be a fun book to read before or after Come In Zip! There are questions on the last page of this book that will help the reader reflect and clarify comprehension of the text.
Quick stats: 124 total words, 49 unique. 14 short vowel words; 18 sight words and 17 challenge (cannot, away, fast, say, hear, me, fly, blow, car, done, far, faster, night, outrun, play, sees, wind).
As a side note, this book is a great illustration of why publishing house ratings lead parents astray (note the “new readers start here” tag on the cover). This book is far better suited to readers who have mastered decoding of CVC words and are up for the 17(!) challenge words in this book, usually by the spring of Kindergarten.
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Pat makes a trade with him, offering a bone in exchange for the hat, pin and frog, and both parties end up happy.
Quick stats: 116 total words, 58 unique. 20 short vowel words; 22 sight words and 16 challenge words (could, find, frog, things, hole, looked, our, called, digging, fast, grass, missing, secret, shouted, sniffing, spot).
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Pig and cat are pals – they do almost everything together from riding bikes, to reading and to making art. But when pig sees dog one day, they immediately start playing and forget about cat. Cat, all alone, becomes sad until dog notices and extends an invitation to join. They prove that friendships of three can thrive, and the importance of inclusion.
Quick stats: 70 words total, 31 unique. 7 short vowel words; 12 sight words and 12 challenge (play, alone, art, bike, books, hide, make, read, says, seek, sees, swim).
