The Davenport Community Schools and Davenport Public Library have partnered to create the Read & Succeed Newborn Program.

The program promotes reading to children from birth in order to prepare them to be successful in school.  One of the program’s main messages is:

“Just 20 minutes of reading with a preschooler each day
can make a huge difference in helping him or her be successful in school.”

The Read & Succeed Newborn Program’s award-winning Growing with Books growth chart and other reading-related materials are distributed at the district’s annual Kindergarten Round-ups and during special promotions at the public library.

Below is the list of popular books featured on the Growing with Books chart.  Davenport Schools media specialists and Davenport Public Library librarians have identified these books, based on their experiences working with our children:

• All Day Long by David McCord
• Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
• Beezus and Ramona by Beverly Cleary
• Ben and Me by Robert Lawson
• Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
• Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
• Heidi by Johanna Spyri
• If I Were in Charge of the World and Other Worries: Poems for Children and Their Parents by Judith Viorst
• James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
• The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
• Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry
• The New Kid on the Block by Jack Prelutsky
• Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving
• Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor
• Secret Garden by Frances Burnett
• Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein
• Will You Sign Here, John Hancock? by Jean Fritz

• Aesop’s Fables
• The Boxcar Children by Gertrude C. Warner
• Cinderella by Charles Perrault
• A Circle of Seasons by Myra Cohn Livingston
• The Elephant’s Child by Rudyard Kipling
• Frog and Toad Together by Arnold Lobel
• George and Martha by James Marshall
• Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder
• Rolling Harvey Down the Hill by Jack Prelutsky
• Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears: A West African Tale retold by Verna Aardema

• Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst
• Caps for Sale: A Tale of a Peddler, Some Monkeys and Their Monkey Business by Esphyr Slobodkina
• Curious George by H.A. Rey
• Horton Hatches the Egg by Dr. Seuss
• Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans
• Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton
• Peter’s Chair by Ezra Jack Keats
• The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter

• 1-2 Peek-A-Boo! (A Lift & Look Board Book) by Sonja Lamut Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill
• Martin Jr.
• Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
• The Icky Bug Counting Book by Jerry Pallotta
• Mr. Gumpy’s Outing by John Burningham
• My Very First Mother Goose by Iona Archibald Opie
• Spot’s Big Book of Colors, Shapes and Numbers by Eric Hill
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar Board Book by Eric Carle