Phonological and phonemic awareness are essential skills for early reading success. The best phonological awareness books are fun reading experiences for preschoolers to elementary school students. Parents and teachers use children’s books as read-alouds at home or in the classroom to introduce a little boy and girl to a fantastic story while helping them practice their phonological awareness and phonemic awareness skills.
We’ve researched the top phonological and phonemic awareness books to assist parents in selecting the right one for their children. The list includes books developing preschool phonological awareness skills and phonemic awareness books for the classroom. These children’s books are designed to read aloud and engage students in fun phonological and phonemic awareness activities.
Top Phonological Awareness Books Reviewed
Charming Book For Word Awareness: Don’t Forget The Bacon – Patch Hutchins
The Don’t Forget The Bacon is a hilarious story of a boy going to town and forgetting what he must buy. The story gives preschoolers extra practice identifying words in sentences that will help develop their phonological awareness skills in kindergarten and elementary school. Preschoolers to third graders will love his attempt to remember what he must buy.
Best Bedtime Stories For Reading Skill: The Berenstain’s B Book – Stan Berenstain
The Berenstain’s B Book is one of those family favorite phonological awareness books. A child can write and draw their page with words and actions beginning with the letter b. Each word and phrase starts with the letters B and is ideal for helping a child isolate the first sound in words, make predictions, and identify alliteration. Reading the book is one of the best resources to teach phonological concepts and phonemic awareness skills. It is ideal for examples and exercises.
Great All-Rounder For Words And Phonemes: Sheep In A Jeep – Nancy Shaw
It doesn’t take much to recognize that the sheep in Sheep In A Jeep are terrible drivers. The book is one of the most interesting phonemic awareness books for segmenting phonemes and manipulating phonemes. The book is perfect for preschool phonological awareness skills, independent story reading in first grade to older ages learning spelling patterns. Like other books, the rhyme activities are engaging and fun.
Best Alliteration Books For Phonological Skills
Sound Discrimination For End of Word: Fox In Socks – Dr. Seuss
Children love the tongue twisters in Fox In Socks; expect lots of giggles and laughter when reading the book. The repetitive alliteration sounds help students develop an awareness of sounds letters make when listening to read-alouds. The short sections in the book are an excellent opportunity to talk about sound discrimination, beginning, middle, and especially end sounds.
Best For Beginning Alliteration: Many Marvelous Monsters – Ed Heck
The Many Marvelous Monsters is a story of showing off special skills at a talent show. It is the perfect book for developing phonological awareness by identifying and understanding sound discrimination. Students between ages 3 and 5 will enjoy the engaging story as they practice the beginning sound discrimination.
Practice First Sound Alliterations: Some Smug Slug – Pamela Duncan Edwards
The Some Smug Slug is a funny read-aloud picture book that tells the tale of a slug climbing a slippery slope. It is one of the finest phonological awareness books to teach sound discrimination. Kids can practice by choosing an alphabet letter and see how long a sentence they can make with that letter as the first sound. Is the slug’s attempt an excellent example of perseverance and struggle, or will it give up?
Best Rhyming Books For Phonological Awareness Activity
Fun Activities For Comprehension Skills: Say & Glue Phonological Awareness Fun Sheets – Alyson D. Price, Jane B. Senn
The Say & Glue Phonological Awareness Fun Sheets feature fun rhymes and 44 activities for practice. Each section features seven phonological awareness activities covering all the aspects of phonological awareness and phonemic awareness skills. Rhyming concepts include nonsense words, rhyming sentences, and actions where kids complete rhyming words in sentences. It is one of the best books for children from Pre-K to 5th-grade formal teaching.
Great Rhyme Book For Solving Riddles: Is Your Mama A Llama? – Deborah Guarino
The book Is Your Mamma A Llama overflows with riddles, some trickier than others. The riddles rhyme and each one ends with a type of animal to help Lloyd the baby llama discover what type of animal his mother is. The classic rhyme book is excellent practice and a crucial building block for beginner reading skills.
Fun Stories For Speech Sounds: Don’t Be Silly, Mrs. Millie! – Judy Cox
Don’t Be Silly Mrs. Millie is a delightful book where Mrs. Millie teases her kindergartners with subtle wordplay in the English language. The read-aloud is a typical week of school with Mrs. Millie’s “mistakes” that teach phonological awareness in Kindergarten classes. With basic listening skills, kids can master the challenging skill of building phonological awareness, finding the rhyme, and having fun with the many phonemes and syllable manipulation.
