He Just Learned to Read — So I Handed Him a President
- HumbleHomeschoolerMama
- 4 days ago
- 7 min read
How a stack of beginner-reader biographies turned my son into the kid who corrects me about Abe Lincoln at dinner
I remember the exact night it happened. My son had just finished George Washington and the General's Dog, closed the back cover, and looked up at me like he'd discovered a secret nobody else knew.
"Mom. Washington found the enemy general's dog during the war. And he sent it back. TO THE ENEMY!!"
He wasn't reading a "history book." He didn't know that's what it was. To him, it was just a really good story — with a real dog, a real war, and a real guy who did the right thing even when it would've been easier not to. That's the moment I realized: we'd been waiting way too long to hand kids real history. The second they can sound out a sentence on their own, they're ready for the true stories — not the watered-down, "everyone was nice and wore a wig" version, but the human one.
A few weeks later he told me, completely unprompted, that Abraham Lincoln used to wrestle — and that people called him "Honest Abe" because he'd walk miles to return a few extra cents to a customer. He wasn't quizzed on this. Nobody made him memorize it. He just wanted to tell me.
That's the whole pitch of this post, honestly. Early readers don't need to wait for "real" history class. They need history written for them — short sentences, big trustworthy pictures, and true stories chosen because they're genuinely interesting to a 6-, 7-, or 8-year-old. The books below did that for my son, and I think they'll do it for yours, whether you're homeschooling, filling in the gaps after school, or just trying to get a reluctant reader hooked on something other than a screen.
A quick disclosure, because I believe in doing this the honest way: some of the links below are Amazon affiliate links. If you buy through them, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend books my own kid has actually read and loved (or that fit the exact same tried-and-true series), and every book below sits in a real classroom-tested leveled-reader line — Step into Reading, I Can Read, National Geographic Kids Readers, Ready-to-Read, Blastoff! Readers, and a couple of newer independent series.
Why Early Readers + Real Presidents Is a Genuinely Great Combo
They're not fiction, but they read like it. A kid who loves adventure stories gets an adventure that actually happened.
Built-in name recognition does the heavy lifting. Every kid has heard of Washington and Lincoln. These books turn a name into a person — which is exactly the hook a beginner reader needs to keep turning pages.
They're leveled on purpose. Step into Reading, I Can Read, and the others exist specifically to match sentence length, vocabulary, and page density to where a kid actually is — not where a curriculum assumes they should be.
One book turns into a series habit. This is the pattern I've seen over and over: finish one president, immediately ask "who's next?" It's the single easiest way I've found to build an independent reading habit that isn't a fight.
👉 If you only remember one thing from this post: start with a book about a president your kid has already heard of (Washington or Lincoln are the easiest wins), let them pick it up in one sitting, and watch what happens next.
A Few of Our Favorites (and Why They Worked)
George Washington and the General's Dog (Step into Reading, Step 3)
This is the book that started it for us. During the Revolutionary War, a stray dog wandering the battlefield turned out to belong to the British general. Washington had it fed, cleaned up, and personally sent back across enemy lines with a note. My son's takeaway wasn't a date or a battle — it was that being the good guy sometimes means being kind to the person you're fighting. That's a better civics lesson than most textbooks manage in a whole chapter, and it's told in sentences a first-grader can read solo.
Abe Lincoln's Hat, Long, Tall Lincoln (I Can Read Level 2), and Abraham Lincoln (National Geographic Kids Readers, Level 2)
Lincoln is the single most requested repeat in our house, and I get why. He was famously tall and gangly as a kid, an actual wrestler, and earned the nickname "Honest Abe" for walking miles to return a customer's overpaid change. These books hand a kid three or four of those stories at a time — perfectly sized for a beginner, and genuinely funny in places.
Take a Hike, Teddy Roosevelt! (Step into Reading, Step 3)
For the kid who'd rather be climbing something than sitting still, Roosevelt is the gateway president. Sickly as a child, obsessed with the outdoors, later a rancher, explorer, and the reason we have national parks — this one reads like an adventure story because, honestly, it basically is one.
Once a kid has Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Roosevelt down, the collection below fills the gaps — Monroe, the Adamses, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and every modern president through Biden and Trump. This is where a chronological shelf really starts to click for a kid: "Oh, this guy came after that guy."
