Grade: 2

Dick, Jane, Sally, Mother, and Father are not the only family having fun. This time, meetMike, twin sisters Pam and Penny, and their parents. Two families mean twice the laughs and twice the fun. Beginning readers will love the way each chapter is an individual story, and parents and educators will appreciate the way this format encourages young readers’ progression.

There’s never before been a book like Gallop! Employing a patented new technology called Scanimation, each page is a marvel that brings animals, along with one shining star, to life with art that literally moves. It’s impossible not to flip the page, and flip it again, and again, and again. A first book of motion for kids, it shows a horse in full gallop and a turtle swimming up the page. A dog runs, a cat springs, an eagle soars, and a butterfly flutters. Created by Rufus Butler Seder, an inventor, artist, and filmmaker fascinated by antique optical toys, Scanimation is a state-of-the-art six-phase animation process that combines the “persistence of vision” principle with a striped acetate overlay to give the illusion of movement. It harkens back to the old magical days of the kinetoscope, and the effect is astonishing, like a Muybridge photo series springing into action—or, in terms kids can relate to, like a video without a screen. Complementing the art is a delightful rhyming text full of simple questions and fun, nonsense replies: Can you gallop like a horse? giddyup-a-loo! Can you strut like a rooster? cock-a-doodle-doo! Every child who opens the book will be amazed—and so will every parent.

Using the letters of the Spanish alphabet, Ada has written 27 poems that appear in both Spanish and English. These poems honor the lives, experiences, and culture of the Spanish-speaking people who work the farmland of the American West. Silva’s vivid paintings reflect his Mexican heritage and his life as a child working on farms.

Cows wear dresses, pigs wear wigs, and sheep are scholars on George Washington’s farm. Humorous rhymes, with pictures to match, explain why Washington left his farm to go into politics.

Set in Mexico during the monarch butterflies’ annual migration and during the Days of the Dead, this is a heartwarming tale of a young girl and her close, loving relationship with her grandmother. Read this aloud in celebration of grandparents or during the Days of the Dead. A study guide is included in the back of the book along with descriptions of the celebration and the migration of the monarch butterflies.

Millions of Americans remember Dick and Jane (and Sally and Spot, too!). Now Dick and Jane and all their pals are back with revised editions of these classic readers for a whole new generation of readers to enjoy! Go Away Spot Dick said, “Down, Spot. I cannot play. Down, Spot, down. Go away, little Spot. Go away and play.”

Goldilocks has always felt guilty about breaking into the Bears’ house and causing all that damage. So as she grew up she shortened her name to Goldi and opened a lock and key shop to help people protect themselves against snoops. It’s 50 years later and Goldi can’t stand it anymore. She must return to the scene of her crime to make amends. Finding no one home again, Goldi plasters the finest locks all up and down the Bears’ door, and then takes it upon herself to restock their cabinets and “spruce things up a bit!” When the Bears return, readers learn that one person’s improvements may well be another’s disaster! But read on — a surprise ending just might set things straight.

Once there was a poor girl who had no mama and no papa and nothing at all, not even a name. But then one day an Ogre comes knocking at the town’s gate, threatening to ravage the town unless the townspeople give him one of their fair maidens. Of course they pick this poor girl to be sacrificed. They dress her in a gown and a paper crown, put her in a sack, and leave her for the Ogre. But this brave and clever girl manages to outwit the Ogre and all the townspeople, too, earning a purse full of gold, a fine sharp sword, and most important, a fitting name for herself: Good-Enough-to-Eat. This satisfying story has the feel of a classic fairy tale, brought to life by Brock Cole’s expressive watercolors.