Best Syllables Books For Phonological Awareness Skills
Perfect Book For Sound Discrimination: Miss Spider’s ABC 25th Anniversary Edition – David Kirk
Miss Spider’s ABC 25th anniversary edition is a classic favorite for preschool years and children 1-4 years old. Her birthday party introduces students to alphabet awareness, colors, insects, and numbers. Toddlers, preschoolers, and Kindergarten kids practice sound discrimination in the engaging and beautifully illustrated story. Is she spinning a web for the guests?
Adorable Book For Blending Sounds: Silly Sally – Audrey Wood
Silly Sally is one of those amazing books that fascinate children in recognizing sounds and blending sounds, a building block to learning to read. The book uses a rhyming style to illustrate blending sounds and is recommended for ages 4 to 7 and preschool to third grade.
Great For Syllables Introduction: Tanka Tanka Skunk! – Steve Webb
The Tanka Tanka Skunk book with the beating drums is like poetry to a young child. Like most books that rhyme, kids can guess, play, and count syllables in words. These short poems are fun to read aloud, the animals are cute, and there’s a surprise ending. It’s fun reading the story, and kids enjoy counting and learning about syllables. The cute animals use drums to count the beats in their names. Kids can clap their hands or hit the beat on drums as they follow the examples given by the animals.
Best For Learning Syllables: The Word Collector – Peter H. Reynolds
In this delightful phonological awareness book, The Word Collector, Harold collects words one syllable at a time. He discovers impressive words that differ in length and the number of syllables. Some words have one or two syllables, while others have many syllables that sound like songs and poems. Your child can have as much fun counting syllables and blending sounds to make words as Harold enjoys collecting them. Teachers and parents can teach their kids the meaning of the words as the kids clap out the word examples.
Great For Matching Beginning Sounds: Alligators All Around Board Book – Maurice Sendak
The Alligators All Around board book is part of the classic Nutshell Library series. The fun book teaches children alliteration and the alphabet. Delightful illustrations accompany the funny matching beginning sounds.
Best Onset And Rime Awareness Books
Best Titles For Onset And Rime: Runny Babbit A Billy Sook – Shel Silverstein
The Runny Babbit A Billy Sook or is it bunny rabbit a silly book, is a New York Times bestselling book of spoonerisms with hilarious phrases and words that will delight any child. If you can understand Runny Babbit’s rhyme and talk, it’s easy to read and play along with the words and ideas. It is one of the most engaging phonemic awareness books for any child.
This amazing book with poems and phonemic awareness activities recommended for ages four to eight has a sequence titled Runny Babbit Returns Another Billy Sook.
Unique Resource For Onset-Rime Activities: The Cat Who Wore A Pot On Her Head – Jan Slepian, Ann Sedler
The Cat Who Wore A Pot On Her Head is a fun read. The fun starts when the cat becomes the messenger between their mother and the siblings. With a pot on her head, she relays the weirdest and funniest instructions. The nonsense words create the link between decoding sounds and phonological awareness skills. The picture book is a classic read-aloud for phonemic awareness activities, comprehension skills, onset-rime, and phonemes manipulation.
Best Books For Phonemic Awareness
Best For Phoneme Manipulation: There’s A Wocket In My Pocket! – Dr. Seuss
There’s a Wocket In My Pocket, the picture book of ridiculous rhymes, is a Bright And Early Board Book, a simplified edition of a Dr. Seuss story, perfect for infants and toddlers. The nonsense rhyming words challenge little ones to distinguish between similar words, a practice that strengthens reading skills. The beloved book entertains even more as grownups find their way around the words to the delight of little ones.
Great Introduction To Phoneme Manipulation: The Hungry Thing – Jan Slepian, Ann Seidler
Familiar to many is the book The Hungry Thing. Adults struggle to understand what the monster wants to eat; they need a child’s understanding to help them decipher what the hungry thing is saying. A delightful rhyme and read for preschool children and an excellent book to teach phoneme manipulation. Your child will love listening while you read each phrase and then helping the monster get his sounds right so grownups can understand the food words.
Pre-K Book For Phonemic Awareness Skills: Phonemic Awareness Activities For Early Reading Success
The Phonemic Awareness Activities For Early Reading Success covers activities over the five basic levels of phonemic awareness literacy skills. Recommended for Pre-K to second grade, the book successfully blends critical reading skills with exciting wordplay, a strong foundation for fluent readers. Songs, rhymes, poems, and picture games engage young children in fun oral language challenges, including phoneme manipulation, oral word segmentation, orally blending words, splitting syllables, and hearing rhymes and alterations.
Did you recognize some of the books on the list as childhood favorites?