15 Funny Kindergarten Read-Alouds That Can Handle a Whole Room

Reading to one five-year-old is one thing.

Reading to twenty of them is a different sport.

You have the kid hanging on every word.

The kid examining a shoelace.

The kid who has already figured out the ending and would like everybody to know.

The kid who needs to tell you something extremely important about his grandmother's cat.

And somebody has to go to the bathroom.

Again.

Which is why I don't judge a kindergarten read-aloud only by whether it's a good book.

Can it hold a room?

If you're new to Book Explorers, I'm Jungle Jimmy the Book Explorer, children's author, dad, and longtime performer for kids. Readit the Book Worm is my childlike sidekick, and he has already volunteered to represent the five-year-olds.

"I'm older than five."

I know.

"I can still yell."

Qualification accepted.

Thirty years performing for kids will teach you that attention doesn't arrive automatically because an adult is holding a book.

You earn it.

So these are the books I'd want in my hands when the audience is sitting cross-legged on the floor and somebody in the back has started making suspicious dinosaur noises.

Quick Picks

• Best Overall: The Book With No Pictures
• Best Kindergarten Story About Kindergarten: We Don't Eat Our Classmates
• Best Page-Turn Read-Aloud: The Monster at the End of This Book
• Best Book for Yelling No: Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!
• Best Book for Voices: The Legend of Rock Paper Scissors
• Best Slow-Burn Disaster: Dragons Love Tacos
• Best Repeated Sound: Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type
• Best Picture-Led Read-Aloud: No, David!
• Best Ensemble Cast: The Day the Crayons Quit
• Best Slightly Spooky Read-Aloud: Creepy Pair of Underwear!
• Best Unreliable Narrator: The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs!
• Best Art-Class Disaster: Too Much Glue
• Best First-Day Read-Aloud: The Pigeon HAS to Go to School!
• Best Predictable Chain Reaction: If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
• Best Emergency Wiggle Fix: Don't Push the Button!

1. Best Overall: The Book With No Pictures

By B.J. Novak

No pictures.

Terrible idea.

That's what a room full of kindergarteners thinks for about twelve seconds.

Then they discover the rule.

The grown-up has to say everything written in the book.

Everything.

B.J. Novak turns the reader into the entertainment. Penguin Random House lists the 48-page book for ages 5 to 8, grades K to 3, with a Lexile of 490L, which lands us exactly where we want to be.

This is why I'd put it first.

A teacher doesn't merely read the joke.

The teacher becomes the joke.

Now twenty kids have a shared interest:

What ridiculous thing can we make the grown-up say next?

The catch?

You have to commit.

If you read this the way you announce tomorrow's lunch menu, you've killed it.

Do the voices.

Take the pauses.

Suffer visibly.

Let them enjoy your humiliation.

That's the job.

Why it works with a room: The adult performs and the kids get the payoff together.

Belly Laugh Scale: 5/5, Laugh-Out-Loud Legend

Read the full Book With No Pictures review here.

2. Best Kindergarten Story About Kindergarten: We Don't Eat Our Classmates

By Ryan T. Higgins

Penelope Rex is nervous about her first day of school.

That's familiar.

Then she discovers her classmates are children.

Also familiar.

Unfortunately:

Children are delicious.

Ryan T. Higgins has found a slight complication in the traditional first-day story. Disney's 48-page book has Penelope trying to make friends while repeatedly eating her human classmates, until she gets a taste of her own medicine. The publisher recommends it for first-day jitters and for kids working on personal space.

That combination is exactly why it works in kindergarten.

The room understands the problem before you explain it.

School.

Friends.

Nerves.

Trying to fit in.

Eating the other students.

One of these requires additional discussion.

Higgins's pictures are big and expressive enough to carry the joke across a group, and Walter the goldfish delivers a terrific reversal.

Penelope thinks she's the dangerous one.

Walter has notes.

Why it works with a room: Familiar school feelings plus a dinosaur doing something spectacularly inappropriate.

