Chapter Books for 2nd & 3rd Graders

Is your child an unmotivated reader? Does your child read just what is required of them? Are you hoping to inspire your child to read more?

While my second grader does as he is asked and likes to be successful, he is not inclined to do anything more than required in terms of reading and even that can be a struggle at times unless we have the “right” book.

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Towards the beginning of the school year, I noticed that the books my 2nd grader was checking out from the library were within his reading level, but barely. He was checking out very easy read books. After about the fifth Clifford book, I decided to intervene. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the Clifford books, but I wanted him to move onto something more age appropriate and challenging. Luckily about that time a scholastic flyer was sent home.

I looked for books that were in line with his interests to stimulate and encourage more reading. I looked for books that matched his interests of legos, dragons, reptiles, and bugs.

I hit that jackpot with that scholastic order! The day the books came in I found him walking down the hall with his nose in a book! He was so excited to start reading that he didn’t realize the book he was reading was the second book in the series. He finished that book quickly and then read the first book. As soon as the third book came out, I ordered it for him to read.

In between new release dates, we needed to find other books for him to read. Here’s some others he has enjoyed and/or plans to read:

This book was not super challenging and was on the bottom of this reading level, but it was not Clifford, it was a chapter book, and it was about a lizard. It appeals to K-2nd graders and is at Grade 2 reading level.

Try these other Boris books by Andrew Joyner.

Our school had their scholastic book fair in February and our son picked up Plants vs. Zombies: Lawnmageddon by Paul Tobin. He reread it several times. He really enjoyed that it was comic book style. I was plesantly surprised that it counted for his school reading program. Interest level is grade 3-5 with reading level of 2.7 according to scholastic.

The Black Lagoon Adventures books by Mike Thaler were also a big hit with him. He has read a couple of them and has two more on his list. The target reading level on these varies. For one it was 3.5 and the other was 2.3.

Another series that he has not tried, but we have on our list is the Cam Jansen Mysteries by David A. Adler. Cam Jansen and the Summer Camp Mysteries would be a good one for summer. This looks like a good series for both boys and girls.

The Magic Tree House books by Mary Pope Osbourne are a popular pick for this age and he has a few, but has yet to pick these up. They vary slightly in terms of their targeted reading level. Here are some I have picked out for him.

Another series that I think would be interesting is Horrible Harry by Suzy Kline. It is about a 3rd grader named Harry and his misadventures. My son has Horrible Harry and the Green Slime, but has not shown any interest, so I might try Horrible Harry and the Ant Invasion. The Horrible Harry books are within the third grade reading level.

Today he picked up a Ready Freddy book by Abby Klein. I picked up Shark Attack! (Ready, Freddy! #24) a few weeks ago at a Little Free Library located at one of our local parks. Have you heard of these? They are such a great idea. The idea is for neighbors to take a book or two and leave a couple of books for another individual.

I think this would be a good one for summer: Camping Catastrophe! (Ready, Freddy #14).