Summer reading suggestions for 2nd grader at an advanced reading level?

How about Kingdom Keepers since they are Disney or do you think they might be too scary?

Well, it turns out that DD finally admitted that this is what she really, really wants to read...which is not a big surprise because as I said above, she stops at them every time we pass them at the book store. We negotiated that I would read the first one and then decide if I thought she was old enough to read it! From her side, she is not supposed to complain if I decide she can't read it yet and keep it until she gets older.

While, I'm doing that, she has decided to go with Roald Dahl's Matilda, the two Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Books, E.D. Baker's the Frog Princess, and Lauren Child's Clarice Bean (she was a huge Charlie and Lola book fan in Kindergarten she checked out all of them we could find at the library). Yes, I'm a total sucker when she bats those eyes at me and asks for books. :laughing:

Thanks for all the suggestions. When she gets done with those we now have a great list of more books to try!
 
Well, it turns out that DD finally admitted that this is what she really, really wants to read...which is not a big surprise because as I said above, she stops at them every time we pass them at the book store. We negotiated that I would read the first one and then decide if I thought she was old enough to read it! From her side, she is not supposed to complain if I decide she can't read it yet and keep it until she gets older.

While, I'm doing that, she has decided to go with Roald Dahl's Matilda, the two Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Books, E.D. Baker's the Frog Princess, and Lauren Child's Clarice Bean (she was a huge Charlie and Lola book fan in Kindergarten she checked out all of them we could find at the library). Yes, I'm a total sucker when she bats those eyes at me and asks for books. :laughing:

Thanks for all the suggestions. When she gets done with those we now have a great list of more books to try!

Have you read Mathilda ? It can get pretty heavy at times. She is basically abused by her parents and a school principal. My 9 year old is reading it and was bothered by parts of what happens to Mathilda.
 
Have you read Mathilda ? It can get pretty heavy at times. She is basically abused by her parents and a school principal. My 9 year old is reading it and was bothered by parts of what happens to Mathilda.

She has seen the movie and she loved it, which is why she picked the book. I was worried she might be bothered by some of the stuff in the movie, but when we watched it she wasn't at all. Is the book that much harsher than the movie? I've read some of the Dahl books (I loved both Charlie books when I was around her age), but I'm not sure that I have ever actually read Matilda.
 
She has seen the movie and she loved it, which is why she picked the book. I was worried she might be bothered by some of the stuff in the movie, but when we watched it she wasn't at all. Is the book that much harsher than the movie? I've read some of the Dahl books (I loved both Charlie books when I was around her age), but I'm not sure that I have ever actually read Matilda.

IMO, it is a bit more "real" in the book than the movie, if that makes sense. dD has seen the movie as well, but was still bothered a bit. Not to a huge extent though. We talked about it and she was fine.
 
I think Magic Treehouse is age appropriate. My DS is going in to 1st grade and just starting to read them so I can't imaging they'd be leaps and bounds beyond a 2nd grader.

My favorite book when I was in 2nd or 3rd grade was The Secret Garden. :-) Another I remembered from school and recently hunted down for my kids was "From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler." :-)
 
Then instead of looking for more books, you might want to have her work on her handwriting and slowing down her thoughts into a real paragraph.

This was DS15, and that is what his teacher in 2nd grade had us do. She said his writing ability did not match his reading ability. Since that summer, we have had teachers comment on how well he writes. We had him do a book report and write in a journal. He loved taking the time to write about the book he had just read. So we slowed down the reading and got him writing more. It has paid off. His Freshman English teacher told us, that he writes on a very mature level, and his vocabulary is outstanding for a 15 year old.

While I believe reading is wonderful, writing is also an essential skill. I think a great idea would be to try to extend the "reading experience" by having your DD do some writing and other related activities. She gets the joy of reading, more practice writing and you can add in other related activities or experiences which can promote higher level thinking skills.

For example, if your DD reads The Wizard of Oz, have her annotate the text (with post it notes) when she comes across a passage she finds particularly enjoyable, or that maybe creates more questions and confusion. In the description of the City of Oz, Baum paints a very vivid picture of what the city looks like and I personally would mark it. Have DD draw a picture of the city and then perhaps write a short paragraph about what she thinks life would be like if she lived in Oz. Or if she marks the passage where the tornado is discussed, do a little research and read a book about how tornadoes form then make a soda bottle tornado as a fun way of reinforcing the tornado "lesson".

