Back To School Picture Books And Kids Bookshelf Decor
Back to school, back to school, to prove to my daddy that I’m not a fool…100 gold stars to the person who can name that movie quote? Billy Madison…anyone? Anyway, it’s school season, and our children have been back for a couple of days so it’s about time we pulled out all of our favorite back to school picture books and decorated the kids’ bookshelves with them.
I had grand intentions of doing this project BEFORE the girls headed to school. But we were too busy doing the important stuff, like soaking up the last days of summer vacation at the river with friends. I at least pulled out all the books and read them aloud together before school started. So partial winning.
This past weekend the girls were at a cousin sleepover so what a perfect time to freshen up their bookshelves, add a little bit of decor, and surprise them upon their return. Spoiler alert…they loved it!
Unlike some of our picture book collections (I see you Halloween books and raise you the Christmas book collection), our back-to-school books are a little on the thin side. We’ve been trying to use the library more and buy books less so I included a few favorites from our library adventures in the grand list below.
Back To School Picture Books List
- A Letter From Your Teacher On The First Day Of School by Shannon Olsen, Sandie Sonke
- Ada Twist, Scientist by Andrea Beaty, David Roberts
- The Berenstain Bears Go To School by Stan Berenstain, Jan Berenstain
- The Best Seat In Second Grade by Katharine Kenah, Abby Carter
- The Best Teacher In Second Grade by Katharine Kenah, Abby Carter
- Biscuit Goes To School by Alyssa Satin Capucilli, Pat Schories
- Counting Cows by Woody Jackson
- The Crayons Go Back To School by Drew Daywalt, Oliver Jeffers
- David Goes To School by David Shannon
- The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson, Rafael Lopez
- The Day The Crayons Came Home by Drew Daywalt, Oliver Jeffers
- The Day The Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt, Oliver Jeffers
- Don’t Let The Pigeon Drive The Bus by Mo Willems
- Eraser by Anna Kang, Christopher Weyant
- First Day Jitters by Julie Danneberg, Judy Love
- Getting Ready For Kindergarten by Vera Ahiyya
- The Good Egg by Jory John, Pete Oswald
- I Eat Poop: A Dung Beetle Story by Mark Pett
- The King Of Kindergarten by Derrick Barnes, Vanessa Brantley-Newton
- Linus The Little Yellow Pencil by Scott Magoon
- Little Lucy Goes To School by Ilene Cooper
- Lulu Goes To Witch School by Jane O’Connor, Emily Arnold McCully
- The Magical Yet by Angela DiTerlizzi, Lorena Alvarez Gomez
- Morris Goes To School by B. Wiseman
- The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi
- Oh, The Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Seuss
- On The First Day Of Kindergarten by Tish Rabe, Laura Hughes
- Olu’s Teacher: A Story About Starting Preschool by Jamel C. Campbell, Lydia Mba
- Our Class Is A Family by Shannon Olsen, Sandie Sonke
- Pete The Cat: Rocking In My School Shoes by James Dean, Eric Litwin
- The Pigeon Has To Go To School by Mo Willems
- Preschool, Here I Come! by D.J. Steinberg, John Joven
- Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beaty, David Roberts
- S is for School by Greg Paprocki
- School’s First Day Of School by Adam Rex, Christian Robinson
- The Smart Cookie by Jory John, Pete Oswald
- Time For School, Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle, Jill McElmurry
- Twenty Questions by Mac Barnett, Christian Robinson
- We Don’t Eat Our Classmates: A Penelope Rex Book by Ryan T. Higgins (a New York Times best seller)
- Who You Were Made To Be by Joanna Gaines, Julianna Swaney
Superlatives
And now onto my favorite part of the kids’ bookshelf decor and book list posts, the superlatives. Yes, I throw it back to those high school yearbook days and give our favorite books a fun superlative.
Most Likely To Ease First Day Jitters
Hands down, the book that helps ease first-day jitters is The Day You Begin. While it’s not a conventional first-day jitters book, I love the book’s positive message and the underlying theme that so many kids feel when they head to a new classroom.
It’s the story of a young girl, Angelina, who walks into her classroom at the beginning of a new school year. The other kids don’t look like her or have the same experiences as her. The book delves into the differences between students but is a great lesson in the connections we can find.
Best Series
One of our favorite picture book series of all time, which is also an excellent choice for back to school time, are the crayons books. Like The Day the Crayons Quit, The Day the Crayons Came Home, and The Crayons Go Back to School.
Random side story…do you see how a certain young Picasso has added her own coloring to the book? Ironically, it’s the only book our children have colored in…yet.
While I love the last two books (crayons quit and crayons go to school), especially for favorite characters like Pea Green otherwise known as Esteban the Magnificent, it’s the first book I love the most.
It’s such a fun story about crayons writing letters to their owner and complaining about their use. Well, everyone complains except for Green. Here’s to green crayon spreading positivity about how much they love their job!
Most Likely To Make You Snort Milk
This superlative goes to School’s First Day of School because it ACTUALLY HAPPENS, a kid snorts milk out his nose in the lunchroom!
While there are many silly picture books in our collection, this one has a fun angle to it since it’s from the perspective of the school building.