Belly Laugh Scale: 5/5, Laugh-Out-Loud Legend

Read the full We Don't Eat Our Classmates review here.

3. Best Page-Turn Read-Aloud: The Monster at the End of This Book

By Jon Stone, illustrated by Michael Smollin

Grover has learned there is a monster at the end of the book.

He has a plan.

Stop reading.

The kindergarteners will respect his wishes.

Ha.

This is a beautiful read-aloud setup, because the room becomes your accomplice.

Should we turn the page?

YES!

But Grover said not to.

TURN IT!

Now you've got them.

Every new barricade gives you another pause. Another decision. Another chance for the kids to betray Grover.

The book has been doing this for generations because the mechanism is ridiculously sturdy.

A child doesn't merely wonder what happens next.

The child is helping make it happen.

Why it works with a room: Anticipation builds at every page turn, and the audience gets to disobey Grover together.

Belly Laugh Scale: 5/5, Laugh-Out-Loud Legend

Read the full Monster at the End of This Book review here.

4. Best Book for Yelling No: Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!

By Mo Willems

The bus driver leaves.

One instruction:

Don't let the Pigeon drive the bus.

Pigeon has arguments.

Many arguments.

The children have one.

NO!

Mo Willems understands something useful about a room full of young kids. Give them permission to say the same thing together and they become a team.

Pigeon begs.

The room refuses.

Pigeon negotiates.

The room refuses louder.

Pigeon melts down.

Wonderful.

The pictures help, because Pigeon's whole body is basically one giant facial expression with wings. You can hold a page up and let the room read his mood before you say anything.

That's good read-aloud design.

Why it works with a room: The audience has a clear job and Pigeon reacts directly to them.

Belly Laugh Scale: 5/5, Laugh-Out-Loud Legend

Read the full Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! review here.

5. Best Book for Voices: The Legend of Rock Paper Scissors

By Drew Daywalt, illustrated by Adam Rex

Rock seeks a worthy opponent.

Paper seeks a worthy opponent.

Scissors seeks a worthy opponent.

Everybody talks as though the fate of civilization depends on a playground hand game.

Which is why I love reading this one aloud.

Drew Daywalt gives you characters who want to be performed.

Not gently distinguished.

Performed.

Rock doesn't need a slightly lower voice.

Rock needs to arrive.

Adam Rex's pictures meet him at the same volume, treating ridiculous household battles as though we're watching legendary warriors. And the opponents keep getting stranger.

The familiar game also gives kindergarteners a foothold. They already know Rock, Paper, Scissors.

They just didn't know these three had been wandering the world looking for glorious combat.

Why it works with a room: Huge voices, repetition, ridiculous opponents, and a game most kids already know.

Belly Laugh Scale: 5/5, Laugh-Out-Loud Legend

Read the full Legend of Rock Paper Scissors review here.

6. Best Slow-Burn Disaster: Dragons Love Tacos

By Adam Rubin, illustrated by Daniel Salmieri

Dragons love tacos.

Good.

They hate spicy salsa.

Important.

If you're throwing a taco party for dragons, keep the spicy salsa away from them.

Very important.

Adam Rubin spends plenty of time establishing this rule.

Then you start noticing something.

Uh-oh.

Dial published the 40-page book for ages 3 to 7, preschool through grade 2, with a Lexile of AD520L, and it went to number one on the New York Times list.

This is where page turns matter.

Kids know the rule.

The adult knows the rule.

The room can see trouble coming.

Daniel Salmieri's dragons make it funnier because they look so casually committed to taco consumption before everything goes wrong.

Don't rush it.

Let the kindergarteners discover the danger.

A room that sees the joke coming is not a spoiled joke.

Sometimes anticipation is the joke.

Why it works with a room: Repetition teaches the rule, then the story lets everybody watch the rule get broken.

7. Best Repeated Sound: Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type

By Doreen Cronin, illustrated by Betsy Lewin

Click, clack.

