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.
I’m a glass half full kind of guy. So when I first took a look at Pets and Their Famous Humans I had to set it down. I love pets. I really like humans and I enjoy art. In theory there’s nothing I shouldn’t have not liked about the book. Sensing that I was missing something I showed the book to our 10-year old son. He also loves books, animals and people. “It’s classy”, he succinctly said before diving back into the middle grade book he’s reading.
I really like books that I didn’t think I would like. Center of Gravity is a book like that. Personally, there’s nothing about the subject matter that appeals to me. Tessa’s mother passed away relatively recently and her dad has started dating again. Things have gotten very serious and the two of them are packing up things in Denver to move to a coastal California town. The new girlfriend is much younger than her dad and her family is apparently loaded. At first, Center of Gravity feels like a middle school companion to Karate Kid. However, as the book moves along it takes a much more serious turn. In doing author Shaunta Grimes delivers a character study that’s as much about teenage grief as it is insecurities, acceptance and moving on.
Astronauts: Women on the Final Frontier is Science Comics by another name. Science Comics is the line of educational and entertaining graphic novels on :01 First Second Books. This isn’t technically a Science Comics book, but it has all of the hallmarks that make those books so worthwhile. Astronauts focuses on the women in space, the resistance to them being in the program, which countries led the way and a small overview about space missions and training.
I once suggested to my not-future wife that she get lost. I didn’t mean it in an insulting manner, she was headed on a trip overseas and I suggested that she get lost. If you’ve ever found yourself by being in a completely different environment and doing things that are totally different than what you’re used to, then you understand. If that emotion is embodied by a time in your life then it’s quite probable that said time is your teen-age years. A Field Guide To Getting Lost is an upper elementary school through mid-grade book that targets those readers by treating them as young adults, who are still keen to have some adventure.
Waves are a common thing amongst the tides, life and publishing. There will never be another middle grade book series as this. The best all age comic book that we’ve seen in ages has just ended its run. There are no new great all age graphic novels. We have points to counter all of those, but let’s tackle that last one first. A great all age graphic novel is one that’s fabulously entertaining for elementary aged readers without babying down the content. This way it can also be enjoyed by those in middle school, high school and those adults that read to children. For all of those in that sentence check out Investigators by John Patrick Green. This is legitimately laugh out loud funny for adult readers, but is probably intended for readers as young as six.
The paper crane is ubiquitous with Hiroshima, Japan and the Atomic bomb. You don’t have to have visited Hiroshima to be aware of the relationship between the deceivingly complex origami crane, that location and its history. To some extent it’s as associated with the bomb as the dome shaped building that’s still in Hiroshima. However, the cranes have a story behind them and a teenage-girl who was the victim of the detonation. The Complete Story of Sadako Sasaki and the Thousand Paper Cranes is the soft-cover version of the book that tells her story.
For some reason the cover to the book and its title didn’t connect with me. The cover of Roll With It has a teenage girl in her wheel chair, balancing on her back wheels whilst holding a pie with finger like she’s spinning a basketball. The cover image and the title imply the vibe that the book puts forth perfectly. So much so that after reading it I realized I had brought my expectations to a book that I expected to be one that I couldn’t relate to and dour.
Village of Scoundrels by Margi Perus reads, at times, like a middle grade WWII book with subtle traces of Hogan’s Heroes. It doesn’t have the same slapstick comedy of that show. It does place its characters in real-life WWII situations while giving them a chilled out, laissez-fiare veneer. That’s due to the age of the people and characters in the story as we catch a glimpse of French teenagers who live in the mountains near Switzerland.
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