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.
Less is more. A children’s book that capture that essence is truly the stuff of good-night book legend. Hurry Up! By kate Dopirak with illustrations by Christopher Silas Neal is one of those books. It’s the perfect pairing of illustrations, words and message that allow for the book to be read once a night or re-read a couple of times in one sitting. This is a great good-night book that audiences one through seven will enjoy.
Myths are an excellent way to teach. Due to their repetitious nature they’re able to softly teach people of any age. I teach an ESL class and in each lesson on different cultures there’s a mythical story that I read with the students. One of my favorites is Crow Brings the Daylight from Canada, which is worth checking out if you’re unfamiliar with it. Feathered Serpent and the Five Suns is a Mesoamerican myth about the origin of humans and the Gods that are representative of Central and South America. The book by Duncan Tonatiuh reads like an elementary aged adventure story. There are monsters, a magical quest and lessons that the story will infer for readers to pick up on.
It’s fascinating to imagine the picture books that could come out in 100 years. They’ll imagine a time when cars didn’t fly and there weren’t teleportation devices to get us around the globe. Those books will innocently look back at the people who invented them, as well as, the first barriers that were broken by those who used them. Alice Across America, The Story of the First Women’s Cross-Country Road Trip is a very fun and informative illustrated book that tells about a very different time in the United States.
Picture books that aim higher are ones that we really enjoy looking at. Guided by their illustrations they teach as much as they educate and entertain. They can also shed light on an area or person that young audiences might not know about or is one that they should be exposed to. Lift As You Climb is a picture book that fits this description. It’s the life story of Ella Baker who was a founding member of the SCLC and a civil rights leader who fought with Martin Luther King Junior.
The cover and thickness of Exquisite might turn off some audiences. The subtitle of the book is The Poetry and Life of Gwendolyn Brooks. Many elementary aged kids we know don’t like poetry. This is also a thick illustrated book, implying that there’s a lot to read about poetry and an author that they might not have heard of. It’s worth having young audiences hang in there for Exquisite. While it is a book about a poet, Gwendolyn Brooks, the text in it doesn’t rhyme and isn’t boring. The book is thick, but the pages use the words sparingly on some of them. The result is a gorgeous book that will entertain readers aged five an up.
:01 First Second produces one of the highest quality book series that you’ll find for middle school readers on science. Science Comics tackles any science concept topic, natural wonder, astrological body, animal or plant species and creates a graphic novel around it that captures the imagination and desire to learn that upper elementary readers and up innately have. Now, :01 First Second has taken that same approach, but shifted the focus to history in a new series appropriately called History Comics. One of the first books in this series is The Roanoke Colony, America’s First Mystery by Chris Schweizer. The Roanoke Colony is a great example of graphic novel storytelling; perfectly blending illustration and text in a way that makes middle grade students laugh, smirk or otherwise enjoy themselves as they’re learning.
Somewhere between reality competition shows, Marvel movies and the love of books lies Willow the Armadillo. She’s an armadillo who wants to be a hero. She also loves picture books. A way to engage both of her passions is to become a hero in a picture book. The result is a cute book that never quite boils over with interest, but will entertain kids four through six who are looking for animal fun.
Our eight year-old is what I envision me when I was that age. It’s not destructive or malicious, but impossibly active. I always wanted to be doing something, anything and if it engaged my hands, as well as my brain then the activity would’ve been a win/win for my parents. Alas, back in the “vintage 80’s” as my children call it, there were no Paint By Sticker books. That’s right kids, it was the dark ages of children’s interactive books and we had to walk to school uphill both ways. However, now, for kids aged six and up they can entertain themselves for hours with Paint By Stickers Kids Dinosaurs.
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