Top Children’s Books to Get Ready for First Grade

A selection of top children’s books about first grade. Read these picture books with your child as you get ready for the new school year!

At our old school, the kindergarten lot was separate from first grade and up. Here at our new school, kinder kids are on a different schedule, getting picked up much earlier than the rest of the kids.

And this made sense: Kindergarten is the first time many children experience a school setting—the first time they play with other kids in a learning environment.

But after kindergarten, they now have yet another big change: the first grade.

For my eldest, that meant being in a different part of campus away from the TK and preschool kids. He’d spend recess and PE in the big kids playground, and be expected to have more independence on his own.

For my twins, that meant not saying goodbye to our old school, but welcoming a new year on a new campus.

Thankfully, throughout kindergarten, all their teachers did a fantastic job of transitioning them into the new year and fostering necessary skills for first grade.

A great tool that helped? Reading books.

Children’s books about first grade

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First grade can be a huge milestones for many kindergarten kids who’d just gone through their first year at school. What will the new year be like? Will my teacher be as nice? Will we have to play with a lot of big kids?

I’ve been searching for children’s books about first grade and found these awesome selections. If you have a child entering first grade, check out my top picks to prepare him for the upcoming year.

The First Grade Friends: Lunch Box Surprise by Grace Maccarone

1st Grade Blues by Britney Lovelace

First Grade, Here I Come! by Tony Johnston

On the First Day of First Grade by Tish Rabe

First Grade Dropout by Audrey Vernick

The Last Day of Kindergarten by Nancy Loewen

The Night Before Kindergarten Graduation by Natasha Wing

The Night Before First Grade by Natasha Wing

First Grade, Here I Come! by D.J. Steinberg

First Grade Stinks! by Mary Ann Rodman

First Grade Jitters by Robert Quackenbush

Brand-New Pencils, Brand-New Books by Diane deGroat

Off to First Grade by Louise Borden

First Grade, Here I Come! by Nancy Carlson

Read these next:

• What Should a Kindergartener Know before the Year Ends?
• 14 Children’s Books about Empathy to Read with Your Child
• 10 Best Children’s Books for Story Time
• 4 Reasons Kids Need Downtime
• What to Do when Your Child Doesn’t Want to Go to School

Free: Want even more book selections? Join my newsletter and download my Read Aloud Book List! You’ll get hundreds of favorite selections to read aloud with your kids. Get it below—at no cost to you: