Books | Page 9 of 82

Once Upon Another Time: Happily Ever After sticks the finale

Trilogies are tricky business. Which came first, the trilogy or the story? That’s the question that sometimes vexes readers and reviewers. If you add too much backstory then it could water down the traction that readers would have with the characters, but if you don’t add enough then people won’t be emotionally invested in them. I completely understand the creative will to have more than one book, but am aware that it can be perceived as simply needing multiple entries to sell books. It’s a thin line, isn’t it? Once Upon Another Time: Happily Ever After (or Once Upon Another Time 3) deftly approaches that line, happily looks over it, and then dances back and forth over that line on repeated occasions.

Happily Ever After, the third and final book in the Once Upon Another Time series, pokes, dances and has fun with expectations and fairy tale tropes.

Rounding out the series with fun to spare

Watch Out For The Lion!, fear not the young kids who want this book

Watch Out For The Lion! Is the brother from another mother to The Monster at the End of This Book: Starring Lovable, Furry Old Grover. It’s a trick that will cause young readers will lean forward as books like this are being read to them. The page shows a yellow tail with a bob of tan fur at its end, surely this is the lion that the book warned readers about. This is the fun, breathless sort of book that runs with energy when the reader and the crowd are synchronized.

Watch Out For The Lion! is a faux monster book that sets up something scary that never comes in a read-to-me romp that kids will love.

Pre-K through Kindergarten, this is your sign

I Am A Tornado, a great read-aloud illustrated book that seeds STEM curiosity

Illustrated books teach best when it’s done via a metaphor that’s so obvious it makes adults question if the book is really about what they think it’s about. I Am A Tornado by Drew Beckmeyer is an illustrated book that completely fits that bill. The book is obviously about a tornado, in a meteorological sense, and presented at a level for early elementary school ages to enjoy. The book is an over-the-top metaphor about how kids can become out of control when their emotions aren’t in check. Isn’t it obvious? I Am A Tornado is a mix of the two ideas and is presented with infectious, energetic art that brims with movement and fun. No, I Am A Tornado is almost certainly an age-appropriate book on the whirling wind that kicks up in the summer months.

I Am A Tornado is an illustrated book on those windy cyclones, with a possible metaphor on cranky children, that will please all ages 4 through 8.

Metaphor or STEM, it’s up to you, but great for all

The Town With No Mirrors oozes realistic fiction for mglit fans

Bad advertising, collectibles, and social media have one big thing in common; and it’s one that I wish ages 12 and up would realize sooner. If you ignore it, pay no attention to what’s said, or have a more active hobby then you won’t be affected by any of its social collateral. The Town With No Mirrors is mglit, realistic fiction that alludes to characteristics of one of those. It starts with a hook, builds upon it patiently and by the time things come to a crescendo the plot is running like Zola Budd.

The Town With No Mirrors is reluctant realistic fiction for mglit readers who like their plausible stories paired with mystery.

fear not the realistic fiction middle schoolers

Zap! Clap! Boom! The Story of A Thunderstorm, a demystifying read aloud

Pre-k through middle elementary school kids know who their El Guapo is. It’s the thunderstorm. Those ages can be as happy as a clam in a tide pool but their mood will shift like the sands when they see black clouds on the horizon. Zap! Clap! Boom! The Story of A Thundstorm is an illustrated book that those ages, especially the younger ones, will enjoy. Older folks are able to appreciate the fringe benefits that are associated with thunderstorms. That’s one thing that the book does a great job of incorporating to those young ages. They have difficulty seeing how the big noise, torrents of rain and white-hot light can be beneficial at all. However, they can be and Zap! Clap! Boom! The Story of a Thunderstorm does a great job at illustrating to kids that everything has a purpose.

Zap! Clap! Boom! The Story of A Thunderstorm is an illustrated book that explains and demystifies the loud thing that scare so many young kids.

Explaining why they are could be the key to chilling them out

Fann Club: Batman Squad, big laughs in text and art for this all-age winner

Fann Club: Batman Squad is not a story that exists in the multiverse. There also isn’t a typo in the book’s cover. Once you see the cover it’s obvious that it’s a graphic novel intent on making elementary school-age readers and up laugh, which it succeeds at very quickly. Our sometimes surly 13-year-old picked up Fann Club: Batman Squad, plopped himself on the sofa, and proceeded to read it. This is worth noting because he’s an avid reader, but mainly sticks to mglit. “This is from the Catwad guy, isn’t it?”, he asked. Yeah, some readers might know Jim Benton from that, but they also might recognize his work from the Dear Dumb Diary book series, Franny K. Stein books, Victor Shmud or his cartooning work. For me, the most entertaining was Attack of the Stuff, which was criminally ignored and still is by most elementary school libraries that I visit. Fann Club: Batman Squad is a Jim Benton book because it’s his style, set against the background of a young boy who knows everything about Batman.

Fann Club: Batman Squad is an original graphic novel that aims at elementary school ages, but covers ages eight and up.

Proof that great IP can cross demographics and still entertain.

NASCAR 75 Years bristles with life and the speed of the sport

NASCAR 75 is a coffee table book that does exactly what well-crafted books in that category should do. Imagine a topic that you have no interest in, yet you pick up that thick, curiously oversized book when you’re at a friend’s house and become immersed in the topic that’s front and center. It’s a book that’s bathed in full-color photographs, hundreds of text blurbs explaining their relevance, and chapters that hold your hand as it explains why untold numbers of people find this topic fascinating. NASCAR 75 Years is the hardcover, coffee table book that does all of that.

NASCAR 75 Years is a coffee table book in the true sense of the word. It satisfies fans in its deep-dive stories and documentation, but also serves as an introduction for the masses.

NAscar 75 years does is soup to nut racing for fans and the masses

The Kingdom Over the Sea, mglit that’s not as bad as it could’ve been

Stop me if you’ve heard this before. A young girl’s parents have mysteriously disappeared and are presumed deceased. This youth mourns their absence and is trying to figure out the meaning behind the object or writings that she’s worshipped since they’ve been gone. Suddenly a porthole, new person in town, or traumatic event happens that leads our protagonist to a far-flung world where she discovers new things, realizes that she has powers beyond her imagination and just might be able to see her family again. This is a trope that’s running rampant through children’s literature now. Actually, one could say that it’s been a common theme for a long time. However, what was a theme, is now a de facto, almost mandatory synopsis in books that are in my review queue. So, how does The Kingdom Over the Sea fit in relative to this landscape?

The Kingdom Over the Sea is mglit that hits upon many current popular tropes, and manages not to be as disinterring as others who took the same path.

Kids 8-12 will dig it