Books | Page 5 of 82

Above the Trenches, a graphic novel that edutains with ease from all angles

Having taught a couple of classes to middle school grades about World War I, I know that the subject can be confusing. The time spent on WWI for most middle school classes is very brief, with more time allowed for the Treaty of Versailles, especially for those lower grades. Those ages know about the mythos of the flying ace, even if they get hazy on who were the Allied Forces and what were the causes that led to it. Above the Trenches is a graphic novel in the Nathan Tale’s Hazardous Tales series. This entry is specifically about the flying aces that took to the skies in WWI and how they came to shape this new form of combat. Ironically, the most famous WWI pilot, the Red Baron doesn’t factor into Above the Trenches that much. Instead, the graphic novel is about the Allied Powers and their build-up of the foreign legion and the men who jumped into this relatively new mode of transportation.

Above the Trenches is a graphic novel with dozens of characters, and country-spanning action, that manages to make people appreciate history.

a Graphic novel with brains, funs and airborne guns

Are You Big? is picture book laughs for ages three through seven

Elementary school-aged kids know Mo. Mo Willems’ picture books have a way of gleefully speaking to those young students. His style is immediate and can make them smile as they relax, make them think just a little bit, or it can do both. Are you Big? is Mo Willems at his thinking and relaxing best. At its smartest it’s a book about relative proportionality and thinking about the bigger picture that might contain variables that are outside of your influence. As its happiest and simplest, it’s a silly book with anthropomorphic weather systems, land masses and planets cavorting about a picture book that will do what books like this should do, make em smile.

Are You Big? is picture book fun and glory all about size and scale that will delight ages three and up with happy art and simple text.

A picture book that makes em smile….and think…and laugh…

The Bellwoods Game, spooky, age-OK scary for mid-elementary and up

The heel is what drives the narrative. It’s why you watch wrestling and a stronger heel will always make a book worth reading. The heel, or bad guy, can make a decent book highly enjoyable or transform a movie that’s just ok to one that is a waste of your time. The Bellwoods Game lays down the heel in short order and does so in a way that any kid who’s ever grown up in any neighborhood will relate to. It will bring back memories of their childhood in an upper-elementary, mglit package that delivers the chills without skimping on the relationships.

The Bellwoods Game is mglit that has a great heel, genuine scares, monster creeps and an urban legend that every kid has in their neighborhood.

Dancing between scary, urban legend and real with aplomb

Star Trek Prodigy Escape Route, original sci-fi fare that sets phasers to good

It would be easy to say that Star Trek Prodigy: Escape Route can only be enjoyed by Trekkies. While they will certainly latch on the book the easiest of those who could enjoy it, Escape Route will also entertain upper-elementary through middle school readers who want a straightforward science-fiction tale. You don’t need to know the Star Trek Prodigy characters in order to enjoy the book. If anything, the fact that it can be enjoyed by anyone, and not just fans of the legacy characters, exemplifies that space is a huge area that can enjoyed by anyone. It’s also that point that frustrates fans of other intellectual properties who seem to think that only one family has the ability to produce stories that people want to see.

Star Trek Prodigy Escape Route is mglit that affably moves within that sci-fi universe for ages 9-14.

Middle school and sci-fi people come hither

Vern, Custodian of the Universe, a smart graphic novel that thinks and asks

Vern, custodian of the Universe is the strangest, most creative and surreal graphic novel since Neurocomic. It also echoes the sentiment from the classic Peggy Lee song, “Is that All There Is?”, and parallels to Janet Jackson’s “What Have You Done For Me Lately”, which was certainly more about relationships, but could be extrapolated to a greater sense. Vern deals with the multiverse, and before you dismiss this smart graphic novel as merely jumping on the bandwagon that movies have mercilessly pounded into the ground, hear me out. This graphic novel accomplishes readers getting interested in it by successfully and entertainingly melding so many areas of a science-fiction venn diagram some readers might not know what to focus on. They’ll come for the trope of the multiverse, but get sucked into the art, check it out for the art, but then dig deeper into the STEM or one of any other possible paths.

Vern Custodian of the Universe features beautiful art and an intelligent, STEM based story about the multiverse and the minute details that could alter it.

Trippy, fun, creative and great for upper middle and high school ages

Jump for Joy, a sublime new classic with a timeless story

Jump for Joy is an illustrated book that shows two sides of the same tail. It’s simultaneously very basic, has thought-provoking art, and allows young children to fill in the blanks so that they can make the story their own. It has the quality that Billy’s walkabout in the Family Circus does where you’re innately drawn to run your finger along the path that he’s intentionally, and aimlessly walking to avoid something. In Jump for Joy you’ll find yourself tracing your finger over Joy, as well as, the dogs, even though they’re a two-dimensional drawing on the pages. It could be an attempt for your subconscious to make the book last longer, but you’ll do it too and probably won’t be able to figure out why either.

Jump for Joy is a timeless story about a girl and a dog who both need each other, paired with pitch perfect art.

The art. The simplicity of the story. The universal appeal.

The Secret Society of Aunts & Uncles proves this naysayer wrong

The Secret Society of Aunts & Uncles lingered on my bookshelf for a little bit. It lingered there because it’s co-written by Jake Gyllenhaal. I don’t need to review an illustrated book with an impossible-to-resist cover that’s co-authored by a famous movie star. Stay in your lane actor man. Still, The Secret Society of Aunts & Uncles beckoned me like a siren from the steep cliffs. I was in my boat of pointless bias and the land was the area of great illustrated books that I hadn’t read yet.

The Secret Society of Aunts & Uncles is the charming story about a club that teaches siblings of parents the ways of how to be cool to nieces and nephews.

Celebrity author, it’s super duper in this instance

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