Phonics Books for Kindergarten: 4 Tips for Choosing the Right Ones

The best phonics books for kindergarten are decodable books: short stories with very few sight words, words your child can sound out using short vowels and hard consonants, and little to no pictures inside. Books like these let a kindergartner use the letter sounds they have just learned and feel successful from the very first page.

When you start looking, there are so many choices that it can be confusing! How can you narrow it down to what your child truly needs? Here are four tips I share with parents after more than 35 years of teaching children to read.

1. Choose phonics books with a minimum of sight words

By kindergarten, most children know their letter sounds and are starting to blend them into words. They may know a few sight words, too. But they are really not ready for books full of sight words or confusing letter combinations.

Sight words are words that can't be sounded out, like was, are and once. They are very confusing to a young emerging reader! Lots of them can completely overwhelm a kindergartner and make reading feel too hard.

Your child will learn more sight words later and become a more confident reader. For now, their first experiences with reading should be super positive. Keeping sight words to a minimum goes a long way. That's why Miss Wendy's decodable books for kindergarten use only three: a, the and is.

2. Choose books that are phonetically correct (decodable)

What does "phonetically correct" mean? It means your child can sound out every word. The letters "say" what they are supposed to say, using short vowels and hard consonants. There are no tricky letter patterns like "eigh," "oa," "dge" or "tion." Today these are often called decodable books.

For example, a decodable word is "cat," where the "c" is a hard consonant, not "nice," where the "c" is soft. It's "man," where the "a" is a short vowel, not "cake," where the vowel is long and says its name.

Kindergartners are ready to read phonetically correct words. They just need practice blending the sounds together. Here's a simple progression:

• Start with two- and three-letter words like it, at, dog, fix and log. The three-letter ones are often called CVC words (consonant, vowel, consonant).
• Move on to larger short-vowel words like camp, drum, swim and mask as your child gains confidence.
• Then try longer phonetically correct words like picnic, twist, napkin and fantastic.

Your child will learn letter blends, silent letters and phonograms later in school. But first experiences with phonetically correct words give them a strong foundation for their whole reading journey. Looking for practice words? Try our free short vowel word list.

3. Choose stories with little to no illustrations inside

When your child sees an illustration, they will use it to guess at the story. Some educators encourage students to use pictures as "word clues." I respectfully disagree. This only encourages guessing, not using reading skills.

When children guess, they will sometimes, or often, be wrong. Each wrong guess sets them up to fail, and then they have to go back and try again. Nobody likes being wrong!

Many parents already know this. At reading time they find themselves covering the picture with their hand so their child won't guess, and showing it only after the page is read. Sound familiar?

I want your child to be successful from their very first attempts at reading. That's why Miss Wendy's Favorite Phonetic Books have illustrations only on the covers, never inside. Your child uses their phonics skills instead of guessing, and is more often successful the first time!

4. Choose stories that match your child's interests

You know your child best. Do they love camping? Do they like magical stories? Are they in a swim class? Look for books about what they are doing in their own world, or what they love, and they will engage with the story much more easily.

A little fun goes a long way, too. A whisper phone lets your child hear their own voice as they read, and activity pages turn each story into a game while you check comprehension.

Quick checklist: phonics books for kindergarten

• Decodable: every word can be sounded out
• Few sight words: only the most basic ones
• Starts with CVC words and builds slowly to longer words
• Few or no pictures inside, so your child reads instead of guessing
• Interesting stories your child wants to read again

Learning to read is a challenging process! I hope these tips help you find phonics books that encourage and support your kindergartner as they become a confident reader. Still working on letter sounds? Start with our free letter sounds chart.

Miss Wendy