The Best 10 Retell Books to Teach Students to Recount or Retell a Story

Blog cover image for mentor texts that teach retelling, featuring illustrated children reading a large open book with the title “Mentor Texts for Retelling.”

Looking for the best retell books to teach students how to retell or recount a story? This collection of mentor texts helps students practice retelling or recounting key events in a story. These read-aloud favorites make it easy for teachers to model how to understand story order during ELA lessons.

Kicking Off Retell Books with A Bad Case of Stripes

Cover of A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon, a great retell book for helping students identify story events and character changes

Link: A Bad Case of Stripes

A teacher favorite! Use A Bad Case of Stripes as a mentor text to teach story retelling. Students can identify the beginning, middle, and end as they follow Camilla’s struggle to be herself. This engaging story encourages kids to recount events in order and discuss the lesson learned.

A Chair for My Mother

Link: A Chair for My Mother

This story helps students retell key events as they follow a family saving up for something special after a fire. A Chair for My Mother offers clear sequencing, making it perfect for recounting practice. Teachers love using this story to model how to summarize and retell a story from start to finish.

A Sick Day for Amos McGee

Link: A Sick Day of Amos McGee

A Sick Day for Amos McGee teaches students how to recount events with simple, heartfelt events. This story of friendship helps children identify story elements like setting, characters, and key events. It’s one of the best retell books to model sequencing and understanding compassion in storytelling.

David Gets in Trouble

Link: David Gets in Trouble

Any David story is bound to bring chaos and high interest into your read alouds. Kids love retelling David Gets in Trouble! The simple, relatable plot helps young readers sequence events and discuss cause and effect. Teachers can use this mentor text to model how to recount a story and identify how David’s actions lead to consequences.

Hair Love

Link: Hair Love

Hair Love is a beautiful picture book that guides students in retelling meaningful events. It’s perfect for practicing how to describe character motivations and key moments in order. Students can use this mentor text to recount how teamwork help a father and daughter succeed together.

Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse

Link: Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse

Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse helps students practice retelling stories with emotion and detail. They can recount how Lilly’s excitement leads to trouble and how she learns from her mistakes. This engaging story is a classroom favorite for teaching how to recount key events and focus on morals, which is introduced in 2nd grade within this standard.

The Berenstain Bears and the Truth

Link: The Berenstain Bears and the Truth

The Berenstain Bears books are an absolute classics to include in your retell books and read alouds. This tale helps students practice recounting stories with clear cause-and-effect structure. The Berenstain Bears and the Truth encourages readers to identify problem, events, and solution as they retell how lying affects the characters.

The Magic Hat

Link: The Magic Hat

The Magic Hat makes retelling fun and interactive! Students can recount how the hat moves from one person to another, transforming each character in turn. The pattern and predictable events help children practice sequencing and summarizing the story’s events in order.

The Most Magnificent Thing

Link: The Most Magnificent Thing

The Most Magnificent Thing helps students recount a story with clear beginning, middle, and end structure. As they follow the main character’s determination, they learn to summarize her struggles and success. This is one of the best retell books to discuss persistence and growth mindset.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Link: The Very Hungry Caterpillar

The Very Hungry Caterpillar is perfect for introducing retelling and sequencing to young learners. Students can recount what the caterpillar eats each day and describe his transformation into a butterfly. This teacher favorite helps reinforce story order and key details while keeping learning engaging and visual.

Ready-to-Go Units for Teaching Recount & Retell

If you’re teaching Recounting & Retelling in your classroom and would like to plan without recreating the wheel, I have complete, no-prep units for you! Each unit comes with lesson plans, anchor charts, activities, graphic organizers, reading comprehension passages, an assessment, and more!