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“You can find magic wherever you look, sit back and relax, all you need is a book.” - Dr. Seuss.

Whether it’s on the couch cuddling with you or with a flashlight in their bed at night, reading with your kindergartener is magic. With all the benefits it brings, choosing beautiful, magical, and meaningful books creates the ideal moment for learning with and bonding with your little one. (See Psychology Today’s article on the benefits of reading to kids here)

Here are some of our our children’s favorites:

1) Where the Wild Things Are

This is a story about a boy wearing jammies who runs away to an imaginary land and runs amok with the wild things, becoming their leader. The book has beautiful art as well, which is always something we prefer when spending time with our children in a book.

Enrichment Activity: Some books we love because of sentimentality from our past…and this is one of those. Do you have any books from your past that you love and want to introduce to your child? Tell your child about your history with this story! Also, if you watch the Wild Things movie (without your child, might not be appropriate for a kindergartener), you can add what you learn from the movie to amplify the story the way you want to. Every story can be customized to your child.

2) Brave as Can Be: A Book of Courage

This book is part of a beautiful series that shares different stories and interactive pages that build your child’s emotional intelligence. This book is full of bright-colored art with cut-out and fun pages. My kindergartener daughter loves these books! I choose to highlight Brave as Can Be in this series, because it’s a simple telling about being afraid and how that fear will shrink over time. What I love is that it so carefully and simply identifies situations where a child might feel scared. My kindergartener related deeply with the various scary situations like encountering a dog with big teeth and losing sight of your mom in a crowd. I recommend the entire series.

Enrichment Activity: Create a cut-out heart card for a loved one using printer paper and decorative paper. Then gift it to someone they love!

3) Owl Moon

This sweet story is told by the little girl adventuring with her father in the snow to search for an owl under the moonlight. The little girl spots the owl and narrates, “For one minute, three minutes, maybe even a hundred minutes, we stared at one another.” This is how a child sometimes feels when he is in a special moment - the concept of time is different for a child. The peaceful story ends with a focus on hope. The watercolor art is soft and beautiful.

Enrichment Activity: Turn this story reading into an entire day! Pair this book with an owl craft, make snow cones, and dissect owl pellets!

4) When Sadness Is At Your Door

This book treats sadness like a soft-spoken person who shows up one day unexpectedly, keeps “you” (a child) company all day long, and then eventually when you wake up one morning it will be gone. This story personifies sadness and makes the feeling come alive as a relatable being. The art is soft, using soft colors and soft lines. The entire experience is calming and peaceful. The pages’ minimalist text and art are simple, peaceful, and not overwhelming - a perfect combination for anyone who might be dwelling in sadness at the moment.

Enrichment Activity: You can ask your older kids to personify a feeling, write and illustrate their own story about an emotion, and share with your kindergartener.

5) How Rocket Learned to Read

This story is one of my kindergartener’s favorite books. It’s about a puppy, Rocket, who just wants to take a nap while a little bird reads him a story - but the bird flies away before she finishes it! The story teaches the “wondrous, mighty, gorgeous alphabet,” and so Rocket just can’t help but listen. The books focuses on sounding out fun words. We read it over and over again. It can inspire your kindergartener to learn more about words, dive deeper into exploring reading, and even start writing!

6) Press Here

This book is fun with simple art - dots! Both of my girls love to play with this interactive picture book, especially my youngest. With this book, your kindergartener learns action words like pressing, rubbing, shaking, tapping, blowing, and clapping. And, she gets to DO those actions too and see what happens on the next page! Also, determining left and right, finding a pattern, and naming colors are all important milestones she gets to practice.

Enrichment Activity: If you have older kiddos, ask them read it with your kindergartener! What a wonderful bonding time they can experience together. Also, invite your older ones to make their own book using the Dot Markers, and then present it to their younger sibling for her to enjoy with them.

There’s nothing like the magic that can happen all because you picked a good book to read with your kindergartener. Focus on this opportunity at this age and build fun traditions, morning routines, enriching habits, and life-long memories.

For more about our favorite picture books for a larger range of ages, check out our Favorite Picture Books episode.

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