I’m a huge picture book fan—for all ages—so years ago when I stopped at the picture book section during a district library tour, I pulled out a copy of Tadpole's Promise by Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross. In case you don’t know the story, here’s the short version. (Spoiler Alert)
A tadpole and a caterpillar fall in love. “Promise you’ll never change,” begs the caterpillar. When he breaks his promise by growing legs, then arms, and then loses his tail, the caterpillar refuses to forgive him. Exhausted from crying, she falls asleep on a branch. Upon waking she decides to forgive him and flies (now she’s a butterfly) to the pond where they used to meet. A frog sits on a lily pad. Before she can finish asking if he’s seen her “shiny black pearl,” he flicks his tongue out and eats her. “And there he sits, thinking of his beautiful rainbow and wondering where she went.” The End. (Insert wild laughter or tears, depending on your own reaction)
On that day, a high school PE teacher was in the group. She stuck out her hand and said, “I’ll take that. I can use it on the first day of school as an ice breaker. Then if I want to read anything else, they’ll listen because it could be a story when someone gets eaten.” Picture books work for everyone and the first days of school are a great time to try them. A small snippet of a novel works too. Great for icebreaker activities, books also give kids the inspiration to talk about things that matter to them—and to get to know each other too.
Building Your First Read Aloud Lessons
If you’ve been teaching for a while, you probably have your tried and true titles for your first week. Maybe you have activities you usually do afterwards. Now that you have TeachingBooks at your fingertips, why not choose something different? New releases often connect to our students' social emotional learning while adding diverse characters. Imagine seeing yourself in the first book a teacher or librarian reads to them. What a start to building a community that would be. And after all, isn’t that the purpose of those first books?
But access. And funding. Where can you get these new titles? What about the activities that follow?
Use your Sora titles. Be sure students are connected to your public library collection too. With the Sora app, they don’t even need a library card—though it’s great to have one for print book access.
Select a Complete Book Reading from TeachingBook; authors and illustrators are often the featured reader.
Sign up as an educator at GetEpic. New books are added all the time.
Check your library catalogs (school and public) for similar titles.
For all titles, be sure to check Book Guides, Activities, and Lessons at TeachingBooks. From Multi-Level Lessons to readers theater scripts, you’ll find engaging ideas for the books you are reading. Be sure to remind your colleagues about their access as well—send them this article.
New Titles to Share
So what is a school? How do I fit in when I feel (or look) so different? How does a new kid find his way? Why does going to school even matter? Find the answers to these and other questions in this list of newly published books. You’ll find titles for kindergarten to high school in the samples below:
This is a School by John Schu and Veronica Miller Jamison | Grades PK-2
A school isn't just a building; it is all the people who work and learn together. It is a place for discovery and asking questions. A place for sharing, for helping, and for community. It is a place of hope and healing, even when that community can't be together in the same room.
Use the 8-page teacher’s guide from Candlewick Press to plan your storytime activities.
My First Day by Phùng Nguyên Quang and Huy'nh Kim Liên | Grades PK-2
A child in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam sets off for his first day of the school year, both excited and nervous to be making the trip alone for the first time. He journeys by boat, and as he paddles out across the water and then through the mangrove forest, he describes the trip, and the plants and animals he encounters, in school-related metaphors. “I get to trace the edges of my path—do it for myself, write my name across the blackboard of the river.”
Create your lesson plan using the book trailer and discussion guide from Read Across America.
Exquisite: The Poetry and Life of Gwendolyn Brooks by Suzanne Slade and Cozbi A. Cabrera | Grades 1-5
Exquisite follows Gwendolyn from early girlhood into her adult life, showcasing her desire to write poetry from a very young age. Gwendolyn Brooks (1917–2000) is known for her poems about “real life.” She wrote about love, loneliness, family, and poverty—showing readers how just about anything could become a beautiful poem and that they too can be exquisite.
Bring the creators into your classroom or library with the Complete Book Reading, narrated by the author and illustrator.
The Used-To-Be Best Friend by Dawn Quigley and Tara Audibert | Grades 1-5
Jo Jo is an exuberant seven-year-old who’s attending first grade on her Ojibwe reservation. She considers her cat, Mimi, her number-one best friend, while Fern is her best school friend. But lately Fern has been sitting with other kids at lunchtime, making Jo Jo feel less secure at school.
Watch the book trailer or video book recording for this early chapter book.
Starfish by Lisa Fipps | Grades 4-12
Ever since Ellie wore a whale swimsuit and made a big splash at her fifth birthday party, she's been bullied about her weight. To cope, she tries to live by the Fat Girl Rules—like "no making waves," "avoid eating in public," and "don't move so fast that your body jiggles." And she's found her safe space—her swimming pool—where she feels weightless in a fat-obsessed world.
Listen to the audiobook excerpt or use the Google Preview to read aloud the first few poems from this award-winning verse novel.
When Stars Are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson, Omar Mohamed, and Iman Geddy | Grades 4-8
Omar and his younger brother, Hassan, have spent most of their lives in Dadaab, a refugee camp in Kenya. Life is hard there: never enough food, achingly dull, and without access to the medical care Omar knows his nonverbal brother needs. So when Omar has the opportunity to go to school, he knows it might be a chance to change their future . . . but it would also mean leaving his brother, the only family member he has left, every day.
Play the Meet-the-Author Recording to learn about the Oregon writer who met a Somalian refugee, living in Pennsylvania. Together, they wrote this graphic novel about his experiences.
Posted by John David Anderson | Grades 4-8
In middle school, words aren’t just words. They can be weapons. They can be gifts. The right words can win you friends or make you enemies. They can come back to haunt you. Sometimes they can change things forever.
Utilize the Teaching Guide from HarperCollins to plan your lit circle lessons or book club activities with this title.
Dead Wednesday by Jerry Spinelli
On Dead Wednesday, every eighth grader in Amber Springs is assigned the name and identity of a teenager who died a preventable death in the past year. The kids wear black shirts and for the whole day everyone in town pretends they're invisible—as if they weren't even there. The adults think it will make them contemplate their mortality. The kids think it's a free pass to get away with anything.
Worm Tarnauer feels invisible every day. He's perfectly happy being the unnoticed sidekick of his friend Eddie. So he's not expecting Dead Wednesday to feel that different. But he didn't count on being assigned Becca Finch (17, car crash). And he certainly didn't count on Becca showing up to boss him around! Letting this girl into his head is about to change everything.
Read the first chapter from Google Preview or play the audiobook excerpt.
Dragon Hoops by Gene Luen Yang | Grades 7-12
Part memoir, part history, and part riveting sports story, Yang opens his humorous graphic novel with a confession: He's always hated sports. He's classed himself as a nerd since childhood and even as a high school teacher hangs out with other nerds. In fact, it seems all the teachers hang out with kindred spirit groups from their own teen years. But he's drawn to cross the divide by the power of story in 2015, when he begins hearing about the school basketball team's current season.
Share the book trailer on your news program and use the Shelf Talker to create an interactive QR code and display.
You’ll find more resources for these and other titles on New Titles for Back-to-School. Duplicate this list to your own account to save and edit titles. Filter titles by interest level, genre, resources and more at TeachingBooks. What are you reading to your students?
About the contributor: Deborah Salyer is a long-time lover of children’s and YA lit. Her seminars and workshops have created piles of books to be read on nightstands from the east to west coasts. She’s also the CA Implementation and Training Specialist for TeachingBooks and a senior presenter at BER.org for What’s New in Children’s Books, K-6. She’s been a member of CSLA since 2001.
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