Books | Page 23 of 82

Ride, Roll, Run Time For Fun!, big, geometric kids playing in the city

We recently got back from a weekend trip to the city. It felt odd simply calling it, ‘the city’ because there are thousands of cities and to give it such a distinctive article makes it seem like it’s special simply by its size. These are some of the random things that puddle through my mind. Ride, Roll, Run-Time for Fun! is a picture book that features bold, geometric shapes and a group of kids playing in a big city. This is rhyming picture book fun that’s going to hammer down enjoyment to pre-k kids through kindergarten.

Ride, Roll, Run Time For Fun!, a picture book for pre-k kids on action and movement, with a potentially mixed message.

Body positivity on kids movement with happy rhyming text

The Ultimate Biography of Earth is smarter than most who won’t read it

That’s a bold claim, isn’t it? Actually, any book that has ‘ultimate’ in its title is aiming high or asking for trouble. The Ultimate Biography of Earth is a graphic novel that meets that metric, as long as you’re willing to walk down a certain STEM path. And that path is 100% STEM, The Ultimate Biography of Earth is by Nick Lund with illustrations by Jason Ford and is solidly aimed at those middle elementary through middle-middle school students who want to make the history of Earth fun.

The Ultimate Biography of Earth is a STEM graphic novel that’s very smart and will satiate those ages 9 and up that want entertainment with their education.

It’s not a dare…unless you think that it is…..

This is a School will be a staple in elementary school libraries

This is a School is a picture book that seemingly every school librarian and teacher was talking about during the start of the school year. Starting the process of going to school can be quite scary for those young students. Going to school can also be a very exciting time. Sometimes, when the emotions of ‘scared’ and ‘excited’ combine it creates a troublesome experience for educators and parents called chaos. This is a School is a gentle, go-to picture book that introduces elementary school for those ages who are young enough to envision it as a mysterious place of wonder.

This is a School is a picture book that introduces pre-k kids and those slightly older to the wonders, fun and routines that makeup the school day.

This is the pre-k, intro to school book that you’re looking for

Coming Up Short is catch-all realistic fiction for the mglit set

One reason why mglit realistic fiction is challenging for some middle school readers is that life is not always 100% happy. There are sad, chaotic, confusing, and disappointing moments that everyone lives through. On the surface, those feelings don’t exactly roll out the reading red carpet to those 12-year-olds who are juggling their own personal issues, locker combinations, family issues, school work or sports. However, dig just a bit past the surface and those readers will discover that their issues, despite how unique and utterly end-of-world they might seem, actually have commonalities with realistic fiction characters. Coming Up Short easily falls into that category. It’s mglit that seems unique, end-of-world, and happens in a place where it could never really happen, but again, dig just a bit past the surface.

Coming Up Short is mglit that middle school readers will reach for, combining sports, family, competition, stress and poor decisions.

Mglit realistic fiction that stretches past the usual suspects

Onyeka and the Academy of the Sun is Potter Wakanda-tastic

A book series doesn’t exist unless the first book is any good and merits a sequel. Gone are the days when that was the modus operandi for books, not to mention those manuscripts that were lucky enough to become film. Now umpteen streaming services need content and that content must come from somewhere. Onyeka and the Academy of the Sun is the first in a series of books by Tola Okogwu that was optioned for Netflix before the book was even released. Its story is perfectly summarized by the publisher’s blurb ‘Black Panther meets X-Men’, as a book that is 100% and this is mglit that knows its target.

Onyeka and the Academy of the Sun is a book series that’s tailor-made for Black girls in upper elementary, Potterheads and superhero people.

Fans of Potter, Wakanda and MGlit will dig this

Molly and the Machine, mglit that works well for ages 8 and (way) up

Mglit does not have to be based in the 80s to be entertaining. I say that because it seems that a couple of the books that we’ve read recently have had ties to that fabulous decade. Certainly, a major reason for that is the absence of screens. There’s no device that kids have to occupy them, solve their problems, do their research or look at pictures of giant robot footprints. That’s what Molly from Molly and the Machine might’ve done when she first started her adventures. It’s an mglit book that takes off its shoes and wades knee-deep in the river of fun reading. This is also an example of mglit that skews younger, allowing ages eight and up the chance to enjoy the adventure.

Molly and the Machine is a true mglit book that those mid-elementary readers are able to read, yet hold interest for middle school students also.

A book that’s friends with Spy SChool

Words of the World, multilingual board book fun

In my opinion, one of the greatest keys to job security is being able to speak more than one language fluently. While it’s not bulletproof, it does assure you of having another channel from which to market whatever it is that you’re doing. The key to getting children primed to speak more than one language is immersing them in that second pool as quickly as possible. Words of the World is a series of board books aimed at those newborns through five-year-old kids. They have simple words in seven of the world’s most-spoken languages that are accompanied by collage artwork done by Motomitsu Maehara.

Words of the World is a series of multilingual board books that combing basic words to collage images representing them in six, go-to languages.

Board books with brains and without boarders

Spy School Project X, marks the spot on go-to, mglit

Mglit is an abbreviation for middle-grade fiction. However, there are many instances where an mglit book can also be perfect for upper-elementary school readers. It’s kind of like the colloquial definition of art, it varies and can depend on who is viewing it. By any definition, Spy School is one of the go-to, must-read book series for the aforementioned groups. Spy School Project X is the tenth book in that series and, while it does show signs of maturity, it doesn’t show signs of decreasing quality or tired characters.

Spy School Project X is the tenth book in this fabulous mglit series, yet is as spry, fast and fun as it started. They are go-to books for ages eight and up.

To change, evolve and still maintain excellence-this does that