All age comic books, Kidlit, mglit, movies, entertainment and parenting
Category: Books
These are books that kids will want to read-or should read, but will enjoy doing so. Board book, picture books, kid lit, elementary school books, middle school books, high school books, all age comic books and more will be talked about here.
Scary is relative. Sometimes the things that fourth through sixth-grade ages find scary, actually start out funny. Other times those stories are icky, disgusting, or mildly disturbing, but they’re never graphic and usually fun. Stories to Keep you Alive Despite Vampires is kid scary in the best of all possible ways. Ages eight and up know Lemony Snicket, while their compatriots who are a year older are reading it. Despite Vampires is cut from a similar cloth, with a couple more influences that’ll make the book demo just a bit older.
“I have no idea why you lost your tooth or what the tooth fairy does with them”, that’s what I told a kindergarten student earlier this month. They were over the moon with curiosity as to how the tooth disappeared from underneath their pillow last night. And while they were thankful for the money that it had been displaced with, their wonderment as to where the tooth could’ve gone took up as much real estate in their mind as their sudden financial gain. The Museum of Lost Teeth is an illustrated book by Elyssa Friedland with illustrations by Gladys Jose that examines one theory as to how baby mouth bones disappear from the cool side of the pillow.
Upend expectations. Take what is normally expected from a thing and completely subvert it in a much more excellent manner than you are used to. Digestion! The Musical is an illustrated book that takes the normally short presentation of those books and makes it longer. It takes a subject that every elementary-aged child is curious about and turns it into a theme park of a book. There are three distinct areas of the book that looks at how the body digests food. Digestion! The Musical works as an illustrated book for young elementary ages, as well as, a primer on the human body for ages six and up. It’s also worth noting that it does this with style, STEM, humor, and poop, just in case your audiences are curious about the end results.
Growth is good. That’s not exactly what Gordon Gekko said, but let’s keep that phrase in the context of schooling and growth is good. That can happen in many forms, from not kicking the chair in front of you, to remembering to bring a pencil to those younger ages when they stop chewing on the pages of books. It’s a special day when board books can go the way of the Do Do and those pre-k kids know that the time for that is nigh. Books Aren’t For Eating is silly, illustrated book fun that pre-k and K kids know, but will draw in their own parallels as to things that they know that they shouldn’t be doing at that age.
Poetry is a tough nut for elementary school readers to crack. Some might find it too boring, too slow or are unable to grasp the plot of it. If there’s not a traditional story arc to the poem, then it’s even more challenging. It can be vague, esoteric, pointless and excuse to simply kick or bother the person next to you when it’s read aloud. Believe me when I say this because I read poetry to elementary school ages on a weekly basis and it’s not because I’m a glutton for having students kicked who otherwise want to be left alone. I’ll Take Care of You is a great poetry book for elementary school students. It’s easy to see how this is an illustrated poetry book that those ages will dig in spring, but here’s why it’s good anytime of the year and how to present poetry to elementary ages.
I love it when a book series gets better with a subsequent release. Unmasked is the third book in the Fright Watch series by Lorien Lawrence and manages to do that. We also read The Collectors, which was the second book in the series and while it was enjoyable, it didn’t have as much of an age-appropriate scare that some readers want. Unmasked is about a middle school girl, Marion, who uses the artistic creation of monsters as therapy. Her latest creation is a sea monster that she calls Winston. It’s all happening as the Super Blue Blood Moon and the school dance are around the corner, and Marion has developed a crush on a boy. Things can get complicated when you factor in a super-realistic mask that even gives its creator the creeps.
I’m a substitute teacher who mainly works in elementary schools, precisely four of them in the area where I live. This gives me a wider-than-average compression of books and styles. Some of the libraries and classrooms that I visit are next-level, whereas some need more attention to their catalog. The one constant in all of the classrooms and libraries that I teach in is that the reference books from National Geographic and National Geographic Kids are there. It doesn’t matter how old the National Geographic Kids Almanac is, it’s still there, read and enjoyed. I was in a library the other day and saw fourth graders thumbing through the almanac for 2013. We received a couple of the current releases from National Geographic and wanted to highlight a couple of the pros of each of them.
