Before kids can begin to read, they need to build certain early literacy skills such as letter knowledge, print awareness, and symbolism. They have to know what the letter A looks like and sounds like. Essentially, they have to know that the letter stands for a sound. I put together this booklist of picturebooks that encourage and play with letter knowledge, whether it’s written notes, “examples” of preschool writing, books with lists, stories told through letters, or line tracing.
This is a classic! When Farmer Brown’s cows find a typewriter in the barn they start making demands, and go on strike when the farmer refuses to give them what they want.
Max makes an earthworm cake for Grandma’s birthday and helps Ruby with her angel surprise cake. At the store, the grocer can’t read all of the shopping list, until Max solves the problem by drawing pictures.
Busy little peas introduce their favorite occupations, from astronaut to zoologist.
A told B, and B told C, I’ll meet you at the top of the coconut tree. In this lively alphabet rhyme, all the letters of the alphabet race each other up the coconut tree. Will there be enough room? Oh, no – Chicka Chicka Boom! Boom!
Moose, terribly eager to play his part in the alphabet book his friend Zebra is putting together, then awfully disappointed when his letter passes, behaves rather badly until Zebra finds a spot for him.
An alphabetical tour of the world of fruits and vegetables, from apricot and artichoke to yam and zucchini. Lois Ehlert is one of my favorite non-fiction authors! The concepts are always perfect for my preschoolers and usually done with a bit of humor. A perfect intro to any topic!
Mouse invites the reader to shout out what he or she knows as they review numbers, letters, and easy words.
This series takes kids from a single word, to a phrase, to a simple sentence. Ice Mice utilizes word families to help new readers recognize similarities between words that rhyme and connect words that have matching long or short vowel sounds. This is a great, relatively new series that I recommend to my patrons. Much more playful than many other word family books.
Louisa the pig writes anonymous letters to Farmer Joe complaining about conditions on the farm. This one is similar in concept to Click Clack Moo, but features a slightly more updated and relateable notepad.
While learning some facts about animals, the reader is challenged to guess why A is for zoo, B is for dog, and C is for hen. This one is a slightly harder book for young ones. That being said, if your child already has a good grasp on the alphabet, they might enjoy this think-outside-the-box guessing game.
Harold goes for an adventurous walk in the moonlight with his purple crayon. Another classic! This one is great for showing line-tracing and shape finding, important skills before a child is ready for the alphabet.
Peter wants to invite Amy to his birthday party but he wants it to be a surprise.
Paintings of objects in an urban setting present the letters of the alphabet. This book is kind of a hide-and-seek alphabet book. Great for differentiating between shapes.
The hilarious tale of an ox who is in love with a gazelle, told in correspondence
Poor Duncan just wants to color. But when he opens his box of crayons, he finds only letters, all saying the same thing: his crayons have had enough! They quit!
A young girl and her teacher correspond about the whale she has discovered in her pond.
A little boy goes grocery shopping for his mother and tries hard to remember her instructions.
An alphabet made of people — here are the 26 familiar letters of the alphabet and images to illustrate them, each made with ingenious grips, bends and twists of the human form.
After her play date is cancelled, a young girl and her dad have a fun day tackling their to-do lists together.
A little yellow bird teaches Rocket the dog how to read by first introducing him to the “wondrous, mighty, gorgeous alphabet.”
Readers will delight in following a note’s unexpected journey and encountering a cast of charming characters along the way.
As a green lion stands at a street corner waiting for a green light, a surprising sequence of events takes place. Each page turn brings something new that begins with the letters “li” And while readers may guess, each time, that it will be the expected green light, it usually isn’t. This is another slightly advanced alphabetics book, but is
A young boy wants to write a story, just like his big sister. But there’s a problem, he tells her. Though he knows his letters, he doesn’t know many words. His sister patiently explains, “Every story starts with a single word and every word starts with a single letter. Why don’t you start there, with a letter?”
Two cousins, one in Mexico and one in New York City, write to each other and learn that even though their daily lives differ, at heart the boys are very similar.
Librarian Ginny 