30 Great Read Aloud Books Every Teacher Needs
Recently I’ve had the opportunity to support educators as they think through and prepare for the launch of the school year – albeit, a launch like none before. Along with many uncertainties, a question we are all asking is, “How do I build a classroom community in a virtual classroom?”
Let’s keep it simple. Pick a great book (or two or ten), read it aloud, share your thinking, and invite students to share their thinking, too.
Whether it’s the beginning of a new school year, reaching a milestone, or a random Tuesday of the week…there’s always a reason to read aloud great books. My good friend and colleague, Rebecca Bellingham, recently reminded me in her new book The Artful Read Aloud, that we never outgrow a read aloud! (Check out Rebecca’s Ted Talk here).
When we read aloud, we’re creating and sharing a literacy experience as a community. That experience is one that becomes chronicled as part of our history together. A memory that we can return to over and over again in our classroom stories. “Remember that time when we…or when we couldn’t believe the character chose to…?”
Read aloud texts bring longevity to our teaching and exist in our classrooms well beyond the initial experience.
After we’ve read aloud the texts they become our “teaching texts” from which we can use to later explicitly teach a process for strategically thinking through any text.
We use our teaching texts to model our thinking in:
step by step lessons
whole class lessons
small groups
individual conferences
When we model our thinking, we use teaching language that invites students to transfer from a shared reading experience to students trying the same strategic thinking in their independent reading experiences.
When we use read aloud texts as our teaching texts we gain confidence as a teacher because we know the text so we can quickly locate places in the text to use for modeling a variety of strategic thinking for readers. We no longer worry about, “How do I know what to teach a reader if I don’t know the book they are reading?” The quick answer is you don’t have to know their book – you only have to know your teaching text. Perhaps more importantly, you need to know the reader.
When read aloud books become teaching texts, you feel prepared to respond to the range of opportunities to truly be a responsive teacher – keeping students at the center of your teaching.
When I have the opportunity to study with professional educators or check in with caregivers and parents, one of my favorite topics of discussion is what are the great books you’ve been reading?
Here’s a list of 3o books crying to be read out loud.
These 30 books have become a part of my go to bookshelf. Whether I’m reading aloud to my daughter, to teachers in a professional learning study, or to a classroom full of students, I believe that every single one of these books is perfect for opening up the opportunity for us to share our thinking and provoke conversations that build community.
Red: A Crayon’s Story by Michael Hall
Woke: A Young Poet’s Call to Justice by Mahogany L. Browne et al
Jabari Jumps by Gaia Cornwall
I’m not just a Scribble by Diane Alber
Violet the Pilot by Steve Breen
Our Rainbow Board Book by Little Bee Books
The Thing Lou Couldn’t Do by Ashley Spires
Happy: A beginner’s Book of Mindfulness by Nicola Edwards
How to Read to a Grandma or Grandpa by Jean Reagan
What If… by Samantha Berger
Julián is a Mermaid by Jessica Love
Hidden Figures: The True Story of Four Black Women and the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly
Let the Children March by Monica Clark-Robinson
Pies from Nowhere: How Georgia Gilmore Sustained the Montgomery Bus Boycott by Dee Romito and Laura Freeman
Prince & Knight by Daniel Haack
I Will Be Fierce! by Bea Birdsong
The Girl with a Mind for Math by Julia Finley Mosca
We also love supporting local book stores including these favorites:
Main Street Book Store, Davidson, NC
Children’s World of Books, Los Angeles, CA
The Strand, New York, NY
Tattered Cover, Denver, CO
Book and Puppet Company, Easton, PA
Aaron’s Books, Litiz, PA
Symposium Books, Providence, RI
Bank Street Book Store, New York, NY
Your turn!
One of the first things we do when visiting a new town is find (and support) the local books store!
Have a favorite book or local bookstore?
Let us know in the comments or suggest it on our Facebook page @ReadWriteThinkwithRenee and hashtag them #RWTbookstore so we can add it to the list.
Happy reading!
Some additional resources to add to your interactive read aloud toolkit:
The Classroom Bookshelf – Katie Cunningham and Friends
A Read. Write. Think. (and Listen) with Renee Podcast on Reading Aloud
P.S. You might want to use the best 30 read aloud books to start or add to your student centered library!
