Recommended Reading

Hi Friends,

Birth to Pre-school is an amazing time to share the love of reading with children.  “The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home” by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise states that, “In about thirty minutes per day, plus informal teaching as you go about your family life, you can easily teach your child beginning reading, writing, and math concepts, all without workbooks or teacher’s manuals.”  For a preschooler there is no set times for learning.  They are always asking questions to learn from the world around them.  As annoying as the constant questions might be, be happy that you have a curious child that is interested in learning.    

The foundation of reading is learning the letters and their sounds.   One of my favorite letter sound teaching tools is not a book but a video called “The Letter Factory” by Leap Frog.  The video reviews each letter and the sound that the letter makes.  It’s about 30 minutes long and is a great video to supplement learning letters from books or activities.  At the end of the day, a great ABC book is an invaluable tool to help your child learn their letters and the sounds each letter makes. 

This post shares with you some great reading resources to start reading with your preschooler. Book images in this post include amazon affiliate links and ads. I may receive commission from clicks or purchases from the site links. Clicking on the book image will open a new tab for shopping books from this list. The book images also provide a reference for library browsing.

Here are 10 recommended ABC books to start preschool learning off right.    

• Dr. Seuss’s ABC: An Amazing Alphabet Book! By Dr. Seuss

“Big A…little a… what begins with A?” says the Dr. Seuss’s ABC An Amazing Alphabet Book!  This is repetitive phrase for each letter helps children understand both the upper case letters and the lower case letters.  This book is better for letter identification than letter sounds.  A common issue I have with letter books is the vowel letters can be shown with pictures of long vowel sounds (E is for Ear).  Overall, I wouldn’t skip a book just for this reason but maybe wait to explain short and long vowel sounds once your child can identify all the letters and the short vowel sounds. 

• Bright Baby Colors, ABC, & Numbers First Words by Roger Priddy

This book is a hard working baby, toddler, and preschooler book.  This book reviews all of the basics and is a favorite among toddlers and preschoolers for the bright pictures.  This is an interactive reading book that can be read differently each time. Ask your child different questions each time you open the book.  The letters page shows both upper case and lower case letters.  The pets page was always our children’s favorite.  

• I Spy Letters by Jean Marzollo

I Spy Letters by Jean Marzollo is from the I Spy category of books.  This book is light on printed words but is a great interactive ABC book with items to find in each page that start with the letter.  This book is one that can be read with lots of interaction with your preschooler.  You could spend a lot of time on each page asking questions about the letter or the “hidden” items.

• Richard Scarry’s ABC Word Book by Richard Scarry

Richard Scarry’s ABC Word Book is a classic Richard Scarry busy town adventure.  Children love the elaborate illustrations of busy town. Join the busy town crew as they find things around town with different letters.  This book highlights a letter for every page.  Sometimes the letter is within the word and not just the beginning. This book also highlights some blend sounds like ch, and sh.       

• B is for Bear by Rodger Priddy

No toddler book list is complete without a touch and feel ABC book.  This one “B is for Bear” by Roger Priddy combines ABC learning, word rhyming, and interactive pictures to make this book a fun reading experience.  This was one of my children’s favorites as toddlers and was easy to memorize because of the picture cues and rhyming.  

• The Very Hungry Caterpillar’s ABC by Eric Carle

The Very Hungry Caterpillar’s ABC by Eric Carle has all of the classic pictures from several of the different Eric Carle books.  Eric Carle’s illustrations are always a delight.  This book is light on printed words which makes it an easy to focus on letter identification.  Some of the words that represent each letter represent the long vowel (E is for Eagle), so this might not be the best if you are focusing on learning the sounds for each letter.   

• National Geographic Photo Ark ABC: An Animal Alphabet in Poetry and Pictures (The Photo Ark) by Debbie Levy

If your child is an animal lover this is an excellent book to discover amazing photos of animals.  This is another ABC book light on written words but the photos make up for any lack in text.  I love the idea of relating animals making sounds to letters making sounds. 

• The United States ABC’s by Holly Schroeder

This book covers social studies, and ABC’s. This might be one of the more advanced ABC books as it is presented in a non-fiction style with general facts about the country.  This is a great way to present non-fiction books to the youngest of readers.  You can use this book to explain the parts of a non-fiction book to young readers while you explore unique things about the United States of America.    

• The Christmas ABC by Florence Johnson

The ABCs of Christmas time.  Celebrate the holiday with your child with this classic golden book Christmas ABC.  Each letter is represented by a Christmas time object. Some of the words that represent vowel letters use the long vowel sound, so this might not be the best if you are focusing on learning the sounds for each letter.  This book is fine if you are working on identifying letters and celebrating Christmas.

ABC book of your child’s favorite topic.

My husband always says the best workout is the one you will consistently do.  The same goes for reading.  The best ABC book is the one that interests your child the most.  Maybe they are into dinosaurs, or cars, or animals, or a certain tv character. There are thousands of ABC books to choose from. Your library resources can help you find some that are right for your child. 

Remember what Gretchen Rubin says, “The days are long but the years are short”.  Spend those long days reading and those moments will never be wasted.