JOHNNY APPLESEED - 2nd Grade reading level

In part one of our list of Johnny Appleseed books we took a look at the three easiest primers and gave some links to resources we thought you'd find handy. In part two, we continue with books that are at the Second Grade reading level.

**all ratings from GoodReads 
**all book links to Amazon.com


bookcover of JOHNNY APPLESEED (Read-It! Readers)  by Eric Blair
Johnny Appleseed
(Read-It! Readers)
by Eric Blair
Amy Bailey Muehlenhardt (Illustrator)

3.00  Stars from 4 GoodReaders

A retelling of the legend. One reviewer at GoodReads commented that some of the events were 'unbelievable'. Cannot confirm this one way or another, but this might be an opportunity to explain the differences between Fiction and Non-Fiction.

Common Core Aligned Common Core Aligned
Reading Information:
Word Count: 278
Page Count: 32
Accelerated Reader:  2.3 / points: 0.5
AR quiz: 140771
Lexile: 560L

Espanol : Cuentos Exagerados
Word Count: 289
Accelerated Reading level: 2.5 / points: 0.5
AR quiz: 85669
Lexile: 530L


bookcover of JOHNNY APPLESEED:My Story (Step-Into-Reading, Step 3)  by David L. Harrison Johnny Appleseed: My Story
(Step-Into-Reading, Step 3)
by David L. Harrison
Mike Wohnoutka (Illus.)

3.65 avg rating — 57 ratings 

Besides being a practice reader, Harrison's Johnny Appleseed is also a great read-aloud. He gives us a story from the point of view of children on the frontier. When Johnny arrives everyone is excited to see John again and they invite him to dinner. The two children, Will and Beth, want John to tell them one of his stories, and he says 'sure', but not before he helps dad with the wood splitting.

When they do all settle down after dinner, Johnny tells of his own boisterous childhood. How he found relief from the noise of ten siblings! in the woods, and how the woods became a second home to him.

John then goes on to describe how he set off from Massachusetts to go west, and how he fell into apple planting by accident when a cider miller gave him free apple seeds.

The book covers the harsh winters in Pennsylvania and how John planted seeds there and in Indiana and Ohio too. (It does not talk about his death.)

read more of this review of here

Common Core Aligned Common Core Aligned
Word Count: 877
Page Count:  48
Accelerated Reader: 2.4 / points: 0.5
AR quiz: 57572
Lexile: 200L
-- amazon (Sample pages and other reviews available)


bookcover of  JOHNNY APPLESEED (Rookie Biographies)  by Andrea P. Smith
Johnny Appleseed
(Jr. Graphic American Legends)
by Andrea P. Smith

Comic book-style illustrations are featured in this book

Word Count: 838
Page Count: 24
Accelerated Reader:  2.6 / points: 0.5
AR quiz: 145920



bookcover of  JOHNNY APPLESEED (Rookie Biographies)  by Christin Ditchfield
Johnny Appleseed
(Rookie Biographies)
by Christin Ditchfield

3.87 avg rating — 15 ratings

This little book features lots of photographs and drawings and I really like it. It has an upbeat approach and it does a good job describing what an important figure John Chapman was in our country's early history. Ditchfield writes enthusiastically about how Chapman studied plants and animals when he was a youngster, and how he put that knowledge to work later in his life when he taught settlers in the Ohio Valley to plant and care for seedlings.

Those who object to any mention of religion might want to give it a pass as the author explains that besides plant knowledge, Johnny was welcome because he told great stories, and because he read from the Bible, his favorite book.

Appropriate for early elementary aged children.
Take a bit out of a big, juicy
apple. Inside you'll find a few
tiny black seeds.
Goodbooksforkids exclusive sample page from JOHNNY APPLESEED by Christin Ditchfield Note: if you click on the excerpts, most browsers will show you an enlarged, readable version.

Word Count: 349
Page Count:  32
Accelerated Reading level: 2.6 / points: 0.5
AR quiz: 86597
Lexile: 370L
-- amazon (samples pages available)



compiled by Pam 
October 2015