2020 2X2 Reading List Announced

Drumroll please…the 2020 2X2 Reading List is here!

These lovely, instructive and quite often laugh-out-loud volumes are the best of recent books meant for children aged two to grade two. Librarians serving on the Texas Library Association Children’s Round Table 2X2 Committee, read through a whopping 946 books before narrowing down the list to these 20. (It’s a lot of devotion, to read almost 1,000 books to pick this list!)

The 2X2 books on the list can be read to small children, as well as read by young readers. The list was developed to give parents, caregivers and teachers a curated list of quality books.

Among the 2020 selections are:

Cake, by Sue Hendra. In this book, Cake (a cheerful cake who’s alive), gets invited to his very first birthday party. But as the candles on his party hat start to burn, and the other guests start to sing, Cake wonders if he should have gone to the party after all.

Not Quite Snow White, by Ashley Franklin. Tameika loves to dance, sing and act. When her school announces their “Snow White” musical, she’s ready to try out for the main role – until she overhears other kids’ whisper that she’s “not quite right” for the role because of her skin color.

I Am A Tiger by Karl Newson. A mouse tries to convince all his animal friends that he’s really a tiger. It kind of works – until a real tiger shows up.

The Goose Egg, by Liz Wong. Henrietta the elephant loves her serene, solo existence (“She savored the stillness of the morning as she sipped her Darjeeling.”) But it all goes awry when a baby goose needs her care.

Here is the complete list: 

Another by Christian Robinson (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2019)

Bear Came Along by Richard T. Morris, illustrated by LeUyen Pham (Little, Brown and Company, 2019)

Cake by Sue Hendra, illustrated by Paul Linnett (Aladdin, 2019)

Cyril and Pat by Emily Gravett (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2019)

Dandy by Ame Dyckman, illustrated by Charles Santoso  (Little, Brown and Company, 2019)

Duck!   by Meg McKinlay, illustrated by Nathaniel Eckstrom  (Candlewick Press, 2019)

Fergal and the Bad Temper by Robert Starling (Imprint, 2019)

Give Me Back My Bones!  by Kim Norman, illustrated by Bob Kolar (Candlewick Press, 2019)

I Am a Tiger by Karl Newson, illustrated by Ross Collins (Scholastic Press, 2019)

My Papi Has a Motorcycle by Isabel Quintero, illustrated by Zeke Pena (Kokila, An Imprint of Penguin Random House, 2019)

Not Quite Snow White by Ashley Franklin, illustrated by Ebony Glenn (Harper, An imprint of Harper Collins Publishers, 2019)

Ogilvy by Deborah Underwood, illustrated by T. L. McBeth (Godwin Books, 2019)

Perfect by Max Amato (Scholastic Press, 2019)

Saturday by Oge Mora (Little, Brown and Company, 2019)

Seeds Move by Robin Page (Beach Lane Books, 2019)

The Goose Egg by Liz Wong (Alfred A. Knopf, 2019)

The Panda Problem by Deborah Underwood, illustrated by Hannah Marks (Dial Books for Young Readers, 2019)

Truman by Jean Reidy, illustrated Lucy Ruth Cummins (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2019)

Underwear by Jenn Harney (Disney – Hyperion, 2019)

Watch Out for Wolf!  by Anica Mrose Rissi, illustrated Charles Santoso  (Disney – Hyperion, 2019)