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.
Mother’s Day is nigh. You can surely tell that fact because the greeting card aisle is more motherly than usual and books aimed at maternal units are everywhere. How to Spot a Mom is a gentle, tongue-in-cheek, humor book that one could easily enjoy for a couple of pages. If moms put books in their mom’s only bathroom (which clearly doesn’t exist) or their mom’s only coffee table, then How to Spot a Mom would be common fodder on those tables.
There are books that kids want to read and those others that parents or educators want them to read. A Most Clever Girl, How Jane Austen Discovered Her Voice is a fascinating illustrated book because it straddles the line between the two very well. Jane Austen’s books are the stuff that high school students dread reading. Sure they are classic books, lauded by teachers, and have two centuries of weight behind them. However, her books have very little relevance to most casual readers and those tween readers that are forced to read them. On the contrary, A Most Clever Girl, How Jane Austen Discovered Her Voice is a fun book that shows younger readers how entertaining and (gasp) fun her books are, especially when viewed through the prism of 1800.
When I was teaching English in Japan the constant bane of my classes was a simple one. “I’m fine thank you”, was their response when I asked them how they were doing. I created dozens of crudely illustrated review cards to help them be comfortable saying I’m hungry, sleepy, angry, tired, exhausted, or just OK that they were on that day. Let’s Tell a Story is a book series that does a similar thing, but it builds a story that kids can easily create and tell by themselves. Let’s Tell a Story Fairy Tale Adventures is also great because of the sheer variety of stories that kids will be able to build.
When I was a kid I had a pop-up book. To me, it was akin to wondering if the refrigerator light stays on when you shut the door. I found myself mentally twisting and turning as to what the 3-D elements did once I closed the page. Then, a couple of decades later I was volunteering at a book festival when I learned about Robert Sabuda. I saw some of his books and my definition of what makes a good pop-up book changed forever. Love is a Robert Sabuda book. And if you’re familiar with his work the surprise in this one is that it skews just a bit younger and is simpler, while still being mind-bendingly complex.
Sometimes when I read I curse my middle-aged eyesight. I do that especially when I read any of the books in Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales book series. As a graphic novel by any measurable barometer that series is outstanding for those upper-elementary school readers and up. It’s one of those series where the ‘and up’ qualifier is especially apt. If I were just reading them I would enjoy them as much from an entertainment perspective, as much as the educator in me likes them for the non-fiction stories they tell. Donner Dinner Party, A Pioneer Tale, Bigger & Badder Edition is a great example of taking something great and improving upon it.
When is a board book not a board book? I’ve asked this riddle before, but it deserves to be asked again. Busy Bots is a board book that occupies one of the interesting corners of the crawler book library. It’s a STEM-minded board book that turns real tools into insects, animals or pretend animals that will leave ages two through seven grinning for multiple reasons.
Just yesterday we reviewed a climate change book aimed at early elementary-aged readers. That book was the opposite of Our World Out of Balance, Understanding Climate Change and What We Can Do by Andrea Minoglio and Laura Fanelli. That’s a scary title, isn’t it? Our World Out of Balance sounds like it would be an alarmist, riot grrl, worst case, handbook for skipping school on Friday and blaming the environment for it. Instead, Our World Out of Balance is a STEM-focused, scientific-minded, cause and effect illustrated book that will make kids think and want to solve, instead of panic and freak out.
The Story of Climate Change, A First Book About How We Can Help Save the Planet is the fifth book in the series by Catherine Barr and Steve Williams. It’s an engaging book that introduces second through fourth graders to the history of climate change. The illustrations by Amy Husband and Mike Love are playful, have lots of movement, and certainly keep the eyes of those young readers busy in the best of all possible ways. Most of the target audience will enjoy the book and its approach to global warming is unique in its visual presentation.
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