20 Books for Teaching Cause and Effect: The Ultimate List

Are you teaching cause and effect? Do you love a good book list? Me too. I thought I’d do you a favor and share some of my favorite picture books to use when teaching cause and effect!

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5 Cause and Effect Picture Books I Love

1. If You Give a ___ series by Laura Numeroff

This series is the perfect starting point for teaching cause and effect. In the past, most of my students have read If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, so I like to choose some of the other books in the series. As an extra teaching tip, you can choose one picture book in the series to read aloud during your cause-and-effect lesson. Then, choose another book from the series for students to use to practice!

2. A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon

I absolutely love this book for teaching cause and effect! The main character, Camilla Cream, wants to fit in at school, so she chooses not to eat lima beans, even though they’re her favorite. Everything she does causes something even worse to happen! A great cause-and-effect read-aloud!

3. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst

Poor Alexander has had such a bad day. I’m sure many of you have read this book before, and there are tons of cause-and-effect examples you can use in your teaching!

4. Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig

I adore this book! In it, Sylvester finds a magic pebble. Anything he wishes for when holding the pebble happens! He wishes for the rain to stop, and it stops! When a lion frightens Sylvester, he makes a wish to be a rock. Now he’s stuck as a rock! Read this picture book for even more cause-and-effect examples.

5. If You Ever Want to Bring an Alligator to School, Don’t! by Elise Parsley

This picture book is a new one for me, and it’s adorable! A little girl brings in an alligator to school, and it causes quite the commotion! Your students will love this hilarious book full of cause and effect examples for your lessons!

Download the Entire Book List!

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Want to read more about cause and effect teaching ideas you can use in your classroom? Check out this post!