Book Club › Books by level › Level 1
Books for level 1 readers: first books to sound out
Before or at the start of kindergarten: the first books a child sounds out. Up to 5 words on a page, one short line, with a picture on every page.
Peabody's level 1 stories, free to read now
- A Web on the Bed12 short pages
- Bat in the Hat11 short pages
- Bed Is Full12 short pages
- Bev Has a Pet10 short pages
- Can Ted Hop?8 short pages
- Dots in the Hut10 short pages
- Fox and the Hen9 short pages
- Get Up, Gus!10 short pages
- Jen and the Jam7 short pages
- Pup in the Tub9 short pages
- Rat's Hut11 short pages
- Six Cats, Six Hats8 short pages
- Tab Can Not Nap12 short pages
- Ten Pigs7 short pages
- The Red Bus8 short pages
- Zed and the Rug10 short pages
From Peabody's kids' book lists
Books that help with sight words and decoding
- Bob Books Set 1: Beginning Readers by Bobby Lynn Maslen · ages 4-7. Twelve tiny books that use only a few letters at a time (m, a, s, t) so children can sound out every word. Widely used for first decoding practice. Bookshop.org · Amazon
- Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss · ages 3-7. Rhymes on short vowel word families (hop, pop; day, play). Beginner Books series with limited vocabulary. Bookshop.org · Amazon
- Go, Dog. Go! by P. D. Eastman · ages 3-7. Dogs of all kinds go places in cars and hats. Simple vocabulary and a lot of repetition, useful for early sight words. Bookshop.org · Amazon
- Are You My Mother? by P. D. Eastman · ages 3-7. A baby bird hatches and asks everything he meets if it is his mother. Simple words and a repeated pattern. Bookshop.org · Amazon
- Biscuit by Alyssa Satin Capucilli · ages 2-6. A little yellow puppy won't go to bed. I Can Read! My First level, in very short sentences with strong picture clues. Bookshop.org · Amazon
Top 25 books for a kindergartener
- The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn · ages 3-6. A raccoon's mother kisses his palm so he can feel her love at school. A first-day-of-school standby. Bookshop.org · Amazon
- Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes · ages 4-7. A mouse who loves her name is teased about it on the first day of school. Reads aloud easily and gives kids language for teasing. Bookshop.org · Amazon
- Wemberly Worried by Kevin Henkes · ages 3-7. Wemberly worries about everything, especially the first day of school. Short text with a comforting ending. Bookshop.org · Amazon
- Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes · ages 4-8. Lilly can't wait to show her purse and acts out when her teacher takes it. Teaches repair after hurting someone's feelings. Bookshop.org · Amazon
- Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña · ages 4-8. CJ and his grandmother ride a bus across the city to a soup kitchen where they serve. Newbery Medal 2016; talks about finding beauty where you are. Bookshop.org · Amazon
Best picture book read-alouds for ages 5 to 7
- Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak · ages 3-7. Max is sent to bed without supper and sails off to rule the monsters. The book that proved picture books can handle anger; won the 1964 Caldecott Medal. Bookshop.org · Amazon
- The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson · ages 3-7. A mouse invents a monster to scare off predators and then meets it. Strong rhyme makes it easy to read aloud and easy to memorize. Bookshop.org · Amazon
- Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin · ages 4-7. Cows with a typewriter go on strike for electric blankets. Funny for adults too; a Caldecott Honor book. Bookshop.org · Amazon
- The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt · ages 4-8. Each crayon writes a letter of complaint to the child who owns them. Good for doing voices, and for talking about how to share. Bookshop.org · Amazon
- Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña · ages 4-8. A boy and his grandmother ride a city bus to serve dinner at a soup kitchen. Won the 2016 Newbery Medal, unusual for a picture book. Bookshop.org · Amazon
Series at this age
None at this level: the series on Peabody start at about level 7, where chapter books and comics begin. All series in order.