Seven Picture Books For ABC’S
As an early learning educator, I love picture books, and I’m very picky about picture books. The content, the illustrations, everything has to be juuuust right before I bring it to storytime. So naturally, I’ve collected a huge assortment of picture books I love, and one of my favorite things to do is categorize them. This is the first blog post I’m writing about picture books, so we’re going to start with a pretty basic topic- the alphabet. All of the picture books listed incorporate every letter of the alphabet in a fun and engaging way. So without further ado, let’s get into it!
1. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault (illustrated by Lois Ehlert)
Does it get more classic than Chicka Chicka Boom Boom? Maybe that one’s just me, but I loved this book as a child, and I still love it now as an educator. The humor and the rhythm are engaging for even the youngest of toddlers, and paired with Lois Ehlert’s bold and eye-catching illustrations it really keeps kids’ attention. I love to pair this one with some drums for the kids to play a beat while I read.
If possible, I like to include links to readalouds so you can see the interior spreads of any picture books I recommend.
2. Alison’s Zinnia by Anita Lobel
I’m obsessed with the gorgeous floral illustrations in this picture book, and I love that it’s an alliterative story that uses a predictable format- Name, verb, flower, then name starting with the next letter of the alphabet (Alison acquired an amaryllis for Beryl…). Although this one’s a little longer for my youngest groups, I think it’s just beautifully done, and another work by Anita Lobel will appear later on this list.
3. The Icky Bug Alphabet Book by Jerry Pallotta (illustrated by Ralph Masiello)
I love when picture books can align with common special interests, and this one is just great for kids who love bugs. The text has a good bit of humor to it, and I appreciate that you can choose to read all of the included information about the selected bugs or just read their names. I stumbled across this one by accident in a used bookstore, and I’m so glad I did.
4. Compost Stew by Mary McKenna Siddals (illustrated by Ashley Wolff)
Compost Stew is a great pick to incorporate environmental concepts into lessons, and I find the collage illustration style really charming. I don’t always love rhyming stories, but I like the rhythm that the rhyming verses lend to the text.
5. LMNO Peas by Keith Baker
This picture book was a recent find for me, and it’s so adorable! I wasn’t sure from the cover if I would personally enjoy the visual style, but I found all of the vibrant color so engaging, and I really enjoyed how much vocabulary is built into the text. Like Alison’s Zinnia, it’s kind of an alliterative text with multiple words for each letter of the alphabet, but in this case they’re all careers.
6. On Market Street by Arnold Lobel (illustrated by Anita Lobel)
Once again, Anita Lobel just stuns with her illustrations- you would not believe the way I pored over this book as a child just looking at all of the details. If you aren’t familiar with this one, please check out the read aloud below to see some of the interior spreads. On Market Street is an alphabet story that lists items you might buy from the market, but they’re all drawn as elaborate costumes. The only text is short blurbs at the beginning and end, and then the listed items, so it’s a fairly short read, but you may want to take some time with the pictures.
7. Eating the Alphabet by Lois Ehlert
Aaaaaand of course we need to get Lois Ehlert on this list one more time! This one goes through different produce items in alphabetical order, but there are multiple items for each letter and it lists the items with both uppercase and lowercase letters. I love to read this one during the summer when lots of families may be heading to farmer’s markets and the kids are seeing lots of fresh fruit and veggies around. As always with Ehlert, the brightly colored, collage-style illustrations feel fresh and fun.
Maybe some of these are nostalgic for you, or maybe now you have some new books to look up. That’s all I have for now, hope these were helpful!
