Picture Book List

Here is a list of picture books that educators may wish to include in their coding lessons. Beginning a lesson with a picture book is a fun and engaging way to build excitement and curiosity, develop and activate background knowledge, and create a sense of community. Wrapping up a lesson with a picture book is also an effective way to come together, as a group, to consolidate and review some of the concepts that students learned during the lesson and connect to other areas of life.

Many of the books included in this list came from a list originally compiled by Lesley Pike and Melissa Seco. With their permission, we included many of the books in their list and added others we have discovered in connecting and discussing with other educators. Please let us know if you have also used picture books that can be added to this list.

The list has been organized based on the scope and sequence followed in the Weavly curriculum. In some cases, explicit coding vocabulary and concepts are described within the story. In other cases, the stories depict experiences, activities, and adventures to which coding concepts could be applied. These stores helps children to develop an understanding of foundational concepts and anchor new learning to the experiences found in these stories. Educators and facilitators can connect the ways in which coding concepts can be found in many areas of life and literature.

Note: Many of these books can be found as read-aloud on YouTube. Search for your favourite picture books.

Functional Concepts

Robots, Robots Everywhere

By Sue Fliess

Have You Seen My Monster

By Steve Light

Have you Seen My Dragon

By Steve Light

How To Code a Sandcastle

By Josh Funk

How to Code a Roller Coaster

By Josh Funk

Peg + Cat: The Penguin Problem

By Jennifer Oxley, Billy Aronson

Inside Outside

By Lizi Boyd

Doll-E 1.0

By Shanda McCloskey

Help Find Frank

By Anne Bollman

Algorithms: Solve a Problem

By Blake Hoena

Robot Rumpus

By Sean Taylor

Sequencing

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

By Eric Carle

Rosie’s Walk

By Pat Hutchins

Sequences: Order Matters

By Nadia Higgins

We’re Going on a Bear Hunt

By Michael Rosen, Helen Oxenbury

Boxitects

By Kim Smith

Little Red Riding Hood

By Mary Alperin

How to Catch a Unicorn

By Adam Wallace

Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale

By Mo Williams

Love, Z

By Jessie Sima

Say Something

By Peter H. Reynolds

All Are Welcome

By Alexandra Penfold, Suzanne Kaufman

Claymates

By Devorah Petty, Lauren Eldridge

Can You Find My Robot’s Arm?

By Chihiro Takeuchi

Mix it Up

By Herve Tullet

I Ain’t Gonna Pain No More

By Karen Beaumont

Debugging

I Have a Little Problem, Said the Bear

By Heinz Janisch

Stuck

By Oliver Jeffers

Debugging: You Can Fix it Up

By Patricia M. Stockland

Loops

Adi’s Perfect Patterns and Loops

By Caroline Karanja

The Water Princess

By Susan Verde

When’s My Birthday?

By Julie Fogliano

We Planted a Tree

By Diane Muldrow

Round the Garden

By Omri Glaser

The Boy Who Cried Wolf Re-told

by B.G. Hennessy

Loops: Repeat, Repeat

By Patricia M. Stockland

Events

Please, Mr. Panda

By Steve Antony

Rufus Goes to Sea

By Tim Griswell

The Legend of Rock, Paper, Scissors

By Drew Daywalt

The Fox and the Crow Retold

by Mairi Mackinnon

Conditionals

Gabi’s If/Then Garden

By Caroline Karanja

If you Give a Mouse a Cookie

By Laura Joffe Numeroff

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

By Judith Viorst, Ray Cruz

Functions

Gabi’s Fabulous Functions

By Caroline Karnaja