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.
Reluctant reader boys need a skeleton key. It’s that mythical thing that could unlock anything, but in this case, we just need to get them to enjoy reading. Thus, it’s a bit ironic that Middle School is the closest thing that we’ve seen in recent memory for those elementary-aged reluctant readers. Night of the Vam-Wolf-Zom is the fourth book in the Middle School Bites series and it has every element that grades four through six require in their reading.
Aspects of middle and high school represent the worst parts of agar. Agar is the gunk that’s collected in a petri dish. The school equivalent of agar gone bad are typically the entitled, popular, pretty without a conscious folk, jocks, bullies or those kids that have a chip on their shoulder for no meaningful reason. They’re the great heels in popular movies and will resonate with all readers in Witch For Hire. Witch For Hire is a graphic novel by Ted Naifeh that is 100% current, with real-world peer pressure and social strife that teens will encounter. It also adds a fabulous sense of dread, witches, and monsters that are just as real as the weight that popularity and social media add to today’s teens.
I want to believe. We all have that Fox Mulder strain inside us for some issues; and for me, it’s a yearning to experience proof of ghosts, aliens, or mythical beings. The mythical beings are those folk legends that blur the line between the barely believable and those things that probably should exist. Fairies fall into that category and The Fairy Atlas, Fairy Folk of the World by Anna Claybourne with illustrations by Miren Asiain Lora is the illustrated guide to those creatures that just might be near you wherever you are.
What if The Princess Bride and Back to the Future Part II had a baby? Hear me out. The former has familiar fairy tale characters but is completely its own entity. The latter is in a trilogy of films that build upon its created world and ends on a cliffhanger. Once Upon Another Time: Tall Tales is the second in this series of mglit books by New York Times bestselling author James Riley. It’s a book that combines elements of those two things in middle-grade fiction that zip and zags with speed, humor, and aplomb.
Fables get a bad rap with upper elementary and middle school students. I taught a class to ESL students that were comprised mostly of fables, you know, those stories that teach lessons. And if there’s one thing that some kids that age don’t want, it’s a lesson. Alcatoe and the Turnip Child is not a fable. It’s also not a fairy tale and not entirely a folktale either. To some readers, Alcatoe could have elements of all of those things, but for us it’s a beautifully paced book about kids, a grumpy witch, the quaint town they live in, and magic.
A magic pencil is the real-life sibling of Creepy Crayon! However, in reality, Creepy Crayon! is the third book in the Jasper Rabbit-led series by Aaron Reynolds with art by Peter Brown. Creepy Carrots! and Creepy Pair of Underwear! were the first two and have since become ubiquitous in elementary school libraries and classrooms. Moreover, these books are everywhere and kids actually want to read them. Let’s take that a step further and say that these books, in addition to the newest entry, Creepy Crayon!; straddle the line between illustrated book noir, funny and spooky like no other books those ages will read. If Rod Serling made an illustrated book it would be in league with these books.
The 80s were chaotic, riddled with bad fashion that people thought was cool, produced some fabulous music, and is entertaining legions of teens nowadays. For the record ‘nowadays’ is possibly the oldest sounding word in the English language and is usually followed up with ‘back in my day’. Dead Flip is mglit that is all but served up with a heaping serving of Raisin Bran, featuring the iconic dancing raisins from 1989. It’s a fun book that today’s tweens and lower teens will enjoy because of the accurate 80s and 90’s shoutouts, as well as, the age-appropriate scares and drama.
If six-year-olds were in charge of bathroom books then Extraordinary Animals would be on top of every tank. The basis behind a great toilet book is that it’s fun to read and can be consumed in nuggets. Granted, in some cases, those books graduate from the water closet to mingle with the books in the general library or for leisure reading. Ultimate Spotlight Extraordinary Animals is a book that falls in that category. It also combines interactive elements from two of our favorite series of books.
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