Moo.

Click, clack.

Moo.

That's already fun to say.

Then you discover the cows have demands.

Farmer Brown's cows have found a typewriter and are using it to negotiate for better working conditions.

Kindergarteners don't need a seminar on labor negotiations.

They understand:

Cows want something.

Farmer says no.

Cows stop giving milk.

Oh.

Now we have a problem.

And the repeated typewriter sound gives the room something to anticipate.

By the third round, they'll help.

Let them.

Why it works with a room: Repetition, animal absurdity, letters, escalating demands, and one extremely useful typewriter.

Belly Laugh Scale: 4/5, Big-Time Belly Laughs

Read the full Click, Clack, Moo review here.

8. Best Picture-Led Read-Aloud: No, David!

By David Shannon

David reaches for cookies.

David makes a mess.

David runs naked down the street.

David does many things that produce one predictable adult response:

No, David!

Scholastic lists the 32-page book for ages 4 to 8, grades PreK to 3. It grew out of a book David Shannon made when he was five, which explains a great deal.

This is one of those books where the pictures are doing enormous work.

You don't need a paragraph explaining why David's decision is bad.

Hold up the picture.

The kindergarteners know.

Some will be horrified.

Some will admire him.

Several will have relevant personal information to share.

Do not ask follow-up questions unless you have time.

The repeated "No, David!" also makes participation almost automatic.

Why it works with a room: Big visual trouble, very little text, repetition, and behavior kids recognize immediately.

Belly Laugh Scale: 4/5, Big-Time Belly Laughs

Read the full No, David! review here.

9. Best Ensemble Cast: The Day the Crayons Quit

By Drew Daywalt, illustrated by Oliver Jeffers

Duncan opens his crayon box.

The crayons have quit.

They left letters.

Everybody has a complaint.

Red is overworked.

Black wants better assignments.

Orange and Yellow are fighting.

Duncan is now apparently responsible for crayon workplace morale.

Penguin Random House lists the 40-page book for ages 4 to 8, and it won the E.B. White Read-Aloud Award.

This one is longer than some of the books I'd reach for with kindergarten.

That's the caution.

You've got a lot of crayons.

A lot of letters.

If the room is already wiggly, this may not be your first choice.

But with a settled group and a reader willing to give the crayons distinct personalities?

Excellent.

Oliver Jeffers makes each letter feel personal, messy and kid-made. The visual joke keeps changing with the speaker.

Why it works with a room: Lots of voices, familiar art supplies, arguments kids understand, and pictures that keep changing the joke.

Belly Laugh Scale: 4/5, Big-Time Belly Laughs

Read the full Day the Crayons Quit review here.

10. Best Slightly Spooky Read-Aloud: Creepy Pair of Underwear!

By Aaron Reynolds, illustrated by Peter Brown

Jasper Rabbit wants big-rabbit underwear.

He gets glowing green underwear.

Then he decides he doesn't want them.

The underwear disagree.

Aaron Reynolds keeps finding ways for Jasper to get rid of them.

Peter Brown keeps finding ways to bring them back.

Simon & Schuster's collected reviews land on the same combination of silliness and safe spookiness, with School Library Journal calling it a strong storytime choice.

For kindergarten, that's the sweet spot.

A little creepy.

Not nightmare fuel.

And the green glow in Brown's mostly black, white and gray world gives a group something very clear to look for.

There they are.

Again.

Why it works with a room: Underwear, suspense, visual repetition, and the fun of spotting the creepy thing before Jasper wants to.

Belly Laugh Scale: 4/5, Big-Time Belly Laughs

Read the full Creepy Pair of Underwear! review here.

11. Best Unreliable Narrator: The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs!

By Jon Scieszka, illustrated by Lane Smith

The wolf would like to clear something up.

You've heard the wrong story.

He wasn't trying to eat anybody.

He needed sugar.

He had a cold.

There was sneezing.

Things happened.

