Our 10 Favourite Alphabet Books

The Alphabet is such a huge part of a child's first year of school - and often those years leading up to it! I'm of the opinion that it's never too early to expose young children to the letters of the alphabet and quite often this is done through simple books.


If you've been a long time follower (THANK YOU!!!) and you'd probably remember some of these previous 'alphabet' themed posts...

  • Twenty Six Letters - 26 hands on ways to learn the 26 letters
  • Alphabet Collages - A great arty/crafty way to learn letter formation and words beginning with each letter.
  • Alphabet Sorting Box - Once letters are known, this is a fantastic activity idea!
  • Alphabet Pebbles - Simply fun to play with, or begin forming simple words using these alphabet pebbles.

There are sooooo many alphabet picture books out there, and some are more educationally beneficial than others. So, in order of age appropriateness, here's my top 10 Alphabet Picture books.


Play School - Alphabet


The simplest Alphabet books for very young children are those with just one word for each letter, and board books with thick and sturdy pages are definitely best. Miss M loves these Play School books because she knows the show and toys so well, she even likes to look through the books while we watch the show!

AlphaBlock Book


This one is a new addition to our library {gifted} - but it's absolutely brilliant. Little readers peek through the cut out capital letters to reveal the picture behind. It's fantastic for them to guess what they think what will start with that letter. My newest favourite blogger Say Hello Jo featured this book as part of her FMS Photo a Day Challenge - so check her out if you'd like to see the inside of this beauty for yourself.

Available from Finlee and Me - click here to shop {brand rep}

There's also a matching Countablock Number Book available here: it's on my shopping list!

Hairy Maclary's a b c



Ah Hairy Maclary, a classic favourite! I love how the classics are brining out alphabet, number, colour and opposites books - they make such a great set and compliment the original so well as well known characters reappear. Again this is another simple one for toddlers and preschoolers because it's just one word per page. AND what's even better is each page shows the capital and lower case letter. Read my Lynley Dodd Author Study here

Eric Carle's A B C



Eric Carle is my all time favourite children's author (read my Author Study here), so this one had to be in my top 10. Every letter is presented with an animals, and it's also a lift the flap book making it more interactive and fun! As always Eric Carle's illustrations are beautiful - you'll want to read it over and over.

Alphaprints A B C



This one is great for all ages - and here's why! Yes each letter has just one animal, and the illustrations are cleverly created with textural fingerprints and everyday objects - so inviting to touch, making reading this book a sensory experience. But to take it further, there's extra text on each page which rhymes as it goes along
A is for Ant, munching lunch as it goes. B is for Bear, with a sweet round nose.

Eating the Alphabet



Apples to Zucchini, come take a look. Start eating your way through this alphabet book.

This is a popular one and may already be part of your home (and probably school/local) library. What a fantastic way to encourage healthy eating and learning at the same time. There's a glossary at the end of this book to explain each of the foods, and the watercolour images are gorgeous.

Dr. Suess's A B C



Another classic that had to be in my collection. Have a giggle with Dr Seuss and his crazy characters up to mischief as you read your way through the alphabet. Predictable repetition and a little bit silly, appropriate for all ages, but more so preschool-school age children.

A B C Animal Jamboree



I'm a huge fan of Giles Andreae's books and her ABC Animal Jamboree is a great addition to the collection. We're now moving to more school age appropriate books with several lines of text per letter, so 2-3 year olds may not have the attention span for this one. The pictures are bright and vibrant, some of which young readers may recognise from Giles Andreae's other books.

Elemenopee



I remember buying this pop up book back in my University days (more than 10 years ago now!) because it was so fun and clever. It's not your average one letter per page alphabet book, but the story of how the letters L M N O and P are fed up being strung all together into one word when children sing the alphabet song (hence the title). So they pack up and leave the alphabet frieze in the classroom...but reading and writing is quite difficult without them! This book was so well loved in my year one classroom back when I began teaching, that sadly I don't have it any more :(

Anamalia



Another fantastic one for 5 year olds and above is Anamalia. Graeme Base takes his readers on an adventure through the alphabet with the most intricate and detailed pictures. There is so much to find on just one page! Read my recent Graeme Base Author Study here at Childhood 101.

Make Your Own!

Ok so I'm admitting here that for about a year I've been meaning to make Miss M her own alphabet book just like this one, but it's been one of those projects I haven't gotten around to. The idea is that you take photos of everyday things familiar to your child - one for each letter of the Alphabet. Ok I'm going to set myself a goal to have this completed before baby number 2 arrives! (So that gives me about 8 weeks)... I love Artisan State for creating my own sturdy photo board books. They're quite affordable too - Miss M has a family one already :)

Any alphabet books you think I've missed from this list? Any favourites in your house hold?

Lauren

12 comments

  1. I didn't know there was a Hairy Mclary alphabet book, I'll have to keep an eye out for that one!

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    1. Thanks for your comment Mumma McD! Sounds like a few readers didn't know about the Hairy Maclary ABC book - so glad I included it :)

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  2. Alphabet books always used to annoy me, because the stories in the ones I read were so lame.
    I'm so glad my kids are a little bit older now :)

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    1. Yeah you've gotta find the good ones Jess! Hope the list is helpful to readers with younger kiddies :)

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  3. I love alphabet books! Anamalia and Dr Seuess are my faves. Didn't know there was a Hairy Mclairy one!

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    1. How great is Anamalia?!?
      Thanks for being such a dedicated visitor Christine when we have our link up on the Aussie Parenting Bloggers group :)

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  4. Picture story books are such a great way for kids to learn all sorts of things- some great ones mentioned here too! Being a primary school teacher myself I have about of a "thing" for children's books - might just have to find a few of these to add to our collection xx

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    1. Hello to a fellow teacher! Lovely to have you here x
      You can never have too many books!

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  5. Ooh this is handy! Off to find some of these for our shelves. Thanks :-)

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  6. Thank you so much for this great list! May we add one more? We may be guilty of bias, but our favorite new alphabet book is THE ALPHABET PARADE! Hope you will check it out.
    http://www.amazon.com/Alphabet-Parade-Learning/dp/1404883142/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

    Thanks again!
    Charles

    FatherGoose.com

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    1. Oh I don't know this one - thanks for the tip Charles, will have to check it out.

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