Recommended Books for ELLs
Created by Vonalis Pina
Books on Students’ Geographic Backgrounds
Title of Book
A is for Asia
Author
Cynthia-Chin-Lee
(1997)
D is for Doufu: An Alphabet
Book of Chinese Culture
Maywan Shen Krach
(1997)
I is for India
Prodeepta Das (1996)
Synopsis
Uses an alphabet arrangement to furnish a global
view of Asia, including the geography, culture,
traditions, and many languages of Asian cultures.
Focuses on particular countries, giving readers a
bird’s eye view of China and India.
Activity Suggestions:
 Share a letter of the alphabet each day with the class and discuss the rich heritage of Asia and the many
contributions that Asians have made to our history.
Children Just Like Me
Kindersley (1997)
Supplies brief snapshots of children from many
countries.
Children from Australia
Ajmera & Versola
(1996)
Alphabet format is used to present one country per
two pages for each letter of the alphabet. Pictures
and facts about each country are listed.
Westridge Young
(1992)
Good source of information on the Latino population
and the Spanish America’s language within our own
country.
Zimbabwe: A Photographic
Journey
Kids Explore
Activity Suggestions:
 After a teacher-led overview of the book, students can use other literature and reference resources to
write their own alphabet book, highlighting their own home countries and, perhaps, others not presented
in the books.
 (For Children Just Like Me) Class might produce a class book entitled “Students Just Like Us” that
could supply information about their peers.
Stories of Immigration
Title of Book
Who Belongs Here?
Author
Mary Burns Knight
(1993)
Synopsis
A fictional story about a Cambodian refugee. It’s
accompanied by a non-fiction American sentence on
the top of the page.
Activity Suggestions:
 Ideal for contrasting narrative and expository text for older readers. Provides details to engage ELLs.
Quilted Landscape:
Conversations With Young
Immigrants
Yale Storm
A non-fiction view of twenty-six young people from
ages ten to 17. Kids describe the reasons for
immigrating to the United States and provide
background information about life in the home
country and the many personal changes that have
taken place since their move. For intermediate
grades and intermediate proficiency and above.
Activity Suggestions:
 Using a bulletin board or chart on the wall, students can construct their own world map with the
countries of origin for both ELLs and native speakers. Students might map the moves they have made
within the United States or from their country to the United States.
 Brief overview of each home country and statistical information in data form is ideal for beginning
ELLs, providing a model of writing to scaffold their attempts to reproduce a table with these facts for
their own countries of origin.
Books on the Refugee Experience
Title of Book
Dia’s Story Cloth
Author
Dia Cha (1998)
The Whispering Cloth: A
Refugee Story
Pegi Deitz (1995)
My Freedom Trip
Park & Park (1998)
Synopsis
Focus on the Hmong. Uses photographs of a Hmong
story cloth to describe the life of the author in
Southeast Asia, the family’s years in a refugee camp
in Thailand, and their eventual immigration to the
United States.
The struggle and sacrifice refugees make as they flee
their homelands.
Activity Suggestions:
 Use story cloth to furnish a wonderful model for a family literacy activity.
 Send students home to interview family members. ELLs can return to class to illustrate and write their
own stories.
 In the hopes of sharing U.S. culture, a connection can be made at this point to the American tradition of
quilting and the many rich family stories depicted in this folk art format.
 A class quilt can be made.
The Still Nation of Immigrants
Brent Ashabranner
(1993)
Looks at where the present influx of immigrants
comes from and how they fit into American life.
Children of the Maya: A
Guatemalan Indian Odyssey
Brent Ashabranner
(1986)
Highlights a group of refugees fleeing political
upheaval and war to come to America and settle in a
small community in Florida.
The Vanishing Border: Illegal
Immigration in America
Brent Ashabranner
(1996)
Activity Suggestions:
 Teachers can share these powerful photos to spur classroom discussion of any age or grade level, though
these books are for intermediate to advanced students.
 The photo essay format serves as another strong model of writing.
 Taking any issue, the class can highlight the topic with original or magazine photos or illustrations, then
add text
 Students can study the legal aspect of immigration, i.e. the legislation and quota systems. This can be the
beginning of a photo essay concerning the effects of quotas and legislation on U.S. immigration thorugh
the years.