As a reading tutor in college, I actually did the above activities with a student as we read the Wizard of Oz. We also created (going through all the steps of the writing process from drafting, editing and publishing) our own Oz Daily Times newspaper that detailed the events of the day the Wicked switch was unfortunately smushed. When we finished the book, we had a WoZ party! My student helped me make "Somewhere over the rainbow" cupcakes (combined the math of cooking with reading as we had to read the recipe), made Witches Brew green lime punch, scarecrow cheese straws, Glinda cotton candy, make your own veggie (tin) man out of celery, tomatoes, raisins a DVD ranch dip joint glue, decorated a bit then watched the movie version. Afterward, we completed a little compare and contrast written activity.

I know this sounds like more involved, teachery type stuff, which it is-I'm a recent Education major graduate, I think it would be a way to extend her love of reading to other subjects and cross curricular activities, while increasing her writing and comprehension skills.

As for assessing her actual reading level, contact the closest college that has a teacher education program. At my college, as part of my reading requirement, we had to work in our reading clinic in campus under the supervision of our professor, while taking a reading assessment class in conjunction with tutoring. They may have a reading clinic that could assess her. Or, if you'd like to donor yourself, buy a copy of Jerry John's "Basic Reading Inventory" or Beverly DeVreis' "Literacy Assessment and Intervention for Classroom Teachers". Both provide a variety of ways to assess reading levels, comprehension, fluency and vocabulary skills.
 
I wouldn't worry too much about the Roald Dahl books. Yes, scary stuff can happen to children, they are filled with people who are awful to children, but the kids always end up being empowered and able to overcome/fix the situation. That is what I find powerful about them. That and I love the creativity/characters/worlds that he creates.

My DS7 doesn't do scary, but has enjoyed all of the Dahl books we/he has read. We purchased a 15 book lot from Costco a year or two ago.

Love this post, as it made be feel better about DS7's struggle with writing. His head is so full of thoughts that he really has a hard time focusing on one and getting it out. We live in a bigger district in OH, and thankfully they test for giftedness in K, and start pulling the kids out in first grade (3 days a week). Next year it is 5 days a week. They do some pretty amazing stuff.
 
Both of my girls really liked the Emily Windsnap and Phillippa Fisher series. There are 4-5 books in each series I think.
 
My girls were never into Beverly Cleary, here are some faves from my DD11 advanced reader and DD9 good reader:


Mysterious Benedict Society (3 books and a prequel)
The Frog Princess series (lots of books)
How To train Your Dragon (10 books) much better then the movie.
Ivy and Bean
clementine
Percy Jackson
The Strange Case of an Origami Yoda series (4th book coming in August)
Warriors by Erin Hunter (over 40 books total broken into several series, graphic novels etc)
Mrs. frisbee and the Rats of Nimh (wonderful old book)
Mixed up Files of Mrs basil e frankweiler
Puppy Place (short and cute stories of a family helping to find homes for puppies)
The Bed and Biscuit series
Harry Potter. (11 year old finished the series, 9 yr old is on book 5 with me reading aloud. Both are sensitive girls and they LOVE this series! Will wait a bit to finish series for 9 yr old)

Our school librarian was very helpful. She recommended some great books.

Sometimes my advanced reader reads easier books because its just not always fun to read so intensely.
 
Checked my girls shelves this morning and found:

American Girl
American Girl mysteries
Pet Trouble series
The Disney Fairy chapter books. Both girls read them ALL and loved them
Ginger Pye

We went thru books at an alarming rate for awhile. Use the library!! Used book stores too. Our school has a book swap in the Fall. Mine have slowed down now since schoolwork has become more time consuming.

Enjoy!!
 
Sorry if its already been posted, I didn't read all the other comments. My daughter loved the Geronimo Stilton series at that age. She also enjoyed abridged versions of classics like The Little Princess and The Secret Garden. While the vocabulary was easier for her to handle, she could appreciate the deeper story lines that those books offered.
 
your school shoudl have a lexile reading program. if they sont', scholasitc.com should have a test that she can take and it will give you books that appropirate for her reading level
 












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