Best Books for Beginning Readers provides a descriptive listing of more than 1,000 high quality books that are especially appropriate for novice readers. Books are listed according to eight levels of difficulty ranging from emergent or very beginning reading level through beginning second grade level. Carefully graded on the basis of both subjective and objective factors, the listing allows teachers, parents, and librarians to select books that are on the appropriate level of difficulty for students in the beginning stages of reading. Books selected include both classics and recent releases. Annotations include a brief summary of the book, suggested interest level, and the theme or subject of the book.

Best Books for Beginning Readers emphasizes matching children with books on the basis of interests and reading ability. A Primary Reading Placement Inventory is provided to assist teachers in estimating reading levels of novice readers. The levels indicated by the Primary Reading Placement Inventory correspond with the annotated list of books, so that, for example, a student who achieves a Beginning B level would most likely do best with books listed as a Beginning B level. Carefully validated with novice readers, the Primary Reading Placement Inventory was created specifically for this book. Also included is the Primary Readability Index, which is designed to estimate the difficulty level of beginning reading books. With this easy-to-implement tool, teachers can estimate the readability of books not included in Best Books for Beginning Readers.