Education | Page 21 of 40

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.

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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.

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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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Giraffes Ruin Everything, but this book makes it all better

Giraffes Ruin Everything, it’s true. Many years ago Richard Pryor had a routine that made a parallel illogical and entertaining jump that snakes will make you run into trees. Giraffes Ruin Everything is a children’s book that ages 3 to 8 will howl with laughter at. Parents will like the book too because it teaches kids a valuable lesson that they might have trouble learning the first time.

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The Mixed-Up Truck gets teaching kids (and having fun) allegorically A-OK

Kids love trucks. Kids love cake. Kids love being silly. If you combine these you’ll get The Mixed-Up Truck, by Stephen Savage. It’s the story of a cement mixer and its first day on the job who means well, but keeps making simple mistakes. Kids make mistakes too. The Mixed-Up Truck is also an allegory for children that it’s normal to make mistakes.

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Bear’s Big Day by Salina Yoon, soothing school jitters for small kids

Salina Yoon is an author whose distinctive style makes her work immediately memorable for its demographic. Yoon has a way of speaking to the pre-school to early elementary school audience like few who write for that field. If I didn’t know that she was a grown woman I’d swear that she attended our son’s pre-school class with him. Bear’s Big Day is another example of her channeling everyone’s inner 4 year old going back to school, or in this case, starting school.

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Origin stories from Capstone fill the young reader superhero void

Spoiler alert, we like to read and want kids to start reading at an early age. Key to that happening is finding subjects that they actually want to read about. For some that topic matter is undeniable going to be superheroes, like Batman, Superman, Green Lantern or Wonder Woman. Certainly there are some all age comic books that have those characters in them; but those comics helps further their interest in reading, but may not be at a level for early readers. Capstone has a series of origin stories that feature Batman, Superman, Green Lantern and Wonder Woman designed fill that superhero void.

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Bedtime For Batman, a super good night book for 7 and under

Our criteria for a great good night book is that it has big pictures, is short enough to re-read if you need to and is interesting enough for young kids. Using our qualifiers there has not been a good night superhero book for the younger ages until now. Bedtime For Batman has bright, big art featuring the caped crusader and his parallel tract with a 4 year old boy who is preparing for bed.

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