Books | Page 7 of 81

Beulah has a Hunch!, bygone innovations and their unlikely shepherd

Oh Beulah, you always have a hunch. When I read to younger elementary school audiences I love books like Beulah has a Hunch! Inside the Colorful Mind of Master Inventor Beulah Louise Henry, and so do those young audiences. It’s a real story and is one of the first instances of a non-fiction illustrated book that pre-k and early elementary will experience, and we do love some non-fiction. However, non-fiction is only as good as its enjoyment to those elementary ages. This is where the illustrations; combined with the zippy vibe of the book make Beulah has a Hunch! a fun time that won’t tax their time and just might inspire their imagination.

Beulah has a Hunch! is approachable, non-fiction STEM about an inventor that most people haven’t heard of who revolutionized the way kids play and how 1920’s ladies presented themselves.

Lady Edison for the win

Wings, Waves & Webs: Patterns in Nature, to wonder and dream

If I taught a photography class I would issue this challenge to my students. First off, they’d get two shots and neither of them could use a filter or emoji. Now that I’ve eliminated 80% of the people who would enroll in the class, here’s the challenge. Take a photograph in this room of something creative, beautiful, startling or odd. You’re only able to use what’s in the room and can’t move things around or otherwise stage the photo. The point to the exercise is that there is beauty all around us, it’s just that sometimes you have to look for it, squint your eyes or tilt your head. Wings, Waves & Webs: Patterns in Nature is an illustrated book that jumps knee-deep into the world of observation, as it can be seen by elementary school ages.

Wings, Waves & Webs: Patterns in Nature is an illustrated book that shows young ages the shapes, patterns and big pictures that exists in front of their very eyes.

Young ages can absorb and learn more than we think that they can

The Skull, all bones that classically crackle with dread for lower elementary

Emerging readers want a sense of mystery. They want dark tales that are just enough to make them imagine what goes bump in the night, before squinting at them just enough to let them know that everything is fine. It’s the aura of a book that has age-appropriate dread or genuine curiosity. This allows their young imagination to fill in the blanks, which can be infinitely scarier than the text that they’re reading. The Skull is a perfect example of the feeling that kids want, and in many cases need. Aside from the title which inspires creepy questions in its own right, the book’s cover has a little girl hiding behind a big tree that’s been dusted with snow as she’s holding a skull. The background light is a soft pink that’s happening just around the sunset golden hour and it’s a place that you want to be.

The Skull is a perfect example of less-is-more, crafting a big modern classic story out of a simple premise about a runaway girl and a disembodied skull.

The Skull, Resistance is futile

Molly and the Mutants lays glorious 80’s waste to the sophomore curse

Molly and the Mutants, it sounds like a bubblegum band from the 60’s, doesn’t it? Assuming that you’re reading for non-classroom purposes, reading should be fun. It’s an experience that can transport you to a different world, relax your brain, make you think, and perhaps even make you cry, but it should be fun. And wow, did Moll and the Mutants ever get the fun memo and is running with it down the halls of upper elementary school and mglit fiefdoms across the land.

Molly and the Mutants is the second in the Far Flung Falls book series and cements itself as a go-to destination for mglit leisure reading.

MGLit in a festive, sci-fi, ’80s wrapper for ages 8 and up

The Great Mathemachicken 2 Have a Slice Day, giddy puns for young readers

Puns are an effective and short route to an emerging reader’s heart. Dog Man has been plowing that field for almost a decade and other children’s book series were most certainly doing the same thing prior to that. It’s also quite magical when a child understands a pun for the first time. The Great Mathemachicken 2: Have a Slice Day is an early reader chapter book that’s fun and educational, without being too much of the latter.

Ages 5-8 looking for a go-to, smart. early chapter book will dig it

Marie Curie and the Power of Persistence, silly + science adds up to fun

I’m currently teaching AP Literature and English. It’s fascinating because it looks at things from an entirely different angle, in addition to things that I never knew to things that I might be overthinking. For example, in my notes, there were several activities titled “MC practice”. I assumed that it was some AP or higher lever in dissecting text. In researching it I learned that there’s a musical group on Soundcloud by the same name and several consulting firms that probably help you practice things. In addition to remembering our basic abbreviations, I’m teaching lots of classes on perspective and how altering it will wildly change how the story is understood or enjoyed. This is relevant because I just read Marie Curie and the Power of Persistence. It’s an illustrated book that could’ve easily fallen into a trap of mediocrity but avoids that due to its perspective.

This is far from your typical illustrated book on Marie Curie

O is for Ossicone, a fun alphabet board book to plant smart STEM seeds

Treat kids as intelligent as you want them to be. I have that belief when I teach and it’s how we’ve raised our two children so far. You might’ve heard the tale about the baby who had a toy piano in their crib since they were born and they grew up to be a world-renowned concert pianist. I have no idea if that’s true, it sounds like the sort of information that lives in fables, but it could also breed familiarity with something that might psyche kids out as they get older. Was the child already a prodigy and the fact that they were given that toy just a happy coincidence? O is for Ossicone is a board book. Board books are meant for babies. I didn’t know most of the content in O is for Ossicone. I am not a baby. The proceeding four sentences are 100% true.

O is for Ossicone: A Surprising Animal Alphabet is the smartest, most enjoyable A, B, C board book that your kids have seen in a long time.

Don’t be alarmed if this board book is smarter than you

10 Cats, a counting book that uses logic, simplicity, humor….and cats

10 Cats is such a logical counting book, that’s also utterly original that you’ll want to slap yourself for not thinking of it first. It’s a counting book that combines the seek-and-find aspect that young ages have seen in some books but adds kittens. Oh, it is a counting book where pre-k and kindergarten ages learn to count, but instead of counting up, 10 Cats asks readers to find kittens with certain color patterns or other distinguishing marks.

Learning to count is not the cat’s fault