Frederick Douglass Elementary is opening for the first time with a rough start. One little girl doesn’t want to go to school, some older kids are being mean (so the school squirts one of the boys in the face from the water fountain), and who knew that lunchtime produced so much trash?!
But by the end of the day, things came around and the school’s new situation of housing children for the first time was a success.
Most Unconventional
Yes, I hereby nominate a poop book, I Eat Poop: A Dung Beetle Story, as the most unconventional of the back to school picture books. And what young, elementary school child doesn’t love reading a book that says “poop” one hundred times.
Hear me out on this one. And don’t let the title fool you, it’s a charming story.
The book is about a group of children going to school who happen to be bugs, the main character being a dung beetle named Doug. Doug is super embarrassed that he loves to eat poop and is afraid the other students will make fun of him.
Long story short, the other students who are various bugs, find out Doug loves poop and accept him for his uniqueness. After all, they each have quirks that make them unique.
My favorite line in the book from a second-grader praying mantis who just found out about Doug’s poop affection is, “So? My mom ate my dad.”
Least Likely To Be Found Outside The State Of Vermont
This one goes to Counting Cows by Woody Jackson.
The book is a basic, counting-to-ten board book where you count cows in various situations. It’s a pretty simple book but one that our youngest, who just turned three and started her first day of preschool, LOVES. She does have a cow obsession and proudly moos when we drive by cows, which are plentiful in rural Vermont.
It’s tied to Vermont because of Woody Jackson, a prominent local artist here in Vermont. He’s best known for his cow artwork, especially his Holstein art found on Ben & Jerry’s packaging and branding. We bought the signed book at Ben & Jerry’s flagship location in Waterbury, Vermont.
Most Likely To Be Read By Teachers On The First Day Of School
Does the world stop spinning if all the teachers across the country are collectively reading A Letter From Your Teacher during story time on the morning of the first day of school? Some things the world may never know.
This book is a gem and one we borrowed so often from the library that we finally purchased it this year to add to our home collection. It’s such a great opener for school season.
A Letter From Your Teacher, very generally speaking, is about the classroom rules. Mostly, the underlying classroom rules about respect, taking care of supplies, being kind, and other lessons for a kinder, more inclusive class. It’s what makes the book so perfect for the beginning of the year.
Most Nostalgic
Two of my old learn to read books, Morris Goes To School and Lulu Goes To Witch School, made the back-to-school book list. I wish they still made young readers books like these with beautiful art and hardcovers. Hmmm, maybe they do and I’m just not looking hard enough or past the $2 paperbacks.
The Lulu book is the story of a little girl, who happens to be a witch, and her first week at witch school. It’s quite the story filled with spells, magic brooms, and frenemies.
Morris Goes To School, is a great book. Scratch that, a fantastic book and one of my all-time favorites as a child. It gives me all the feels every time I read this one with the girls. It’s such a funny story about Morris the Moose who goes to school, learns to count, and his various antics trying to learn with the other children.
Most Classic
The most classic award, and perhaps the most popular on the list, goes to Oh, The Places You’ll Go. It’s also a popular gift for high school graduates.
For those unfamiliar with the story, it follows the main character through various triumphs, upheavals, and finding themselves moments. The undercurrent of the story is that great success lies within but is told in such a quintessential Dr. Seuss way.
Kids’ Choice
Now onto the Kids’ Choice Award which goes to David Goes To School.
It’s such a simple book with very few words, but both of our daughters (ages 7 and 3) are obsessed with this book. In fact, the original David book may be one of their favorite books ever. I don’t understand but to each their own.
The gist of the book is that David goes to school and gets into trouble. That’s it. But the kids go nuts over it!
Dad’s Choice
Colby’s pick of the bunch is The Pigeon HAS To Go To School. When I asked why he said, “I just love that pigeon.” A man of many words, ladies and gentlemen.
The pigeon books by Mo Willems are cute. They have a special type of humor that I feel you either get or you don’t. I’m in the I don’t get it camp but the other members of my family love these books, especially this one.
Mom’s Choice
And the coveted, most anticipated award of the night, The Mom’s Choice Award. I mean, I’ve clocked some hours with these books so if there’s one superlative to pay attention to it’s this one. Drumroll, please…Our Class Is A Family.
I could read this book over and over and over again. And then over again a few more times and never get sick of it. I love it, the story, themes, messages, and even the art.
This book is about how a classroom and everyone in it is like a family. They spend so much time together and need to treat everyone with kindness and respect. It’s all about welcoming new classmates, making new friends, respecting best friends, and being there for each other.
Every time I fill out one of those “What are your expectations for your student” forms for school my response is always so simple. For my children to be kind, self-confident, and readers. This book checks all the boxes for me.
So if you add one book to your back to school picture books collection, add Our Class Is A Family.
Happy Reading!
Now I bid adieu and happy reading everyone. Here’s to fluffing the bookshelves and kicking off a brand-new school year!
And if you happen to be out and about picking up the school supplies and shiny new school shoes (only to be caked in mud after one day), pick up a few back to school picture books to read aloud with your children.
Pssst…Just an FYI the tutorial for the DIY pom pom garland is here.
