2x2 Book Reviews for Kinder-2nd Students

We have a great lineup of 2x2 books this year for students in Kinder, First and Second grade. Read my reviews on a few of my favorites: 


Good News, Bad News by Jeff Mack

This silly book features two characters, a optimistic rabbit and a pessimistic mouse. The two characters are having a picnic (good news) when all of the sudden a storm blows through (bad news). The story continues with the rabbit pointing out the positives in each situation, followed by the mouse's negative statements. In the end, the mouse finally has it and ends up bringing the rabbit over to the negative side. Once the mouse sees how sad the rabbit is, he is motivated to find something good in the world.

Good News Bad News is wonderful story that children of all ages will enjoy. Preschoolers will love the repetition of words throughout and will have fun reading along with you. This book has great stopping points for the reader to explain what is happening in each picture and tell why it is good or bad. There is also a moral to the story, which offers a great teaching point to young readers. I highly recommend checking this book out and sharing it with the youngsters. They will immediately fall in love with the characters; rabbit and mouse, and will be wanting to find more good news/bad news situations in real life!

Mack, Jeff. 2012. Good News Bad News. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books. ISBN: 1452101108. 

I Know a Wee Piggy by Kim Norman

I Know a Wee Piggy is a fun loving book about a pig who is tired of his usual skin color, so he tries out new colors. On each page, the reader is left wondering what color the pig will try next. At the end of the story, he ends up stumbling into an art contest at the county fair where his “new skin color” wins! This is a silly book that children of all ages will love!

This would be a great book to read aloud to preschoolers. There is a lot of repetition used throughout with many key words that the kids can help read with you as you read aloud. Not only does this book use a lot of repetition, but you can also talk about colors and have the students name the color on each page. There are a ton of great teaching points through this story and the action will keep the young kids interest as well. This book is a must see and is on the 2013-2014 Texas 2x2 booklist!

Norman, Kim. I Know a Wee Piggy. New York, NY: Dial Books For Young Readers, 2012. Print. ISBN: 9780803737358

A Kiss Means I Love You by Kathryn Allen

A Kiss Means I Love You is a book about feelings and body language. This would be a great introduction for younger kiddos learning about emotions. Each page features a picture of a young child using a particular emotion or gesture with clever rhyming words to describe what those emotions/gestures mean. The younger kids will like seeing pictures of children their own age act out each emotion and will be motivated to act out the emotions too! I think this would be a great book to use during Pre-K story time and even to use among the older grades. I know several grade levels have TEKS that talk about character’s emotions and think that this would be a great introduction to that TEK. If you are looking for a simple book with real world connections then this is the book for you!

Allen, Kathryn Madeline. A Kiss Means I Love You. Chicago, IL: Albert Whitman & Company, 2012. Print.  ISBN: 9780807541869