PASTS Favorite Books to Use in Therapy

As a Speech-Language Pathologists, we see firsthand the incredible impact literacy has on a child’s communication and overall development. Celebrating Literacy Month as a family is a wonderful opportunity to foster a love of reading, strengthen language skills, and build meaningful connections through storytelling. Whether it’s sharing a bedtime story, exploring new books together, or engaging in fun literacy games, these moments help children expand their vocabulary, improve their comprehension, and boost their confidence in expressing themselves. Let’s make this month a celebration of the joy and power of words!

Please find some resources below that can help your child develop strong speech and language skills:

YOUNG/PREREADER BOOKS- PREDICTABLE STRUCTURE

Blue Hat, Green Hat – Sandra Boynton
Moo Baa La La La – Sandra Boynton
Goodnight Moon – Margaret Wise Brown
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, The Very Hungry Caterpillar -Eric Carle
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom- Bill Martin Jr., John Archambault, Lois Ehlert
I Can- Helen Oxenbury
The Daddy Book, The Mommy Book, The Okay Book-Todd Parr
Mary Wore Her Red Dress- Merle Peek
Ear Book-Al Perkins
Foot Book- Seuss
The Cat Sat on the Mat- Brian Wild smith
I Went Walking-Sue Williams
I Can, Me Too- Susan Winter
Silly Sally-Audrey Wood

CONCEPTS, CATEGORIES, PREPOSITIONS, ADJECTIVES

Anno’s Counting Book- Anna
Oh My Oh My Oh Dinosaurs, Opposites-Sandra Boynton
Big Dog, Little Dog-D. Eastman
In My World- Lois Ehlert
Go Away Big Green Monster- Ed Emberly
Where’s The Fish?-Taro Gomi
Is Your Mama a Llama?- Deborah Guarino /Steven Kellogg
Where’s Spot?- Eric Hill
Rosie’s Walk-Pat Hutchins
I Had a Cat-Mona Rabun Reeves
Cars and Trucks and Things That Go, Best Word Book Ever, Busy, Busy Town, A Day at the Airport -Richard Scarry
Green Eggs and Ham, Fox in Socks- Seuss
Gobble Growl Grunt- Peter Spier

VERBS

Who Hops?- Katie Davis
I’ll Teach my Dog 100 Words-Michael K. Frith
Jump, Frog, Jump!-Robert Kalan
Miss Spider’s ABC- David Kirk
Down by the Cool of the Pool-Tony Milton
Jiggle Wiggle Prance-Sally Noll
Rain Makes Applesauce- Julian Scheer
Over in the Meadow- Olive Wadsworth
How Can You Dance?- Rick Walton

SEQUENCING

Duck in a Truck-Jez Alborough
The Hat, The Mitten, The Umbrella- Jan Brett
Stone Soup- Marcia Brown
Pancakes for Breakfast- Tomie dePaola
Are You My Mother?- P.D. Eastman
Round Trip- Ann Jonas
Jump Frog Jump (limit language)-Robert Kalan
The Wolf’s Chicken Stew- Keiko Kasza
The Giant Jam Sandwich- John Vernon Lord/ Janet Burroway
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie-Laura Joffe Numeroff (any of the If You Give… series)
Anansi the Spider: A Tale from the Ashanti-Gerald McDermott
Going on a Bear Hunt-Michael Rosen
Duck on a Bike, The Rain Came Down -David Shannon
Sheep in a Jeep-Nancy E Shaw & Margot Apple
Pete’s a Pizza-William Steig
Over in the Meadow- Olive Wadsworth
The Cat Sat on the Mat- Brian Wildsmith
Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale-Mo Willems
Napping House-Audrey Wood
Miss Turie’s Magic Creatures- Joy Keller
Muncha! Muncha! Muncha!- Candace Fleming

PHONEMIC AWARENESS/ALLITERATON

Animalia- Graeme Base
Is Your Mama a Llama?- Deborah Guarino /Steven Kellogg
Seuss ABC-Dr. Seuss (most of Dr. Seuss)

SPEECH PRODUCTION

Some Smug Slug – Pamela Duncan Edwards (s blends)
Six Snowy Sheep – Judith Ross Enderle (s blends, sh)
Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes- Eric Litwin
Chicken Soup with Rice- Mercer Mayer (ch, s)
Sideways Stories from Wayside School- Louis Sachar (short chapters=good reading sample)
Duck in a Truck- Jez Alborough, Duck on a Bike- David Shannon (final k)
Peck, Peck, Peck- Lucy Cousins (final k)
Sheep in a Jeep, Sheep in a Shop, Sheep on a Ship – Nancy Shaw (sh, ch, j, final -p)
Caps for Sale- Esphyr Slobodkina (s, -ps)
Three Billy Goats Gruff- Paul Galdone (voice)

LANGUAGE STRUCTURE/METALINGUISTICS

Kites Sail High, Many Luscious Lollipops, Merry-Go-Round, Mine, All Mine, A Cache of Jewels, Behind the Mask: A Book About Prepositions-Ruth Heller
The Alphabet from Z to A (With Much Confusion Along the Way)- Judith Violets

STORY STRUCTURE (BEG/MID/END) / INFERENTIAL LANGUAGE (WH-HOW QUESTIONS / MAIN IDEA/PREDICTION/CONTEXTUAL CUES-VOCABULARY)

