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McGuffey, W. H. (1896). McGuffey's Eclectic Readers. New York, NY: American Book Company.

This is a seven volume set of no-frills phonics-based primers. Naturally the level of difficulty increases with each volume to provide a comprehensive phonics program. The author was interested in teaching children morality as well as reading so there are a few biblical references interspersed throughout the volumes, which may exclude its use in some school settings. Though first published in the 1800's, this series has continued to be revised and reprinted over the years and newer versions can be found affordably and easily.

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Silverstein, S. (1964). The giving tree. New York, NY: Harper & Row.

This is a beautifully told story of sacrifice that chronicles the changing relationship of a boy and a tree over the years.  The Giving Tree  makes a wonderful read-aloud so the teacher can model not only fluency but voice inflection to capture the different emotions in the story.

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LeSieg, T. (1972) In a people house. New York, NY: Random House.

Writing under  his pseudonym "LeSieg", Dr. Seuss takes young readers on a wonderful vocabulary-building adventure.  A bird and a mouse lead the way through room after room of a house where many common household objects are clearly labeled.

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Lewin, B. (1998)  Wiley learns to spell. New York, NY: Scholastic.

Wiley is a little monster and throughout the book he comes across a set of scrambled letters which he has to arrange to make words like "frog."  Since the correct spelling is revealed on a different page, children can challenge themselves to figure out the words along with Wiley.

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Karlin, N. (1996) The fat cat sat on  the mat. New York, NY:  Harper Collins

As the title suggests, this book is about a fat cat who sits on a mat.  The problem is the mat belongs to a rat who finds an unconventional solution to the problem.  The at word family is the star of this silly saga.

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Minarik, E. H. (1957). Little Bear. New York, NY: Harper Collins.

The beloved classic Little Bear consists of three short stories, "What Will Little Bear Wear?", "Birthday Soup" and "Little Bear Goes to the Moon.  This is an excellent book to expose readers to high frequency words as well as developing comprehension.

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Piper, W. (1995). The little engine that could helps out. New York, NY: Platt & Munk.

This colorfully-illustrated rebus book tells the story of a  clown frustrated by trying to ride a bike for the first time.  The Little Engine steps in and convinces him not to give up trying.  The use of pictures to represent some words make the book more accessible to beginning readers.

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Moncure, J. B. (1984) My o book. Mankato, MN: The Child's World.

This book is a compilation of words that not only begin with o , like "oatmeal," but that include and highlight the o sound, like "box.".  The publisher has a book for each letter of the alphabet.

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Amery, H. & King, C. (1979). The alphabet book. Tulsa,OK: Hayes Books.

Alphabet books such as this one are a good choice for promoting phoneme awareness.

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Parish, P. (1981). Amelia Bedelia and the baby. New York, NY: Greenwillow Books.

Amelia Bedelia is the zany housekeeper who takes everything literally.  For example, Amelia reads the baby-sitting instructions which state "From two to three is naptime" and assumes that she is supposed to take an hour-long nap. This is a good book for focusing on high frequency words and for helping children to understand idioms.