Great Books for First And Second Grade

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Picture Books

A Fine, Fine School by Sharon Creech  32 pages

  • When a principal loves his school so much that he wants the children to attend classes every day of the year, it's up to his students to show him free time is a good thing, too. Check our catalog

Click Clack Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin 32 pages

  • 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. Check our catalog

How My Parents Learned to Eat by Ina Friedman  30 pages

  • An American sailor courts a Japanese girl and each tries, in secret, to learn the other's way of eating. Check our catalog

The Village That Vanished by Ann Grifalconi  42 pages

  • In southeastern Africa, a young Yao girl and her mother find a way for their fellow villagers to escape approaching slave traders. Check our catalog

Chester’s Way by Kevin Henkes   32 pages

  • Chester and Wilson share the same exact way of doing things, until Lilly moves into the neighborhood and shows them that new ways can be just as good. Check our catalog

Zelda and Ivy by Laura McGee Kvasnosky  42 pages

  • 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. Check our catalog

Goin' Someplace Special by Patricia C. McKissack  36 pages

  • In segregated 1950s Nashville, a young African American girl braves a series of indignities and obstacles to get to one of the few integrated places in town: the public library. Check our catalog

Officer Buckle and Gloria by Peggy Rathmann  32 pages

  • The children at Napville Elementary School always ignore Officer Buckle's safety tips, until a police dog named Gloria accompanies him when he gives his safety speeches. Check our catalog

Mama Provi and the Pot of Rice by Sylvia Rosa-Casanova 32 pages

  • Mama Provi takes chicken and rice to her sick granddaughter Lucy who lives upstairs. Check our catalog

Abiyoyo by Pete Seeger   47 pages

  • Banished from the town for making mischief, a little boy and his father are welcomed back when they find a way to make the dreaded giant Abiyoyo disappear. Check our catalog

Happy Hocky Family by Lane Smith   61 pages

  • Introduces readers to the world of the happy Hocky family--Baby Hocky; his brother Henry, who chases his sister with a dead spider; and Holly, who awakens her brother with a tuba blast. Check our catalog

Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters by John Steptoe  32 pages

  • Mufaro's two beautiful daughters, one bad-tempered, one kind and sweet, go before the king, who is choosing a wife. Check our catalog

Dear Mrs. LaRue: Letters from Obedience School by Mark Teague  32 pages

  • Gertrude LaRue receives typewritten and paw-written letters from her dog Ike, entreating her to let him leave the Igor Brotweiler Canine Academy and come back home. Check our catalog

Mailing May by Michael O. Tunnell   32 pages

  • In 1914, because her family cannot afford a train ticket to her grandmother's town, May gets mailed and rides the mail car on the train to see her grandmother. Check our catalog

Zathura by Chris Van Allsburg   32 pages

  • Left on their own for an evening, two boisterous brothers find more excitement than they bargained for in a mysterious and mystical space adventure board game. Check our catalog

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst  32 pages

  • Recounts the events of a day when everything goes wrong for Alexander. Check our catalog

The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson

  • Two girls, one white and one black, gradually get to know each other as they sit on the fence that divides their town. Check our catalog

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Easy Readers

Young Cam Jansen and the Dinosaur Game by David Adler      32 pages

  • When eight-year-old Cam Jansen and her friend Eric go to a birthday party, she uses her photographic memory to solve the puzzle of the dinosaur count. Check our catalog

Prairie School by Avi   48 pages

  • In 1880, Noah's aunt teaches the reluctant nine-year-old how to read as they explore the Colorado prairie together, Noah pushing Aunt Dora in her wheelchair. Check our catalog

Wiley and the Hairy Man by Molly Bang   64 pages

  • With his mother's help, Wiley outwits the hairy creature that dominates the swamp near his home by the Tombigbee River. Check our catalog

Old Hat, New Hat by Stan & Jan Berenstain  29 pages

The Shortest Kid in the World by Corinne Demas Bliss 48 pages

  • Emily is unhappy with her size until a new girl in class helps her see that being short can have its advantages. Check our catalog

The Golly Sisters Go West by Betsy Byars  64 pages

  • May-May and Rose, the singing, dancing Golly sisters, travel west by covered wagon, entertaining people along the way. Check our catalog

Minnie and Moo Go to the Moon by Denys Cazet  48 pages

  • Two cow friends, Minnie and Moo, decide to drive the farmer's tractor all the way to the moon. Check our catalog

Buffalo Bill and the Pony Express by Eleanor Coerr 64 pages

  • Sixteen-year-old Bill finds adventure when he becomes a rider for the Pony Express (though his letters home never hint at the dangers he encounters). Check our catalog

