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Reading Rainbow

Season 2

5 listed hours · 1983–2006 · PBS

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From the desk

How this season is filed

Filed by Julian Hart · The Binge Brief

LeVar Burton takes you into a book, then kids review it, then the catchphrase: you don't have to take his word for it. PBS literacy as after-school adventure, with field-trip segments that treated reading as a passport. A generation's librarian on camera — the Kickstarter revival proved nobody actually outgrew him.

TV Flash files Season 2 of Reading Rainbow (1983–2006) on PBS as a mid listed season (2; 2 of 21) — 5 listed hours, 1984-09-03–1984-09-07 from “Hot-Air Henry” (S02E01) to “A Chair for My Mother” (S02E05). Titles, dates, and synopses on file — no invented recaps.

Desk essentials in this season

  1. S02E01 Hot-Air Henry

    Hot-Air Henry is season two's balloon title: after-school adventure still treating reading as travel, not homework.

  1. S02E01

    Hot-Air Henry

    LeVar experiences a colorful and exciting expedition in a hot-air balloon. He takes viewers to a hot-air ballooning event, then provides a comical look into the past at some flying machines that never made it off the ground. Finally, LeVar visits the National Space Camp where kids find out what it takes to become an astronaut.

  2. S02E02

    Simon's Book

    LeVar takes viewers into the studio of the author of Simon's Book, Henry Drescher, to find out how he came up with the idea for his book and to look at the original illustrations. LeVar then visits the printing plant to watch as a book is printed, pages are cut to size, and the book is bound.

  3. S02E03

    Ox-Cart Man

    LeVar is inspired by the story to visit Old Sturbridge Village, Massachusetts, a hands-on living museum where he discovers what life was like in the early 1800's. He learns about training oxen, blacksmithing, bartering, and early printing methods.

  4. S02E04

    Mystery on the Docks

    LeVar takes a trip to the docks to find out about "Big Momma Blue", a crane that loads and unloads freighters, and then goes for a spin on a tugboat to find out how they are used.

  5. S02E05

    A Chair for My Mother

    Just like the teamwork in this family, LeVar discovers how working together helps accomplish so much more than one individual working alone, as he joins a dance team and visits fire fighter's school.

More from the 1980s.