Many children can read and recognize letters long before they can write them. They often go through the ABCs and can recognize and memorize many words that start with each letter. However putting each individual letter together to form words is more challenging, especially for those with English as a second language. This is where the role of phonics books for children come in.
what are phonics books?
Phonics books are a collection of storybooks, rhyming books, alphabet books, workbooks, and other types of books that focus on a particular phonics letter or sound. For those who really want to improve their children’s phonics skills, they should try exploring each type of phonics book as they improve different aspects of their reading.
You are reading: Phonics books for kindergarten
Storybooks are fun books that provide a more natural way to read a story, but repeat a particular sound to help them speak (read aloud). Rhyming books target a specific sound and are important for children who struggle to understand patterns in phonetics or how a phonetic sound is produced. ABC books help with individual letters and are usually for younger children just starting out with phonics. Workbooks reinforce previously learned phonics skills and are a key revision tool not only for reading phonics and performing various exercises, but also for learning to write letters.
Which phonics books are best for children?
From our list of 25 phonics books for kids, here is a brief summary of some of the phonics books you should choose for your child.
usborne first reading game has more fun and vibrant images for kids.
bob books, elementary phonics and funny stories have more words and less pictures (for children who are easily distracted)
hooked on phonics, the learn to read kit has many simple books to read each sound
Measured Mom’s Phonics Minibooks are for kids who need a slow start and lots of review of phonics sounds
Usborne, Bob’s Books, Elementary Phonics, and Measured Mom’s Phonics books have a lot of sight words along with the sounds.
jolly phonics focuses on phonics in the jolly phonics style (not in abc form)
beka phonics readers start with vowels first and have a lot of phonics word review.
task books is a series of phonics workbooks to really improve your phonics skills.
See Also: Sean Parnell – Book Series In Order
alpha phonics supplemental readers are for kids ready to read sentences with the same phonetic sounds.
peppa pig phonics are fun stories that follow your favorite peppa pig character.
the 25 best phonics books for children
1. books bob
bob books are a very simple and effective series of phonics books for children. These little books have basic sentences and simple pictures so children are not too distracted from the sentences and words.
While this series of books may not cover all the important skills to improve phonics, it’s a very good introduction to sounds with simple text and drawings. Plus having many books is always fun for children.
A good resource for free printable bob books is thisreadingmama, where they provide free printable books and worksheets to help reinforce the phonics learned through bob books. (note: we have no affiliation with thisreadingmama, we just recommend it as a good source for free phonics books :))
2. primary phonetics storybooks
storybooks from primary phonics introduces simple phonics through its books. his series begins with simple consonant sounds that can be expressed without vowels, which can be difficult for young children at first. While the pictures and text may seem too simple, it’s actually better to introduce phonics to kids without very pretty illustrations (sounds fun, right?), otherwise they’ll be too distracted to look at the words.
The Primary Phonics books also contain decodable stories, which allows children to use their phonics skills to read and “decode” the sound in each word and sentence.
3. usborne first reading
usborne’s first reading set is a good series of phonics books that are fun for children and their parents to read together. It has a simple sentence structure for easy-to-read phonics and fun illustrations to keep the stories engaging for kids.
This series has a fun feature where on the left page the adult or older reader has a more descriptive reading of the scene, and on the right the simple reading for the child. this allows for more parent-child interaction during reading, something many other phonics books simply don’t have.
Also, Usborne Publishing is a famous publishing company that produces many children’s books.
4. letterland phonetics
letterland phonics is very popular and respected in phonics, not only by parents but also by teachers. in a sense, they set the gold standard for how phonics can be learned in a fun way through letters (hence letterland).
his set 1 of phonetics books to learn phonetic sounds through letters in the shape of animals, and other series continue the story with phonetics as the central point.
If you want a single source of phonics knowledge that can provide you with many materials on how to learn phonics for your child, Letterland is the way to go. Checkout their Youtube videos for fun videos as well.
5. pete the phonetic cat
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pete the cat phonics books is a series of 12 storybooks that focus on a specific phonetic sound. Since the stories and sentences are a bit longer than simple 3-letter words, it is recommended for children who can already begin to read and need a series of fun and interesting books to help them.
Their website also includes downloadable printables for your kids such as coloring, fill in the blanks, matching, mazes, memory games, rhymes, word games and find the difference. find the book here on amazon.
6. learn to read phonics storybooks
Learning to Read Phonics Storybooks is a series of 25 picture books to help reinforce children’s love of learning to read, with phonics! They have cute pictures for kids to enjoy while reading fun stories.
Plus they have two activities at the end of the book to practice the learned phonics sounds. At the current price on Amazon of $12, this set of phonics books could be a nice addition to your reading library.
7. the oxford learning tree floppy disk phonics
the oxford learning tree is a popular book publication, and its series of floppy disk phonics books is a welcome addition to anyone’s reading resource. comes with 48 storybooks with easy-to-read phonetic sentences, along with 5 activity books and 72 flashcards.
This series of phonics books from Oxford learning will also introduce your children to the style of illustrations of the Oxford learning books, and can open a way to introduce them to other Oxford books which may interest them.
8. mom’s mini phonics books measures
the measured mom is a free online resource for learning phonics and has a very homey feel to it. their phonics minibook series is nice for learning the sounds of phonics and has a large text to make it easy for parents to teach.
They also offer priced developmental phonics books at their store to help reinforce phonics for your children. If you’ve used a lot of their free online phonics resources to help your kid learn, its a nice way of giving back and supporting them.
9. to beka phonetic readers
a beka phonics readers is a series of simple phonics books for readers just starting out in phonics (very young children). the text is extensive and has very simple words and sentences that focus on the cvc (consonant vowel consonant) pattern to introduce phonetics into words.
It’s important to note that as these books are very simple for young children, it may be too easy for most other children. So be sure to use these when your child is just being introduced to phonics to build their confidence.
10. a-z phonics reading series
reading a-z is an online source for books and study materials I came across a few years ago while teaching English as a second language. your online resources are huge! have phonics books built into lessons and decodable books, read-aloud books, sound/symbol books, and flashcards.
In addition to the phonics books we mention, they also have thousands of books for children online in from their Reading a-z site, and also have other offshoots in Writing A-Z (for improving writing skills), Vocabulary A-Z (to improve vocabulary), Science A-Z (to help with science skills), and others. The current pricing starts at $115 per year, but if you plan on using this as a key resource and print out a lot of their books, it’s totally worth the price. (eg. if you want to print out 1 book per week to read, then its $2.20 per book).
We hope this list of the best phonics books for kids has helped you get a better idea of the books available to improve your little ones’ reading. In case you need more information about the phonetic sounds of the letters from a to z, check out our phonetic resources page to get a better idea of how to practice each letter of the alphabet.
See Also: Lauraine Snelling – Book Series In Order