Building Knowledge and Character
K-2nd Grade Reading List
*Some books are for reading aloud to children and others are for children to read themselves
Language Arts/English
Author
Ahlberg, Janet and Allen
Aiken, Joan
Andersen, Hans Christian (all)
Appleby Ellen
Ardizzone, Edward
Backstein, Karen
Bemelmans, Ludwig
Bennet, William
Beskow, Elsa
Burgess, Gelett
Burton, Virginia Lee
Calmenson, Stephanie
Carrick, Donald
GFA Board Approved: 6/09/2012
Title
Lexile
The Jolly Postman
The Moon’s Revenge
The Emperor’s New Clothes
The Little Match Girl
The Little Mermaid
Princess and the Pea
The Red Shoes
The Snow Queen
The Steadfast Tin Soldier
Thumbelina
The Ugly Duckling
The Three Billy-Goats Gruff
Tim All Alone
Tim’s Friend Towser
Tim and the Brave Sea Captain
Tim and Charlotte
Tim and Ginger
Tim in Danger
Tim to the Rescue
The Blind Men and the Elephant
Madeline
The Book of Virtues
The Children's Book of America
The Children's Book of Heroes
The Children's Book of Virtues
The Moral Compass
Our Country's Founders
Children of the Forest
Pele's New Suit
Goops and How to Be Them
Katy and the Big Snow
The Little House
Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel
It Begins with an A
Harald and the Giant Knight
Harald and the Great Stag
340
280
480
80
1
Building Knowledge and Character
Carroll, Lewis
Chardiet, Bernice
Christelow, Eileen
Church, Caroline
D’Aulaire, Ingri and Edgar
dePaola, Tomie
Ditschfield, Christin
Douglas, Lloyd G.
Field, Eugene
Fisher, Leonard Everett
Fleming, Denise
Galdone, Pal
Gannet, Ruth Stile
Gerrard, Roy
Grahame, Kenneth
Gross, Ruth Belov
Hale, Sarah Josephina Buell
Hall, Donald
Harris, Joel Chandler
Harrison, M
Hawthorne, Nathaniel
GFA Board Approved: 6/09/2012
The Hunting of the Snark
The Walrus & the Carpenter
Rapunzel
Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed
Do Your Ears Hang Low?
Book of Greek Myths
Book of Norse Myths
The Art Lesson
The Knight and the Dragon
Legend of Indian Paintbrush
The Quilt Story
Shh! We're Writing the Constitution
Stega Nona
Johnny Appleseed
The American Flag
The Bald Eagle
The Liberty Bell
The Pledge of Allegiance
Wynken, Blynken, and Nod
The Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt
Rip Van Winkle Returns
Theseus and the Minotaur
The Two Mountains: An Aztec Legend
William Tell
Alphabet Under Construction
The Three Bears
My Father’s Dragon
Croco'nile
Mik's Mammoth
The Roman Twins
Rosie and the Rustlers
Sir Cedric
Wagons West!
The Reluctant Dragon
The Bremen-town Musicians
Mary Had a Little Lamb
The Oxford Book of Children's Verse in America
The Oxford Illustrated Book of American Children's Poems
The Complete Tales of Uncle Remus
The New Oxford Treasury of Children's Poems
The Oxford Book of Story Poems
A Wonder Book for Girls and Boys
310
20
370
520
620
370
610
200
440
2
Building Knowledge and Character
Heller, Ruth
Herriot, James
Hoban, Russell
Hoban, Tana
Hodges, Margaret
Hort, Lenny
Hughes, Shirley
Hurwitz, Johanna
Hyman, Trina Schart
Irving, Washington
Jarrell, Randall
Joyce, William
Kellogg, Steven
Kimmel, Eric
Kipling, Rudyard
La Prise, Larry
Lang, Andrew
Lawson, Barabara
Lawson, Robert
Lear, Edward
Lester, Julius
GFA Board Approved: 6/09/2012
Books About Words series
Blossom Comes Home
The Market Square Dog
Only One Woof
The Little Brute Family
The Mouse and His Child
26 Letters and 99 Cents
Gulliver in Lilliput
The Hero of Bremen
The True Tale of Johnny Appleseed
The Wind in the Willows
retellings
The Boy Who Held Back the Sea
Dogger
New Shoes for Silvia
retellings
Rip Van Winkle
The Animal Family
The Fisherman and His Wife
Dinosaur Bob and His Adventures with the Family
The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs
Santa Calls
Johnny Appleseed
Pecos Bill
Anansi and the Magic Stick
Anansi and the Moss-Covered Rock
Anansi and the Talking Melon
Anansi Goes Fishing
The Gingerbread Man
Iron John – Adapted from Brothers Grimm
The McElderry Book of Greek Myths
Medio/Pollito/Half Chick-Spanish Tale
retellings
Just So Stories
Riki-Tiki-Tavi
The Hokey Pokey
The Blue Fairy Book (and all of several other colors
Folktales from China
They Were Strong and Good
Nonsense Poems of Edward Lear
John Henry
The Knee-High Man and Other Tales
Uncle Remus: The Complete Tales
folk-tale retellings
640
920
1040
480
3
Building Knowledge and Character
Lewis, C.S.
