Five Faves: Chapter Books for Second Graders

Second grade can be a hard time to find books on your reading level, let alone ones that you are excited about! Here are some of our favorite beginner chapter books that would be great to read as a second grader:

Kitty and the Moonlight Rescue
Written by Paula Harrison
Illustrated by Jenny Lovile
New York: Greenwillow Books, 2019. Intermediate. 118 pages.

Kitty wants to be a superhero, just like her mom. But, maybe when it's not so dark and scary outside. When one of her cat friends needs help, Kitty overcomes her fears to be a hero! This book is a great transitional chapter book with a couple of pictures on the action-packed pages.

The School is Alive!
Written by Jack Chabert
Illustrated by Sam Ricks
New York: Branches/Scholastic Inc, 2014. Intermediate. 90 pages.

Sam Graves takes his job as the school's hall monitor very seriously. So when he discovers that the school is alive and is plotting against the students, he must do everything he can to protect them. With the fast-paced plot and pictures on every page, this is a great beginner chapter book.

The Birthday Castle
By Dee Romito

New York: Aladdin Quix, Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division, 2020. Intermediate. 88 pages.

Best friends Caleb and Jax are starting a fort-building business! Their first job is to build a castle for Analise's birthday party. This is a short and sweet chapter book that would be perfect for your little engineers.

Happy Paws
Written by Vicky Fang
Illustrated by Christine Nishiyama
New York, NY: Scholastic Inc. 2020. Intermediate. 71 pages.

Layla and her robot rock band have decided to turn the old Happy Days Amusement Park into and amusement park for dogs! This book reads a little more like a comic book than a chapter book, so it would be a great transitional book.

Monster and Boy
Written by Hannah Barnaby

Illustrated by Anoosha Syed
New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2020. Intermediate. 132 pages.

Monster lives under Boy's bed. Monster loves Boy, but unfortunately Boy does not believe in monsters. That is until Monster pops out from under the bed, and the two become friends. This cute chapter book is so much fun! Your little reader will love the story.

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Review: The Factory

The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages. Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...

National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry

National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry Edited by J. Patrick Lewis National Geographic, 2012, 183 p. Poetry In this beautiful poetry collection, the National Children's Poet Laureate, J. Patrick Lewis, has teamed up with the amazing photographers at National Geographic. The result is 200 poems about animals, all illustrated with stunning nature photography. The poems are well chosen and include rhyming, free verse, and shape poetry. Some of the poems are funny, many are contemplative and all are nicely typeset on top of the full color photographs. One of my favorites is a shape poem about flamingos, with a photograph of a flock of flamingos which seem to be standing the the shape of a flamingo (how did they do that?). Lewis ends the collection with a brief but interesting section about writing animal poetry. This selection is sure to turn any animal lover into a poetry lover.

Review: A Game of Noctis

A Game of Noctis By Deva Fagan New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2024. Fiction. 310 pages. On the island of Dantessa, social standings and wealth are determined by your place in the Great Game. If you keep on winning, you can reap treasures, power, and security for yourself and your family; but if you lose too many games, you'll be exiled to Pawn Island and a life of servitude. That's what happens to 12-year-old Pia's grandfather. Due to poor vision, he struggles to see the games, but also can't afford new eyeglasses without winning. When his score falls to zero, he is sent away. Desperate to bring him back, Pia joins a ragtag group of misfits to form a team for the annual game of Noctis. The game requires contestants to perform dangerous challenges in front of a live audience, and no one outside the wealthy Diamond District has ever won. Each member of Pia's team, the Seafoxes, has their own reason to compete, but if they're going to win they'll h...

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