Read alouds can be a great vehicle to introduce lessons across the curriculum. They can help build background knowledge and provide a captivating hook to start a lesson. The right book—one with captivating and pertinent information that rolls nicely off the tongue—is the key to consolidating your educational efforts! Check out these new picture book read alouds that will delight and captivate your students.

ANCIENT EGYPT

Mummy Cat by Marcus Ewert

(Grades 1-4)

In this rhyming story, a mummy cat awakens once every century to try and reunite with his beloved queen. He wanders the pyramid tomb and reminisces about their life together as he passes the wall murals that depict their past life. This story within the story depicted in the murals makes it a great choice for inferring. Four pages of back matter covering mummies, cats, hieroglyphics and queens give historical context. The hieroglyphics section translates sets of hieroglyphics that appear throughout the story and correspond to what is portrayed in the murals. This text feature can be used as a device to teach comprehension strategies such as summarizing and inferring. Or, if you don’t have time to do an extensive read aloud, use it to entice students to revisit the book on their own during independent reading.

Back Matter from Mummy Cat

ART CLASS

How to Draw a Dragon by Douglas Florian

(Grades P-3)

At a glance, this book looks simple in its construction because of the childlike illustrations. It is anything but! Couplet stanzas describing the different elements of drawing dragons along with other poetry elements like alliteration (“drag a dragon to your yard”) appear on each colorful spread—making it an ideal choice for poetry units. Plus, the procedural step-by-step really does give awesome advice on how to draw a dragon—great for inspiring amazing student creations. At the end of the story, all of the pictures are displayed at an art show. The page that portrays this scene folds out, enhancing the excitement of the event in the book. A perfect opportunity to put on your own art show! This depiction of kids of all colors (and girls, too!) loving dragons is refreshing.

*How to Draw a Dragon has been nominated for a Scout Award, an internal Booksource award. Booksource will nominate books throughout the year and then ask readers to vote on their favorites to determine the winners. The Scout Award is named in honor of the main character of Booksource’s most popular title, To Kill a Mockingbird. Read more about the awards here.

GRAMMAR

I Yam a Donkey by Cece Bell

(Grades K-3)

The book begins with a proclamation by a donkey, “I YAM a donkey!” And who happens to be around to hear this? A yam, naturally. What follows is a funny back-and-forth attempt at a grammar lesson by the yam to the donkey about the conjugation of the verb “to be.” The donkey remains oblivious to the lesson until the end. And this ending has a twist and a moral—language rules are not so hard and fast, and if you get too strict with them, you might not win! This book can work as a fun read aloud for all grades whether it be for the simple humor or to introduce more complex discussions about dialect or language evolutions (remember when the meaning of “literally” changed back in 2013?).

*I Yam a Donkey has been nominated for a Scout Award, an internal Booksource award. Booksource will nominate books throughout the year and then ask readers to vote on their favorites to determine the winners. The Scout Award is named in honor of the main character of Booksource’s most popular title, To Kill a Mockingbird. Read more about the awards here.

WEATHER

Raindrops Roll by April Pulley Sayre

(Grade P-3, Lexile AD750)

Poetic language paired with captivating close-ups make this photo-illustrated picture book a must see. “Rain waters … and washes … and weighs down.” Sparse language appears alongside vibrant, magnified photos of rainwater in its different forms. Each captivating picture beckons readers to wonder and ask questions. Conveniently, the “Splash of Science” section at the end delves deeper into the science behind certain lines of the text. For instance, the line “raindrops reflect” is further explained here: “The surface of a raindrop can reflect light the way a mirror does. They bounce light back toward the viewer. Look at a raindrop and you may even see yourself.”

One of the captivating close-ups from Raindrops Roll

*Raindrops Roll has been nominated for a Scout Award, an internal Booksource award. Booksource will nominate books throughout the year and then ask readers to vote on their favorites to determine the winners. The Scout Award is named in honor of the main character of Booksource’s most popular title, To Kill a Mockingbird. Read more about the awards here.

MATH

Have You Seen My Monster? by Steve Light

(Grades P-2)

A little girl goes to the fair to find her monster, and along the way, she finds 20 different types of geometric shapes! Each spread highlights a specific shape. The shapes, along with a supposition from the little girl about where her monster could be, invite students to explore the pages. From the circle of the Ferris wheel to lesser-known shapes like the nonagon at the sledgehammer and bell attraction and the trapezium on the tractor ride, each new shape is associated with a different fair attraction, helping to connect shapes to real life. Simple and fun, this read aloud introduces the geometric shapes that students will need to be familiar with later in their studies.

What is your favorite read aloud to use in the various content areas? Please share in the comments below!