2nd Grade Reading

Written by Terri Fields
Illustrated by Laura Jacques

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What is the most dangerous animal on Earth? Fearsome creatures from all over the world gather for the Most Dangerous Animal contest. Each animal presents its case, boasting that it is the most dangerous. The judges hear from snakes, sharks, crocodiles, spiders, and more, their evidence leaving the judges shaking in fear. Then, the last animal steps up. It is the lowly mosquito, who is jeered off the stage by the other contestants, all of whom are sure they are the deadliest animal of all. But when the judges announce the winner, it is the mosquito who scores the shocking victory! Mosquitoes spread disease, the judges explain, and this tiny insect has been responsible for more deaths than all the other dangerous animals combined.
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Written and Illustrated by Karin Littlewood

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Immi’s Gift is a simple story of a little girl’s desire for friendship and how she finds it in the most unexpected of places. Immi is a lonely Inuit girl who lives in a stark world of bitter cold and white snow. One day while fishing on the ice, she brings up a little wooden bird. She’d never seen such beautiful colors before and she ties it on her necklace, alongside her treasured carved white bear. What happens next brightens Immi’s world. Day after day, when she comes to fish she catches brightly colored flowers, starfish, and leaves. They all are thrilling additions to her colorless life and she uses them to dress up her lonely igloo. Soon it was the brightest in the land and all the creatures come to visit Immi’s home. These special little gifts from the ocean not only brighten her life, but they warm her heart as her life is filled with creature friends and joy. When the ice begins to melt and she must move on, Immi has one last thought. Immi gives a gift of her own to the ocean as she drops her white bear charm into the water.
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By Madelyn Rosenberg
Illustrated by Jana Christy

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Written as a novel about two children looking for a way to celebrate the Jewish celebration of trees, this is an environmental adventure. Joni and her friend Nate think about what will make the trees happy. In the process, they figure out that their tree will be happy if the Earth is happy. They try several ways to please their favorite climbing tree: singing to it in Hebrew and English, trying to blow away the clouds blocking the sun, giving it a party with hats, giving it a tree-friendly cupcake, watering, depositing a paper bird in the tree, and acting like trees themselves. In the end, their solution is to plant a companion tree and give it all the love, water, and sunshine they can.
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