Books | Page 5 of 81

Monsters Never Get Haircuts, say hello to a new classic

Monsters Never Get Haircuts is a fabulously strange book that looks like it’s from another dimension. In this universe, children’s drawings are the currency of the wealthy and each illustration is handled twice by two masters who manage to make it freakier, yet more accessible. It’s a series of one-upmanship where the first artist dares the second one to improve upon it, and they do. All of this could be true about Monsters Never Get Haircuts except there’s only one artist in play, although they might have multiple personalities, I don’t know, and the text is refreshingly brief. Pre-K and early elementary school audiences will love this book for those reasons and the fact that it’s utterly original, yet familiar to their young souls.

Monsters Never Get Haircuts has the potential to be your pre-k kid’s favorite book. The art is awesome, text is brief and the story is very funny.

This book will be on your forever book shelf

10 Dogs adds up to a clever sibling that’s more than a counting book

Dogs are the Rodney Dangerfield of the internet. If your local human society is holding a newspaper collection drive they might say, we need your old newspapers to line the dog’s cages and the cats need something to read. * Having said that, dogs are awesome and although their meme appeal isn’t as high as cats online, their real-life presence is just as strong. 10 Dogs is the sibling to 10 Cats, one of the best counting books we’ve seen recently. When I saw 10 Dogs I did squint just a little bit because I feared that the clever premise would be used once too often. Instead, 10 Dogs goes in an entirely different direction that takes inspiration from cats but is its own funny, clever creation.

10 Dogs is a counting book in that it adds to 10 in a variety of ways that will make kids laugh, smile, grin, notice small details, with dogs.

Count, and count in a funny way with dogs and sausages

City Spies: Mission Manhattan, almost measures up to its predecessors

The great thing about a franchise is that it’s dependable. City Spies by New York Times Bestselling author James Ponti is one of the go-to mglit book series for upper-elementary through middle school readers who know. The first four books, and about half of Mission Manhattan, read like a screenplay that is primed and ready to become the next movie franchise that you didn’t know you needed. They’re loaded with enough action, teen-centric humor, and intrigue to keep ages 8-12 entertained and invested in the group’s progress. The group goes on supervised missions where adult spies would look too out of place and each spy is named after the mega city from which they’re from, like Rio, London, Cairo, etc. City Spies: Mission Manhattan finds the group of teenage spies-in-training in Italy and New York embroiled in a plot to save a fellow teenager from danger within her camp.

City Spies: Mission Manhattan is the fifth book in this go-to mglit book series and almost hits the same league as its predecessors

City Spies 5 aims for the same highs, but falls just a bit short

Hooray for She, He, Ze, and They!, too much for too young

I was teaching a fifth-grade class the other year and one of the smarter (see: clever) kids asked me, “Mr. Trey, did you just misgender me?” The kid then followed it up with, “Mr. Trey, what are your pronouns?” Without missing a beat, I said, “Dude, my pronouns are Shut and Up, now be quiet and do your work.” It was obvious that this student was not curious about today’s social morays or furthering the cause of gender identity. He was mocking it, knew that I would get his quip and suspected that the rest of the class would be oblivious to his verbal prank, and he was correct.

I mention that story to say that Hooray for She, He, Ze, and They!: What Are Your Pronouns Today? is an illustrated book geared for early elementary-aged students. It’s an illustrated book that makes The Sublime Ms. Stacks come across as wholesome as The Waltons or as a needed introduction for today’s youth who need a pronoun that they change according to their mood, depending on your view.

Hooray for She, He, Ze and They! What Are Your Pronouns Today? Is a noble book whose target audience is too young for the social message.

Zes is zthe book on pronounz for ze children

The Catwings Complete Collection, confidence-building fun for young readers

Confidence makes doing anything easier. Ask an elementary-aged kid if they can dance and they’ll contort six ways from Saturday. Ask an adult to dance and you’re likely to get a muted stare and a wavering hand in search of a drink. The same can also be said for asking if someone is an artist. Young readers need to gain confidence early too, the sooner that they realize that they can read, the easier it is for them to jump into more age-appropriate text and read to learn, instead of learning to read. The Catwings Complete Collection has the four classic books in the series from Ursula K. Le Guin in one package.

The Catwings Complete Collection is the book series for getting kindergarten through fourth engage in chapter books.

Early chapter book series, meet willing young audiences

Juniper’s Christmas fills the holiday book void you didn’t know existed

I’m wary of a potentially smaltzy book that my wife abandons. When we received Juniper’s Christmas by Eoin Colfer my wife read it for two nights and then put it aside, and not because she’s finished it. Normally she’s a sucker for any novel that exudes happiness or romantic retribution, and this book looks like it fits that bill, so I asked her what was up. She said something along the lines of “I just wasn’t feeling it”, and anybody knows that when your wife gives you a short answer like that to a potentially long question, you’re thankful and just move on. Fast forward a couple of weeks and I have COVID, or the flu, or some otherwise cursed virus that makes your body feel as if it’s been hit by a truck driven by a teenager who is busy watching TikTok, instead of commanding the three-ton vehicle that’s about to hit your torso. Juniper’s Christmas is delivered to the basement where I was thankful to read anything beyond the packaging for the cold medicine that I was taking, and lo and behold, what a surprising novel that is ready for its cinematic close-up.

Juniper’s Christmas is well-crafted mglit that doubles as entertaining Christmas comfort reading and a screenplay in waiting.

Just make it into a movie already……with Kurt Russell

Mile Morales Suspended: A Spider-Man novel like no other-for the better

In a very simple overstatement in the world of books, there are books for the genre fans, books for the general audience, and those that target the niche. Miles Morales Suspended: A Spider-Man novel, yet it’s unlike any web-slinger book, graphic novel or story that you’ve read before. “You” could be a Spider-Man fan who thinks that they’ve seen every vehicle that the character can entertain from. Miles Morales: Suspended is the most unlikely of superhero novels. We often point out to educators, parents or students the merits of reading graphic novels or comic book. This book takes that, turns it on its head, and literarily invites Spidey fans to go someplace that they’ve never been before.

Miles Morales Suspended: A Spider-Man novel that combines prose and any conceivable narrative caffeine to entertain readers.

Spidey has many forms and this one is just as engaging

How Do You Live?, the timeless Japanese classic translates effortlessly

After reading How Do You Live? you understand the book’s title on a much deeper level. On the surface one could surmise that How Do You Live? is a reflective book encouraging readers to take stock in their lives. It does have elements of that, but it’s not a personality Rorschach Test. Instead, How Do You Live? is one of the most popular Japanese books ever and has been a children’s book staple for generations. It’s scheduled to be the final anime film from Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli and was initially published in Japan in 1937. It’s also a very intelligent book that encourages thinking, introspection, and observations on various aspects of world culture. From an American teacher’s perspective, How Do You Live? is the book that you want your middle and high school students to read, but you know that less than 5% of them dig into the book for leisure reading, but more on that in a moment.

How Do You Live?, wow-it’s mglit that’s smart, timeless, inspiring and makes you a better person for reading it. It’s also challenging to describe and potentially frustrating for middle school readers.

For the smart kids, or those that want to be