We love giving sweet, inspirational books for Kindergarten graduation gifts. Especially when they deliver messages about empowerment, adventure, living your values, and pursuing your dreams. So we’ve highlighted some of our favorites your children will love listening to, and you’ll love reading to them.
Take it from a mom sending her kids off to college this year: read to them at bedtime as long as you possibly can. *Sniff*
Image at top from Maybe: A Story about the Endless Potential in All of Us by Kobi Yamada and Gabriella Barouch
Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth
I absolutely ADORE Oliver Jeffers’s children’s books, and Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth is a handbook for being a decent human being is a perfect gift for kindergarten graduates. It’s a kindness-forward book, full of awe-inspiring details and ideas about life on this planet. It will plant big dreams in your children.
The Wonderful Things You Will Be
I’m a huge fan of Emily Winfield Martin’s quirky, beautiful art, and her book The Wonderful Things You Will Be is filled with illustrations lovely enough to hang on your kids’ walls. But the beauty goes deeper than the art; this book challenges kids to think about what’s really important — standing up for good, finding beauty, and becoming life-givers as they go through this world. Preschoolers will love listening to it, and high schoolers will be inspired by it on a whole different level.
What the Road Said
What the Road Said, by Cleo Wade and illustrated by Lucie de Moyencourt, is as meaningful to high school grads as it is to kindergarten grads—honestly addressing the fears and anxieties we have about going out into the world on our own, and gently reminding kids of the courage they have deep inside them. It’s one of those lovely books you’ll want to read over and over.
I Wish You More
We adore the perfectly sentimental but not-too-sappy I Wish You More by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Tom Lichtenheld. And if you know Amy’s work, then you can already imagine why this makes a wonderful graduation gift book. Each page tells your grad exactly what you hope for them: More ups than downs, more woo-hoo than whoa, and more pause than fast-forward. This book is modern in its prose but has the potential to be a forever keepsake in your family.
Maybe: A Story about the Endless Potential in All of Us
One of my favorite books for graduation gifts is Maybe: A Story about the Endless Potential in All of Us by Kobi Yamada and Gabriella Barouch, especially for older kids. It thoughtfully explores with absolutely gorgeous illustrations the idea that maybe, just maybe you are here in this world at this exact moment for a reason. It’s a beautiful reminder that kids have so much to contribute to our world.
I Wish for You
Oof, the tenderness in I Wish for You by David Wax and Brett Blumenthal is nearly overwhelming. Each page in this book features a beautifully illustrated animal parent-and-child pair, with a different wish for the child. The zebras wish for the child to be unique, the horses wish for freedom, and the wolves wish for them to find their voice. (PS : It just so happens that there are 12 animals featured; this is a perfect book to purchase when your child starts elementary, so a teacher each year can sign it leading up to their high school graduation.)
Will the Pigeon Graduate
If your kids have adored that goofy pigeon riding the bus and all its other antics, then Will the Pigeon Graduate will be that perfectly funny and sweet story for them to celebrate all they accomplished in Kindergarten.
If…
I’m completely mesmerized by Giovannia Manna’s gorgeous watercolors in her illustrations that accompany Rudyard Kipling’s classic poem If…. In case you don’t remember it from your own school days, this is the poem in which a father tells his son all the things he can do to be a person of good character, in a world that seems to be going crazy around him. Pretty timely.
The North Star
Sometimes it’s hard to find your path, and The North Star by Peter H. Reynolds brings that struggle to life in a relatable way. He reminds us to look around, keep an eye on what’s going on, and sometimes get off the beaten path to make your own way in the world. Like the North Star itself, this book can help guide our kiddos to find their way. And that’s advice we can all get behind.
Yay, You!
In my house, we have Sandra Boynton’s books memorized. Her books aren’t overdone—they’re simple, sweet, and so packed with meaning. Yay, You! Moving Up and Moving On is a celebration of your child’s accomplishments. It’s been around a while, but it’s a classic and definitely deserves a space on anyone’s shelf.
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