It’s elementary school go-to for essays on most subjects
National Geographic Animal Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition
Starting in third-grade students will write essays on various subjects and more often than not, they’ll choose animals. It could be an essay on a wacky critter with a disgusting name, cool characteristic, or unique attribute, but kids like to write about what they love, and they love these books. National Geographic Animal Encyclopedia 2nd Edition is by Dr. Lucy Spelman and is broken up into mammals, birds reptiles, amphibians, invertebrates, and fish. Each of those categories is then provided with dozens of animal examples that make up those areas. For example, I had no idea what a tapir is and how they’re related to rhinos.
Those two pages alone have enough information for those elementary school ages to create an age-appropriate essay on those thick-skinned beasts that live in Africa, Asia, and South America. This is curiosity food 101 with photographs being the cat videos that bring home the bacon. Kids will listlessly open the book, marvel at the colors in the pictures, become curious about Tomato Frog from Madagascar, and then start sharing facts with you about it.
Treasure of Greek Mythology
Treasury of Greek Mythology: Classic Stories of Gods, Goddesses, Heroes & Monsters is a National Geographic reference book that takes a slightly different approach. It looks at 25 characters who make up that mythology, including a timeline, map, and more resources. Each profile has gorgeous, painted illustrations that introduce its mythos and shows them at work. You’ll see how Hephaestus was born with a deformed foot and cast to an island where he could throw rocks into a volcano.
This led him to invent many things made of metal, like a chair with wheels on it which allowed him to move more quickly. His love life didn’t fare so well initially, but patience and ingenuity pay off, which led to his marriage to Aphrodite, who is covered in the next profile. That’s what will interest young readers, Treasure of Greek Mythology has narrative story elements that allow even those who haven’t embraced the Percy Jackson books will enjoy.
5,00 Awesome Facts (About Everything)
5,000 Awesome Facts (About Everything) from National Geographic Kids is that random, impossible-to-resist, rabbit hole of knowledge that captures ages seven and up for a period of their schooling. It captures them, blazes their eyes with photographs they never thought they’d see, and aligns them with droplets of information and anything and everything.
The glossary at the end of the book proves that any conceivable interest area is covered. Zorses, yeti, jug bands, creepy facts, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and thousands of others have their page number listed so that young readers can dig deep and quickly. Those ages don’t need to explore, they can just thumb any page in the book and be entertained by something. Then they’ll turn to the next page and discover something even more fascinating. Those kids will run into your office and then share with you that tidbit of things that they just discovered. Enjoy the ride, it’s education and this is the process of getting them curious and asking themselves “what is something that I don’t know?”
National Geographic Kids Almanac 2023
National Geographic Kids Almanac 2023 is the elephant in the room. This is the elementary school armchair traveler that ages 7 and up will go gaga for. Its soft format makes it akin to Grays Sports Almanac. Those ages can bend it, thumb through to different categories, and impress their erstwhile present-day Biff friends as they drop knowledge on any topic under the sun. It’s organized and a steady resource for those essays that elementary school kids will have to do. Like 5,000 Awesome Facts, its glossary is comprehensive and can shortcut readers to exactly the spot they want to research.
Every elementary school library needs this edition and every fifth-grade classroom would benefit from it. Because I work in various elementary schools I know some of the parents who I’ve seen at schools or out in the community. Sometimes they will ask me what they can do to help. Depending on the subject that their child is in I will tell them that the National Geographic Kids Almanac, 5,000 Awesome Facts or Animal Encyclopedia are low-hanging fruit. They’ll retort that they really want to help, and short of being the room parent and organizing the year’s events; I’ll tell them that these books can do more to help the classroom than almost anything else.
The Almanac retails for only $15.99 and is pound-for-pound one of the most widely read books that any elementary school library has. Depending on the time of year and the schedule for the ELA essays there will be a queue to check them out, so a library having more than one is never a bad thing.
National Geographic Kids Almanac 2023, National Geographic Kids 5,000 Awesome Facts (About Everything), Treasure of Greek Mythology, and National Geographic Animal Encyclopedia 2nd Edition are National Geographic Kids.
Artistic freedom is at the intersection of Why Am I Creating This Street and Who Is This For Lane. Drawing Outdoors is an illustrated book about a fabulous teacher at a rural school and her very creative students. The pupils gather in the remote single-room house from a variety of trails that snake across the piedmont area. It’s a special day because the kids are told that their lessons will be outside. They’re going to explore, draw things in nature, imagine shapes and expand their horizons. Drawing Outdoors will appeal to lots of elementary-aged students, but there’s one elephant that’s presented early in the book that will water down most of the fun. You’re in for a time if you miss this because the kids won’t, and once they see it you’ll lose all control of the classroom, and the grand message of the book will be lost.
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