28 Read Aloud Picture Books Kids Love

Read Aloud Picture Books

Looking for great read aloud picture books? A great book can calm a class, provide one-on-one time, or tie into teaching standards. This list is broken into themes to help you find the perfect read aloud.

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Read Aloud Poetry Books

Out of Wonder: Poems Celebrating Poets by Kwame Alexander with Chris Colderley and Marjory Wentworth

Out of Wonder: Poems Celebrating Poets by Kwame Alexander is great to use with poems from other poets. This Coretta Scott King Award winning book could be a great start to a poetry study. Combine it with Love that Dog by Sharon Creech to dive into styles and learning to appreciate poetry.

Nighttime Symphony by Timbaland

Nighttime Symphony is a beautiful book. It is perfect for those afraid of rain and storms. If you have a kid who has this fear you know that it is tough to get the simplicity and beauty of rain though their worries. This book turns the sounds into a lullaby. A great book to help young readers learn to turn their fears into something wonderful.

Kiyoshi’s Walk by Mark Karlins

This is a beautiful book that helps young writers learn where to get ideas for writing. Kiyoshi’s Walk focuses on haiku poetry. Kiyoshi walks with his grandfather and asks about where he gets his ideas for writing. At each stop grandfather explains where he gets his ideas by sharing a haiku. This book pairs easily with having students write haikus and focusing on word choice in their writing.

Read Aloud Picture Books on Accepting Yourself and Others

Where Are You From by Jaime Kim

Where Are You From is a great book to talk about our roots. In our age we move much more that people did in the past. From house to house, from city to city, and from county to county. This would be a great book to use along with Islandborn. Sometimes it is not about the place you are from, but the heart where you belong.

This book would be a great way to start a project where students must interview family members and friends to learn about their roots and the places they have lived.

Tomorrow Most Likely by Dave Eggers

The world is filled with worry. We spend too much time worrying about what will happen if, what will happen when, or what will happen tomorrow. Tomorrow Most Likely is a great book for those worriers. Tomorrow most likely will be ok. We must learn what is the normal for you. We must help kids understand that they are great, they are wanted, and that is good!

Crown by Derrick Barnes

The illustrations in this book are absolutely fabulous. I love using this book for personal connections. This book pairs well with Hair Love by Matthew Cherry. In 2021 these books took on a whole new meaning as I was diagnosed with breast cancer. My journey throughout 2022 involved having chemotherapy that caused me to lose my hair. I had read these books many times, but reading Hair Love (and watching the animated short) allowed me to explain to my students why I wore a turban for most of that year.

When a Kid Like Me Fights Cancer by Catherine Stier

This book was another go to when I was going through cancer. It was amazing to me how many students are connected to someone they know with cancer. This book walked readers through the journey of fighting cancer. They were able to see the stages of diagnosis, through treatment and recovery.

My Wish for You by Katherine Hahn

My Wish for You is a great book about accepting yourself. A mother’s wish for her daughter. There are so many things I want my daughter to know too. Right now she is struggling as the groups are pairing off. She has always been the one to answer the question “Who did you play with today?” with the answer Everyone.

Nobody Hugs a Cactus by Carter Goodrich

Cactus loves being alone. That is his comfort zone. He yells at the tumbleweeds, the tortoise, the cowboy and coyote. He eventually feels bad about how he treated the others and learns that sometimes you need others in order to be happy.

Fun Read Aloud Picture Books

Do Not Take Your Dragon on a Field Trip by Julie Gassman

Do Not Take Your Dragon on a Field Trip is a funny story about all the things your dragon will do wrong on a field trip. A great way to prep for a field trip and review your procedures and use the dragon as an example of what not to do. There is a predictable pattern so kids can join in as you read it aloud. Kids will enjoy the humor.

Unicorn is Maybe Not So Great After All by Bob Shea

Things change. The new school year is not off to the start that he wants it to go. Unicorn decides to change to make everyone like her more, but soon learns that this change may not be so great after all. Sometimes it is just best to be ourselves.

How to Catch a Unicorn by Adam Wallace and Andy Elkerton

Along with the rest of this series, How to Catch a Unicorn is one that will not stay on the shelf long. A great read long where kids can search for the unicorn on each page. These are great do to writing transformations to get students writing their own versions. I’ve also used them with Makerspaces and provide learners with materials to create a trap to catch a unicorn or elf.

SEL Read Aloud Picture Books

Breathe with Me by Miriam Gates

Breathe With Me has great tips on breathing exercises to feel strong, calm, and happy. This is a great one to use to set the stage for your lesson where you get everyone set and ready. It would also work well with calming down a class after an interactive lesson.

The Chicken Who Couldn’t by Jan Thomas

Many times we are faced with challenges that we think we can’t tackle. They seem too hard or that we don’t have the skill. The Chicken Who Couldn’t teaches us that we can. We have to change our voice in our head from “couldn’t” to “could.”

