With lots more time at home, a life-long hobby and skill to nurture in your family would be reading. Many parents have asked for a recommended reading list by age. We made a starter one, organized by author and only some examples of books. We welcome new suggestions to make this list grow! Look into each author for more!
Pre-K/K
Components: Eye-catching illustrations, simple repetitive text
Reading tips: Use different, EXPRESSIVE voices (high and low tones) to get your child’s attention and keep them absorbed in storytime
- Eric Carle
- The Very Hungry Caterpillar
- Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do you See?
- The Very Busy Spider
- Don Freeman
- Corduroy
- Nancy Shaw
- Sheep in a Jeep
- Stephen Carpenter
- Three Billy Goats Gruff
- Dr. Seuss
- Green Eggs and Ham
- Hop on Pop
- The Lorax
- So so many books to chose from
- P. D. Eastman
- Are you my Mother?
- Robert Munsch
- Love You Forever
- Marcus Pfister
- The Rainbow Fish
- Mo Willems
- Elephant and Piggy series
- Don’t Let the Pigeon Ride the Bus
Grades K-3
Components: Can start to delve more into life lessons and deeper concepts with cause and effect scenarios
Note: This is a time of very wide reading ability so make adjustments according to your child’s ability and interest!
- Maurice Sendak
- Where the Wild Things Are
- David Shannon
- No, David! (series)
- A Bad Case of Stripes
- Stan Berenstain
- Berenstain Bears (series)
- Laura Numeroff
- If you Give a Mouse a Cookie
- Arnold Lobel
- Frog and Toad are Friends
- Anna Dewdney
- Llama Llama, Red Pajama
- Mary Pope Osborne
- Magic Tree House (series)
Grades 4-6
- Gary Paulsen
- Hatchet
- Brian’s Winter
- Scott O’ Dell
- Island of the Blue Dolphins
- Lois Lowry
- The Giver
- Carolyn Keene
- Nancy Drew (series)
- E.L. Konigsburg
- From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
- J.K. Rowling
- Harry Potter (series)
Middle and High School
- Philip Pullman
- His Dark Materials (series)
- Joseph Heller
- Catch-22
- Markus Zusak
- The Book Thief
- J.R. Tolkien
- Hobbit
- Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Young Adult and Up
- Viktor Frankl
- Man’s Search for Meaning
- C.S. Lewis
- Mere Christianity
- The Great Divide