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
Lurie, Alison
MacDonald, George
Mark, Jan
Marshall, James
Martin, Rafe
Marzollo, Jean
Mason, Jan
McCaughrean, Geraldine
McCloskey, Robert
McDermott, Gerold
McPhail, David
McQueen, Lucinda
Metzger, Steve
Milne, A.A.
Neil, Philip
Nesbit, Edith
Patrick, Denise Lewis
Potter, Beatrix (all)
GFA Board Approved: 6/09/2012
The Chronicles of Narnia
Paul Revere’s Ride
The Oxford Book of Modern Fairy Tales
The Christmas Stories of George MacDonald
The Golden Key
The Light Princess
The Lost Princess
The Oxford Book of Children’s Stories
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
The Three Little Pigs
The Rough-Faced Girl
In 1492
Paul Bunyan and Other Tall Tales
1001 Arabian Nights
The Bronze Cauldron
El Cid
God’s People
The Golden Hoard
Silver Myths and Legends
Stories from Shakespeare
Blueberries for Sal
Lentil
Make Way for Ducklings
One Morning in Maine
Time of Wonder
others
Anansi the Spider
David McPhail’s Animals A to Z
The Little Red Hen
You Are My Sunshine
The House on Pooh Corner
Now We Are Six
When We Were Very Young
The New Oxford Book of Children’s Verse
The Deliverers of Their Country
The Car Washing Street
Benjamin Bunny
Jemima Puddle-Duck
The Roly-Poly Pudding
Tale of Jeremy Fisher
Tale of Johnny Town Mouse
Tale of Peter Rabbit
Tale of the Pie and the Patty-Pan
Tale of Samuel Whiskers
520
560
540
310
820
290
470
580
660
4
Building Knowledge and Character
Pulver, Robin
Ransome, Arthur
Rohmann, Eric
Russell, William F.
San Souci, Robert D.
Seuss, Dr.
Silverstein, Shel
Steig, William
Steptoe, John
Stockton, Frank
Thomas, Mark
Trapani, Iza
Truss, Lynne
White, E.B.
Wilde, Oscar
Williams, Margery
Wisniewski, David
Wood, Audrey
Woodruff, Elvira
Young, Ed
Zelinsky, Paul O.
GFA Board Approved: 6/09/2012
Tale of Squirrel Nutkin
Tale of Timmy Tiptoes
Punctuation Takes a Vacation
The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship
My Friend Rabbit
Classic Myths to Read Aloud
FA Mulan
Legend of Sleepy Hollow
N.C. Wyeth’s Pilgrims
Robin Hood and the Arrow
The Talking Arrow
Young Arthur
Young Merlin
other retellings
Foot Book
Green Eggs and Ham
If I Ran the Circus
Marvink Mooney Will You Please Go Now
One Fish, Two Fish . . .
Yertle the Turtle
any
verse
Brave Irene
The Magic Pebble
Yellow and Pink
Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters
The Griffin and the Minor Cannon
Clothes in Colonial America
School in Colonial America
I’m a Little Teapot
Mary Had a Little Lamb
Eats, Shoots, and Leaves
Charlotte’s Web
The Selfish Giant
The Velveteen Rabbit
Elfwyn’s Saga
The Warrior and the Wiseman
Elbert’s Bad Word
others
The Memory Coat
Lon Po Po
Alice’s Adventure’s in Wonderland
Hansel and Gretel
Rumpelstiltskin
370
720
360
320
680
820
650
670
740
5
Building Knowledge and Character
others
It Could Always Be Worse
The Three Wishes
Zemach, Margot
History/Geography
Author
Adler, David A.