Three Little Pigs-multiple authors
Stone Soup-Marcia Brown
Stellaluna-Janell Cannon
Skippy John Jones-Judy Chachner
Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type-Dorren Cronin, Betsy Lewin, Randy Travis
Aunt Isabel Tells a Good One-Kate Duke
Frederick- Leo Lionni
How I became a Pirate-Melinda Long & David Shannon
Harold and the Purple Crayon-Crockett Johnson
The Paperbag Princess- Robert Munsch
Curious George-A. Rey
True Story of the Three Little Pigs-Jon Scieszka & Lane Smith
Where the Wild Things Are-Maurice Sendak
Caps for Sale: A Tale of a Peddler, Some Monkeys, and Their Monkey Business- Esphyr Slobodinka
Sleeping Ugly-Diane Stanley & Jane Yolen
Hurricane- David Weisner
Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale-Mo Willems

ENVIRONMENT/WEATHER

The Great Kopak Tree: A Tale of the Amazon Rainforest-Lynne Cherry
Farewell to Shady Glade, Wump World-Bill Peet
Rain Makes Applesauce- Julian Scheer
The Lorax- Seuss
The Rain Came Down- David Shannon
Rain Rain Rivers- Uri Shulevitz
Peter Spier’s Rain- Peter Spier
The Snowy Day- Ezra Jack Keats

CULTURE AND DIVERSITY

Why Mosquitos Buzz in People’s Ears- Verna Aardena
Children Just Like Me-Barnabas and Anabel Kindersley
A Story, A Story- Gail E. Haley
Abuela-Eliza Kleven
Monkey: A Trickster Tale from India, Zomo the Rabbit: A Trickster Tale from South Africa, Anansi the Spider: A Tale from the Ashanti-Gerald McDermott
Families are Different-Nina Pellegrini
Katz and Tush- Patricia Polacco
Too Many Tamales-Gary Soto
People- Peter Spier
It Began With a Page: How Gyo Fujikawa Drew the Way- Kyo Maclear

HOLIDAY

The Hallo-wiener-Dav Pilkey
The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything- Linda Williams
Turkey Trouble- Wendi Silvano
I Know An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie-Alison Jackson
Carl’s Christmas-Alexandra Day
Six Snowy Sheep- Judith Ross Enderle
‘Twas the Night Before Christmas- Clement Clarke Moore
Snowmen at Night-Caralyn Buehner

STARTING SCHOOL

Wemberly Worried-Kevin Henkes
Kissing Hand-Audrey Penn
Annabelle Swift, Kindergartener-Amy Schwartz

WORDLESS PICTURE BOOKS/LANGUAGE SAMPLE ELICITATION

Animalia-Graeme Base
Something is Not Quite Right: A Find-The-Mistake Picture Book-Ralf Butschkaw
Good Dog Carl series- Alexandra Day
The Knight and the Dragon, Pancakes for Breakfast – Tomie dePaola
Where’s Waldo-Martin Handford
Changes, Changes- Pat Hutchins
I Spy Treasure Hunt-Jean Marzollo & Walter Wick
One Frog Too Many, A Boy, A Dog and a Frog, Frog, Where are You?, Frog Goes to Dinner, Frog On His Own, Achoo, Oops -Mercer Mayer
My Friend Rabbit- Eric Rohmann
Mouse Around- Pat Schories
Where’s My Monkey?- Dieter Schubert
Peter Spier’s Rain- Peter Spier
Deep in the Forest- Brinton Turkle
Mysteries of Harris Burdick-Chris Van Allsburg
Tuesday-David Wiesner
Chalk- Bill Thompson

FEELINGS, FRIENDSHIPS, PRAGMATICS, PERSPECTIVE TAKING

Feelings- Aliki
A Bad Case of Tattle Tongue-Julia Cook
Today I Feel Silly: And Other Moods That Make My Day- Jamie Lee Curtis
Mean Soup-Betsy Everett
How are you Peeling?- Saxton Freymann & Joost Elffers
Leo the Late Bloomer-Robert Kraus & Jose Aruego
Hooway for Wodney Wat-Helen Lester
It’s Mine!-Leo Lion
Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon-Patty Lovell
The Cow That Went Oink-Bernard Most
The Recess Queen-Alexis O’Neill
The Feelings Book, The I’m Not Scared Book, It’s Okay to Be Different, The Best Friends Book-Todd Parr
Rainbow Fish-Marcus Pfister
I, Freddy: Book One in the Golden Hamster Saga-Dietlof Reiche & Joe Cepeda
My Many Colored Days-Dr. Seuss
Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons- Eric Litwin
Spaghetti in a Hot Dog Bun: Having Courage to Be Who You Are-Kimberly Shaw-Peterson
Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, My Friend is Sad, Can I Play Too?, Should I Share My Ice Cream?, I Will Surprise My Friend, My New Friend is So Fun-Mo Willems (ALL the Elephant & Piggie books are good for dialogue)
How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?-Jan Yolen
The Knight and the Dragon- Tomie dePaola
Where’s My Teddy?- Jez Alborough
They All Saw a Cat- Brendan Wenzel
This is Not My Hat- Jon Klassen