There’s something special about a book about reading. It’s like reading a book in a book in a book … literary inception, if you know what I mean. Here are 13 picture books about reading to read aloud or add to your classroom library and inspire students to keep reading.
1. How to Read a Story by Kate Messner
This picture book about reading playfully and movingly illustrates the idea that the reader who discovers the love of reading finds, at the end, the beginning.
2. A Child of Books by Oliver Jeffers
A little girl sails her raft across a sea of words, arriving at the house of a small boy and calling him away on an adventure.
3. This Is My Book by Mark Pett
What happens when a writer learns that he doesn’t quite have as much control over his book as he thinks?
4. Book Uncle and Me by Uma Krishnaswami
Every day, 9-year-old Yasmin borrows a book from Book Uncle, a retired teacher who has set up a free lending library next to her apartment building.
5. The Lonely Book by Kate Bernheimer
When a wonderful new book arrives at the library, at first it is loved by all, checked out constantly, and rarely spends a night on the library shelf. But over time it grows old and worn, and the children lose interest in its story.
6. It’s a Book by Lane Smith
In this book about reading, one animal asks another all about what a book is by asking if it can do things a computer can do.
7. The Whisper by Pamela Zagarenski
A little girl discovers that we each bring something different to the same story.
8. How This Book Was Made by Mac Barnett and Adam Rex
This book tells the story of how a book is written and illustrated. But be careful of tigers and pirates!
9. Isabella: Star of the Story by Jennifer Fosberry
An everyday visit to the library becomes an unexpected adventure through the pages of classic children’s book favorites!
10. How Rocket Learned to Read by Tad Hills
Rocket meets a little yellow bird who decides to teach him to read.
11. The Incredible Book Eating Boy by Oliver Jeffers
Like many children, Henry loves books. But Henry doesn’t like to read books, he likes to eat them!
12. I Am a Story by Dan Yaccarino
From cave drawings to the invention of the printing press to our digital age, discover how a story has been told in many different ways over time.
13. I Hate to Read by Rita Marshall
Victor Dickens hates to read, and nothing can change his mind. Or can it? How about a parrot with a peg leg? Or a rabbit with black barn boots? This book about reading is great for reluctant readers.
