Books | Page 40 of 82

Sonny Says Mine!, a lesson to learn and fun to be had

Board books have a baby reputation. Granted, it’s deservedly so unless I start seeing elementary school readers chewing on pages. Every board book is aimed at small children, yet their content can vary from simple concepts to an early introduction to quantum physics. Sonny Says Mine! is an interesting book because its page thickness is more board book, than an illustrated book, but has more in common with poster board than anything else. The content in the book is more narrative than most illustrated books and is certainly complemented by the book’s large pages. The result is an early illustrated book that offers pre-K and elementary ages a big kid book, that softly teaches them behavior that will behoove them as they gather around bigger groups.

Sonny Says Mine! is a happy and lively, thick-paged illustrated book for pre-k and K readers as they go onward from board books.

herein lies The Cuteness between board books and illustrated books

School Is Cool!, a Hello!Lucky joint on school for the very new

Hello! Lucky, you get me. That’s what kids who are in pre-K through middle-elementary school say to themselves as they’re reading some of their books. Sabrina and Eunice Moyle have an energy and style to their brand of Hello! Lucky books that unmistakably speaks; and sometimes yells to ages four through nine. Through their neon colors and happy, yet not too juvenile rhymes their books bring up younger readers without making older readers feel as if they’re engaging in a baby book. School Is Cool! takes that same spirit and applies it to going back to or headed out on the big yellow monster for their first time.

School Is Cool! is a Hello!Lucky book from the Moyle sister that revels in its happiness and invites readers to enjoy it too.

Resistance to being happy whilst reading this is futile

The Good Dog Collection does elementary readers great

There is a book for every age and season of the emerging reader. Some of the books that young students can read have a very wide aged audience. That’s further complicated due to the fact that the jump to chapter books can be daunting for some kids. Our youngest is still struggling with going from simple chapter books to those with a more advanced narrative. A child’s confidence plays a big part in their reading level too. All of this boils down to a great series of books, Good Dog, that has now released the first four in that series into one compilation that will fill the bill for kids in K through fourth grade.

Good Dog is a long-term bridge for readers in k-4 as they level up

The Collectors, a more personal side of scares, spooks for middle school

There is a lot of room in the spooky tent of middle school reading. Each corner or section will have its own specific bent with some going for the gore, others playing it for laughs, a couple emoting their way to the unknown, and some combining all of the elements. Fright Watch is a series of books by Lorien Lawrence that takes its time in weaving the scares together. The Collectors is the second book in the series and tells a ghostly tale that’s woven on top of some very human elements. It’s a case where the story of how the best friends, who most certainly don’t have a crush on one another, Quinn and Mike deal with the happenings on their street.

Middle school life, with a current of ghosts…

50 Things To Do At The Beach, is obvious and folksy

Imagine that you’re an adult who has never been to the beach. It could be for any reason, maybe you live in the middle of the country, and getting to the coast wasn’t an option. Perhaps ‘going to the beach’ is more of a creative exercise, like people might think about the woods as deeply as Henry David Thoreau. For those people, you can say one activity any number of different ways and it counts as a new experience, even though the scenery and actions in doing so are almost identical. It’s not technically a case of double-counting something, but it’s awfully close. 50 Things To Do At The Beach is a beautifully presented book that’s long on aura, education, and presentation. It’s a visually pretty book that is also more at home in a doctor’s office or library, rather than actually being used at the beach.

A folksy look at the beach for those who have never been there

Spy School At Sea effortlessly sails like few middle grade books can

Upper elementary school kids love the Spy School book series from Stuart Gibbs. One could insert ‘middle school’ instead of ‘elementary’ in that sentence. You could also just simply say that readers aged eight and up love the Spy School book series. It’s an example of an author who can create characters and a story that’s thoroughly engaging, as well as, very smart. Moreover, Gibbs is able to do so at a level that’s not going to scare away young readers due to its big vocabulary, nor adult readers due to being too juvenile. Spy School At Sea is the ninth book in this venerable series that deepens the personal relationships, without showing any age in our young protagonists.

Spy School at sea, all aboard for a fabulous read

The Story of the Olympic Games, a go-to for a kid’s view on the games

The Story of the Olympic Games is a bold title for a book that’s geared to upper elementary through middle school readers. As of 2021, the Olympic Games have been around since 1896 and consist of 28 editions that have spanned the globe. Older readers are rightly questioning how a book could encompass such a massive event on arguably the biggest athletic stage in the world. Certainly, key moments would be missed and readers who know the Olympics might quibble about how they couldn’t include this or that. The fact that The Story of the Olympic Games is an engaging book to read is a testament to the adage, ‘brevity is the soul of wit’.

The Story of the Olympic Games is a beautiful book with tons of photos and content blurbs about each of the games in the modern era.

A great jumping off point for kids who want to see Olympic history

Athena: Goddess of Wisdom and War, nuggets of Greek graphic novel, goodness

And here I thought Athena was the only Greek Goddess. As previously mentioned I don’t know much about the Greek gods. Young readers or those who simply enjoy an entertaining graphic novel will like Tales of Great Goddesses: Athena, Goddess of Wisdom and War. It’s from Imogen and Isabel Greenberg and details the Goddess of Wisdom as she helps Athens, learns to fear spiders, conceives the Trojan Horse, and more adventures.

The Who sang about her for good reason