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.
Alien Superstar is an engaging upper-elementary through middle school book series. The first book in the series was fresh, exciting, funny and quite fabulous. Book #2 in the series, Lights, Camera, Danger! had its moments and opened up a larger threat to the alien who crash-landed on a Hollywood backlot. Hollywood Vs. The Galaxy is the final book in the series and while it doesn’t land with a complete thud, it’s a shadow of how clever and original the first book was.
“From cows” is what I said when my youngest son asked me. It was posed during his litany of questions as he’s driving down the gauntlet of Time For Bed Boulevard. He knows that if it’s the right night and he asks the right question he can suck me into his sleep avoidance. Alas, he was unsuccessful on that night, but his question got me thinking. I knew I had seen it asked in MinuteEarth Explains, How Did Whales Get So Big?, but in the heat of his bedtime minute, I couldn’t come up with a more precise answer. The specific answer to his question will completely surprise you, as well as admire the ways it’s marketed.
Assuming that a chapter book is based in the world of realistic fiction, and it isn’t a humor book, middle to upper-elementary school readers can smell schmaltz from a mile away. This isn’t the good variety either. This is the smelly, faux-earnest, lesson learning aroma that has the power to drive audiences away just as the DJ parts the crowds when they play a slow song at the sixth-grade dance. That was one of the things that readers will immediately recognize, and appreciate about Soccer Trophy Mystery. It’s devoid of any overt lessons that adults might want to teach and tells a believable story, complete with enough sports talk to weave in certain audiences.
Jeffrey Brown has one of the most distinctive styles in graphic novels that are of interest to young readers. His presentation is also well known to elementary school students via his work in Jedi Academy and Space-Time. This is one reason why Batman Robin and Howard will immediately resonate with ages eight and up. The art has that familiar vibe due to Brown’s other works, plus readers will already know Batman and Robin, and be curious as to how Howard plays into the story.
A movie that sneaks under the audience’s or critic’s radar used to be called a sleeper. To an extent it still is, but movie marketing has become so bloated that it’s almost impossible to get something green-lit unless a sequel or two can be made from the initial idea. Sometimes, smaller is better, like taking a potentially complicated, cumbersome story and breaking it up into a dozen or so television episodes. I’m looking at you Eternals. Reptoids From Space! is a sleeper book in the Carlton Crumple Creature Catcher book series that sneaks up on you and is perfectly sized for eight-year-old hands.
Reptoids from Space also has the content, DIY sensibilities, humor, and flow that will keep grades three through early sixth grinning. It’s also an example of a case where the shape of the book adds to its enjoyment. The book is almost square and the smaller pages suit the pacing of the story. Had the pages been on a larger graphic novel format, they would’ve been too big and made the story feel forced.
Has your child read any of the Captain Underpants books? Even if they or you have glanced at any of the books or seen the show on Netflix you’re familiar with the comic books that George and Harold make. The style in those faux comic books is similar to Reptoids From Space!. The drawings are loaded with energy and have a look about them as if they’re being created by an actual elementary school student. ….Albeit, a very artistic and talented student, but one whose short attention and propensity to kid-friendly dinosaurs, monsters, and action take the front seat.
Reptoids From Space! is comfort reading for those elementary school students. Carlton Crumple has two adventures before this book and has established himself as quite the monster catcher. Carlton Crumple #3 starts out with him getting spooked by a scary movie on television. He looks out the window and sees a UFO. Because he’s done this before, he gives chase and ultimately catches them, only to realize that it’s a prank designed by his brother, and not a real one at all.
This lands Carlton in trouble, but only until a real UFO is spotted across town. This one is inhabited by real aliens who just want to capture their pet who has escaped. Unfortunately, their pet is a Reptodactyl, a giant, flying lizard who is just about to wake up from its very long nap.
Carlton teams up with two friends, hops on his flying sofa, and proceeds to hopefully save the day. There are many more subtle plot shifts and things that happen in the story that will have kids laughing along with it. They’ll laugh as they read it because Reptoids From Space is incredibly silly. Based on this book, the entire Carlton Crumple Creature Catcher graphic novel series, assuming the first two are like this, will be great for kids in second through fifth grade.
Some of those in that range won’t be able to read the onomatopoeias in the book, as well as, a handful of other words. If that’s the case then they’ll easily be able to follow the story based on the illustrations. The older readers in that range will be able to read all of the words and go to Reptoids From Space as graphic novel comfort food, or because they’re making their own comic book that’s akin to this. It’s in full color and is the (again) silly sort of graphic novel that some kids will pass around to their friends as they talk about who is most like whom in the book. If there was a middle-elementary school water cooler then they’d gather around, have milk coming out of their noses and goof about Carlton Crumple’s adventures also.
Carlton Crumple Creature Catcher, book 3, Reptoids From Space is by David Freemont and available on Pixel + Ink.
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My Spanish is very far from fluent. However, I speak enough Spanish to communicate with lower-grade elementary students. Having said that, I also believe the full-immersion is the best way to learn a language for most students. I’ve also taught ESL for four years and know that communicating in the language that you’re learning, even when it’s beyond your comfort level is beneficial. It’s with all of that in mind that I read, and had our 12-year-old middle school student read No Se Permiten Elefantes. He’s been studying Spanish for half a year and already has a solid vocabulary base under him.
If upper elementary school polyglot students had a collection of bathroom books, then A World of Wisdom would be in every single one of them. The same could be said if those ages also had a coffee table in their living room for those coffee table books that people pick up when they want to make interesting, idle chatter. A World of Wisdom is an illustrated book that humorously shows the absurdity that some idioms mean to those who don’t speak their native tongue. As a former ESL teacher, I can 100% tell you that “it’s raining cats and dogs” is incredibly silly to Chinese students. They’ll gamely play along as they practice and try to master one of the more common idioms in English. However, every country on the planet has some phrase or idiom that uniquely states a condition with such precision that it leaves text 50 times as long for want.
When panoramic photography became a thing in the mid-90s I was a big fan and used it often. One day I was with some friends exploring a mountainous area and turned my panoramic camera so that I was using it in a portrait manner. This allowed the massive contrasts of the mountains to share some of the images with the depths of the river. The Dirt Book brings us back to that memory because it’s presented in vertical panoramas. That design, as well as, the exceedingly clever manner in which the poetry complements the art will bring young readers into a world that they see every day but don’t think about too often.
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