The Josefina Story Quilt by Eleanor Coerr  64 pages

  • While traveling west with her family in 1850, a young girl makes a patchwork quilt chronicling the experiences of the journey and reserves a special patch for her pet hen Josefina. Check our catalog

Baseball Ballerina by Kathryn Cristaldi  48 pages

  • A baseball-loving girl worries that the ballet class her mother forces her to take will ruin her reputation with the other members of her baseball team. Check our catalog

Get Ready for Second Grade, Amber Brown by Paula Daniziger 48 pages

  • Amber is nervous about starting second grade with a new teacher, but despite being in the same class as mean Hannah Burton, things turn out just fine. Check our catalog

Mercy Watson to the Rescue by Kate DiCamillo  68 pages

  • Breaking the Watson's bed is only one of the adventures that their adored pig Mercy gets into. Check our catalog

Iris and Walter by Elissa Haden Guest  43 pages

  • When Iris moves to the country, she misses the city where she formerly lived; but with the help of a new friend named Walter, she learns to adjust to her new home. Check our catalog

Lionel at Large by Stephen Krensky   56 pages

  • Lionel faces such ordeals as having to eat green beans, going to the doctor, and looking for the snake his sister lost in his room. Check our catalog

Captain and Matey Set Sail by Daniel Laurence  64 pages

  • Despite their frequent disagreements, two pirates share many adventures . Check our catalog

Days With Frog and Toad by Arnold Lobel  64 pages

  • Five more stories about Frog and Toad and their happy adventures. Check our catalog

Fox Outfoxed by James Marshall   48 pages

Soccer Sam by Jean Marzollo   48 pages

  • Sam's cousin from Mexico comes for an extended visit and teaches Sam and all the second graders to play soccer. Check our catalog

Three Stories You Can Read to Your Dog by Sara Swan Miller 48 pages

  • Stories addressed to dogs and written from a dog's point of view, featuring such topics as a burglar, bones, and running free. Check our catalog

Gus and Grandpa by Claudia Mills   48 pages

The Drinking Gourd : a Story of the Underground Railroad by F.N. Monjo    62 pages

  • When he is sent home alone for misbehaving in church, Tommy discovers that his house is a station on the underground railroad. Check our catalog

Bravo, Amelia Bedelia! by Herman Parish  40 pages

  • From the time she is sent to pick up the guest conductor to the final bow by the orchestra, Amelia Bedelia's confusion causes quite an uproar at the school concert. Check our catalog

Henry and Mudge and the Happy Cat by Cynthia Rylant 47 pages

  • Henry's family takes in a stray cat, the ugliest cat they have ever seen, and an amazing relationship blossoms between it and their big dog Mudge. Check our catalog

High Rise Private Eyes: The Case of the Missing Monkey by Cynthia Rylant 48 pages

  • While having breakfast at their favorite diner, two detectives, Bunny and Jack, solve a mystery that is not what it seems. Check our catalog

In a Dark, Dark Room, and Other Scary Stories by Alvin Schwartz   63 pages

  • Seven scary stories to tell at night in front of a fire or in the dark, based on traditional stories and folklore from various countries. Check our catalog

Nate the Great by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat  60 pages

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Chapter Books

The Absent Author by Ron Roy   87 pages

  • Dink Duncan and his two friends investigate the apparent kidnapping of famous mystery author Wallis Wallace. Check our catalog

Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus by Barbara Park 69 pages

  • In her own words, a young girl describes her feelings about starting kindergarten and what she does when she decides not to ride the bus home. Check our catalog

Dinosaurs Before Dark by Mary Pope Osborne  68 pages

  • Meet Jack and Annie as they travel back to the time of the dinosaurs in this first book of the Magic Tree House series. Check our catalog

The Stories Julian Tells by Ann Cameron  71 pages

  • Relates episodes in seven-year-old Julian's life which include getting into trouble with his younger brother Huey, planting a garden, what he did to try to grow taller, losing a tooth, and finding a new friend. Check our catalog

My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett  86 pages

  • A boy takes along chewing gum, two dozen lollipops, a package of rubber bands, six magnifying glasses and seven hair ribbons when he goes off to Wild Island to rescue a baby dragon. Check our catalog

Owen Foote, Second Grade Strongman by Stephanie Greene 81 pages

  • Owen, a second grader who is being teased for his small size, discovers that his friend Joseph is just as concerned about being overweight, and they share their fear of being humiliated by the school nurse. Check our catalog

Runaway Radish by Jessie Haas   56 pages

  • When Radish the pony grows too big for the girls who own him, he goes to live at a horse camp where there are always new children for him to train. Check our catalog

