2nd Grade
Summer Reading List
Embedded Files
The following books are only suggestions, with varying reading levels appropriate to this age level to encourage our students to laugh, learn, and love reading. Feel free to browse other reading lists for more suggestions.
Don’t Trust Fish
By Neil Sharpson
A supposed nature guide humorously warns readers why they should never trust fish, exploring their mysterious and villainous nature.
What’s Scarier Than Thunder?
By Ben Falcone
It's time for bed, but Claire can't fall asleep. There's a storm outside, and the thunder is so loud and scary! Good thing her parents are there to help. They tell Claire there's no reason to be afraid. After all, there are plenty of things that are scarier than thunder...like a scorpion named Finn who plays the violin! A snake with big fangs and uneven bangs! And a dragon named Rance with ants in his pants! The hilarious list gets more and more outsized, building on itself in the most outrageous ways possible, until Claire is giggling herself right to sleep.
Millie Fleur's Poison Garden
By Christy Mandin
Arriving in Garden Glen, where every house and garden looks the same, Millie Fleur La Fae plants her spectacularly strange garden, but when the townspeople call it poison, she sets out to find kindred spirits who'll appreciate all the garden has to offer.
The Dictionary Story
By Oliver Jeffers
When Dictionary wishes she could tell a story like other books and decides to bring her words to life, comical chaos ensues and her friend Alphabet must come to the rescue, singing a song that brings calm and order to her pages once again.
Cece Loves Science and Adventure
By Kimberly Derting
When Cece and her Adventure Girls troop face a sudden thunderstorm, they use science, technology, engineering, and math to solve problems and make their way safely back to camp.
Ready, Set, Mango!
By Tamla T. Young
Two competitive cousins are in for a surprise as they fight to find the perfect fruit.
Dirt Cheap
By Mark Hoffman
Birdie wants a very expensive soccer ball but has no money, so she starts selling dirt and learns some important lessons along the way.
All the Books
By Hayley Rocco
Adorable chipmunk Piper Waterstone refuses to share her books with anyone until a friendly librarian presents her with a magical card that will give her all the books she could ever dream of -- with one catch: she must share them with her book-loving neighbors.
Bored Panda
By Mike Bender
For Panda, there is NOTHING worse than being bored. It's just so...boring. But what's a tech-loving panda to do when there's no electricity? Skeptical that the great outdoors will cure his boredom, Panda nonetheless sets out on a day full of surprises. They might even turn out to be fun surprises!
Cat on the Run in Hidden Layers! (Graphic Novel)
(Cat on the Run, 3)
By Aaron Blabey
Princess Beautiful is a pampered cat who is way tougher than anyone realizes, in the third book of an illustrated trilogy. By the author of The Bad Guys and Thelma the Unicorn.
Super Pancake and the Mini Muffin Mayhem (Graphic Novel)
(Super Pancake, 2)
By Megan Wagner Lloyd
When she accidentally gets superpowers, Peggy Pancake, with the help of her new friend, Luc Croissant, must master her newfound skills to defend her home of Breakfast Town from the evil Dr. Breakfast Sandwich.
Coolest Club Ever! (Graphic Novel)
(Pizza and Taco, Vol. 9)
By Stephen Shaskan
Pizza and Taco have a new after-school club about comics, but everyone goes to Cheeseburger's video game club instead, so Pizza and Taco must figure out how to get people interested in their club as well.
A Friend for Dragon
By Dav Pilkey
Dragon becomes such close friends with an apple that he deeply mourns its loss and is overjoyed when more grow to take its place.
Heidi Heckelbeck Has a Secret
(Book #1 of Heidi Heckelbeck Series)
By Wanda Coven
After being homeschooled her whole life, Heidi Heckelbeck enters a real school in second grade, where she encounters a mean girl named Melanie who makes her feel like an alien.
Snow Day in May
(Book #1 Wish Library Series)
By Christine Evans
Second-grader Raven faces her fear of public speaking and makes a new friend when her wish backfires.
Stella & Marigold
By Annie Barrows
Two sisters, Stella and Marigold, do all the regular things, like go to school, but they also share adventures (both real and imagined) and secret sister things.
Welcome to Scare School
By Jarrett Lerner
Bash is a young ghost who has never been good at scaring people is nervous about his first day at scare school, where he will learn to master the necessary skills to become a successful ghost.
Battle of the Bands
By Melody Reed
Keyboardist Jasmine, age eight, tries to convince her bandmates, Maggie, Becca, and Scarlet, to prove themselves in a Battle of the Bands competition, despite their poor equipment.
