Education | Page 16 of 39

Quest For The Golden Arrow, big scale middle Earth style fun for middle school

Time Stoppers, Quest For The Golden Arrow is the second book in the series by Carrie Jones. The first book in the series was one of our favorite releases of 2016. It was brisk, lively, fun and zipped along with parallel-world adventures about trolls, growing up and mystery. The sequel, Quest For The Golden Arrow is cut from a similar cloth and is a very good book, just more serious.

That’s not a bad thing, but the first book had such a sense of levity that reader who already enjoy the series might be taken off guard. Quest For The Golden Arrow starts out with a kidnapping bang and Mss. Cornelia, the elder time stopper has been taken prisoner by Raiff. Annie, the formerly nobody girl is practicing her abilities to stop time and this kidnapping put her and her friends at risk.

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BrandED aims for education branding, succeeds a little bit

Education is sales. In an ideal situation, if they have children, people move to a new residence because of the school’s reputation. Better schools retain their teachers, have higher achieving students and are a more integral part of the community. BrandED is the story of schools and how they can create their own brand. The book centers on eight chapters that break down situations and results that can provide educators with insight about the benefits of controlling, rather than reacting.

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Bats, Learning To Fly is fun-based education in a graphic novel

One of the great and illusive qualities of non-fiction books, regardless of subject matter, is making it entertaining for young readers. Historical fiction is one way to get kids hooked into a subject. However, much like the disclaimer, based on a true story muddies audience’s reaction to a film; the ‘fiction’ element throws a monkey wrench as to how much of the story is actually true. Science Comics from First Second books doesn’t have that issue. Their latest book, Bats-Learning to Fly is 100% entertaining for upper elementary school and up. They’ll laugh, re-read it several times, learn lots of true facts about bats and maybe ask questions about what else they can learn about.

Bats is a mix between a graphic novel and a book. Its content is all graphic novel. The glossy pages to the overlapping panels of art that are different sized will immediately invite readers into its world. The cover is hardback, durable and built to withstand years of backpack trips, vacations to the beach or being checked out of the library hundreds of times.

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50 Wacky Things Animals Do makes kids want to learn about critters

The other week I took 50 Wacky Things Animals Do to our first graders class when I was the mystery reader. Parents, be sure to take advantage of being the mystery reader at your child’s school as often as you can. It’s one of those feelings in the whole parenting thing that really makes you realize that you’re awesome. We ask the kids to pick a number between 1 and 50; then we turn to that animal’s designation in the book.

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Noodleheads See The Future, folk tales with a Fly Guy twist

Chimichanga. We called our youngest son that once when he did something silly. The name stuck and we still call him chimichanga when he’s being silly or makes a basic mistake. Noodleheads See The Future is an early reader chapter book that uses noodles as the main characters. There’s Mac and Mac who are the main characters, they are actually noodles in body and myth.

It turns out that ‘noodles’ or ‘noodleheads’ have been slang for people who don’t think for generations. It makes sense and I’ve heard the term before, but didn’t realize that it was a worldwide thing. However, in Italy, Turkey, England and beyond people have been referring to fools as noodleheads for a very long time.

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The Secret Project, a most unlikely picture book for upper elementary

Imagine a book written about the most destructive thing that man has ever created. Now imagine a book written about a device that saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of lives and ended a world war. Depending on your perspective, both situations are correct in one of the most unlikely picture books you’ll ever read. The Secret Project is the story about the scientists that worked under deep secrecy to create their ‘gadget’, the Atomic Bomb.

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Kid Beowulf, The Song of Roland makes you want to read epic poetry, really

I never read Beowulf. The only thing I know about that book is that it’s a long poem that does not involve a wolf. With that in mind it’s all the more ironic that I really enjoyed Kid Beowulf, The Song of Roland by Alexis E. Fajardo. Much like its namesake there is not a wolf in the graphic novel and there is no theme song for Roland. Perhaps it’s because of-or in spite of these things that the book managed to do a difficult thing; it made me care about and want to read more about European history around the time of the crusades.

It even feels weird typing that. Kid Beowulf, The Song of Roland is a graphic novel that is based on the French poem of the same name. It centers on a battle that took place in 778 with King Charlemagne’s best warrior, Roland, plus some Christian armies, Saracens (Muslims), family and betrayal. This is potentially complex subject matter with a cast of dozens that are spread out over an entire country. It’s a big scale story with equal parts legend, lore and adventure where it’s just as likely that you’ll encounter a giant as you will a traitorous family member.

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Stinky Spike, early chapter books that boys will sniff out from the pack

We recently reviewed Agnes and Clarabelle, the first books in the Read & Bloom book series from Bloomsbury. They’re early chapter books with basic vocabulary and big illustrations to bring in young readers so that they want to read the books by themselves. That particular series will be more attractive to young girls. Stinky Spike is the next series of books in the Read & Bloom lineup and will be of interest to boys more than girls.

Stinky Spike is not exclusively for boys. I’ll approximate it as an 80/20 boy to girl preference. The first book is Stinky Spike, The Pirate Dog. In this one Spike is a dog that lives by the sea in a busy port with all manner of boats. Spike is known for his nose and his ability to correctly identify (usually horrible) smells. One day while sniffing around the docks he slips and is swept out to sea where he meets up with a band of pirates.

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