Snuggling up to read some of the classic children’s picture books with a small child is truly one of life’s simple pleasures. Exploring a world full of adventure, kindness, courage, and truth broadens her understanding of life itself.

As a former elementary school teacher and ardent picture book lover, I already had a large collection of picture books when I was ready to begin homeschooling my daughter, Caroline. But I knew there were many other books out there I didn’t want us to miss.

So I began researching reading lists from books, authors and organizations I considered trustworthy.

This classic picture books list is the result of that quest.

Classic Children’s Picture Books

The resources I utilized included:

• Ambleside Online Year 0 Reading List
• Hillsdale Academy Kindergarten Read Aloud List
• Sonlight.com
• The Educated Child: A Parents Guide From Preschool Through Eighth Grade, William J. Bennett
• The Read-Aloud Handbook, Tim Trelease

While this is not an exhaustive list of books, it will provide an excellent starting point for reading a wide variety of quality picture books during the kindergarten year.

I have included links directly to Amazon to make it easy to research the books. Some books were not on Amazon, but might be available through your local library or through another service such as Alibris, ebay, half.com or other local used bookseller.

All books should be reviewed to determine if they meet your family’s guidelines for quality reading. There are books on the list I have not read and there are books on the list that I personally don’t like. But I wanted to provide a variety of ideas because families and children are all quite different in terms of what they enjoy. So please do not consider the inclusion of a book or link in this list an endorsement of everything there.

Please note that on this list I have included initial a, an, the as the starting point. So all book title starting with “the” are in the “T” section. I know this is not the way it’s normally done, but it’s what I chose to do to make the list easier to visually scan.

Classic Picture Book List

A

• A Child’s Garden of Verses, Robert Louis Stevenson (illustrated by Eulalie, Jessie Wilcox Smith, or Alice and Martin Provenson)
• A Child’s Book of Art: Discover Great Paintings, Lucy Micklethwait
• A Fly Went By, Mike McClintock
• A Pocket for Corduroy, Don Freeman
• A Treasury of Mother Goose Rhymes, Linda Yeatman
• A Tree Is Nice, Janice May Udry
• Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, Judith Viorst
• All About Alfie, Shirley Hughes
• Angus and the Ducks, Marjorie Flack
• Are You My Mother?, P.D. Eastman
• Arthur’s Chicken Pox, Marc Brown
• Ask Mr. Bear, Marjorie Flack

B

• Barn Dance!, Bill Martin, Jr.
• Beatrix Potter illustrated books such as Beatrix Potter: The Complete Tales
• Bedtime for Frances, Russell Hoban
• Blueberries for Sal, Robert McCloskey

C

• Caps for Sale, Esphyr Slobodkina
• Capyboppy, Bill Peet
• Chewy Louie, Howie Schneider
• Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Bill Martin, Jr.
• City Mouse – Country Mouse (And Two More Mouse Tales From Aesop), John Wallner
• Corduroy, Don Freeman
• Curious George, H.A. Rey

D

• Danny and the Dinosaur, Syd Hoff
• Dr. Seuss’s ABC, Dr. Seuss

E

• Each Peach Pear Plum, Janet and Allan Ahlberg
• Eric Carle’s Animals Animals, Eric Carle

F

• Family-Time Bible in Pictures, Kenneth Taylor
• First Thousand Words, Heather Amery
• Frederick, Leo Lionni
• Frog and Toad Are Friends, Arnold Lobel
• Froggy Gets Dressed, Jonathan London

G

• Goodnight Moon, Margaret Wise Brown
• Good-Night, Owl!, Pat Hutchins

H

• Harry the Dirty Dog, Gene Zion
• Hattie and the Fox, Mem Fox
• How Do You Lift a Lion?, Robert E. Wells

I

• If You Give a Moose a Muffin, Laura J. Numeroff
• If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, Laura J. Numeroff
• If You Give a Pig a Pancake, Laura J. Numeroff
• If You Take a Mouse to the Movies, Laura J. Numeroff
• Is a Blue Whale the Biggest Thing There Is?, Robert E. Wells
• It Looked Like Spilt Milk, Charles G. Shaw

