Pennsylvania 2nd grade reading list

Books with a Pennsylvania citation for 2nd grade include Officer Buckle and Gloria, A Bad Case of Stripes and A Friend for Lakota: The Incredible True Story of a Wolf Who Braved Bullying. This list has 351 total books, 29 of them with a Pennsylvania-specific citation. Each book shows its reading level and a cited source. Lexile levels on the list run from 350L to 990L.

Top Pennsylvania 2nd grade pick: Officer Buckle and Gloria by Peggy Rathmann — on 1 Pennsylvania list

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Total books351Lexile350L–990LSourcePA Core Standards✓ sources cited per book

Most-assigned on state lists: across every US state’s official reading and award lists, the Elementary (K–5) titles appearing in the most states are Wonder (29 states), Because of Winn-Dixie (26 states), and Shiloh (25 states). From our 2026 study of 13,258 source-cited assignments (as of 2026-07-13).

Our pick to start — most-cited for Pennsylvania 2nd grade

These are the 29 titles named in Pennsylvania’s own curriculum documents for this grade — everything below is the wider national list. Read against the Common Core Appendix A complexity band; reading level is not thematic maturity, and several sit below the band because they are assigned for discussion.

  1. Officer Buckle and Gloria

    Peggy Rathmann

    Cited in 1 Pennsylvania curriculum document and 1 national reference, taught from grade K to 3.

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  2. A Bad Case of Stripes

    David Shannon

    Cited in 1 Pennsylvania curriculum document, taught from grade 2 to 8. Covers individuality, popularity and ficción juvenil.

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  3. A Friend for Lakota: The Incredible True Story of a Wolf Who Braved Bullying

    Jim Dutcher

    Cited in 1 Pennsylvania curriculum document, taught from grade K to 3.

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  4. Butt or Face?

    Kari Lavelle

    Cited in 1 Pennsylvania curriculum document, taught from grade K to 2. Covers humor, nature and animals.

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  5. Buz

    Richard Egielski

    Cited in 1 Pennsylvania curriculum document, taught from grade K to 3. Covers insects, humorous stories and insects, fiction.

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  6. Can I Be Your Dog?

    Troy Cummings

    Cited in 1 Pennsylvania curriculum document, taught from grade K to 3. Covers letters, dogs and dogs, fiction.

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  7. Chester

    Mélanie Watt

    Cited in 1 Pennsylvania curriculum document, taught from grade K to 3. Covers cats.

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  8. Creepy Carrots!

    Aaron Reynolds

    Cited in 1 Pennsylvania curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 10.

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  9. Dandy

    Ame Dyckman

    Cited in 1 Pennsylvania curriculum document, taught from grade K to 3.

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  10. Dragons Love Tacos

    Adam Rubin

    Cited in 1 Pennsylvania curriculum document, taught from grade K to 3. Covers humorous stories, food habits and tacos.

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  11. Except Antarctica!

    Todd Sturgell

    Cited in 1 Pennsylvania curriculum document, taught from grade K to 3.

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  12. Good Dog

    Maya Gottfried

    Cited in 1 Pennsylvania curriculum document, taught from grade K to 3.

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  13. Humpty-Dumpty Egg-Splodes

    O'Malley, Kevin

    Cited in 1 Pennsylvania curriculum document, taught from grade K to 3. Covers nursery rhymes.

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  14. Martha Speaks

    Susan Meddaugh

    Cited in 1 Pennsylvania curriculum document, taught from grade K to 3. Covers dogs, spanish language materials and ficción juvenil.

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  15. Mr. Fox's Game of "No!"

    David LaRochelle

    Cited in 1 Pennsylvania curriculum document, taught from grade K to 3.

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  16. Narwhal: Unicorn of the Sea

    Ben Clanton

    Cited in 1 Pennsylvania curriculum document, taught from grade K to 3.

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  17. No David!

    David Shannon

    Cited in 1 Pennsylvania curriculum document, taught from grade K to 3. Covers behavior, human behavior and conduct of life.

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  18. No More Water in the Tub

    Tedd Arnold

    Cited in 1 Pennsylvania curriculum document, taught from grade K to 3. Covers baths, humorous stories and hygiene, fiction.

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  19. Scaredy Squirrel

    Melanie Watt

    Cited in 1 Pennsylvania curriculum document, taught from grade K to 3. Covers courage, fear and picture books for children.

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  20. Shark vs. Train

    Chris Barton

    Cited in 1 Pennsylvania curriculum document, taught from grade K to 3. Covers new york times bestseller, nyt:picture_books=2010-07-04 and sharks.

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  21. Skippyjon Jones

    Judith Byron Schachner

    Cited in 1 Pennsylvania curriculum document, taught from grade K to 3. Covers cats, siamese cat and imagination.

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  22. Substitute Teacher Plans

    Johnson, Doug

    Cited in 1 Pennsylvania curriculum document, taught from grade K to 3. Covers schools, substitute teachers and humorous stories.

