Second Grade:
Recommended
Book List
Peppe's father is upset when he learns that Peppe has
taken a job lighting the gas street lamps in his New York City neighborhood.
By the time the velveteen rabbit is dirty, worn out,
and about to be burned, he has almost given up hope of ever finding the
magic called Real.
With the help of his teacher, a young boy realizes
that he not only shares his birthday and similar physical appearance with
Abraham Lincoln, but that he is like him in other ways as well.
Nine-year-old Booker works with his father and brother
at the saltworks but dreams of the day when he'll be able to read.
Lives briefly intertwine when two youngsters meet in
the park.
On Wednesday nights when Grandma stays with Anna everyone
thinks she is teaching Anna to read.
Refugees from a Caribbean island embark on a dangerous
boat trip to America where they have a special reason to celebrate Thanksgiving.
Burleigh, Robert.
Hoops.
Silver Whistle, 1997. Reading Level: 2
Illustrations and poetic text describe the movement
and feel of the game of basketball.
Cole, Brock.
Buttons.
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2000. Reading Level: 4.6
When their father eats so much that he pops the buttons
off his britches, each of his three daughters tries a different plan to
find replacements.
When Farmer Brown's cows find a typewriter in the barn
they start making demands, and go on strike when the farmer refuses to
give them what they want.
A reward of one grain of rice doubles day by day into
millions of grains of rice when a selfish raja is outwitted by a clever
village girl.
An African version of the familiar story of a man who
sets off to sell his hats, only to have them stolen by a treeful of mischievous
monkeys.
Fleischman, Paul.
Weslandia.
Candlewick Press, 1999. Reading Level: 2
Wesley's garden produces a crop of huge, strange plants
which provide him with clothing, shelter, food, and drink, thus helping
him create his own civilization and changing his life.
Using scraps cut from the family's old clothing, Tanya
helps her grandmother and mother make a beautiful quilt that tells the
story of her family's life.
An American sailor courts a Japanese girl and each
tries, in secret, to learn the other's way of eating.
A child whose grandfather was an astronaut always asks
Grandpa for a bedtime story in which the two of them blast off for the
moon together.
Though she is fond of her people, a girl prefers to
living among the wild horses where she is truly happy and free.
Second grader Owen Foote is looking forward to spending
time with his friend Joseph in their tree fort, until some bullies visiting
his neighbor, Mrs. Gold, threaten to wreck the fort.
Three mice friends learn that the best clubs include
everyone.
Isaacs, Anne.
Swamp
Angel. Dutton Children's Books, 1994. Reading Level:
5
Along with other amazing feats, Angelica Longrider,
also known as Swamp Angel, wrestles a huge bear, known as Thundering
Tarnation, to save the winter supplies of the settlers in Tennessee.
While his friend works hard to earn the train fare
to Fitchburg, young Henry Thoreau walks the thirty miles through woods
and fields, enjoying nature and the time to think great thoughts. Includes
biographical information about Thoreau.
A retelling of a traditional Navajo creation myth which
explains how water came to earth.
Kvasnosky, Laura.
Zelda
and Ivy. Candlewick Press, 1998. Reading Level: 3
In three brief stories, Ivy, the younger of two fox
sisters, goes along with her older sister's schemes, even when they seem
a bit daring.
Discovering that making a world takes a lot of work,
God calls on his secretary Bruce and the angel Shaniqua to help him create
bushes, grass, flowers, and butterflies.
A biography of the freed slave who made her fortune
in Colorado and used her money to bring other former slaves there to begin
new lives.
When her grandson Patrick arrives for his first sleepover,
Granny's resourceful efforts to provide him with a bed, pillow, and other
necessities result in a sleepless night for both of them.
Tells the story of two unlikely kung fu masters and
how their skill in martial arts saves them both.
After promising never to lie, Libby learns that it's
not always necessary to blurt out the whole truth either.
Martin, Jacqueline Briggs.
Snowflake
Bentley. Houghton Mifflin, 1998. Reading Level: 4.4
A biography of a self-taught scientist who photographed
thousands of individual snowflakes in order to study their unique formations.
Two guinea pigs escape from their safe but boring cage
and have an adventure in the tunnels of the family's pool table.
Explains some traditions and customs of twenty-six
African tribes beginning with the letters from A to Z.
Myers, Christopher.
Black
Cat. Scholastic Press, 1999. Reading Level: 2
A black cat wanders through the streets of a city.
Parish, Peggy.
