I use books almost every single therapy session with every single student on my caseload. Literacy is crucial to student success, so I make it my goal to incorporate literacy into all of my therapy sessions. I get a lot of questions about which books I recommend for children. I compiled a list of fifty great books for speech therapy below!
How To Beef Up Your Classroom Library
I landed a job at a great elementary school fresh out of grad school, but the school didn’t have much in terms of materials. Luckily, I had a few children’s books to start with. I asked my friends and family on Facebook to let me know if they had any childrens books they were willing to give away, and I did a few grants on Donors Choose for additional book sets. Soon, I was well on my way to a large classroom library.
I use the books below to target speech and language goals at school, as well as at home with my own little ones. This is by no means a complete list….I use MANY other books throughout the year, but these are ones I believe everyone should have in their personal libraries. Click on the book titles below to see if I have a book companion for that book!
The first 25 of 50 Great Books for Speech Therapy:
1. Big Al, by Andrew Clements
2. The Paper Bag Princess, by Robert Munsch
3. Miss Nelson is Missing, by James Marshall
4. All of the “There Was An Old Lady” books, by Lucille Colandro
5. All of the “If you give a…”books, by Laura Numeroff
6. Rainbow Fish, by Marcus Pfister
7. Pout Pout Fish, by Deborah Diesen
8. Turkey Claus, by Wendi Silvano
9. Big Al and Shrimpy, by Andrew Clements
10. Katie Loves the Kittens, by John Himmelman
11. Princess Pigtoria and the Pea, by Pamela Duncan
12. Mr. Duck Means Business, by Tammi Sauer
13. All of the Bear books, by Karma Wilson & Jane Chapman
14. The Mitten, by Jan Brett
15. Gingerbread Baby, by Jan Brett
16. Gilbert Goldfish, by Kelly DiPucchio
17. From Tadpole to Frog, by Wendy Pfeffer
18. Too Many Carrots, by Katy Hudson
19. Pierre the Penguin, by Jean Marzollo
20. Somebody Loves You Mr. Hatch, by Eileen Spinelli
21. From Caterpillar to Butterfly, by Deborah Heiligman
22. Pig’s Egg, by Katherine Sully
23. Tarra & Bella, by Carol Buckley
24. Knut the Polar Bear, by Craig Hatkoff
25. The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything, by Linda Williams
The second 25 of 50 Great Books for Speech Therapy:
26. Turkey Trouble, by Wendi Silvano
27. Just A Snowman, by Mercer Mayer
28. Room on the Broom, by Julia Donaldson
29. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle
30. Turkey Trick or Treat, by Wendi Silvano
31. All of the Little Critter books, by Mercer Mayer
32.Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak
33. The Napping House, by Audrey Wood
34. The Snowy Day, by Ezra Jack Keats
35. Caps For Sale, by Esphyr Slobodkina
36. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, by Judith Viorst
37. Corduroy, by Don Freeman
38. The Giving Tree, by Shel Silverstein
39. Knuffle Bunny, by Mo Williams
40. Strega Nona, by Tomie dePaola
41. Goodnight Moon, by Margaret Wise Brown
42.The Kissing Hand, by Audrey Penn and Ruth E. Harper
43. The Runaway Bunny, by Margaret Wise Brown
44. The Three Little Pigs and the Somewhat Bad Wolf, by Mark Teague
45. Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, by Mo Williams
46. Swimmy, by Leo Lionni
47. Goodnight Gorilla, by Peggy Rathmann
48. Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, by Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle
49. A Bad Case of the Stripes, by David Shannon
50. The Day Jimmy’s Boa Ate the Wash, by Trinka Hakes Noble
No Time to Prep Book Companions?
Don’t see a book companion for a book you need? Check out my Best-selling Book Companion Companion….a HUGE No-Prep packet that works for ANY book you’re using! (And keep checking back….MANY more book companions are in the works!)
Need to order some books now?!?!
You can click HERE for my Amazon page with my favorite children’s books!
I’d love to hear what some of your favorite books are! Did I leave any books off of my fifty great books for speech therapy list that you can’t live without?
Laura says
The Pigeon books are big hits with students. I still sometimes pull out either Clifford or Carl books for young students.
Shannon says
Mean Jean the Recess Queen!