The recommendation lists below includes titles/authors at somewhat varied reading levels. Parents/students are encouraged, however, to look at the lists for the grade levels above and below the target grade.
For more recommendations, see School Library Journal's Summer Reading 2021. They did not make a 2022 version but this one still has some great recommendations.
Nonfiction Series/Authors
Gail Gibbons
Steve Jenkins
National Geographic Readers
Britta Teckentrup
Fiction Series
Angelina Ballerina – Katherine Holabird
Pete the Cat – Eric Litwin / James Dean
You Are (Not) Small – Anna Kang
Little Critter – Mercer Mayer
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie – Laura Numeroff
Fancy Nancy – Jane O’Connor
Knuffle Bunny – Mo Willems
Authors
David Adler
Mac Barnett
Jan Brett
Eric Carle
Mem Fox
Chris Haughton
Kevin Henkes
Tad Hills
Jon Klassen
Ethan Long
Kate Mc Mullan
Bob Shea
Chris Raschka
Mo Willems
Books About Me
• I Like Me! by Nancy L. Carlson
• I Like to Be Little by Charlotte Zolotow
• The Mixed-Up Chameleon by Eric Carle
• My Five Senses by Aliki
• Owen by Kevin Henkes
• When I Get Bigger by Mercer Mayer
Family Stories
• Just Me Books by Mercer Mayer
• Mama Do You Love Me? by Barbara M. Joosse
Predictable Books
(Stories with a pattern using rhyme or rhythm.)
• Curious George by H. A. Rey
• Each Peach Pear Plum by Janet and Allan Ahlberg
• The Gingerbread Boy by Paul Galdone
• Gregory the Terrible Eater by Mitchell Sharmat
• Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
• Millions of Cats by Wanda Gág
• What’s in Fox’s Sack? by Paul Galdone
Beginning, Middle, and End Concept
• Bony-Legs by Joanna Cole
• A Camping Spree with Mr. Magee by Chris Van Dusen
• Love You Forever by Robert Munsch
• Rosie’s Walk by Pat Hutchins
• The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown
Color and Counting Books
• Each Orange Had Eight Slices: A Counting Book by
Paul Giganti Jr.
• Fish Eyes: A Book You Can Count On by Lois Ehlert
• Frog Counts to Ten by John Liebler
• Inch by Inch by Leo Lionni
• Is it Red? Is it Yellow? Is it Blue? by Tana Hoban
• Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert
• Ten Bears in My Bed: A Goodnight Countdown by
Stanley Mack
• Ten Little Fish by Audrey Wood
• 26 Letters and 99 Cents by Tana Hoban
Caldecott Winners (Best Illustrator)
See list here or the poster in the Learning Commons!
Mother Goose and Nursery Rhymes
• James Marshall’s Mother Goose by James Marshall
• My Very First Mother Goose by Iona Opie and Rosemary Wells
• Tomie dePaola’s Mother Goose by Tomie dePaola
Folktales and Fairy Tales
• Chicken Little by Steven Kellogg
• Cinderella by Marcia Brown
• The Hare and the Tortoise by Brian Wildsmith
• Henny Penny by H. Werner Zimmermann
• The Little Red Hen by Margot Zemach
• The Three Bears by Paul Galdone
• The Three Billy Goats Gruff by Peter Christen Asbjornsen
• Three Little Pigs by James Marshall
• The Three Little Pigs by Rodney Peppé
• The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Andersen
Stories in Rhyme
• All the Colors of the Earth by Sheila Hamanaka
• Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain by Verna Aardema
• Miss Spider’s Tea Party by David Kirk
Friends
• Benjamin and Tulip by Rosemary Wells
• We Are Best Friends by Aliki
• Who Will Be My Friends? by Syd Hoff