Books on Migrant Life
Title of Book
Amelia’s Road
Author
Linda Jacobs Altman
Synopsis
Highlights the story of migrant farm workers.
Beginning level.
Radio Man
Arthur Dorros (1993)
Bilingual books with English and Spanish texts.
The Upside Down Boy
Juan Felipe (2000)
Tomas and the Library Lady
Pat Mora (1997)
Available in English and Spanish.
Working Cotton
Sherley Anne
Williams (1992)
Highlights African Americans also involved in
migrant labor.
Children from the Field Tell
Their Stories
Beth Atkin and Brent
Ashabranner
Powerful photo essays detailing migrant life.
Intermediate to Advanced Learners.
Activity Suggestions:
 Class can study statistics related to migrant life such as longevity, health, etc.
 The text of picture books can spur the development of a readers theater script.
Language Issues
Title of Book
What’s Your Language
Author
Debra Leventhal
(1994)
Synopsis
Diversity of knowing two languages and the
difficulty of learning English. Poems.
Scripts of the World
Suzanne Bukiet
(1993)
Fascinating diversity of languages around the world
with their different alphabet and sounds.
People
Pete Spier (1998)
Activity Suggestions:
 Uses books as spring board for discussions.
 Teachers can have students compare and contrast their languages with English comparing alphabets,
vocabulary, and syntax issues.
Canto Familiar: Spanish
Gary Soto
Paints a picture of bilingualism suggesting that
knowing two languages is a good thing.
My Own True Name: Elena
Pat Mora
Portrays a young mother struggling to learn English
and beginning to feel left out from her children who
are now part of an English speaking world.
Good Luck Gold
Wong (1994)
A Korean American child is teased by classmates
about speaking another language.
Sitti’s Secrets
Nye (1994)
Transcending the language barrier, a young girl
visits her grandmother in a small Palestinian village.
While Mona begins to learn a few words of Arabic,
her and her grandmother invent a new language
through no-verbal clues.
I Speak English for My Mom
Muriel Stanek (1998)
Portrays the many roles children must fulfill in order
to help their parents negotiate and English-speaking
world in the United States.
Going Home
Eve Bunting
Depicts the responsibility of children knowing
English when their parents do not.
Speak Up
Activity Suggestions:
 Sharing these poems may prompt students to discuss how they feel about speaking their home languages
and how their parents and older relatives feel about their English proficiency levels.
The Family
Title of Book
Family Picture/Cuadros de
Familia
Author
Synopsis
Carmen Lomas Garza Depicts traditional Mexican-American life.
(1990)
In My Family/En Mi Familia
Carmen Lomas Garza Short vignettes about folk medicine cures and
(1996)
legends.
Canto Familiar “Tortillas Like
Africa”
Gary Soto (1995)
Too Many Tamales
Gary Soto (1993)
Everybody Cooks Rice
Norah Dooley (1991)
Everybody Bakes Bread
Norah Dooley (1996)
Activity Suggestions:
 Create and share special stories and recipes.
 Make a class book of family recipes.
Tells about making traditional food.
The staples of bread and rice shared by many
cultures.
What’s Your Name?
Marilyn Sanders
An alphabet of diverse names with stories behind the
children and the names.
Do People Grow On Family
Trees? Genealogy for Kids and
Other Beginners.
Wolfman (1991)
Has a chapter devoted to surnames.
Activity Suggestions:
 Teachers might consider using these books to encourage ELLs to share their feelings about the
mispronunciation of their names by native English speakers and the dilemma of last name differences
from culture to culture.
Big Book of Families
Anholt (1998)
Families, Families
Hopkins (1998)
Fathers, Mothers, Brothers,
Sisters
Hoberman (1991)
These books allow for application of Krashen’s
hypothesis; The Natural Approach
Activity Suggestion:
 Activity procedure for beginning/low intermediate students:
 Teachers can use these picture books or poems to introduce vocabulary.
 Using pictures from magazines or elsewhere, show families of varying sizes and a variety of family
members.
 The teacher holds up each picture, describes it, and points to various family members.
