Classic Easy Reader Books for Kids

After the positive response to easy reader books that won’t make parents groan, it seemed prudent to offer you an additional book list for your beginning readers. Parents may even remember reading some of these classic books when they were children.

I’ve noticed that classic easy readers tend to be longer than some of the contemporary books (especially those pesky licensed character books — but let your kids read them if they want to!), so kids may need to finish them in more than one sitting. I’ve noted which selections are part of a series, because series are a great way to keep your budding reader interested in picking up additional books.  Many of them can also double as a very first chapter book and all of these titles have also been fun read alouds for my pre-reader.

Click here for –>  Easy Readers that are ACTUALLY easy!!

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{Note: as always I choose books entirely based on my — and my kids’ opinions. If we don’t like a book, it’s not on the list! Affiliate links are included should a title spark your interest.}

Classic Early Reader Books:

Owl at Home. Most parents are familiar with the Frog and Toad series, but don’t overlook Arnold Lobel’s other books. Owl at Home contains 5 funny stories and New Kid especially liked “Strange Bumps” in which Owl cannot figure out the source of the bumps under the covers of his bed! Parents should also bring home Grasshopper on the Road and Uncle Elephant for further giggles.

Henry and Mudge. (Series) Several people mentioned Henry and Mudge in the comments of last week’s easy reader post but I was saving it for this list since Rylant’s series is certainly a modern classic. In the first book Henry is lonely. He had no brothers or sisters, no close friends. His parents tell him he can get a puppy (and Henry rewards them with a hug!) so he searches for the perfect pooch until he finds Mudge. Mudge, however, quickly grows up to be a very large dog! Rylant has several other very, very early chapter book series including the beloved Mr. Putter & Tabby, one of the very first early readers my older son ever read.

Morris the Moose. (Series) I remember reading about Morris’s “moose-take” when I was a kid. Morris insists a cow must be a moose because it has four legs and a tail. He makes the same error with a deer. This leads to a lot of round-about squabbling amongst the animals which is finally solved by the simple act of looking at their reflections in a stream. If your child likes Morris, he will find further moose books by Wiseman in the library.

Grizzwold. Syd Hoff is most famous for Danny and the Dinosaur but check out this silly easy reader about a bear who is on the hunt for a place to live after loggers clear his forest home. Nothing seems quite right, though! Should he live in the city? Become a rug? Where can he find some trees? In the end, he not only finds a forest, but his life’s calling.

The Fat Cat Sat on the Mat. Okay. This is not old enough to be considered a classic. I put it on the list, thinking it was published much earlier than it actually was. Turns out it was first published in 1998. 15 years of staying power is still pretty good so let’s call it a “modern classic” and leave it at that. A fat cat belonging to a witch sits on a mat and a hat, bat, and rat do their best to convince him to get up. This book had my pre-reader in stitches and I couldn’t help smiling at the ending. This book is a nice combination of substantial length and simple vocabulary for kids who can read for a chunk of time but still need to work with easy words.

The Fire Cat. Ester Averill wrote a series of chapter books about a black cat named Jenny who made friends in the city with the help of a local Cat Club. (Side note: Jenny and the Cat Club makes a great chapter books read aloud for this age group!) One of those cats was named Pickles and Averill gave him his very own story in an easy reader format. Pickles is a naughty cat, but Mrs. Goodkind sees his potential and gets the firehouse to adopt him. With the right training and some good friends, Pickles learns the value of kindness and helping others.

I Like Bugs. At first glance you won’t realize this is a classic by Goodnight Moon author, Margaret Wise Brown. The short story was first published in The Friendly Book, a compilation of short stories and poems, in the 1950s. This poem is all about (you guessed it) different kinds of bugs, from bugs “on the sidewalk”, “in a rug” and “buggy bugs.” This book is very spare on text, so it’s great for level 1 readers. The new illustrations by G. Brian Karas are delightful and add nice dose of humor.

Little Bear. (Series) Illustrated by Maurice Sendak, Little Bear was the very first I Can Read Book (I never realized that). Elsa Holmelund Minarik wrote 5 books, each with several connected stories. I love how the stories reinforce values of friendship and family in an unassuming manner. My favorite story is “Little Bear Goes to the Moon,” in with Little Bear decides to make a trip to the moon in his new DIY space helmet.  His mother simply responds, “be back for lunch!” With delightful writing and gentle humor, these are easy readers you will want to have in your home library.

Put Me in the Zoo. Robert Lopshire is an author I used to get confused with Dr. Seuss because of the branding icon on the top corner of his books! Please don’t tell me I’m the only one! In lively rhyme, a leopard tries to convince a pair of kids he belongs in the zoo. He can change the color of  his spots but the zoo still rejects him! How can that be? Fortunately, everyone realizes the “circus is the place to be.”

Are You My Mother? I confess I had not read this classic book before sitting down to make this list. This book wins the prize for sweetness. A mother bird sits on her egg and when she realizes her egg will soon hatch but she has no food for the newborn she flies off to fetch some. Of course that is the moment the egg hatches; the chick falls out of the tree and goes in search of his mother, asking everyone and everything he meets, “Are You My Mother?” You and your kids will be happy (and not surprised) to know that he does, indeed, find his mother.

What is your favorite classic easy reader? Do you have a favorite from when you were learning to read? Do you have any idea how HARD it is to not make every book list 50 books long???

P.S. I also have a Pinterest Board for Easy Readers (it’s a bit slow-growing, but I add my finds here and there).

You may have noticed that Dr. Seuss is conspicuously absent from this list. I run a great risk in telling you this: I don’t like Dr. Seuss. Did I just lose all my book cred? You be the judge.

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