Alexander T. Wolf tells his side of the famous story, beginning with a birthday cake for Granny, a cold, and what he claims is an unfair reputation.

This one works especially well once the room already knows The Three Little Pigs.

Now they're comparing.

Wait.

That's not what happened.

Is it?

Kindergarteners enjoy being the person who knows something.

Let them inspect the wolf's story.

Don't solve it for them.

Why it works with a room: Familiar fairy tale, suspicious storyteller, funny pictures, and a built-in reason to question what you're hearing.

Belly Laugh Scale: 4/5, Big-Time Belly Laughs

Read the full True Story of the 3 Little Pigs review here.

12. Best Art-Class Disaster: Too Much Glue

By Jason Lefebvre, illustrated by Zac Retz

Matty loves glue.

His teacher says too much glue never dries.

Matty responds by using entirely too much glue.

Then getting himself stuck in it.

The rescue attempts do not exactly simplify matters.

This is kindergarten territory.

Glue.

Art projects.

A teacher giving an instruction.

A child immediately demonstrating why the instruction exists.

The pictures are important, because the mess keeps growing. Every rescue attempt adds something else to Matty.

That's what a room wants.

Don't just tell me he's stuck.

Show me how much worse this has gotten.

Why it works with a room: Familiar classroom materials, immediate trouble, escalating visual mess, and a kid making the exact decision everybody was warned not to make.

Belly Laugh Scale: 4/5, Big-Time Belly Laughs

Read the full Too Much Glue review here.

13. Best First-Day Read-Aloud: The Pigeon HAS to Go to School!

By Mo Willems

Pigeon does not need school.

He already knows everything.

Problem solved.

Except.

What if the teacher doesn't like him?

What if he doesn't like school?

What if he learns too much?

Disney-Hyperion published the 40-page book in July 2019 for ages 3 to 5, and specifically positions it for preparing kids and caregivers for the first day.

This isn't quite as explosively funny as Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!

That's okay.

It has another job.

Pigeon says the nervous stuff out loud.

Kindergarteners get to hear somebody else worry first.

Then they get to watch him talk himself toward the possibilities.

Funny helps.

But the nerves are real.

Why it works with a room: Familiar worries, direct address, a character kids already know, and plenty of chances to answer Pigeon back.

14. Best Predictable Chain Reaction: If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

By Laura Numeroff, illustrated by Felicia Bond

Give a mouse a cookie.

He'll want milk.

Then something else.

Then something else.

Then.

You know where this is going.

That's the pleasure.

Laura Numeroff and Felicia Bond build a circular chain of cause and effect where one tiny request keeps producing another.

For kindergarten, repetition and prediction are your friends.

Once kids understand the pattern, they're not waiting passively.

They're guessing.

What will Mouse need next?

Will we get back to the cookie?

And because the whole thing loops around, the ending feels both inevitable and satisfying.

Why it works with a room: Prediction, repetition, clear pictures, cause and effect, and a structure kids quickly learn how to play with.

Belly Laugh Scale: 4/5, Big-Time Belly Laughs

Read the full If You Give a Mouse a Cookie review here.

15. Best Emergency Wiggle Fix: Don't Push the Button!

Readit has a suggestion for the last slot.

"Pigeon."

We already did Pigeon.

"I know. I like him."

We're not counting him twice.

"Kindergarteners repeat things."

That's annoyingly relevant.

Still no.

By Bill Cotter

Larry has one rule.

Don't push the button.

The button is right there.

Big.

Red.

Waiting.

This is not going to end well.

The strength of Bill Cotter's setup is how fast a group understands it.

You don't need five minutes of character introduction.

Monster.

Button.

Don't.

Now ask twenty kindergarteners whether they should push it.

Congratulations.

Everyone is awake.

The interaction gives restless kids something to do, and Larry reacts as though their choices are changing the book.

Why it works with a room: Immediate premise, physical participation, rule breaking, and a character who responds directly to the audience.