 As each photo is described, the teacher hands the photo to a student.
 After numerous photos have been described with the key vocabulary items repeated many times, the
teacher begins a questioning sequence: Who has a picture of a family with five members? Who has a
picture of a family with a mother? A grand father?
 Students are able to hold up the photos and respond non-verbally.
 The teacher can elaborate by reporting the description and key vocabulary.
 Next the teacher can describe his/her own family using a diagram of a family tree on the board or
overhead and labeling key relationships to reinforce the vocabulary.
 The students can draw a family tree and label the relationships or they can use a sample family tree for a
fictional family and place flash cards with the key vocabulary denoting family relationships.
 Finally students can write a short paragraph or essay describing their family or write short sentences
about their family.
Grammar
Title of Book
A Tree Can Be . . .
Author
Judy Nayer
Synopsis
Noun phrases
Bing Boing Bang: My Robot
Douglas Florian
Verb Phrases
This is the House That Jack
Built
Madeline Dunphy
Cumulative book that demonstrates strings of
embedded clauses.
Here is the Arctic Winter
Madeline Dunphy
Here is the Tropical Rainforest
Madeline Dunphy
Books for Phonological and Structural, Lexical, and Semantic System of Lanugae
Title of Book
Through the Looking Glass
Jaberwocky
Author
Lewis Carroll
Synopsis
Children can discern parts of speech and guess the
meanings of words event though the author has
created a poem with nonsense language.
Sheep in a Shop
Nancy Shaw
Students encounter words with the same phonemic
pattern.
Sheep in a Jeep
Nancy Shaw
Students encounter words with the same phonemic
pattern.
Sheep Take a Hike
Nancy Shaw
Students encounter words with the same phonemic
pattern.
Sheep Trick or Treat
Nancy Shaw
Students encounter words with the same phonemic
pattern.
Sheep on a Ship
Nancy Shaw
Students encounter words with the same phonemic
pattern.
Activity Suggestion:
 Poetry provides an opportunity to talk about different word orderings since authors often use poetic
license to create special effects with words.
Books for Teaching Students Understand There Are Different Ways of Speaking
Title of Book
Author
Synopsis
Crysanthemum
Kevin Henkes
Students can see how the protagonist struggles with
having a name that is very different, how her
classmates tease her, and how her parents (and
teacher) reassure her.
Tea With Milk
Allen Say
Illustrates characters interacting within a cultural
context. Also portrays non-verbal behaviors and eye
contact within Asian and Asian-American cultures.
Activity Suggestion:
 Teacher can coach students about the subtleties of language through role-plays in language variation
after the read aloud.
Books on Manners and Etiquette
Title of Book
What Do You Say, Dear?
What Do You Hear, Dear?
Author
Sesyle Joslyn (1986)
Perfect Pigs
Mark Brown & S.
Krensky
Synopsis
Help students learn about social politeness in less
didactic and more playful ways.
It’s a Spoon, Not a Shovel
Caralyn Buehner
Manners
Aliki (1990)
Books For the Pre-Production Stage
Title of Book
Feast for Ten
Author
Cathryn Falwell
(1993)
Eating the Alphabet: Fruits and
Vegetables From A-Z
Lois Ehlert (1989)
Over, Under, Through, and
Other Spatial Concepts
Tana Hoban (1973)
Synopsis
Picture book that provides clues to meaning and a
beginning foundation in English.
Books For the Early Production Stage
Title of Book
The Foot Book
Author
Dr. Seuss (1968)
Freight Train
Donald Crews (1978)
Truck
Donald Crews (1980)
Synopsis
Highlights all kind of feet with basic vocabulary that
is ideal for this stage.
Books For Speech Emergence/Beginning Proficiency
Title of Book
Today is Monday
Author
Eric Carle (1993)
Synopsis
Encourages children to chime in with the recurring
phrase.
Hattie and the Fox
Mem Fox (1987)
These authors have established repertoires of award
winning titles that provide formulaic language that is
engaging and literary.
All titles
Nancy Tafuri
All titles
Bruce McMillan
All titles
Bill Martin, Jr.
All titles
Pat Hutchins
All titles
Tana Hoban
All titles
Douglas Florian
Yo! Yes!
Chris Raschka (1993)
Have You Seen My Cat?
Great for creative dramatic interpretations. Illustrates
the interaction between two boys. The plot and their
interaction can be performed non-verbally as the
teacher reads the book aloud, or the students can
actually use the words since each boy uses only one
or two words per page of action. Perfect for
beginners.
Greetings
Karen Badt
Can be used to discuss the cultural differences in
greeting and leave-taking behavior that students can
then role play.
Where the Sidewalk Ends:
“Sick” and “Boa Constrictor”
Shel Silverstein
Poems mention body parts. Ideal for Total Physical
Response.
Bones, Bones, Dinosaur Bones
Byron Barton (1990)
Poem. Simple and repetitive language ideal for Total
Physical Response. Also has cross-curricular ties to
social studies and science.
Pretend You’re a Cat
Marzollo (1990)
Vivid descriptions of animal movements and active
verbs to pantomime.
Just Like Me
Etz (1978)
My Name is Jorge on Both
Sides of the River: Poems in
English and Spanish. “Library
Card”
Medina (1999)
Poem. Involves three characters and their verbal
interchange.
Hottest, Coldest, Highest,
Deepest
Steve Jenkins (1998)
Reading is at two levels. The main line of text is a
simple, repetitive pattern fiving the Biggest,
Strongest, Fastest biology facts of the Hottest,
Coldest, Deepest geographic facts. The bottom of the
text provides more information on the animal or
geographic area.
Activity Suggestion:
 To acquaint students with the rhythm and sound of their new language, teachers can use understandable
verbal presentations and demonstrations as well as reading aloud books with very patterned, repetitive
language.
 For phonemes you can get labels from logos and box tops that provide examples of words to solidify the
sound-symbol relationship.
 Role-plays of familiar language situations help students with comprehensible input.
 Stop periodically in a read aloud or a class presentation to ask students to restate the main idea.
 Focus students’ attention on the larger picture rather than getting stuck on details.
 Working with flash cards or pictures at their desks to respond to listening activities provides additional
practice.
 Gradually pick up the pace of a read aloud and having students listen for clues in order to perform an
action offers a fun and active practice session.
 Acquiring vocabulary—best techniques involve hands on methods such as role-play, visuals,
manipulatives, and illustration.
 Teachers can use simple techniques combined with quality literature to provide experiences with rich
vocabulary.


Students can match photos or sequence pictures or word sentence strips at their desks in response to the
teacher’s commands. (TPR)
Students can play Simon Says.
Books For Intermediate Proficiency
Title of Book
Is It Dark Or Light?
Author
Mary Lankford
Synopsis
Offers a series of questions and answers that
describes the concept of the moon.
Ann Morris
Has simple non-fiction books that introduce objects
and concepts with photographs of examples from
around the world.
I Hate English
Levine (1985)
A picture book that shows the struggle of a young
girl who is a new immigrant to the U.S. and worries
that she will lose touch with her native heritage,
culture, and language. ELLs can connect to this
book.
The Snowman
Raymond Brigg
(1978)
Wordless picture book that encourages to students to
discuss elements of setting and action in a story.
Chocolate Moose for Dinner
Fred Gwynne (1976)
Books on idioms.
A Little Pigeon Toad
Fred Gwynne (1988)
The King Who Rained
Fred Gwynne (1980)
The Sixteen Hand Horse
Fred Gwynne (1980)
Activity Suggestion:
 Literature Circles, collaborative activities that serve to expand vocabulary recognition and syntaxpattern knowledge.
 Poetry and texts with word play amuse and engage students while offering comprehensible input.
 Teachers can provide experience with idiomatic and figurative language.
 Teachers can lead students through a procedure to decide on the overall idea or gist, interpret the
information for its importance, abbreviate is content, and reword the information for retention and later
retrieval.
List of Picture Books
Title of Book
The Trip Back Home
Author
Janet S. Wong (2000)
Synopsis
The authors’s fictionalized recount of her childhood
visit to her grandparents in Korea.
My Life With the Wave
Cowan (1997)
Excellent example of personification. An enjoyable
tale of a boy who brings home a wave from a beach.
At first the wave seems an exciting companion,
filling the house with light and air, but her moods
are as changeable as the tide.
Rose Blanche
Gallaz & Innocenti
(1985)
A story of a “righteous Gentile” during the
Holocaust
Loise Elhert
These authors have created picture books ideal for
ELLs with highly visual pictures and clear images
and plot depicted in the pictures.
Bruce McMillan
Nancy Carlson
Pat Hutchins
Donald Crew
Tana Hoban
Nancy Tafuri
Alphabet Books
Title of Book
Eating the Alphabet
Author
Lois Elhert (1989)
Synopsis
Introduces fruits and vegetables for each letter of the
alphabet. Can be used with actual foods.
Illuminations
Hunt (1989)
An Alphabet book that is for older students.
Introduces vocabulary and concepts related to the
Middle Ages.
Title of Book
The M&M’s Brand Counting
Book
Author
Barbara Barbieri
McGrath (1994)
Synopsis
An enjoyable thematic counting book that lends
itself to hands-on counting and eating activities.
Count Your Way Through the
Arab World
James Haskings
(1991)
Counting book that introduces counting and culture
at the same time. Teaches you to count from 1-10 in
Arabic.
Title of Book
Author
Synopsis
Exactly the Opposite
Tana Hoban (1990)
A book of photograph depicting opposites.
Tuesday
Wiesner (1991)
An imaginative story about flying frogs.
Window
Jeanie Baker (1991)
Invites prediction.
Good Dog, Carl
Day (1970)
A realistic seeming story about the perfect canine
babysitter.
Counting Books
Wordless Picture Books
Concept Books
Title of Book
Author
Synopsis
26 Letters and 99 Cents
Tana Hoban (1987)
Introduces letters, objects, colors, and American
coins through the effective use of photographs.
Title of Book
Author
Synopsis
Brown Bear, What Do You
See?
Bill Martin, Jr.
(1970)
Predictable and patterned stories with repeated
refrains are good for younger ELL students.
I Went Walking
Sue Williams
Predictable Books
Activity Suggestion:
 Make a class book in the same style as the predictable book. With younger students the teacher can write
the sentence from the book at the bottom of the page and students can illustrate it. With more proficient
students, the students can write their own sentence and illustrate it. All of the pages can be put together
to make one class book which can be used for a read aloud and then added to the classroom library for
all students to read.
Novels
Title of Book
Author
Synopsis
Contemporary Realistic
Are You There God? It’s Me
Margaret.
Judy Blume (1970)
Deals with questions of identity, community, and
sexuality.
Bridge to Terabithia
Katherine Patterson
(1977)
On My Honor
Marion Dane Bauer
Two boys ride their bikes down to a river and one of
them accidentally drowns. The survivor then tries to
pretend her knows nothing about it. The
consequences are unnerving and very realistic.
Taking Sides
Gary Soto (1991)
Grabs the reader with its protagonist\s conflict
between old friends and new. About growing up in
an all-Hispanic neighborhood and moving into a
middle-class white community.
Dick King-Smith
(1985)
For intermediate proficiency.
Fantasy
Babe the Gallant Pig
The Magic Finger
Roald Dahl (1995)
Poetry
Title of Book
Author
Synopsis
Bing, Bang, Boing
Douglas Florian
If You’re Not Here, Please
Raise Your Hand
Kalli Dakos
Focuses on school topics.
“Stopping by the Woods on a
Snowy Evening”
Robert Frost
Each line of the poem lends itself to a picture
illustration.
O Beautiful For Spacious Skies
Katharine Lee Bates
(1994)
Helps ELLs understand elements of Americana in
both pictures and words.
Author
Synopsis
Non-Fiction
Title of Book
The Guiness Book of World
Records
Here the focus is less on interpretation and more on
information gathering. High interest level.
Bibliography
Title of Book
Author
Synopsis
Gandhi
Fisher (1995)
Excellent introduction to a historical figure.
Leonardo Da Vinci
Stanley (1996)
Functions well for a read aloud or as independent
reading for students with intermediate proficiency.