Picture Books About Books, Words, and Storytelling

Reading picture books about books, words, and storytelling builds a child’s understanding of all three concepts. Of course, reading in general builds a child’s understanding of these in a more abstract sense. Both are foundational.

It’s helpful to introduce these kinds of books to children so they start to think about the person behind the stories (the author) as well as how to play around with language and invent stories.

Also Read: Picture Books That Teach Grammar, Figurative Language, and Punctuation

VISIT My BIG List of Picture Books About Writing a Story

Picture Books About Books, Words, and Storytelling

Give Me Back My Book! by Travis Foster and Ethan Long

Whose book is it? Two friends argue over a green book with letters and chapters and illustrations until a bookworm grabs it from them both. The friends must work together to get back their book with a little book trickery of their own. Book lovers will appreciate the devotion to a favorite book and the joy of sharing a book together.

Lexie the Word Wrangler by Rebecca

Lexie’s a word wrangler, a cowgirl who mixes up fresh words each morning like corn and bread to make cornbread or turn an annoying pest into good pets. But someone is stealing letters and words from her ranch. Instead of a rainbow, she only sees a bow. Will she catch the sneaky word rustler? A thoroughly delightful word adventure!

Betty’s Burgled Bakery An Alliteration Adventure by Travis Nichols

It’s both hilarious and impressive to read a mystery adventure written in alliteration. Betty has enlisted the help of the police to solve the crime of who burgled her bakery. And you’ll never believe who did it!! This will be a new read aloud favorite for both home and school. See if you can write or speak in alliterations yourself. Investigate tongue twisters and make up your own.

Let’s Tell a Story! Fairy Tale Adventure by Lily Murray, illustrated by Wesley Robins
Pick the story elements and craft your own stories…Choose something on each page (using the pictures) and invent million of different stories. Do you want to be a prince, a troll, a princess, a black cat, these are just some of the main characters you could be. Then choose your outfits and accessories, where you want to go, who you’ll take with you, how you’ll get there, which path you’ll take, and so on until you get to the end of your dangerous adventure. Then start over and tell a new story! Also read Let’s Tell a Story! Space Adventure by Lily Murray.

I Want to Be in a Scary Story by Sean Taylor, illustrated by Jean Jullien

Little Monster wants to be in a scary story. In a conversation between he and the author of the book, Little Monster says to make it a really scary story. But he reconsiders and he asks the author to make the story a little less scary — maybe a funny instead. And the story the author writes for his main character ends up being a little scary and a little funny both. It’s a clever premise to have the interaction between author and main character determine the plot. It shows growing writers and readers a bit about the ever changing process of storytelling.

Nibbles The Monster Hunt by Emma Yarlett
Nibbles is a book monster who makes a monstrous mess in the boy’s books. First, the boy chases Nibbles but then he joins him. Read the mini-books about colors and numbers and peek through the holes.

Alpha Better by Linda Ragsdale, illustrated by Martina Hogan

You’ll love this playful alphabet word book full of positive, fun invented words that are combinations of other words. What will you find on the C page? How about choolo (choose + love) and charvelous (charming + marvelous). Sure to inspire many word play inventions of your own as well as many new additions to your every day vocabulary.

Word Play by Ivan Brunetti

In this simple graphic novel, a teacher helps her students learn about compound words. The kids excitedly think of lots of compound words even at home.

Rocket Writes a Story by Tad Hills
Rocket loves reading stories so it’s only natural that he wants to write his own story. He collects words and looks for inspiration which he finds with Owl. Little by little he adds to a story about his new friend owl. This book is sure to inspire storytelling and writing.

The Book Without a Story by Carolina Raberi
The books in this library help their friend Dusty who hasn’t had a reader in so long he’s well, dusty. They push him off a shelf and soon, a reader discovers him!

This is Not That Kind of Book by Christopher Healy, illustrated by Ben Mantle
Is this an alphabet book, a fairy tale, a first day of school book, or just what? The confused characters finally realize an important truth about stories –(and get meta)– that anyone can be in them, that the characters work together to solve problems, and they will learn a valuable life lesson.

The Biggest Story by Sarah Coyle and Dan Taylor
Don’t miss this fantastic, inspiring book about a boy trying to think up a story and the animals that help him. First, the ants suggest they be in his story. Then the cats speak up and the sheep do, too — they want to paraglide. Soon, there are tons of animals including dinosaurs. Errol is ready to tell his mom a story…And his story leads to more stories and his head is full of ideas to tell.