Alberg, David A.
Cohn, Amy L.
Evento, Susan
Golenbock, Peter
Gross, Ruth Belov
Jackson
Keenan, Sheila
Krull, Kathleen
Mara, Wil
Marx, David F.
O’Malley, Kevin
Penner, Lucille Recht
Prelutsky, Jack
Ribke, Simon T.
Ruffin, Frances E.
Ryan, Pam Munoz
Sweeney, Joan
Turner, Ann
Wade, Mary Dodson
Wilson, Camilla
Title
Lexile
A Picture Book of Harriet Tubman
Latitude and Longitude
A Picture Book of Benjamin Franklin
A Picture Book of Christopher Columbus
A Picture Book of Paul Revere
A Picture Book of Thomas Jefferson
Abraham Lincoln
Mary McLeod Bethune
Teammates
True Stories of Abraham Lincoln
George Washington
O, Say Can You See?
Harvesting Hope
Clara Barton
The Seven Continents
Independence Day
Straight to the Pole
The True Story of Pocahontas
If Not for the Cat
Thomas Jefferson
Washington, D.C.
Martin Luther King, Jr. and the March on Washington
Amelia and Eleanor Go for a Ride
Me on the Map
Nettie’s Trip South
Christopher Columbus
Rosa Parks
760
330
730
710
860
700
660
480
930
590
350
800
800
320
510
440
360
500
480
600
280
860
360
1020
Mathematics
Aker, Suzanne
Baker, Keith
Bang, Molly
Crews, Donald
Dodds, Dayle Ann
George, Jean Craighead
GFA Board Approved: 6/09/2012
What Comes in 2’s, 3’s & 4’s
Quack and Count
Ten, Nine, Eight
Ten Black Dots
The Shape of Things
Morning, Noon, and Night
470
500
270
450
6
Building Knowledge and Character
Harris, Trudy
Harshman, Marc
Hill, Mary
Krebs, Laurie
Leedy, Loreen
McMillian, Bruce
Murphy, Stuart
Pallotta, Jerry
Pluckrose, Henry
Rankin, Laura
Rose, Deborah Lee
Schlein, Miriam
Spurr, Elizabeth
Stewart, Melissa
Sweeney, Joan
Tang, Greg
Walsh, Ellen Stoll
Walton, Rick
Yates, Philip
100 Days of School
Only One
Dimes
Nickels
Quarters
We All Went on Safari
Mission: Addition
Subtraction Action
Eating Fractions
Less Than Zero
Icky Bug Numbers
One Hundred Ways to Get to 100
Capacity
Length
Shape
Weight
The Handmade Counting Book
One Nighttime Sea
More Than One
Farm Life
Giraffe Graphs
Me Counting Time
Math Fables
Math for All Seasons
Mouse Count
Bunny Day
Ten Little Mummies
320
Ah, Music!
America the Beautiful
My First Action Rhymes
Arroz con leche
She’ll Be Coming Around the Mountain
Yankee Doodle
This Land is Your Land
Charlie Parker Played Be Bop
The Itsy Bitsy Spider
Johann Sebastian Bach
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Purple Mountain Majesties
910
390
340
380
410
620
610
440
400
340
170
490
Music
Aliki
Bates, Katherine
Cravath, Lunne
Delacre, Lulu
Demarest, Chris L.
Goodnow, Patti
Guthrie, Woody
Raschka, Chris
Trapani, Iza
Venezia, Mike
Younger, Barbara
GFA Board Approved: 6/09/2012
140
860
980
880
7
Building Knowledge and Character
Science
Alexander, Carol
Ashman, Linda
Bang, Molly
Berger, Melvin
Bergin, Mark
Bredeson, Carmen
Bullock, Linda
Cameron, Polly
Canizares, Susan
Capeci, Anne
Cronin, Doreen
dePaola, Tomie
Dillon, Leo & Diane
Douglas, Lloyd G.
Fontes, Justine & Ron
Fowler, Allan
Garrett, Ginger
Gibbons, Gail
Gordon, Sharon
GFA Board Approved: 6/09/2012
Florence Nightingale
Castles, Caves and Honeycombs
My Light
Brrr!
