Great Reads for Kids at All Levels

We have all heard that leaders are readers, and that’s our focus — to help families build leaders for the next generation.

We can (and should) start reading to our kids at an early age. Reading out loud to our little ones helps increase their phonemic awareness, which allows them to recognize sounds and blends when they learn to read. Reading out loud is one of the GREATEST steps we take toward building lifelong readers.

But what should we read? Below is a list of suggestions at different age levels. We want to hear your suggestions too. Leave a comment and help expand our list.

Birth to Pre-K

• Nursery Rhymes are GREAT at this age. Read the same ones over and over and over.
• Beatrix Potter books
• Dr. Seuss books
• Eric Carle books
• Sandra Boynton Books
• The Amelia Bedelia Books
• Berenstain Bear Books
• The Corduroy Books
• The Madeline Books
• Are You My Mother, by P.D. Eastman
• Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, by Bill Martin Jr.
• Click Clack Moo: Cows that Type, by Doreen Cronin, Betsy Lewin, and Randy Travis crc
• Guess How Much I Love You, by Sam McBratny
• Good Night Moon, by Margaret Wise Brown
• The Gruffalo, by Julia Donaldson
• Harold and the Purple Crayon, by Crockett Johnson
• The Hoppameleon, by Paul Geraghty
• The Little Engine That Could, by Watty Piper
• I Love You Stinky Face, by Lisa Mccourt and Syd Moore
• Love You Forever, by Robert Munsch
• Pat the Bunny, by Dorothy Kunhardt
• The Pokey Little Puppy, by Janette Sebring Lowrey and Gustaf Tenggren
• The Rainbow Fish, Marcus Pfister
• The Runaway Bunny, by Margaret Wise Brown
• The Saggy Baggy Elephant, by K. Jackson
• Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak

Early Readers

This is a list of books that budding readers can read to you. You may want to consider supplementing reading education with “Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons”, available at Amazon.

• Bob Books
• Little Bear books
• Step in Reading Series
• Eric Hill Books
• Dr. Seuss Books
• I Can Read Books, by Harper Collins
• Stephen Cartwright books, from Usborne (these are super fun because on every page, your child is challenge to find a little yellow duck hidden in the picture)
• Dick and Jane books
• Whose Mouse are You?, by Robert Kraus
• Who Took the Farmer’s Hat?, by Joan L. Nodset
• Nate the Great, by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat

K- 3rd Grade

Many of the books on this list are meant to be read by an adult to a child. We have found that if you put white paper and markers in front of a young listener, the right brain will be occupied enough to allow the left brain to hear the story. Don’t be concerned at first if they do not follow the storyline. The ability to see “a movie” in their mind as they imagine what’s being read comes in time.

• Beverly Cleary books
• Shel Silverstein books
• Magic Tree House books
• A-Z mysteries
• A Bear Called Paddington, by Michael Bond
• Because of Winn Dixie, by  Kate DiCamillo
• The Borrowers, by Mary Norton
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, by Roald Dahl
• Charlotte’s Web, by E.B. White
• Horrible Harry in Room 2B, by Suze Kline
• How to Tell Time (A Little Golden Book), by Jane Warner Watson
• The Invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brian Selznick
• Little House on the Prairie Series, by Laura Ingalls Wilder
• Matilda, by Roald Dahl
• The Polar Express, by Chris VanAllsburg
• Shiloh, by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
• The Spiderwick Chronicles, by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi
• The Sisters Grimm, by Michael Buckley
• Stellaluna, by Janell Cannon
• Stuart Little, by E. B. White
• Super Fudge, by Judy Blume
• Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, by Judy Blume
• The Trumpet of the Swan, by E.B. White
• Verdi, by Janell Cannon
• Winnie-the-Pooh, by A. A. Milne
• You Are Special, by Max Lucado

