Arkansas 1st grade reading list

We don't yet have an Arkansas-specific list for 1st grade. Widely assigned books that fit this grade include Swim Team, The Invention of Hugo Cabret and If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. This list has 324 total books. Each book shows its reading level and a cited source. Lexile levels on the list run from 210L to 740L.

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Total books324Lexile210L–740LSourceArkansas ELA Standards✓ sources cited per book

Most-assigned on state lists: across every US state’s official reading and award lists, the Elementary (K–5) titles appearing in the most states are Wonder (29 states), Because of Winn-Dixie (26 states), and Shiloh (25 states). From our 2026 study of 13,258 source-cited assignments (as of 2026-07-13).

324 grade-appropriate books for 1st grade readers

We don't yet have Arkansas-specific curriculum citations for this grade. Below: books in our canon whose grade range covers 1st grade, drawn from national reading lists and awards.

Show all 324 titles

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Teacher or librarian? Print this list as a checklist — free to photocopy for your class or library (details).

Other Arkansas grades

Kindergarten · 2nd grade · 3rd grade · 4th grade

Reading lists by grade (all states)

Kindergarten · 2nd grade · 3rd grade · 4th grade

Same 1st grade in other states

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About the Arkansas 1st grade reading list

We don’t yet have Arkansas-specific citations for 1st grade, so this list draws on national sources that list titles for 1st grade: the Common Core State Standards (ELA), plus awards such as the Caldecott Medal, the Golden Kite Award and the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award. ReadingList currently tracks 324 titles for 1st grade in Arkansas. Across the list, Lexile measures span 210L–740L.

1st grade sits in the K-2 grade band, where students are emerging and early readers. At this stage the emphasis is on building phonemic awareness, decoding, fluency, and a love of being read to. Assigned reading skews toward picture books, decodable texts, and short illustrated chapter books, with text complexity that, per Common Core’s Appendix A reading bands, typically falls around BR (Beginning Reader) to roughly 500L. Because readers in a single 1st grade classroom can span several hundred Lexile points, this list is best read as a starting point rather than a fixed requirement.

Arkansas’s English Language Arts requirements are set by Arkansas ELA Standards (dese.ade.arkansas.gov). Most states pair their own standards with the Common Core text-complexity framework. Every title links to its primary source on the book’s detail page, so you can confirm exactly where and why it is assigned.

How to use this list:match a title to your child’s most recent Lexile or guided-reading level rather than to the grade alone. Teachers building a 1st grade unit can pair a Arkansas-cited core text with a grade-appropriate companion novel; parents previewing summer or supplemental reading can check each book’s content notes and challenge history before assigning it.

Common questions

What books do 1st grade students read in Arkansas?
We don't yet have an Arkansas-specific list for 1st grade. Widely assigned books that fit this grade include Swim Team, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, Officer Buckle and Gloria and Unspeakable, drawn from national reading lists and awards. Individual schools and districts choose their own titles, so check with your child's teacher for the exact list.
How many books are assigned to 1st grade students in Arkansas?
This list has 324 grade-appropriate books for 1st grade students, drawn from national reading lists and awards. None has an Arkansas-specific citation yet.
What's the Lexile range for 1st grade reading in Arkansas?
Lexile measures across the 1st grade Arkansas reading list range from 210L to 740L. Books without a published Lexile (poetry, drama, picture books) are not included in this range.
Where does this reading list come from?
This list has no Arkansas-specific entries for 1st grade yet. Its books come from national sources that list books for 1st grade: the Common Core State Standards (ELA), plus awards such as the Caldecott Medal, the Golden Kite Award and the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award. Each book's page links the primary source for every listing.

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State-specific entries sourced from dese.ade.arkansas.gov. National references cited on each book’s detail page.

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