This study aimed to develop and validate a measure of emergent reading motivation designed for pre-kindergarten children, called the Emergent Reading Motivation Scale (ERMS). The development of the ERMS was to overcome the limitation that existing reading motivation measures are not developmentally appropriate for young children. 56 native-English speaking children who were enrolled in a pre-kindergarten program participated in the study. The ERMS had 17 items, and for each item, two puppets made contrasting statements regarding emergent reading motivation which were drawn from three motivational constructs: reading self-concept, learning goal and performance goal for reading. The children selected the puppet that was most like them. The children were also administered two subtests from the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening for preschool (PALS-PreK). Results suggested that the ERMS is an age-appropriate reading motivation measure for pre-kindergarten children and has a three-factor structure even though its internal consistency is moderate and is of limited predictive power of emergent literacy skills.