🛒 Round out the set → Search American Presidents Blastoff Readers series
How to Actually Build the Habit at Home
A few things that made this stick for us, especially doing history outside a traditional classroom:
Go chronological, not random. Even a 6-year-old starts to feel the shape of history when the books are read in the order the presidents actually served. That's why I built the timeline below.
Match the book to the kid, not the grade. A Step 3 book and an "I Can Read Level 2" book are close enough in difficulty that you can freely mix them — go by how confidently your child reads out loud, not the label on the cover.
Let them choose the next one. The "which one's next?" question is the whole engine. Keep a couple of unread ones on the shelf at all times so there's always an obvious next pick.
👉 Ready to start the shelf? The full lineup — organized by president, in the order they served, and ranked easiest-to-hardest — is in the table below. Tap any "Check on Amazon" link to see current pricing and grab the one that fits where your reader is right now.
The Full Reading List: By President, Chronologically, Easiest → Hardest
Reading Level Rank uses a 1–5 scale I built to make different series comparable (Step into Reading, I Can Read, National Geographic Kids Readers, Ready-to-Read, Blastoff! Readers, and DK Readers all label levels differently). 1 = simplest sentences/shortest length, 5 = longest, most narrative, best for a confident independent reader moving toward chapter books. Where a publisher didn't list a specific step/level, I estimated based on the series' typical range.
President (in order served) | Book Title | Series / Stated Level | Reading Level Rank (1–5) | |
 | George Washington (1st) | Ready-to-Read, Level 2 | 2 | |
 | George Washington | Step into Reading, Step 3 | 2 | |
 | George Washington | Blastoff! Readers, Level 2 | 2 | |
 | George Washington | I Can Read, Level 2 | 3 | |
 | George Washington | National Geographic Kids Readers, Level 2 | 3 | |
 | George Washington | The Story of Our Leaders series | 5 | |
 | George Washington | Biography for Young Readers | 5 | |
 | John Adams (2nd) | Ready-to-Read, Level 3 | 3 | |
 | John Adams | Biography for Young Readers | 5 | |
 | Thomas Jefferson (3rd) | Step into Reading, Step 3 | 2 | |
 | Thomas Jefferson | Ready-to-Read, Level 2 | 2 | |
 | Thomas Jefferson | Step into Reading, Step 4 | 3 | |
 | Thomas Jefferson | Blastoff! Readers: People of Character, Level 4 | 4 | |
 | Thomas Jefferson | Biography for Young Readers | 5 | |
 | James Monroe (5th) | Biography for Young Readers | 5 | |
 | Abraham Lincoln (16th) | Step into Reading | 1 | |
 | Abraham Lincoln | Blastoff! Readers, Level 1 | 1 | |
 | Abraham Lincoln | I Can Read, Level 2 | 3 | |
 | Abraham Lincoln | National Geographic Kids Readers, Level 2 | 3 | |
 | Abraham Lincoln | Step into Reading, Step 4 | 3 | |
 | Abraham Lincoln | The Story of Our Leaders series | 5 | |
 | Theodore Roosevelt (26th) | Take a Hike, Teddy Roosevelt! | Step into Reading, Step 3 | 2 |
 | Theodore Roosevelt | American Presidents: Blastoff! Readers, Level 2 | 2 | |
 | Theodore Roosevelt | Ready-to-Read, Level 3 | 3 | |
 | Dwight D. Eisenhower (34th) | American Presidents (Blastoff! Readers) | 2 | |
 | John F. Kennedy (35th) | Ready-to-Read, Level 2 | 2 | |
 | John F. Kennedy | I Can Read, Level 2 | 3 | |
 | George W. Bush (43rd) | American Presidents: Blastoff! Readers, Level 2 | 2 | |
 | Barack Obama (44th) | Step into Reading, Step 3 | 2 | |
 | Barack Obama | National Geographic Readers (Readers Bios) | 3 | |
 | Barack Obama | The Story of Our Leaders series | 5 | |
 | Donald Trump (45th / 47th) | The Story of Our Leaders series | 5 | |
 | Joe Biden (46th) | American Presidents (Blastoff! Readers) | 2 |
Multi-President Collections (Great for Bouncing Between Books)
Title | Reading Level Rank (1–5) | Covers | |
2 | Multiple presidents, fact-vs-fiction format |  | |
2 | Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln |  | |
2 | The presidency as an institution |  |
Where to start if you're not sure: grab one Washington book and one Lincoln book — they're the easiest sell to a brand-new independent reader — and let your child's own curiosity pick the next one from there.
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