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.
Jared Chapman potty trained my children. It’s not that author/illustrator, Jared Chapman has a side hustle wandering the country training toddlers about the virtues of going to the bathroom in the toilet. Among other books, he’s the author of Vegetables In Underwear. Vegetables In Halloween Costumes takes that theme, focuses on the carrot, and lets crawlers through pre-k kids loose with the laughs.
The Venn Diagram of authors, publishers, and readers is complex. Authors want everyone to read their books. Publishers love books that sell and readers have a variety of entry points. That last category could be a book that’s entertaining, fun to read (or look at), makes you think, teaches a lesson, or educates. It’s those last two classifications that are often the trickiest to maneuver in illustrated books. Beautifully Me is the story of Zubi, an overweight kid who is starting pre-K. It’s an illustrated book whose message about accepting everyone for who they are needs to be heard by young readers.
The Dire Days of Willoweep Manor is a delightful surprise. As the adage goes, don’t judge a book by its cover, and this graphic novel gives a very self-aware wink to what people might be thinking when they see this book. The cover has a young girl with a sword, a young man with a small knife, and a swarm of rabbits with glowing green eyes all of whom are in front of a Victorian-era castle. If you’re an older reader and don’t like genre switching ploys your radar will go off. If you’re not a fan of Victorian or romantic era graphic novels-even if they have a twist, you’ll be on edge too. If you have those expectations then rest easy because The Dire Days of Willowweep Manor subvertsboth of them and is a fabulous graphic novel for ages nine and up. It’s a graphic novel that playfully goes between humor and science-fiction with ease and one that will satisfy girl readers, as well as boys.
When The Longest Storm arrived at our house it felt like an old friend had come back home. It’s the first book that we’ve read by author/illustrator Dan Yaccarino, and we’re admittedly late to the party. Parents who have elementary-aged kids know his work from The Backyardigans, Doug Unplugged, I Am A Story, or any of his other creations that channel the feelings and emotions of that age. For us, The Longest Storm reminded us of a classic that we loved as a child, Harry The Dirty Dog. Yaccarino’s art style, the brevity of words, the stark-yet natural choice of colors, and the universal story make this a book that any young reader will enjoy.
Capturing age-appropriate dread is challenging. If the product is too dark it won’t be attractive and if it’s too bright then it loses its street-cred amongst middle school audiences. Sometimes campy creeps aren’t what that age wants. J. Kasper Kramer’s other book that we read, The Story That Cannot Be Told lived like a parallel, fairy-free version of Pan’s Labyrinth. About the only thing, those two held in common was a narrative where the background played second fiddle to an incredibly compelling personal story. The List of Unspeakable Fears hits some of the same targets but sets its focused sights on the Typhoid outbreak. Raise your hand if you want to read about Typhoid Mary and North Brother Island.
I didn’t want to either and that’s the brilliance of the way that Kramer weaves the story.
I make no mistake that I don’t get poetry. When it’s poetry that I enjoy, it’s packed in a stealthy wrapper that somehow conceals its hazy angles and esoteric nature. is was, in no way presents itself as a book that’s not poetic in nature. However, the book is so sparse on words and heavy on gorgeous illustrations that it has as much in common with a wordless book as it does with poetry. But then you go back to the title for the book, is was, you might be thinking it’s some high-brow book that most elementary students won’t like or understand.
“Something delicious”, is my response when the kids ask me what’s for dinner. Most of the time I have a plan, but sometimes I go rogue and toss something together on the fly. It’s also one of the ironic bits of life that neither of our children has shown any interest in Harry Potter. We’re a true muggle family, but that’s OK. The Unofficial Hogwarts Cookbook For Kids has dozens of recipes with a subtle nod to Mr. Potter and his surroundings. However, the white font on the yellow cover clearly states that the book is not associated with J.K. Rowling, her publishers or even Warner Bros. Granted, it also says ‘unofficial’ in the title, but now that that’s clear, let’s get cooking, in a kid-friendly and not too complex way hopefully.
Making something a long-form of entertainment when its traditional packaging is delivered in short doses is daunting. Peanuts has managed to do that successfully. Trubble Town is not a direct Pearl Before Swine story. It has all of the fingerprints and indelible characteristics of Stephan Pastis’ genius creations and wit. It even has some of the same characters that fans love from the comic strip, even if they’re only in a panel or two in the entire book. Trubble Town: Squirrel Do Bad is its own creation. It’s an original graphic novel that’s made up of just over a dozen chapters that has one of the highest laugh-to-page ratios of anything we’ve read in years.
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