Library Links
SUMMER READING LISTS
Kindergarten – Grade One
Cronin, Doreen. Click Clack Moo: Cows That Type.
Farmer Brown's cows find an old typewriter, and they begin to write letters to the farmer asking for better living conditions. Read other books by this funny author.Feiffer, Jules. Bark, George. When his mother asks him to bark, George (a puppy) can meow, quack, and oink, but not bark. This dog has an unusual problem and an exasperated mother.
Fleming, Denise. The Cow Who Clucked. Cow has lost his moo and searches the barnyard. Read other books by Denise Fleming.
Jenkins, Steve. Actual Size. 18 animals are shown their actual size including the world’s largest spider.
Kimmel, Eric. Anansi and the Moss-Covered Rock. The repetition of the magic words and the sound effects as the animals fall into their magical sleep make this story a delight to read aloud.
Numeroff, Laura. If You Take a Mouse to School. Follow a boy and his mouse through a busy day at school. Read other books by this author.
Sierra, Judy and Brown, Marc. Wild About Books. By mistake Molly McGrew drove her bookmobile into the zoo. Taking advantage of the situation, the librarian offers each animal the appropriate book in a spirit reminiscent of Dr. Seuss. If librarian Molly McGrew can get the reluctant animals reading, she can certainly interest kids as well.
Stead, Philip. A Sick Day for Amos McGee. This year’s winner of the Caldecott medal. A zookeeper stays home from work and the animals who are missing him, find their way to his house. A wordless picture book, beautifully illustrated.
Willems, Mo. Are you Ready to Play Outside? Before Piggy gets the chance to play outside with her best pal, Elephant, it begins to rain. Look for other Piggy and Elephant books.
Wood, Audrey. Alphabet Adventure. All the letters from Charley’s alphabet have learned their proper order, from a to z, but they discover “i” has lost her “dot”.
Grade One – Grade Two
Barrows, Annie. Ivy and Bean. A humorous chapter book about two girls who become great friends in spite of their misgivings, and their entertaining adventures.
DiCamillo, Kate. Mercy Watson Thinks Like a Pig. Mercy the Pig’s neighbors are frustrated to find out who is eating their flowers and call in Francine Poulet to solve the case. Read other books in this series.
Hoberman, Mary Ann. You Read to Me, I’ll Read to You: Very Short Fairy Tales to Read Together. Short retellings of fairy tales, each told in two voices, designed for children and adults to read together.
Klein, Abby. Homework Hassles. When Freddy falls out of a tree and breaks his arm, he finds inspiration for his oral report on nocturnal animals. Read other books in this series, Ready, Freddy!
Kline, Suzy. Horrible Harry and the Ant Invasion. Hilarious books feature Harry, a mischievous second grader who plays pranks with nearly catastrophic results. Read more Harry books including Horrible Harry and the Dungeon and Horrible Harry and the Green Slime.
Lester, Helen. Tacky Goes to Camp. Tacky the Penguin goes to camp. Look for other funny Tacky books
Osborne, Mary Pope. Choose a book from the series called Magic Tree House. All books have strong characters, imaginative plots, and just the right dose of history and science.
Parish, Herman. Amelia Bedelia’s First Day of School. Amelia Bedelia, a first grader, finds her first day of school filled with confusing adventures. Read other books featuring the funny Amelia Bedelia character that has been making readers laugh for over 40 years.
Rylant, Cynthia. Mr. Putter and Tabby. Mr. Putter and his old cat Tabby have wonderful, funny, warm-hearted adventures in this early reader series. Look for other series by this popular author such as Henry and Mudge and The Cobblestone Cousins.
Stein, David Ezra. Interrupting Chicken. Chicken keeps interrupting his father during his bedtime story, with his version of fairy tale endings. The colorful bold illustrations made this book a Caldecott Honor book this year.
Grade Two – Grade Three
Applegate, Katherine. Never Glue Your Friends to Chairs. Roscoe Riley “plans to help” his teachers during the open house play, but things don’t go as planned. Read other books in this series.
Danziger, Paula. Amber Brown is Not a Crayon. Third-grader Amber Brown has just received some bad news, her best friend Justin is moving away. Read more books in the Amber Brown series.
DiCamillo, Kate. The Tale of Despereaux. Mice are supposed to be scared, timid creatures that hide in the walls. But Despereaux will break the rules and leave the castle's walls, all to win his beloved princess's heart. Read this book with your family.
Greenburg, J.C. Andrew Lost. Andrew builds an amazing machine that shrinks him down to a speck. Follow Andrew’s adventures in this series as he goes inside Uncle Al’s ear, lands on his dog’s nose, is swallowed by a whale, and more mishaps.
McDonald, Megan. Judy Moody. Judy is a charming, independent and willful heroine. She devises intriguing solutions to daily dilemmas. Another series, Stink Moody, features Judy’s brother.
Roy, Ron. A to Z Mysteries. With 26 books in the series, mystery fans will have plenty to read this summer. Planning a trip to Washington D.C.? Ron Roy also writes a series called Capital Mysteries set in our nation’s capital.
Seymour, Simon. The Cranford Public Library has many books written by this nonfiction author.
Sacher, Louis. Sideway Stories From Wayside School. Wayside School was supposed to be 30 classrooms and one story high; but by mistake it was built straight up 30 stories. And that's not all that's funny, wait until you read what happens in a typical day to the staff and students at this school. The fun continues in Wayside School is Falling Down and Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger.
Scieszka, Jon. See You Later, Gladiator. Three friends go back in time to ancient Rome. Read more books in the series, Time Warp Trio.
Weisner, David. Flotsam. On a summer’s day down at the shore, a boy finds a camera in the waves and develops the extraordinary photos inside. This is a wordless picture book. Explore other books by Caldecott winner David Weisner.
Need more suggestions? These websites will help you:
Whether it’s a book, magazine, newspaper, or a comic book,make sure reading is part of your summer!
Here are wonderful websites that are suitable for children and adults!
-This is a wonderful resource for parents and students. All Cranford schools are participants in this site.Cranford Library - The
Cranford library website is a great local resource for kids!
Yahooligans.com - Staying Street Smart on theWeb is a great place
to learn how to keep your kids safe on the web. Read Yahooligans
Rules for Online Safety and explore links to more resources about
Internet safety issues.
Family.Com This online magazine features articles about food,
health, holidays, education, and more for you and your family
to enjoy.
Fun Brain Great site for parents, teachers, and kids. Parents
and kids will enjoy playing grammar gorillas or math baseball
together. Fun for all.
Kidsource.com This easy to navigate web site with clearly defined
subject headings arranged by age levels and timely topics, provides
a wealth of education and health care information for children
and parents.
Notjustforkids.com Organized by lively subject areas, this inviting web
site is for families and kids of all ages. Be sure to visit "Not
Just For Parents."
surfingthenetwithkids.com Designed by a newspaper columnist and mother to help children and parents surf valuable sites on the Internet. Find out how to subscribe to the free semi-weekly newsletter.
www.nwf.org/gowild Ranger Rick has a cool new Web site called Go Wild!
ZoomBirds.com Bird watching, bird research, bird songs, entertaining
bird
jokes...plus lots more colorful useful information here.