Give the gift of reading
Are you ready for the holidays with their abundance of seasonal tunes, joyous festivities, and family time? In our opinion, one of the greatest gifts you can give is a book. For that reason we have put together a list of some of our favorite reads—some you may have heard of, and maybe some new ones you haven’t! Teachers, share this list with your students’ parents and challenge them to give the gift of reading this year. Download the printable PDF here.
Preschool (ages 2–4)
- Goodnight, Gorilla by Peggy Rathman
- Mother Bruce by Ryan T. Higgins
- Normal Norman by Tara Lazar
- One Frog Too Many by Mercer Mayer
- Owen by Kevin Henkes
- Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes by Eric Litwin
- Ruby in Her Own Time by Jonathan Emmett
- They All Saw a Cat by Brendan Wenzel
Early Elementary (ages 5–7)
- Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey
- Frog and Toad series by Arnold Lobel
- The Great Pet Escape by Victoria Jamieson
- The King, the Mice, and the Cheese by Nancy Gurney
- Lulu and the Brontosaurus by Judith Viorst
- Magic Tree House books by Mary Pope Osborne
- Mr. Pine’s Purple House by Leonard P. Kessler
- Nate the Great by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat
Mid-Elementary (ages 8–9)
- A Bandit's Tale: The Muddled Misadventures of a Pickpocket by Deborah Hopkinson
- The Eleventh Hour by Graeme Base
- From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg
- The Girl in the Tower by Lisa Schroeder
- Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
- The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo
- The New Way Things Work by David Macaulay
- Redwall series by Brian Jacques
Tween (ages 10–12)
- Booked by Kwame Alexander
- Ghost by Jason Reynolds
- The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill
- Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson
- The Van Gogh Deception by Deron Hicks
- Walking with Miss Millie by Tamara Bundy
- The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett
- Wolf Hollow by Lauren Wolk
Teen (ages 13+)
- The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud
- Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale
- Cinder by Marissa Meyer
- The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley
- Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
- Sabriel by Garth Nix
- Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
- The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner
