5 of the Best Books for Five Year Olds

Stuck, by Oliver Jeffers
This book is straight up 5-year-old logic that readers both young and old will appreciate. When Floyd’s kite gets stuck in a tree, he comes up with a perfectly logical solution to getting it down: knock it out with a shoe. Ah, but wait! Now the shoe is stuck in the tree, too. Well, then obviously the solution is to try throwing the other shoe. You can guess where this is going, right? As Floyd becomes more and more desperate, the objects thrown into the tree become more and more absurd, going beyond even the proverbial kitchen sink. Floyd does eventually get his kite back, but the chaos he leaves behind will be quite familiar to parents.

You Will Be My Friend!, by Peter Brown
Lucy the bear, first introduced in Brown’s Children Make Terrible Pets, has made a decision: today is the day she will make a new friend. There’s a whole forest of animals outside her door! Surely one of them is perfect to fill the role as Lucy’s Best Friend. Skipping off decked out in a pink tutu and a more-than-a-little exuberance, Lucy is confident she will have a playmate in no time. But that confident quickly dwindles as Lucy’s enthusiasm overwhelms the creatures of the forest. Frustrated, Lucy tries demands and threats, but that doesn’t work either. It’s only when Lucy is at her lowest that an unexpected friend shows up, and Lucy learns that friendships cannot be forced.

The Baby Tree, by Sophie Blackall
It’s inevitable that the question comes sooner or later: Where do babies come from? In this book, a curious little boy with a million questions swirling in his head, focuses on this particular one. He’s determined to get an answer, asking all the adults in his life, right down to the mailman. But no answer seems quite right. Young readers get a glimpse inside the narrator’s head, as he imagines the possibilities given to him. In the end, an age-appropriate, scientific explanation is given by his parents. Creative, but accurate, and beautifully illustrated, this book is perfect for young readers expecting a new sibling, or just starting to notice the world around them. Pages at the end of the book offer other explanations, including adoption and surrogacy.

The Most Magnificent Thing, by Ashley Spires
The little girl featured in this story has a wonderful idea, a truly magnificent idea. She knows just what it will look like, just how it will work. But once she begins, this young inventor discovers taking her idea from imagination to reality is not as easy as she thought it would be. No matter what she does, this magnificent idea just won’t come together. So she does what every inventor has done at some point: she quits. But a little nudging from a four-legged pal has her trying one more time…

Waiting is Not Easy, by Mo Willems
Mo Willems’ Elephant and Piggie series is perfect for those children transitioning from lap readers to early independent readers. Each book in the series features the perfect amount of silliness blended with life lessons every young child needs. In Waiting is Not Easy, Piggie has a surprise for Gerald, but he will have to wait to receive it. And wait. And wait. And wait. As the wait time extends, Gerald’s frustration grows, as well as his dramatics. When the surprise finally arrives, both Gerald and the reader are awed into silence, proving that some things truly are worth the wait…even if it does take all day.