2nd Grade (Age 7)

Solla Sollew is a tale of a young person who discovers the “troubles” of life and wishes to escape them. Through a series of adventures experienced when trying to reach the mythical city of the title (”where they never have troubles/at least very few”) the protagonist comes to realize that he must face his problems instead of running away from them. (At the end of the book, it is revealed that the mythical city has just one problem: a creature given to slapping keys out of keyholes has taken up residence in the gate to the city, and it is …

Best friends, Turtle and Spottie spend all their time together. They go to the gym, plant a garden, and enjoy scary movies. But they don’t always think alike, so compromise is the solution. Divided into chapters, this storybook can be read aloud at one time or over several occasions.

Rhythm, rhyme, and humor add zest to this tale of a young naturalist who sets out in search of frogs. As he explores the bay, he never finds a single frog, but delights in other animals. Alert readers will not only spy the heron, turtle, dragonfly, and other creatures the boy describes, but also the playful frogs that elude him.

A crocodile with an attitude, whose greatest joy is overeating, is taken from Egypt to Paris as a souvenir for Napoleon. Marcellino’s paintings fill each page with colorful images. Read it aloud!

Behind Mr. Sneelock’s ramshackle store, there’s an empty lot. Little Morris McGurk is convinced that if he could just clear out the rusty cans, the dead tree, and the old cars, he would have nothing to stop him from using the lot for the amazing, the world-beating, Circus McGurkus. The more elaborate Morris’ dreams about the circus become, the more they depend on sleepy-looking, innocent Mr. Sneelock, who stands outside his ramshackle store sucking on a pipe, oblivious to the fate that awaits him in the depths of Morris’s imagination. He doesn’t yet know that he’ll have to dispense 500 …

In the book, Gerald McGrew is a kid who, when visiting a zoo, finds that the exotic animals are “not good enough”. He says that if he ran the zoo, he would let all of the current animals free and find new, more bizarre and exotic ones. Throughout the book he lists these creatures, starting with a lion with ten feet and escalating to more imaginative (and imaginary) creatures, such as the Fizza-ma-Wizza-ma-Dill, “the world’s biggest bird from the island of Gwark, who eats only pine trees, and spits out the bark.” The illustrations also grow wilder as McGrew imagines …

Six fictional children talk about what they would do if they were president of the United States. “If I were president,” says one child, “the people would be my boss.” With simple text in a picture book format, Stier touches on the duties, responsibilities, and traditions of the office of the president.

A blend of poetic text and hand-tinted photographs transform common stones into prized possessions. Rocks are for skipping, splashing, climbing, and wishing. Some rocks even work well as tools for drawing on sidewalks. This quiet gem invites young readers to ponder over the possibilities.