Pinky and Rex by James Howe   40 pages

  • Rex and her best friend Pinky, each the proud possessor of twenty-seven stuffed animals or dinosaurs, find their visit to the museum and its gift shop complicated by Pinky's little sister Amanda. Check our catalog

Lady Lollipop by Dick King-Smith   123 pages

  • A quick-witted swineherd and a pig named Lollipop are royally rewarded after they reform a spoiled princess. Check our catalog

Horrible Harry in Room 2B by Suzy Kline  56 pages

  • Doug discovers that though being Harry's best friend in Miss Mackle's second grade class isn't always easy, as Harry likes to do horrible things, it is often a lot of fun. Check our catalog

Catwings by Ursula Le Guin   39 pages

  • Four young cats with wings leave the city slums in search of a safe place to live, finally meeting two children with kind hands. Check our catalog

Morgy Makes His Move by Maggie Lewis  74 pages

  • When third-grader Morgy MacDougal-MacDuff moves from California to Massachusetts with his parents, he has a lot of new things to get used to before he feels comfortable. Check our catalog

The Adventures of Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey 121 pages

  • Two mischievous boys turn their ill-tempered school principal into a superhero in an outrageously funny book featuring comics and flip-o-rama art. Check our catalog

Knights of the Kitchen Table by Jon Scieszka  55 pages

  • Joe receives a magic book for his birthday present from his uncle. Joe, Fred and Sam are transported to a time when evil knights, fire-breathing dragons and vile-smelling giants roamed the land. Check our catalog

Math Curse by Jon Scieszka   32 pages

  • 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. Check our catalog

Little Wolf's Haunted Hall for Small Horrors by Ian Whybrow    125 pages

  • In a series of letters to his parents, Little Wolf describes his attempts to create "the scariest school in the world" and convince his ghostly Uncle Bigbad to teach a magic class. Check our catalog

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Folk & Fairy Tales

The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales by Jon Scieszka   52 pages

  • Young subversives everywhere will love these ten fractured fairy tales. Check our catalog

Bruh Rabbit and the Tar Baby Girl by Virginia Hamilton   32 pages

  • In this retelling, using Gullah speech, of a familiar story the wily Brer Rabbit outwits Brer Fox who has set out to trap him. Check our catalog

Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears by Verna Aardema    30 pages

  • A retelling of a traditional West African tale that reveals how the mosquito developed its annoying habit. Check our catalog

Head, Body, Legs: a Story from Liberia by Won-Ldy Paye 32 pages

  • In this tale from the Dan people of Liberia, Head, Arms, Body, and Legs learn that they do better when they work together. Check our catalog

Lon Po Po by Ed Young   32 pages

  • Three sisters staying home alone are endangered by a hungry wolf who is disguised as their grandmother. Check our catalog

Seven Chinese Brothers by Margaret Mahy      40 pages

  • Seven Chinese brothers elude execution by virtue of their extraordinary individual qualities. Check our catalog

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Non-Fiction

How Much is a Million? by David Schwartz  40 pages

  • Text and pictures try to make possible the conceptualization of a million, a billion, and a trillion. Check our catalog

Actual Size by Steve Jenkins

  • Discusses and gives examples of the size and weight of various animals and parts of animals. Check our catalog

Koko’s Kitten by Francine Patterson   32 pages

  • The real life experience of Koko, a gorilla in California who uses sign language, with a young kitten whom she loved and grieved over when it died. Check our catalog

You Can't Taste a Pickle With Your Ear by Harriet Ziefert

  • A fun look at each of the five senses and how they help us explore our world. Check our catalog

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Poetry

Insectlopedia by Florian Douglas   47 pages

  • Presents twenty-one short poems about such insects as the inchworm, termite, cricket, and ladybug. Check our catalog

You Read to Me and I'll Read to You: Very Short Fairy Tales to Read Together by Mary Ann Hoberman    32 pages

  • Eight favorite fairy tales in very short tellings, told in two voices to allow reading together. Check our catalog

A Pet for Me: Poems Selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins 44 pages

The Frogs Wore Red Suspenders by Jack Prelutsky  63 pages

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Biography

26 Fairmount Avenue by Tomie dePaola  71 pages

  • The popular author-illustrator recalls a year from his childhood, including memories of kindergarten and moving to a new house. Check our catalog

Wilma Unlimited by Kathleen Krull  44 pages

  • A biography of the African-American woman who overcame crippling polio as a child to become the first woman to win three gold medals in track in a single Olympics. Check our catalog

updated 9/6/07