The 10 Best Alphabet Books for Beginning Readers

Learning the letters of the alphabet can be difficult but when you make the letters engaging and connect them with books, it makes learning so much more fun! 

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Check out 5 Best Videos for Letters to get the kiddos moving as they learn and Fun Games to Learn Letters.

Best Alphabet Books

Here are the 10 Best Alphabet Books that I love to read in my room! The videos are attached so you can check them out.

1. Alphabet Under Construction by Denise Flemming-A hardworking rodent is building the alphabet. The industrious mouse creates a letter using an activity beginning with that letter. The exhausted mouse’s month of hard work is rewarded: the last page shows the completed alphabet.

Mouse dyes the D-a shimmery tie-dye effect so phonemic awareness happens naturally. The mouse's actions are related to construction or artwork.

Fleming has poured colored cotton fiber through hand-cut stencils to make her illustrations, which are bold in outline and shape. 

2. Alphabet Adventure by Audrey Wood and Bruce Wood-When lowercase "i" loses her dot, the entire alphabet sets out to find it. 

The alphabet comes to life and dances across the pages in this colorful picture book. 

Children need to search for the lower case “i” and sharp eyed children will see it hiding in every illustration so it really works visual perception skills.

3. The Three Bears ABC Alphabet Book by Grace Macaroon Illustrated by Hollie Hibbert -Grace Maccarone cleverly alliterates the tale of Goldilocks and the Three Bears through the alphabet in this cute story.

4. Eating the Alphabet: Fruits and Vegetables from A-Z by Louis Ehlert-This cute book introduces fruits and vegetables from around the world with water color collage illustrations. 

The glossary at the end provides interesting facts about each food.

5. Today I Feel by Madalena Moniz- This book follows a child through a whole range of emotions that range from simple to complex with subtle watercolor illustrations. 

Not all of the emotions are positive, but they are all honest and worthy of discussions about feelings. Perfect vocabulary building book.

6. D is for Dump Truck by Michael Shoulders- D is for Dump Truck takes children on an A to Z exploration of a fun backyard construction site with bouncy poems for each letter. There is a glossary in the back. 

7. Alphabet City by Stephen T Johnson- This sophisticated 1996 Caldecott Honor book, takes the reader through an urban landscape wordlessly. 

Stephen T. Johnson use strikingly realistic pastels and watercolors to show many things in a city that make the letters starting with a simple sawhorse that contains the letter "A“ all the way though Z on a fire escape. 

It is the perfect book to read then go on a letter hunt.

8. I Stink by Kate and Jim Mcmullan- The garbage truck has ten wide tires, one really big appetite, and an even bigger smell. His job…eating your garbage  from A-Z he calls “Alphabet Soup” and loves every stinky second of it! 

9. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault illustrated by Louis Ehlert - The lowercase letters are climbing the coconut tree, but it can’t hold them all. Chicka chicka boom boom! Uppercase letters rush to comfort their injured children. 

I use this as an introduction to an alphabet match game and Boom Cards-Click to try the preview.

10. On Market Street by Arnold Lobel illustrated by Anita Lobel- Inspired by seventeenth-century French trade engravings, Anita Lobel's brilliant paintings of the shopkeepers on Market Street makes this delightful and unusual book. 

A boy trots down Market Street buying presents for a friend, each one starting with a letter of the alphabet. The notion is original, and the sum total enjoyable and unique.

Every letter is illustrated by a figure ingeniously composed of the thing that starts with that letter. 

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