Must Read Farm booklist for your preschooler!

My Father’s World Kindergarten curriculum has multiple lessons on farm animals, and I decided to consolidate this into a monster farm booklist. Some of these books we read so often I could probably recite them in my sleep, they’re that good. Enjoy our farm booklist.

Future Ticia 2020 here, I’m updating this list to actually have links now that Amazon has changed their linking system, and changed this list to books that are available at my local library (and are still in print). If you’re a subscriber, there’s a printable list in the subscriber section.

Farm picture books

• The Farm Team– A cute picture book where the farm animals want to play hockey
• Farm Flu– A young boy has to take care of the farm animals when his Mom is out of town as they each get sick
• Once upon a Farm– Sadly, it looks to be out of print, but this is a charming story of a small farm family working together to survive
• Farm– If you don’t like rhyming books this is not for you, but if you do, then this is an adorable book about the farm
• Mrs. Wishy-Washy’s Farm– There’s a reason this is a classic book that is still in print
• On the Farm– A view of the family farm
• I Spy on the Farm– you can find this in board book format as well, but it’s a great way to look for details with your younger kids
• Sally Goes to the Farm– This book series is very popular with my dog-loving kiddo
• The Quiet Little Farm– This is out of print, so if you can find it at a used book store because it’s fun to read
• The Happy Man and His Dump Truck– a super cute classic picture book that your parents might even have read (also, I shared this again with my teens and it was not as big of a hit)
• Cock-a-Doodle-Moo– I read this book over and over and over again to my kids when they were in preschool
• The Cow that Went Oink– I didn’t own this book, but we checked it out way more times than I can easily count
• Z-Z-Zoink– the third and final Bernad Most book that we read extensively during preschool. I almost didn’t include this, but honestly, these three books were the most frequently read because they made the kids laugh so much
• Snow Comes to the Farm– I pretty much know if it’s by Candlewick Press I will thoroughly enjoy the book, and this is such a nice small moment in time as a child enjoys snow covering his farm
• Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type– With your elementary kids, this is a great introduction to letters
• Down on the Farm– A nice graphic novel to get kids reading
• In, over and on! [the farm]– Just like Click, Clack, Moo is a great book for introducing letters, this is a great book to work with kids on prepositions

Nonfiction farm booklist

Okay, so most libraries will have a couple dozen nonfiction books about farm animals and farms in general. I narrowed this list down to about 20 or so books, but you can find a whole lot more pretty easily

• The Cow on the Roof– this is a traditional tale, and it made me smile
• Jobs on a Farm– This is a great book for your early elementary kid who is ready to go a little bit deeper
• Farm Crops– A nice overview of how and why farmers grow crops
• The Story of a Farm– Follow an English farm through the centuries as methods change and the country changes
• Farm Alphabet Book– Alphabet books are great because you can easily adapt them to the age level of the kids you’re working with
• Buildings on the Farm– Another book in the farm facts series, this one, obviously, focusing on farm buildings
• Farm Animals– My library has about FIVE books called Farm Animals, and it greatly amuses me
• James Herriot’s Treasury for Children– this is his autobiography simplified slightly, great for your upper elementary kid or if you can find the picture books, those have a great vocabulary
• Century Farms: One Hundred Years on a Family Farm– I love books like this that follow one family farm through the years
• Sheep on the Farm– There are actually several book series like this, the link I found isn’t even the book at our library, our library has a different Sheep on the Farm book, but this is a great way to learn more about individual farm animals
• Goats on the Family Farm– I wanted to make sure I specifically had a goat book since that is one of the farm animals covered in My Father’s World Kindergarten
• Pigs on the Family Farm– Not much more to say about this series, so I won’t keep linking to each individual one
• 1001 Things to Spot on the Farm– I Spy books are great for developing ability to spot different things
• Our farm: by the animals of Farm Sanctuary– This is a great peek into a rescue farm

Our original farm booklist

• Look Once, Look Again on the Farm– The text is a little simple, but it’s fun to look at the super close-up picture and try to guess what animal or farm equipment it might be.  There was even one or two that stumped me.
• Billy and Bonnie the Goats–  This is a great fact book about goats.  We used this to talk about and compare goats to different animals on the farm.  The kids enjoyed it, but weren’t really asking to read it more.
• Sheep on the Farm– This was fun because it brought up things they hadn’t really thought about before, and the kids were asking lots of questions from this one.
• Mrs. Goat and the Seven Little Kids– I thought this version of the fairy tale was kind of fun.  It felt like they were modernizing it a little, I could certainly see my house in her house.  And I was amused at the resolution of the story.  Oh, and it does have a happy ending, despite the brief problem of the kids being eaten.
• The Seven Kids and the Wolf– This is the Richard Scary version, and while I liked the other version the artwork in this one appealed to me more.  Also, in this one, the Wolf doesn’t actually eat the kids, they’re just in a bag.  So, not quite as true as the original, but very fun.
• The Cow on the Roof– This one cracked me up because it’s a classic story of the grass being greener on the other side.  The husband keeps seeing his wife having “life easy,” and so one day he demands to switch jobs with her.  She’ll go work out in the field, and he’ll work in the house.  He very quickly learns it’s not as easy as it looks, and has all sorts of problems with her regular housework, mostly coming about because he’s trying to do it quickly.  This was very popular.
• The Cow Who Wouldn’t Come Down– I found this at Half Price Books and got it mainly because the title reminded me of “Hey Diddle, Diddle,” and I’m always a sucker for a Nursery Rhyme companion.  It doesn’t really have anything to do with it, but it was so cute and funny.  The kids loved it, and I think it’s buried somewhere in the boys’ room now.
• The Happy Man and the Dump Truck– Is seriously a cute story.  Before I’d even finished reading it there was a near fight about who would get to take the book to bed with them.  Luckily Batman was happy with “The Cow Who Wouldn’t Come Down,” and Princess was too busy trying to convince us to let her sleep in her brother’s room.  This is one of the classic Little Golden Books, and I highly recommend getting it.  We’ve read this one several times before.
• James Herriot Treasury for Children– This is both a compilation and a subset.  These were originally produced as chapters in one of his books.  Then it was printed as picture books for kids individually, and now it’s all a compilation.  So far this week we’ve read “Moses the Kitten,” and “One Little Woof.”  I like them because it exposes the kids to a slower style of writing than is often found in modern books, you know the “living books,” so many people rave about.  It has a great set of vocabulary, and they’re a nice description of the life of a vet.  It’s probably not going to be my kids’ favorite book, but they enjoy sitting and listening to the story and waiting to see what will happen to Moses and if his mom will be found.

So, that’s all our books for the week.  Actually, there are a few more I haven’t had a chance to dig out of the kids’ rooms, but that’s all the Amazon widget lets me add.  I’m sure you can guess what my posts for the week will be about.

More Book Lists for kids

• Oklahoma booklist
• Dinosaur booklist
• All About Us booklist
• Turtle booklist
• 11th-grade books made into movies