Best Books for Building Literacy in the Elementary School helps current and future teachers find interesting, readable books for every student in their class and use children's books to help each student fully develop her or his literacy potential. It provides an annotated listing of more than 1000 books selected for students in grades one through six. The listing features a balanced selection of the best that has been written, including many award winning books by such highly acclaimed authors as Avi, Eve Bunting, Gary Paulsen, Phylis Naylor, Patricia Lauber, Joanna Cole, and Roald Dahl. Also included are highly popular series books, collections of jokes and riddles, poetry collections and many intriguing informational books, such as The Best Kids' Book of Lists, Incredible Plants, Bizarre Bugs, Do Fish Drink?, Mummies, and Superstars of Women's Basketball.

Based on the premise that students need books that are interesting and at the appropriate level of difficulty, the readability of each book has been assessed. At each level, from grade one through grade six, books are listed that are of average difficulty for the grade as well as those that are easy and those that would be challenging. A special effort was made to include books that students reading below grade level would be able to handle. All annotations include a summary of each book, and many provide suggestions for using a particular book to foster comprehension, vocabulary, or writing development. Numerous suggestions for tie-ins with science, history, and other content areas are also included. To help readers locate a particular book, the books are indexed by author, by title, by subject, and by the skill that is reinforced in the book.