Eliza and the Flower Fairies
By Megan McDonald
Eliza's bedroom door leads to the Land of UnderStair, a magical hideout. There, she keeps her treasures and a diary. Another tiny door transports her to a fairy world with a tangerine sun and lemon-pudding sky. When Eliza picks a forbidden flower, her friend Poppy must rescue her before the Demon Wind steals the fairies' scents.
The Hundred Dresses
By Eleanor Estes
At the heart of the story is Wanda Petronski, a Polish girl in a Connecticut school who is ridiculed by her classmates for wearing the same faded blue dress every day. Wanda claims she has one hundred dresses at home, but everyone knows she doesn’t and bullies her mercilessly. The class feels terrible when Wanda is pulled out of the school, but by that time it’s too late for apologies. Maddie, one of Wanda’s classmates, ultimately decides that she is “never going to stand by and say nothing again.”
A timeless, gentle tale about bullies, bystanders, and having the courage to speak up.
Nonfiction Books
Wildlife Crossings: Protecting Animal Pathways Around the World
By Catherine Barr
This compelling picture book looks at seven animal species around the world that humans have put at risk, including elephants, hedgehogs, grizzly bears and cougars, and shows how people are helping them by reconnecting wildlands and waterways.
Magic Ramen: The Story of Momofuku Ando
By Andrea Wang
Every day, Momofuku Ando would retire to his lab--a little shed in his backyard. For years, he'd dreamed about making a new kind of ramen noodle soup that was quick, convenient, and tasty for the hungry people he'd seen in line for a bowl on the black market following World War II. Day after day, Ando experimented. Night after night, he failed. But Ando kept experimenting. With persistence, creativity, and a little inspiration, Ando succeeded. This is the true story behind one of the world's most popular foods.
On the Corner of Chocolate Avenue: How Milton Hershey Brought Milk Chocolate to America
By Tziporah Cohen
Hershey's milk chocolate is the quintessential American chocolate bar. But in Milton Hershey's time, chocolate was mostly a special treat for the very wealthy. Milton grew up poor and was no stranger to going hungry. When he got a job washing dishes in an ice cream parlor, he realized how happy sweets made people--and how much he liked making people happy. Over the course of his career, Hershey failed to make many businesses profitable, yet ultimately cracked the formula on milk chocolate. Here was a chocolate that was delicious, didn't spoil, and could be sold at an affordable price in communities across America and the world. And here was a business that could provide good lives in a welcoming town and an education for those who couldn't afford it.
The wire zoo: the story of wire sculptor Elizabeth Berrien
By Natasha Wing
This inspirational picture book biography tells the story of how neurodivergent artist Elizabeth Berrien created three-dimensional wire sculptures and went on to become the "godmother" of contemporary wire sculpture.
The Bug Girl (a true story)
By Sophia Spencer
Sophia loves bugs, but as she gets older the other kids tease her about it. When her mom sees how unhappy this makes Sophia, she writes an email to a group of entomologists. Their amazing response shows Sophia that she is not the only one who loves bugs.
Love Is Loud: How Diane Nash Led the Civil Rights Movement
By Sandra Neil Wallace
Introduces young readers to civil rights leader Diane Nash, whose fight against segregation in the 1960s with strong words of truth and action garnered the support of Martin Luther King Jr. and the president himself -- John F. Kennedy.
Challenge Yourself With a Series!
Ana & Andrew
By Christine Platt
Press Start!
By Thomas Flintham
Zoey and Sassafras
By Asia Citro
Diary of a Pug
By Kyla May
The Notebook Of Doom
By Troy Cummings
A-Z Mysteries
By Ron Roy
Read or Listen to These Childhood Classics Together
Little House in the Woods
By Laura Ingalls Wilder
A year in the life of two young girls growing up on the Wisconsin frontier, as they help their mother with the daily chores, enjoy their father's stories and singing, and share special occasions when they get together with relatives or neighbors.
Nim's Island
By Wendy Orr
Nim lives on the most beautiful island in the world (its location is a closely guarded secret) with a marine iguana, a sea lion, and her scientist dad, Jack. When he goes off to explore the world of plankton, the child occupies herself with typical Swiss Family Robinson-like chores and keeping her dad's batteries charged so she can check his e-mail on the laptop computer. When his boat becomes disabled, Nim's link to humanity becomes Alex Rover, the author of the novel she's reading, who has e-mailed Jack with some scientific questions. They correspond frequently, Nim giving Alex advice on building a raft out of coconuts, and Alex uncannily picturing spots on the island in her current book. A violent storm and volcanic eruption toward the end result in Nim saving the day, and the three characters set up life together on their paradise. And all of this occurs amid a clever plan to divert evil tourists from ever finding the island.
The Borrowers
By Mary Norton
Miniature people who lived in an old country house by borrowing things from the humans are forced to emigrate from their home under the clock.
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