Great books about birds, nests, and animal homes

For kindergarten (and homeschool preschool with Princess) with the boys we worked our way through My Father’s World, and each week we studied a different theme. For the letter N, we learned all about nests. This, of course, means I hopped over to my local library and put together a nest book list.

(There are a whole slew of affiliate links in here)

Side note on my Nest Book List

I’m updating this post and adding in a few more books that I like, I’ve left the bolded books as the books we originally read back when my kids were in kindergarten/preschool. Unless otherwise noted, this entire nest book list is found as a printable in the subscriber section complete with call numbers (perfect if you live in the same area as me, which roughly 100,000 people do).

Nest book list

• Robin’s Home– A super cute picture book with charming illustrations
• This is the Nest that Robin Built– In the cadence of “This is the House that Jack Built,” which I love, so, of course, I love this
• The Perfect Nest– Jack is trying to design the perfect nest to bring in the perfect chicken to make the perfect omelet, it’s fun and funny
• Nest– This follows a hatchling from birth to leaving the nest
• Bird Builds a Nest– While this is a fiction book, it follows a nonfiction story of how a nest is built
• The Best Nest– I really liked this book. It’s cute and was a great story. It tells of how all the different birds learned to build their nests and why each nest is built that way.
• The Magpie’s Nest– This book is created to explain why birds build different types of nests, it’s a classic English folk tale, and it’s super cute
• Crinkleroot’s Guide to Animal Habitats– this was the hit of the week, we read it several times and enjoyed searching the pages to find the different animals.
• Magic School Bus Flies from the Nest– this was a little stilted, and the kids didn’t really enjoy it. They did have fun pointing out the stuff that couldn’t really happen. **This is no longer at my local library, so I’ve removed it from the printable nest book list available in the subscriber section.
• A Nest is Noisy– Look at a wide variety of nests, not just bird nests with this cute book.
• Is My Friend at Home?– I really didn’t like this one. The stories were not appropriate for preschoolers. In one of them, Rabbit says he cut off his ears to serve it to his friend for stew, and so his friend goes home and really does cut off his ears to cook them. It totally went over the kids’ heads, and I do tend to enjoy this type of story, but this one wasn’t my favorite.>>>> I actually removed this from the printed list in the subscriber section, because it bothered me that much.
• Dragon Egg- this also was a learn-to-read book like the Magic School Bus, but this one was actually a lot smoother and more enjoyable.>>>>> Also removed it because it didn’t fit the theme of the other books I left on this list
• Crinkleroot’s 25 birds every child should know– Again, I love the Crinkleroot books
• A Bird’s Life– Follow along as a cardinal builds her nest, a cute little book
• Even an Ostrich Needs a Nest: Where Birds Begin– A fun concept book exploring different types of bird nests.
• A Nest Full of Eggs– Back in the early 2000s the big idea in kid lit was paired books. You take a fiction book and pair it with a non-fiction book on a similar topic. I remember this being paired with a few books when I taught.
• The Best Nest– A cute story as Mr. and Mrs. Bird look for the best nest for their kids. This might actually be the book I remember pairing with A Nest Full of Eggs…
• How Animals Care for Their Babies– I had this book as a kid, so when I saw it at the library I had to get it (Future Ticia saying I don’t really think this was at the library, I know I saved my copy of it to share with my future kids). The kids liked it okay and really enjoyed talking about the different animals.

Oh, and one I forgot to read with the kids that would have fit in well: “Are You My Mother?“

Oh and we also read “A House is a House for Me.” It’s super cute and while the kids weren’t super into it, I can see lots of potential for it. And there is so much detail in the pictures to look for. It also pairs well with the nest theme and nest book list we had this week.

More Reading Fun for you, not a nest book list

• Little Women Book Club
• How to Teach Reading Comprehension to Kids
• Scheduling All About Reading
• Italy Picture Books
• Oregon Trail book list