4th – 6th Grade

• 39 Clues Series
• A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L’Engle
• Anne of Green Gables, by L.M. Montgomery
• Baby Island, by Carol Ryrie Brink
• Bridge to Terebithia, by Katherine Paterson
• Chomp, by Carl Hiaasen
• The Devil’s Arithmetic, by Jane Yolen
• The City of Ember, by Jeanne DuPrau
• The Chronicles of Narnia Series, by C.S. Lewis
• Esperanza Rising, by Pam Munoz Ryan
• Fever 1793, by Laurie Halse Anderson
• Flush, by Carl Hiaasen
• Guardians of Ga’Hoole, by Kathryn Lasky
• The Giver, by Lois Lowry
• Gossamer, by Lois Lowry
• Gladys Aylward: The Little Woman, by Gladys Aylward with Christine Hunter
• George Mueller: He Dared to Trust God for the Needs of Countless Orphans, by Faith Coxe Bailey
• Hinds Feet on High Places, by Hannah Hurnard
• Holes, by Louis Sachar
• Hoot, by Carl Hiaasen
• How to Train Your Dragon, Cressida Cowell
• The Indian in the Cupboard, by Lynne Reid Banks
• Inkheart, by Cornelia Funke
• Island of the Blue Dolphins, by Scott O’Dell
• James and the Giant Peach, by Roald Dahl
• A Little Princess, by Frances Hodgson Burnett
• A Series of Unfortunate Events, by Lemony Snicket
• Lyddie, by Katherine Paterson
• The Midwife’s Apprentice, by Karen Cushman
• Mrs. Brisby and the Rats of NIHM, by Robert C. O’Brien
• The Mysterious Benedict Society, by Trenton Lee Stewart
• No Talking, by Andrew Clements
• Number the Stars, by Lois Lowry
• The Pilgrim’s Progress, by John Bunyan
• Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farms, by Kate Douglas Wiggin
• Redwall, by Brian Jacques
• Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, by Mildred D. Taylor
• The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett
• Scat, by Carl Hiaasen
• The Sign of the Beaver, by Elizabeth George Speare
• The Tale of Despereaux, by Kate DiCamillo
• Tuck Everlasting, by Natalie Babbitt
• The Warriors Series, by Erin Hunt
• The Witch of Blackbird Pond, by Elizabeth George Speare
• Where the Red Fern Grows, by Wilson Rawls

By 7th grade, you can begin introducing students to the 101 Books for the College Bound Reader list. The list was originally compiled for and posted by the College Board, creators of the SAT exam. We did not want to duplicate that list, so the lists below are additional.

Students aiming for higher education (college and beyond) need to increase their stamina, vocabulary, and thinking skills, and one of the best ways to do that is to begin tackling this list and digesting as many of these books as possible. Aim for 2-4 books per month from 7th through 12 grade, including (and especially) the summers. And keep track of what they read. It might be the one thing that sets them apart in the college application process. If you are purposeful, your child could feasibly conquer great 120  titles.

7th – 9th Grade

• Charles Dickens Books
• J.R.R. Tolkien books
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain
• Abraham Lincoln: Selected Speeches and Writings, by Abraham Lincoln
• The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, by Benjamin Franklin
• Beloved, by Toni Morrison
• Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card
• Foxes Book of Martyrs, by John Foxe
• Do Hard Things, by Alex and Brett Harris
• The Help, by Kathryn Stockett
• The Hiding Place, by Corri Ten Boom
• The Hound of the Baskervilles, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
• The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
• The Importance of Being Earnest, by Oscar Wilde
• The Jungle Book, by Rudyard Kipling
• Life of Pi, by Yann Martel
• The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
• The Lottery and Other Stories, by Shirley Jackson
• The Masque of the Red Death, by Edgar Allan Poe
• Night, by Elie Wiesel
• Our Town, by Thornton Wilder
• The Princess Bride, by William Goldman
• War of the Worlds, by H.G. Wells
• What Smart Students Know, by Adam Robinson

10th – 12th Grade

• 1984, by George Orwell
• A Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
• Cat’s Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut
• The Confessions, by Saint Augustine
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, by Mark Haddon
• Democracy in America, by Alexis de Tocqueville
• Fast Food Nation, by Eric Schlosser
• The Federalist Papers, by Alexander Hamilton
• The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls
• The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• The Knowledge of the Holy: The Attributes of God, by A. W. Tozer
• Josephus: The Complete Works, by Josephus
• Mans Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl
• Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey
• Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell
• Saras’s Key, by Tatiana de. Rosnay
• A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini