Books | Page 39 of 82

The List of Unspeakable Fears, mglit realistic fiction with an aurora

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.

Part mystery, life, ghost and coming of age story

is was, a tongue twister title with an almost wordless, zen-like interior

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.

How much was could and is chuck was

The Unofficial Hogwarts Cookbook For Kids, cookery for older kids

“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.

Literary cooks for potter-minded folks

Trubble Town: Squirrel Do Bad, graphic novel be excellent

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.

This will easily be one of the top 10 all age graphic novels in 2021

Beach Toys vs. School Supplies is classroom love for the elementary set

The concept of everyday objects coming to life is timeless. Sometimes the execution of the said project isn’t as great as it could be, or as entertaining as you want it to be. Small Soldiers, the 1998 film that sounded great on paper, but whose end result was very disappointing, is an example of this.* Beach Toys vs. School Supplies is the illustrated book version of somewhere in this camp. The idea of beach toys and school supplies having a conflict is fun to think about. After all, it’s the inanimate premise of Toy Story, isn’t it? But is Beach Toys vs. School Supplies an illustrated book that will capture and hold the attention of early elementary audiences?

2 late summer entities enter, can both leave? “Auntie Entity

One Kid’s Trash is a real book, that’s really fun to read

“That’s life, welcome to fourth grade” is what I said in response to my class whining about the amount of work I was giving them. I consider that a precursor to what these students will experience in two years in middle school. The soft, forgiving way in which tests can be retaken again, and students are given a worst-case scenario of 70 are gone. They’ve been replaced with a still very generous, method of being able to re-take a test once, but the score you get is what you get. One Kid’s Trash is not as direct as my teaching methods, thankfully. This is a book for upper elementary and middle school students about life as the way they see it and live it. For those science-fiction or graphic novel readers, that’s not a bad thing.

Comfort reading for the good-book soul

Rhinos In Nebraska, fab non-fiction storytelling for mid-elementary and up

Rhinos In Nebraska is an absurd title for a book. Nebraska is known for its picturesque plains and farmland. A book claiming to have Rhinos In Nebraska is as fanciful as flying cars or low-calorie food that tastes as good as the full-calorie version, isn’t it? However, back up the calendar a hundred million years to the end of the Mesozoic period, reframe the title and the fiction that you thought it was, is now plausible. This is the story of the Ashfall Fossil Beds, a place that’s now on my bucket list. Beyond that, Rhinos In Nebraska is a book that will leave elementary and middle school readers hanging on every well-written word.

Rhinos In Nebraska is an impossibly true story about a skull a kid finds, followed by decades of research and herds of dinosaurs.

Non-fiction for kids is boring…..hold my juice box

Fart Quest: The Barf of the Bedazzler, a #2 that’s as great as the first

It’s over already? That’s an odd thing to say when you’re reading a physical book because your fingers gauge how thick the unread side of it is. Despite that, when I was finished reading Fart Quest: The Barf of the Bedazzler I was surprised that it was finished. I even thumbed back in the book a couple of pages, just to ensure that I didn’t skip a chapter or something like that. It was the equivalent of a dog licking the bottom of their bowl because they really liked dinner, and I was the golden retriever, paws deep in Fart Quest.

Fart Quest: The Barf of the Bedazzler, it’s the #2 book in this series that kids want to read and is incredibly entertaining

The #2 book in this series rises to the occassion