Books | Page 12 of 82

The Boy Who Tried to Shrink His Name, embrace the moniker and be patient

Being a substitute teacher I usually go to a different class in a different school every day. Sometimes I’ll engage in long-term assignments which will afford me the opportunity to learn students’ names. Whenever I take attendance I always say this disclaimer, “If I mispronounce your name it’s not meant to be funny or insulting, so please correct me when I do.” I then go on to mispronounce a handful of their names but do try my best to state them correctly. The Boy Who Tried to Shrink His Name is a book about one of those kids. In this case, the boy’s name is Zimdalamashkermishkada and he’s a little self-conscious about his long name.

The Boy Who Tried to Shrink His Name is a timely and heartfelt book about embracing your name and being patient to those who have trouble saying it.

Those early elementary kids will love this

A Walk Through The Rain Forest, is flora and fauna-forest perfection

Back to that art class that I was asked to teach the other week. One of the students produced an illustration that was absolutely stunning. It was realistic, which led me to immediately mention hyper-realistic as a way to describe certain illustrations. By a happy coincidence, I had A Walk Through The Rain Forest in my backpack and showed them some examples of this student’s work, but elevated to the next level. A Walk Through The Rain Forest is an illustrated book where the text isn’t simple, but it does tell a simple story.

A Walk Through The Rain Forest is an illustrated book whose subtle text and hyper realistic art willfully drags you through the dirt.

Stop, collaborate and stare at the images

Go: A Kidd’s Guide to Graphic Design, what kids 10 and up are curious about

The other day I was put into art class as the substitute teacher. The assignment was rather simple and as I was providing them their different options I was using terms like disparate, negative space, abstract, hyper-realism, scale or symmetry. Then, to illustrate what the students looked like, I brought in a deer and turned on my car’s headlights that illuminated its bulbous eyes. Go: A Kidd’s Guide to Graphic Design was originally published as a hardback book and is now available in soft cover. Students, don’t get freaked out because a book has now been released in a format that’s more palatable for you. This is an illustrated, reference book that’s effortless to look at and presents its information in page nuggets that educate through entertainment.

Go: A Kidd’s Guide to Graphic Design gives what ages 10 and up know is around them, but gives it a name and explains why they like it.

Design you seek is it?

Slow Down and Be Here Now, lyrical, illustrated STEM around us

Don’t judge a book by its cover. Repeat that to yourself a couple of times and look at Slow Down and Be Here Now: More Nature Stories to Make You Stop, Look, and Be Amazed by the Tiniest Things. You’re thinking that it’s a book about nature poems. It’s got the oversized look to where it certainly could be loaded with poems about nature. The cover is softly illustrated and shows dandelion seeds being blown off from its host; while a rodent of some sort looks on from a neighboring plant. However, open the book and you’ll see seeds of STEM-based fun that lets young readers know that this is not rhyme-based reads for short attention span theater.

Slow Down and Be Here Now is an illustrated, leisurely look at the plants and animal STEM around us.

Illustrated STEM, but in a lyrical, non-poetry way

Cursed Bunny, short stories that crackle with dread and horror

Cursed Bunny leaves nothing on the table. It’s a collection of short stories that weave between horror, mystery, absurdity, and humor with an amazing degree of aplomb. Aside from the brilliant title, there are clues on the book’s cover that allude to the trippy, byzantine, and unique nature of each of these stories. The titular bunny has that fuzzy, out-of-focus look that’s both attractive and annoying about the TikTok logo. There are parallel lines that run on the front and back cover, with the ones on the back being a continual, yet inverse color of the ones on the front. There’s also some yellow goop on a couple of the letters that are dripping down from them. Cursed Bunny is horror, there’s nothing half-measured about the dread or disgusting appeal of these stories. They are also well crafted and unique enough to feel as though they’re from another dimension. If this brand of mystery or horror describes you then all you have to do is read the first seven sentences of the book and you’ll be hooked.

The cover of Cursed Bunny grabs your attention. The short stories in the book are detail-rich examples of slow burn horror for those who want their minds twisted.

Horror and taut stories for those who enjoy twisted tales

A Good Deed Can Grow, timeless appeal and a thinking, read-aloud book

Currently, I’m in a long-term contract with a middle school, thus it’s been a while since I read a book aloud to elementary school audiences. Those great read-aloud books have a strong purpose when their read to those early elementary ages. The books calm them down, get them to think, learn some of the basic traits that make us all better people and provide talking points for kids that want to share or give examples. A Good Deed Can Grow is that kind of read-aloud book. It’s an illustrated book whose premise is clearly listed in its title, but one whose execution might often miss the point.

A Good Deed Can Grow is a real aloud book that encourages pre-k through early elementary readers to think in their own world as to how they can make things better.

The feel-good, Free-thinking vibes are strong with this one

Once There Was is mglit as good as it gets

World building is a concept that too many books start out in mind without fully looking down the path to see where the story is going. They create a half-baked world and then ask readers to remain hooked on a story that seems to exist only for a literary series or movie franchise. Once There Was builds a world. It’s a complete and detailed world that’s adorned with creatures who are capable of incredible beauty and violence. In my mind’s eye, I see Once There Was innocently taunting other books, in its best Crocodile Dundee attire, in bookstores or libraries across the land saying, “That’s not a book, that’s a book.”

Once There Was is perfect mglit, it builds worlds for those younger ages, is smart enough for any age north of that and creates something new.

Please tell me that the Dundee alliteration was understood….

Louise Bourgeois Made Giant Spiders and Wasn’t Sorry, art for the masses

Art is weird, in the eye of the beholder, and difficult to define. Children are weird, loved by their parents more than others and sometimes exhibit behavior that’s difficult to define. Louise Bourgeois was a French-American artist who was a gifted painter but is most famous for creating large-scale sculptures. These are the big sculptures that you see around major cities that define the area and are must-see spots when you visit them. Even if you don’t know her reputation you’ll glean some idea of her work from the book’s title, Louise Bourgeois Made Giant Spiders and Wasn’t Sorry. For some readers, all you’ll need to do is mention ‘giant spiders’ and show them the artwork in the book to bait their interest hook to high.

Louise Bourgeois Made Giant Spiders and Wasn’t Sorry is an illustrated book on an artist that most don’t know and makes them care about her and her work.

Art and Children, what do they have in common?