J

• Jump, Frog, Jump!, Robert Kalan

L

• Little Bear, and additional Little Bear titles by Else Holmelund Minarik

M

• Madeline, Ludwig Bemelmans
• Make Way for Ducklings, Robert McCloskey
• Mary Had a Little Lamb, Sarah Josepha Hale
• May I Bring a Friend?, Beatrice Schenk de Regniers
• May We Sleep Here Tonight, Tan Koide
• Mind Your Manners, Peggy Parish
• Miss Rumphius, Barbara Cooney
• Moses in the Bulrushes, Warwick Hutton
• Mushroom in the Rain, Mirra Ginsburg
• My First Bible in Pictures, Kenneth Taylor, illustrations by Richard and Francis Hook
• My Little Golden Book About God, illustrated by Eloise Wilkin

N

• No Roses for Harry!, Gene Zion

O

• Old Mother Hubbard, Alice and Martin Provensen
• On Market Street, Anita Lobel
• One Monday Morning, Uri Shulevitz
• One Morning in Maine, Robert McCloskey

P

• People, Peter Spier
• Poems and Prayers for the Very Young, Martha Alexander
• Eloise Wilkin’s Poems to Read to the Very Young, illustrated by Eloise Wilkin

R

• Richard Scarry’s Best Storybook Ever!, Richard Scarry
• Richard Scarry’s Please and Thank You Book, Richard Scarry
• Rosie’s Walk, Pat Hutchins
• Roxaboxen, Barbara Cooney
• Rumpelstiltskin, Cliff Moon

S

• Stone Soup, Marcia Brown
• Stories from Around the World, Heather Amery

T

• The Big Red Barn, Margaret Wise Brown
• The Big Snow, Berta and Elmer Hader
• The Biggest Bear, Lynd Ward
• The Boy Who Wouldn’t Go to Bed, Helen Cooper
• The Carrot Seed, Ruth Krause
• The Case of the Hungry Stranger, Crosby Bonsall
• The Cat in the Hat, and other books by Dr. Suess
• The Children’s Book of Virtues, William J. Bennett
• The Chick and the Duckling, Mirra Ginsburg
• The Classic Tales of Brer Rabbit, Joel Chandler Harris
• The Doorbell Rang, Pat Hutchins
• The Fox and the Crow, Val Biro
• The Gingerbread Boy, Retold by Richard Egielski
• The Glorious Flight: Across the Channel with Louis Bleriot , Alice and Martin
• The Llama Who Had No Pajama: 100 Favorite Poems, Mary Ann Hoberman
• The Lion and the Mouse, adapted by Mary O’Toole
• The Lion Storyteller Bedtime Book, Bob Hartman
• The Little Engine That Could, Watty Piper
• The Little House, Virginia Lee Burton
• The Little Red Hen, Paul Galdone
• The Milly-Molly-Mandy Storybook, Joyce Lankester Brisley
• The Monkey and the Fisherman, Val Biro
• The New Baby Calf, Edith Newlin Chase and Barbara Reid
• The Ox-Cart Man, Barbara Cooney
• The Polar Express, Chris Van Allsburg
• The Princess and the Pea, Cliff Moon
• The Rooster Crows: A Book of American Rhymes and Jingles, Maud and Miska Petersham
• The Runaway Bunny, Margaret Wise Brown
• The Snowy Day, Ezra Jack Keats
• The Story about Ping, Marjorie Flack
• The Story of Babar, Jean de Brunhoff
• The Story of Ferdinand, Munro Leaf
• The Story of Little Babaji, Helen Bannerman
• The Tale of Peter Rabbit, Beatrix Potter
• The Tale of Three Trees, illustrated by Angela Elwell Hunt
• The Three Billy Goats Gruff, Margaret H. Lippert
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle
• The Year At Maple Hill Farm, Alice and Martin Provensen
• Then and Now, Heather Amery
• There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly, Simms Taback
• Things People Do, Anne Civardi
• Tikki Tikki Tembo, Arlene Mosel

U

• Uncle Wiggily’s Story Book, Howard R. Garis

W

• Wake Up, Sleepy Bear, Christine Morton-Shaw
• We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, Michael Rosen
• What’s Smaller Than a Pygmy Shrew?, Robert E. Wells
• What’s Under the Sea?, Sophy Tahta
• Where’s My Teddy?, Jez Alborough
• Where’s Spot?, Erin Hill
• Why Do Tigers Have Spots?, M. Unwin
• Winnie-the-Pooh Series, A. A. Milne
• Wynken, Blynken, & Nod, Eugene Field or illustrators Susan Jeffers or Barbara Cooney

Collections

• Collection of classic stories and folktales such as The Little Red Hen, The Gingerbread Man, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and The Three Billy Goats Gruff
• Collection of Aesop’s Fables
• Mother Goose Collection
• Illustrated Classic Poetry for Children