What Makes a Funny Kindergarten Read-Aloud Work?

Here's my test.

Can the kid in the back follow what's happening?

That's more important than people sometimes realize.

A beautiful tiny visual joke may work wonderfully curled up with one child.

In a classroom?

The kid twelve feet away cannot see it.

So I want pictures that read clearly.

I want a premise that doesn't require seven minutes of explanation.

And I want changes.

New character.

New problem.

New voice.

New page-turn surprise.

Something.

Kindergarten attention is not bad attention.

It's active attention.

The room wants a reason to stay with you.

Give them one.

Let Them Help

This is the biggest mistake I'd avoid.

If the kids discover a repeated phrase, don't guard it.

Give it away.

Click, clack, moo.

Let them say it.

No, David!

Let them say it.

Should we turn Grover's page?

You already know what they're going to say.

That's not losing control of the reading.

That's using the book.

The best group read-alouds have a moment where twenty individual kids suddenly become one audience.

You can feel it.

That's the good stuff.

There's more on that mechanism in my list of interactive picture books, which is sorted by how necessary the child's participation actually is.

Do the Voices, But Don't Turn It Into Community Theater

You don't need seventeen accents.

Please don't attempt seventeen accents.

What matters is distinction.

Rock should not sound like Paper.

The crayons should not all complain identically.

Pigeon should have enough personality that the room can hear the next argument coming.

And with The Book With No Pictures, you've got no place to hide.

That book needs the adult.

Commit.

You don't need to be an actor.

You need to be willing to look a little silly.

Kindergarteners will forgive many things.

Cowardice around BLORK is not one of them.

When Should You Read the Quieter Ones?

Not every funny book needs screaming.

Timing matters.

The Day the Crayons Quit is better when the room is ready to listen to several voices.

The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs! works better when the kids already know the original.

Creepy Pair of Underwear! benefits from slowing down and letting the pictures build suspense.

You don't perform every book at the same volume.

That's exhausting.

For everybody.

A good read-aloud has dynamics.

Big.

Small.

Pause.

Look.

Then hit them.

One More Kindergarten Read-Aloud I'd Put Beside These

I'm keeping my own books out of the numbered ranking.

Otherwise I could save everybody time and write:

1. Mine.

2. Mine.

3. Also mine.

Suspicious.

But Look! There Are No Dinos Inside Of This Book was built for exactly one of the things I value in a kindergarten room.

The kid can catch the grown-up being wrong.

Dangerous Dave insists there are no dinosaurs.

The pictures tell the kids otherwise.

So the room gets to yell.

DAVE!

That's not an interruption.

That's the read-aloud working.

Jungle Jimmy's Quick Picks

If I walked into a kindergarten tomorrow and could bring only one book?

The Book With No Pictures.

If the room were extra wiggly?

Don't Push the Button!

First week of school?

We Don't Eat Our Classmates.

A group that likes shouting?

Pigeon.

A teacher who loves doing voices?

The Legend of Rock Paper Scissors.

Slightly spooky?

Creepy Pair of Underwear!

And if I needed one old-school book that still knows exactly how to work a page turn?

Grover.

Easy.

If you want the wider funny shelf rather than the classroom-specific picks, start with the hilarious picture books kids actually laugh at. And if your room has a few kids who've decided books are boring, that's a different list.

Final Explorer Verdict

The best kindergarten read-aloud isn't necessarily the funniest book on your shelf.

It's the book that gives you something to perform and gives them something to anticipate.

A phrase.

A page turn.

A mistake they can see coming.

A character they can answer.

A picture that makes them yell before you finish the sentence.

That's why The Book With No Pictures gets my top spot.

It understands the room.

The adult thinks they're holding the book.

The kindergarteners discover they're holding the adult.

Readit?

"BLORK."

No.

"BLUURF."

We're finished.

"GLIBBITY GLOBBITY."

Keep exploring, Story Seekers!

Jungle Jimmy & Readit