Your Body
Your Bones
Your Brain
Your Five Senses
Dinosaurs
The Solar System
You Can Use a Balance
“I Can’t” Said the Ant
Evergreens are Green
Insect Invaders
Diary of a Worm
The Cloud Book
Rap a Tap Tap
What Is a Plane?
What Is a Pulley?
What Is a Screw?
Rachel Carson
Energy From the Sun
How Do You Know It’s Fall?
How Do You Know It’s Spring?
How Do You Know It’s Summer?
How Do You Know It’s Winter?
Maple Trees
Pine Trees
Plants that Eat Animals
Save the Rain Forests
Simple Machines
So That’s How the Moon Changes Shape!
These Birds Can’t Fly
What Magnets Do
What’s the Weather Today?
When a Storm Comes Up
Solids, Liquids, and Gases
The Reason for the Seasons
The Seasons of Arnold’s Apple Tree
Weather Words and What They Mean
Exercise
Keeping Clean
You Are What You Eat
380
690
620
280
300
300
370
770
490
300
210
610
360
680
300
230
300
310
410
600
650
620
520
570
600
620
620
720
510
580
490
650
150
580
450
90
230
290
8
Building Knowledge and Character
Gray
Helbrough, Emma
Heller, Ruth
Hoberman, Mary Ann
Intrater, Roberta Grobel
Jenkins, Martin
Kalbacken, Joan
Kittinger, Jo S.
Krauss, Ruth
Lauber, Patricia
Legg, Gerald
Lobel, Arnold
Mann, Rachel
Mara, Wil
McMillian, Bruce
Micucci, Charles
Murphy, Patricia J.
Posada, Mia
Relf, Pat
Ring, Susan
Rogers, Paul
Rose, Deborah Lee
Sargent, Brian
Schreiber, Anne
Stille, Darlene R.
Tocci, Salvatore
Trumbauer, Lisa
Weiss, Ellen
Yolen, Jane
Ziefert, Harriet
GFA Board Approved: 6/09/2012
Is it a Dinosaur?
1001 Bugs to Spot
Bears
Chickens Aren’t the Only Ones
The Reason for a Flower
A House Is a House for Me
Two Eyes, a Nose, and a Mouth
The Emperor’s Egg
Vitamins and Minerals
George Washington Carver
The Carrot Seed
What Eats What?
From Caterpillar to Butterfly
From Egg to Chicken
From Seed to Sunflower
From Tadpole to Frog
Frog and Told All Year
Frog and Toad Are Friends
Desert Life
Thomas Alva Edison
Sense Suspense
The Life and Times of the Ant
Back and Forth
Push and Pull
Dandelions
The Magic School Bus Hops Home
The Great Barrier Reef
What Will the Weather Be Like Today?
In the A, B, Sea
Hot Numbers, Cool Math
Magnets
The Digestive System
Experiments With Magnets
What Are Atoms?
What Is a Thermometer?
What is Electricity?
What Is Friction?
You Can Use a Compass
From Eye to Potato
Welcome to the Green House
You Can’t Taste a Pickle with Your Ear?
620
560
20
570
820
480
230
430
500
450
460
300
400
610
390
960
590
600
460
400
470
30
760
700
700
380
380
440
380
510
770
9
Building Knowledge and Character
Visual Arts
Author
Chanko, Pamela
dePaola, Tomie
Douglas, Lloyd G.
Friedlaender, Linda K.
Greene, Rhonda Gowler
Hunter, Ryan Ann
Lionni, Leo
Musgrove, Margaret
Venezia, Mike
Williams, Vera B.
Winter, Jonah
GFA Board Approved: 6/09/2012
Title
Lexile
Clay Art with Gloria Elliott
The Art Lesson
The Statue of Liberty
Look! Look! Look!
When a Line Bends . . . A Shape Begins
Cross a Bridge
Little Blue and Little Yellow
Matthew’s Dream
The Spider Weaver
Grant Wood
Henri Matisse
Henri Rousseau
James McNeill Whistler
Pablo Picasso
Paul Cezanne
Vincent van Gogh
Cherries and Cherry Pits
Diego
20
650
990
710
550
210
560
620
850
870
900
920
610
420
10