Grade: 2

Despite the danger of capture and punishment, a brave young slave creates a quilt with a map stitched into it to guide herself and others to freedom.

A special dessert is often among the most memorable parts of a holiday celebration, and the pie that Ma and Pa rindle whip up offers the most amazing feast Willobee Street has ever tasted! To make their amazing pie, the Brindles toss together every sweet thing in sight (including marshmallows, chewing gum, and sprinkles) and mesmerize the entire neighborhood for the full 13 hours it takes to bake. Although Ma cautions the neighbors not to eat too much, no one listens. When they eventually go home and drift off to sleep, too much pie turns sweet dreams into potbellied nightmares, jovial green and purple creatures that lumber down the street and float through the air. Finally, Ma rindle sweeps them away, restoring peace to Willobee Street.

Tacky’s companions are graceful and quiet. He isn’t. He is an odd bird. But when hunters come looking for pretty penguins, it is Tacky’s individuality that saves the day.

Rosemary Wells’s mother was a ballerina who believed that Maria Tallchief was America’s greatest dancer. So it made sense for Wells to seek out this famous ballerina to collaborate on a picture biography. Wells does a marvelous job telling Tallchief’s story, from her early years on an Osage Indian reservation in Oklahoma to the stages of New York. Young readers will see that persistence and practice pay off.

Standardized testing has hit Miss Malarkey’s class. And in spite of being assured that “The Test,” the IPTU (the Instructional Performance Through Understanding test), isn’t important, the kids can see that the teachers, the principal, and even their parents are acting more than a little weird. By exaggerating the seriousness of testing Finchler creates a hilarious story. Amusing illustrations and funny speech balloons add to the entertainment. Use as a read-aloud in the midst of test preparations to break up tension for both you and students!

Patricia Polacco is now one of America’s most loved children’s book writers and illustrators, but once upon a time, she was a little girl named Trisha starting school. Trisha could paint and draw beautifully, but when she looked at words on a page, all she could see was jumble. It took a very special teacher to recognize little Trisha’s dyslexia: Mr. Falker, who encouraged her to overcome her reading disability. Patricia Polacco will never forget him, and neither will we.

The Magic Tree House whisks Jack and Annie back to the eve of the first Thanksgiving. There they meet the Pilgrims as well as Squanto, a Native American who helped them. The story offers an age-appropriate, in-depth picture of what life was really like for early settlers, as well as the usual Magic Tree House adventure and excitement.

“We said there was no home like a raft. Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery…but you feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft.” Sail down the Mississippi with Huck Finn and the runaway slave, Jim. Twain’s beloved tale, with its folksy language, creates an indelible image of antebellum America with its sleepy river towns, con men, family feuds, and a variety of colorful characters.