Bear Came Along by Richard T. Morris

We don’t always know what we need until certain situations come along. Then when we learn to work together we can have adventures we never dreamed of having. I love using this book when talking about sequence of events with my primary grades. We talk about what happens first, second, third, etc. Bear Came Along pairs well with going on a bear hunt as both have the topic of bears and an order of events.

Chloe and the Lion by Mac Barnett

This is a fabulous book to use when teaching the difference between the author and the illustrator. The humor and story within a story will have kids laughing and understanding the tasks that each rolls fill.

The Very Impatient Butterfly by Ross Burach and Nesting by Henry Cole

When Spring arrives, these two books are on the list. The Very Impatient Butterfly is a fun way to get kids to learn about the life cycle of a butterfly. It is a hilarious read aloud and one that I never tire of reading. And if you like this one there are other ones in the series that help kids learn about migration in The Little Butterfly that Could and how animals sleep in Good Night Butterfly.

Nesting by Henry Cole is gorgeous book. Most of the images are in black and white drawings with the. blue of the eggs sprinkled in. This book shares the journey of two robins who build a nest and then raise a family from it. A fantastic book that would make a great nonfiction read aloud and let young readers start note-taking and connecting to the text.

Inky’s Amazing Escape: How a Very Smart Octopus Found His Way Home by Sy Montgomery

Ever heard of someone’s favorite animal being an octopus? After reading Inky’s Amazing Escape these amazing creatures just might find their way into your list of favorite animals. This true story of the finding of Inky by a Lobsterman and escape of Inky from the National Aquarium of New Zealand. The perfect read aloud for pleasure, as a nonfiction mentor text, or part of an animal research unit.

Du Iz Tak by Carson Ellis

Need a lesson in inferencing? Need a lesson in context clues? This book checks so many boxes. I begin the lesson asking if anyone knows how to speak another language. I then ask if anyone knows Spanish, Russian, etc. Then I ask, who knows how to speak Insect and all of the hands go down. Du Iz Tak is written in a made up language. But with the use of inflection when reading, using the images to inference, it isn’t long before kids are understanding it. Here is how to continue the lesson.

Read the book and make notes on what the words mean.
Discuss how the pictures help you understand.
Read the book a second time and the readers choral read back the English translations you wrote.

Magnificent Homespun Brown by Samara Cole Doyon

This award winning book is beautiful. In Magnificent Homespun Brown the text and illustrations paint a wonderful picture of celebrating ourselves. This book could be used in so many different ways. Kids can write color poems. I like to really focus on the strong adjectives in this text. You could also review other parts of speech with this book and focus on the author’s word choice. As a fun follow up, kids can complete mad libs to practice the parts of speech.

Who Wants a Tortoise by Dave Keane

Who Wants a Tortoise is a book about a young girl who wants a dog for her birthday. She gets everything for the dog, except the dog. Unfortunately her father is allergic to dogs. As a surprise her parents get her a tortoise for a pet. She is not happy about this new pet at all! I love how she tries hard to make her tortoise be a dog. But is it the type of pet that she needs or just the love of another? I use this book to kick off my 1st grade pet research project – Diary of a Pet.

Carmela Full of Wishes by Matt De La Pena

It is Carmela’s birthday and she is finally old enough to join her older brother on his daily outings. She learns that dandelions are for wishes and before she can make her wish, she falls and the wish floats away. Her older brother helps her to still make a birthday wish.

Saturday by Oge Mora

We all have days that don’t go as planned. In Saturday a day full of fun activities don’t go the way that they were expected to go. It’s all about perspective. Was it the event that was to be so special or just the time together. A great personal narrative book that will get kids connecting to the text.

I Walk With Vanessa by Kerascoet

No words are needed to tell this story. I Walk With Vanessa is a story about a new girl who is bullied on the way home from school. Another kid sees this and soon asks Vanessa to walk to school with her. A great story about friendship.

A Bike Like Sergio’s by Maribeth Boelts

Ruben’s birthday is approaching and he wants nothing more than a bike like his friend Sergio. On a trip to the grocery store he finds $100 and realizes that now is the chance to get that bike. He must decide which is more important – getting that bike or returning the money to the owner.

* Suggested Classroom Use – This is a great read aloud picture book to pair with A Dog Wearing Shoes by Ko. Both of these books deal with finding something and the dilemma of keeping the items or returning it. This is a great connection to get kids thinking about writing their own small moment about finding something.

Bear and Squirrel Are Friends by Deb Pilutti

If you have stuck around for the entire list, you now get to my favorite book. I have read this book many times to grades K-5th and it always gets a reaction. If you are looking to make predictions, build suspense, and have students make inferences then this is the book for you! Bird and Squirrel Are Friends is about two friends who decided to spend time together even though they are very different including the things they typically eat. You will be glad you add this one to your read aloud picture books list!