Amelia
Bedelia. HarperCollins Publishers, 1992. Reading Level:
2.5
A literal-minded housekeeper causes a ruckus in the
household when she attempts to make sense of some instructions.
Perrault, Charles.
Puss
in Boots. Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1990. Reading Level:
5
A translation of the French fairy tale about the cat
who with a sack and a pair of boots gained a fortune for his master.
Perry, Sarah.
If--.
Children's Library Press, 1995. Reading Level: 2
Illustrations present such imaginative possibilities
as worms with wheels, caterpillar toothpaste, and whales in outer space.
Reading Level:3
A brief recounting of the career of this jazz musician
and composer who, along with his orchestra, created music that was beyond
category.
With Harriet Tubman as her guide, Cassie retraces the
steps escaping slaves took on the Underground Railroad in order to reunite
with her younger brother.
Ringgold, Faith.
Tar
Beach. Crown Publishers, 1991. Reading Level: 3.4
A young girl dreams of flying above her Harlem home,
claiming all she sees for herself and her family. Based on the author's
quilt painting of the same name.
Reminiscences of the pleasures of life in the mountains
as a child.
A Creole variant of the familiar Cinderella tale set
in the Caribbean and narrated by the godmother who helps Cendrillon find
true love.
San Souci, Robert.
Talking
Eggs. Dial Books for Young Readers, 1989. Reading Level:
4.4
A Southern folktale in which kind Blanche, following
the instructions of an old witch, gains riches, while her greedy sister
makes fun of the old woman and is duly rewarded.
Say, Allen.
Tea
with Milk. Houghton Mifflin, 1999. Reading Level: 3.7
After growing up near San Francisco, a young Japanese
woman returns with her parents to their native Japan, but she feels foreign
and out of place.
Text and pictures try to make possible the conceptualization
of a million, a billion, and a trillion.
Scieszka, Jon.
Math
Curse. Viking, 1995. Reading Level: 3.7
When the teacher tells her class that they can think
of almost everything as a math problem, one student acquires a math anxiety
which becomes a real curse.
Madcap revisions of familiar fairy tales.
Mentu, an American-born slave boy, watches his beloved
grandmother, Twi, lead the insurrection at Teakettle Creek of Ibo people
arriving from Africa on a slave ship.
Seuss, Dr.
The
Lorax. Random House, 1971. Reading Level: 3.1
When the Truffula trees are all chopped down, a once-beautiful
forest suddenly becomes a smog covered dump.
Horton the elephant endures terrible snowstorms, jeering
friends and frightening hunters while egg-sitting for Mayzie the lazy bird.
Sharmat, Marjorie.
Nate
the Great. Dell Pub. Co, 1977. Reading Level: 2
Nate the Great solves the mystery of the missing picture.
Thembi and her beloved great-grandmother, who has not
left the house for many years, go together to vote on the momentous day
when black South Africans are allowed to vote for the first time.
Sweetness, one of eight orphans living with a man who
is an unconventional housekeeper, learns to read and writes an important
letter to improve their situation.
Stewart, Sarah.
The
Gardener. Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1997. Reading
Level: 3.9
A series of letters relating what happens when, after
her father loses his job, Lydia Grace goes to live with her Uncle Jim in
the city but takes her love for gardening with her.
Stuve-Bodeen, Stephanie.
Elizabeti's
Doll. Lee & Lowe Books, 1998 Reading Level:
3.4
When a young Tanzanian girl gets a new baby brother,
she finds a rock, which she names Eva, and makes it her baby doll.
A very old overcoat is recycled numerous times into
a variety of garments.
A Good Knight helps three little dragons who are having
trouble getting to sleep.
Weisner, David.
Sector
7. Clarion Books, 1999. N/A
While on a school trip to the Empire State Building,
a boy is taken by a friendly cloud to visit Sector 7, where he discovers
how clouds are shaped and channeled throughout the country.
Wells, Rosemary.
Yoko.
Hyperion Books for Children, 1998. Reading Level: 2
When Yoko brings sushi to school for lunch, her classmates
make fun of what she eats--until one of them tries it for himself.
Williams, Suzanne.
Library
Lil. Dial Books for Young Readers, 1997. Reading Level:
4
A formidable librarian makes readers not only out of
the once resistant residents of her small town, but out of a tough-talking,
television-watching motorcycle gang as well.
Wisniewski, David.
Rain
Player. Clarion Books, 1991. Reading Level: 3
To bring rain to his thirsty village, Pik challenges
the rain god to a game of pok-a-tok.
This page was created by the Dayton & Montgomery
County Children's Book List Committee in June 2001.