The Pinkaboos, middle school fright-friendly books scare up courage

The Pinkaboos are a group of friends who are Frights that are being picked on at school. The bully, Vex, is an older student who picks on Bitteryly, Belladonna and Abyssma for no reason other than the fact that they’re younger than her. It’s the job of a Fright to help their assigned human conquer the fears that they encounter during a nightmare. Vex refers to them as Pinkaboos because they attend Fright School, and pink is the farthest thing from scary, isn’t it?

The pinkaboos, pinkaboos, young reader, fright school, jake and laura goselin,

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Kids want science to make sense-what do you do to help that?

This is a sponsored post, all thoughts are our own. As an ex-educator I know that teaching our kids about STEM is incredibly important. All you have to do is look at what jobs companies are hiring for and you’ll see its backbone of science, technology, engineering or math somewhere in that job description. Bayer recently conducted a study, which revealed exactly what parents are thinking and doing when it comes to educating their kids in science outside the classroom.  From helping your child’s teacher to tips for the homeschooling parent it’s got at least one insight that proves parents need to embrace science learning and keep kids interested in science.

STEM, Bayer, science, education, experiment, composting, engineering, math

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Jungle, A Photicular Book, as close to it as you’ll get from home

Photicular photography is also known as Lenticular photography. Growing up I had some baseball cards that were produced in that manner. They provided a crude 3D effect that made it look like the players were swinging the bats if you moved the card. Currently our son has a lunchbox that use photicular photography on it. Jungle, A Photicular Book is the third in a series of books by Dan Kainen that has its subject matter running, scratching, flying and slithering off of the page.

In theory, a book on nature images based on the technology that I see on my child’s lunchbox is not entertaining. It’s the quality of the technological difference that really makes Jungle stand out as a book that must be seen to be believed.

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The Great Shelby Holmes, middle grade caper stuck in a rut

The Great Shelby Holmes by Elizabeth Eulberg is a middle school book with its tongue slightly in cheek. Shelby Holmes is a 9-year-old local who knows everybody in her New York City neighborhood. She had a new neighbor move in downstairs, 11-year-old John Watson, who is used to moving from place to place. They quickly meet and become friends due to his boredom and her needing someone to assist her.

The Great Shelby Holmes, young reader, book, YA, young adult, Shelby, John

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Life Unstuck Courses, Making A Change for the better

This post is brought to you by Unstuck Life Courses and The Motherhood. All opinions are mine.  It’s a myth that the ostrich sticks their head in the sand. In reality they’ve just got small heads, dig holes in the dirt to place their eggs and sometimes have to check on them. However, people do not have that excuse. I do not have that excuse. But ignoring things or hoping that they’ll merely pass over is something that I do often. Sure we’ll come back to the task, but that interim has a cost in one way or another. It could be a financial loss because I can’t find something, a reputation decrease or simply an eyesore in the things that I don’t clean up. Knowing that, as well as my personal weaknesses, I agreed to try Unstuck Life Courses.

Unstuck Life Courses are a series of videos, exercises and worksheets designed to help folks improve their lives.

Yeah, that’s about where I tuned out too. I don’t need help, I just this-or-that or that one thing that will assist me with this. Thank you very much.

Here’s the thing though about life and the moments where you get stuck. For me now it’s the clutter, both online and off that jams me up. A genius keeps a messy desk, but mine was more akin to press release graveyard than ‘creative-at-work’. Our stuck moments; those triggers that we can’t seem to get past   will change as we get older or work past them.

Life Unstuck, online course, self help. Clean, help, pattern, work, risk, Unstuck

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The Big Fat Notebook, middle school education they’ll want to read

Imagine if you put a Wimpy Kid book and a summary of middle school education-by their individual subjects in a magic blender. The result would be a book from The Big Fat Notebook series.  This is an immediately accessible book that serves as a refresher to anyone outside of middle school or a study guide for those in the thick of it.

This is a book that manages to dance between education and entertaining with such deftness you’ll all but want to go back in time to re-learn your respective classes. There is a Big Fat Notebook for World History, American History, English, Math and Science. We looked at The Big Fat Notebook for Science and it made us realize that we certainly weren’t as smart as a middle school student, yet.

The big fat notebook, science, STEM, education, students, math, English, science, history, wimpy kid, brain quest

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CityBlock, a board book that entertains toddlers and up

CityBlock is the fourth entry into the series by Christopher Franceschelli and Peskimo. Technically these books aren’t a series in that there is a continual story they’re telling. Rather, its presentation and format that they use that make their books stand out in a crowded field of board books.  Their previous books looked at the alphabet, numbers and dinosaurs and displayed each of them in a durable manner that appealed to children and had elements that made them fun to look at for adults.

CityBlock, AlphaBlock, DinoBlock, Countablock, books, children, city, board book,

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The Inside Job, middle school spy fun with action and heart

The Inside Job-And Other Skills I Learned as A Superspy starts out of the gate with the team on a mission. We’re immediately introduced to a team of superspies who are all kids ranging in age from 11 to their late teens. Hale serves as the book’s central character. He’s a young kid who, along with his sister and other friends is ex-SRS agents who were intent committing crimes all over the world.

That’s an accurate overview of the book but it’s also a lot to take in at once.  What is SRS and how am I supposed to keep track of six strong protagonists, a couple antagonists and a shadowy organization that may or may not include Hale’s mom-who he thought was dead?

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