There is just something magical about rainbows. They are so beautiful and such a treat when you see one! No matter our age, rainbows are fascinating. While there are lots of books about rain that often end with a picture of a rainbow, I have gathered 5 rainbow stories just about rainbows themselves! These books are perfect for preschoolers who love rainbows.
Five Rainbow Stories
1. How the Crayons Saved the Rainbow by Monica Sweeney —
We discovered this great story at our library. In this book best friends, sun and cloud, get in an argument and stop being friends. Without their friendship, there are no more rainbows. Colors around the world begin to fade. Yikes! Fortunately the crayons come to the rescue. They draw brightly colored rainbows everywhere, eventually making a gigantic one! The crayons are able to get the sun and cloud’s attentions and reunited these two friends.
2. Rainbow by Marion Dane Bauer–
This short book gives rainbow facts in an easy to understand format for preschoolers. The book tells the reader that first we need rain and then we need sun. And when rain and sunshine are combined, we get a beautiful rainbow! Great illustrations accompany this early science book.
3. What Makes a Rainbow by Betty Ann Schwartz —
This is such a cool book — not only does it devote a page to each color, it has a matching color ribbon that stretches across each page. As you turn the page, you accumulate more colored ribbons until you end up with a rainbow! It is truly amazing to see the rainbow at the end of the book. I read this one every year to my library preschool storytime group, so I knew my son would love it too. I ended up buying this book because it a great story, fantastic color teaching tool, and the ribbon rainbow is an awesome concept.
4. A Rainbow of My Own by Don Freeman —
Don Freeman wrote great preschool books. He does a fantastic job at encouraging imagination! In this story, a young boy wonders what is would be like to play with a rainbow. On a rainy day the boy sets out to catch a rainbow. Unsuccessful, he returns home, imagining what it would be like if he did catch one. When he gets home, he finds a rainbow reflected on his wall from the fish bowl.
5. The World Made a Rainbow by Michelle Robinson —
This is one of the sweetest rainbow stories ever! Sprung out of the darkness of the pandemic, children in the United Kingdom began making rainbows and hanging them in their windows. An absolutely lovely story about how children can inspire hope by reminding us that rainstorms will end and good things will come. The child in the story uses her creativity to create all of the colors in the rainbow (even indigo) with paint and other things around the house. You might feel inspired to make your own rainbow after reading this book!
We hope you enjoy these rainbow stories as much as we do! Please check your library for these and other great books. I’ve included links to purchase these titles on Amazon. To help cover the costs of this site, I joined Amazon’s Affiliate program. If you buy a book through one of my links, then I get a small percentage of the sale (at no additional cost to you). Thank you for your support! Happy Reading 🙂
More Rainbows
Tissue Paper Rainbow: make a rainbow craft out of balled up tissue paper.
Rainbow Letter Tracing: trace the letters in the word Rainbow and color the picture.