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  23. The Adventures of Captain Underpants

    Dav Pilkey

    Cited in 1 Pennsylvania curriculum document, taught from grade 2 to 5. Covers friendship, humor and imagination. At 720L it falls inside the 420–820L band for this grade.

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  24. The Great Fuzz Frenzy

    Janet Stevens

    Cited in 1 Pennsylvania curriculum document, taught from grade K to 3. Covers humorous stories, balls (sporting goods) and prairie dogs.

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  25. The Monkey Goes Bananas

    C. P. Bloom

    Cited in 1 Pennsylvania curriculum document, taught from grade K to 3. Covers monkeys, humorous stories and determination (personality trait).

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  26. The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig

    Eugenios Trivizas

    Cited in 1 Pennsylvania curriculum document, taught from grade K to 3. Covers swine, wolves and pictorial works.

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  27. The Yawns Are Coming

    Christopher Eliopoulos

    Cited in 1 Pennsylvania curriculum document, taught from grade K to 3.

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  28. We Don’t Eat Our Classmates!

    Ryan T. Higgins

    Cited in 1 Pennsylvania curriculum document, taught from grade K to 3. Covers humorous stories, tyrannosaurus rex and dinosaurs.

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  29. Widget

    Lyn Rossiter McFarland

    Cited in 1 Pennsylvania curriculum document, taught from grade K to 3. Covers cats, dogs and dogs, fiction.

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29 books cited for Pennsylvania 2nd grade

Assignments tied directly to Pennsylvania’s PA Core Standards with a Pennsylvania-specific citation.

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322 additional grade-appropriate books for 2nd grade readers

The 351-book total above includes 29 titles with direct Pennsylvania citation; these 322 additional titles cover 2nd grade in the broader canon. They don't have a Pennsylvania-specific citation yet but are commonly taught at this level.

Show all 322 titles

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Other Pennsylvania grades

1st grade · 3rd grade · Kindergarten · 4th grade

Reading lists by grade (all states)

1st grade · 3rd grade · Kindergarten · 4th grade

Same 2nd grade in other states

California · Texas · Florida · New York · Illinois · Ohio

Browse 2nd grade reading by theme

About the Pennsylvania 2nd grade reading list

This list combines books cited in PA Core Standards with books from national sources that list titles for 2nd grade: the Common Core State Standards (ELA), plus awards such as the Caldecott Medal, the Golden Kite Award and the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award. ReadingList currently tracks 351 titles for 2nd grade in Pennsylvania, of which 29 carry a direct Pennsylvania citation and 322 are grade-appropriate titles whose reading level overlaps 2nd grade. Across the list, Lexile measures span 350L–990L.

2nd grade sits in the K-2 grade band, where students are emerging and early readers. At this stage the emphasis is on building phonemic awareness, decoding, fluency, and a love of being read to. Assigned reading skews toward picture books, decodable texts, and short illustrated chapter books, with text complexity that, per Common Core’s Appendix A reading bands, typically falls around BR (Beginning Reader) to roughly 500L. Measured against that 420–820L range, of the 19 titles here with a Lexile score 14 are grade-level, 3 are more accessible (often assigned for theme over challenge), and 2 are stretch texts that may need scaffolding. Because readers in a single 2nd grade classroom can span several hundred Lexile points, this list is best read as a starting point rather than a fixed requirement.

Pennsylvania’s English Language Arts requirements are set by PA Core Standards (education.pa.gov). Most states pair their own standards with the Common Core text-complexity framework. The 2nd grade list below blends Pennsylvania-specific assignments with widely taught national titles. Every title links to its primary source on the book’s detail page, so you can confirm exactly where and why it is assigned.

How to use this list:match a title to your child’s most recent Lexile or guided-reading level rather than to the grade alone. Teachers building a 2nd grade unit can pair a Pennsylvania-cited core text with a grade-appropriate companion novel; parents previewing summer or supplemental reading can check each book’s content notes and challenge history before assigning it.

Common questions

What books do 2nd grade students read in Pennsylvania?
Books with a Pennsylvania-specific citation for 2nd grade include Officer Buckle and Gloria, A Bad Case of Stripes, A Friend for Lakota: The Incredible True Story of a Wolf Who Braved Bullying, Butt or Face? and Buz. Individual schools and districts choose their own titles, so check with your child's teacher for the exact list.
How many books are assigned to 2nd grade students in Pennsylvania?
This list has 351 books for 2nd grade students in Pennsylvania. 29 of them have a Pennsylvania-specific citation; the other 322 are grade-appropriate titles from national reading lists and awards.
What's the Lexile range for 2nd grade reading in Pennsylvania?
Lexile measures across the 2nd grade Pennsylvania reading list range from 350L to 990L. Books without a published Lexile (poetry, drama, picture books) are not included in this range.
Where does this reading list come from?
Pennsylvania-specific entries reference PA Core Standards (published at www.education.pa.gov). The other books come from national sources that list books for 2nd grade: the Common Core State Standards (ELA), plus awards such as the Caldecott Medal, the Golden Kite Award and the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award. Each book's page links the primary source for every listing.

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State-specific entries sourced from www.education.pa.gov. National references cited on each book’s detail page.

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