This is the first time I am working with my daughter, now age 7.5, to make a list of book recommendations. These are her current favourite book series for grade 2!
My son started reading to himself in both French and English when he was 6, which sparked a series of blog posts and an Instagram account featuring his book recommendations.
I have been asked how I got him reading independently so young, and the answer is, I didn’t. It just happened. I was far too busy managing newborn twins to teach him how to read! Every kid is so different in what skills they pick up easily and which are more of a challenge; for my eldest, reading was just something that came naturally to him in both languages.
My daughter has been slower to become a fluid and confident reader. She had mastered the foundations of reading in French by the end of grade one, and she has started to catch up now with English, but it has required more perseverance on her part and mine.
Now that she is part way through grade 2, she is so excited to have discovered that she can now pick up a book (at her level) in English or French and enjoy it on her own. We still read together at nighttime, but the books on this list are also books she likes to read independently.
My kids attend school in the Francophone district, but being in Calgary they have ample exposure to English. At home we speak what can only be described as Frenglish. Most of these series exist in both English and French and we read them interchangeably.
If your child is in French immersion, they may also enjoy the French versions of these series!
My Daughter’s Favourite Book Series for Grade 2
Elephant & Piggie / Éléphant et Rosie
This series by Mo Willems is so adorable and fun to read. We read these a lot together in Grade 1 as she was learning to read, and they were the perfect length and difficulty. As read-aloud stories for preschoolers they are also great. We usually took turns reading aloud, one of us voicing Gerald (Éléphant, in French) and one voicing Piggy (aka Rosie). Now if she picks one up herself, they’re very quick reads and she can even read them to her younger brothers.
“I like Éléphant et Rosie because they’re friends and sometimes they are angry at each other but after a while they get back together. And also at the end, you have to find a pigeon.”
Unicorn Diaries / Journal de Licorne
Do you remember riding the high of the Scholastic book fair? Since Miss Cub started school in 2020, she had two years without her school library being turned into a pop-up bookstore. This year she got to bring some money to school one day and shop for a book for the very first time. Yes, she also chose a poster. The book she chose was part of the Journal de Licorne (Unicorn Diaries) series and she very quickly needed to collect them all.
“J’aime le Journal de Licorne parce que j’apprends plus de français et j’aime le français. Les noms des licornes sont un petit peu dur pour moi. And also I like them because they have powers.”
Cat & Cat Adventures, The Quest for Snacks, has the glorious distinction of being the very first book in English that Miss Cub read all by herself. Suffice to say that she was very, very purrrrr-oud of herself.
Turns out this series is by a popular Instagram cartoonist. Unfortunately these aren’t available in French.
“I love cats and it’s funny because they look for snacks and they go and make friends and it’s interesting. One of the Cat & Cat Adventures there was a dragon and there was a bear who thought that dragon was mean but they helped a little demon who was blue and then the demon showed them the dragon and then the dragon was so nice to them and then the bear was lying to the cats because the bear wanted to get a magic thing and she had it all the time.”
Olga (English) / Olga (français)
Elise Gravel is a fantastic, bilingual author who is a big presence on my own Facebook feed and a big presence in my kids’ school (and surely schools all over the country). My kids love her. I love her. And we love Olga.
The Olga books are above my daughter’s level to read on her own, but she loves to read them with me and my son. They’re super funny and super different from the “princess perfect” type main characters that inhabit most of the graphic novels targeted at little girls.
All of Elise Gravel’s books are fantastic, Olga is no exception!
“I love Olga because it’s funny and she finds animals, she loves animals, and she found a weird animal in it. And at the end of the book, the weird animal has little babies. When I first saw those little babies, I thought they were potatoes.”
Narwhal & Jelly / Les aventures de Narval et Gelato
Narwhal & Jelly is my favourite of the books on this list. I love the adorable plays on words in the English and how well they’re translated into French, which my daughter also appreciates:
“I like Narwhal & Jelly because it’s funny and it tells jokes. Like, one of the jokes is in French, c’est ‘Narval et Loutre Ami’ and in English it’s ‘Narwhal and the Otter Friend.’” (“Loutre” is otter in French, and also sounds like the word “autre” which means other.)
Like a lot of the books on the list, these stories are told primarily (exclusively, I think?!) through dialogue. The drawings are adorable and the stories are fun to read.
Unicorn and Yeti / Licorne et Yeti
Unicorns and cats are big on my daughter’s list of favourite creatures. Stories of friendships are also a fave, so here we have an adorable little unicorn and another cute, mystical creature who make a sweet duo. Again, this book is mainly dialogue and is the perfect level in both languages for my kiddo.
“I like Yeti & Unicorn because they do fun things together.”
Dragon series / La série Dragon
Dav Pilkey is the king of children’s graphic novels. He’s the pen behind Dog-Man and Captain Underpants. Dragon, thankfully, is free of potty humour!
“I like Dragon because in one of them there are cats and I looooove cats. I literally have two of them at my house. And in the Christmas one Dragon he buys things and then there’s animals who need those things and he helps them.”
If your kiddos like a lot of the books on this list, maybe you can make some suggestions for our next trip to the library!
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