Education | Page 25 of 40

Book Scavenger is literature worth finding for middle grades and up

The line that separates children’s entertainment from being enjoyed by a wider audience is a fine one indeed. If it goes just a bit too young then only the really young kids will like it, tweens won’t and teens and adults would be bored senseless. Age appropriate content that legitimately crosses up to an older audience is very difficult. That is what makes Book Scavenger so surprising and such a treat to read. For older readers its content is simple, but the story and characters make it so engaging that you want to read it and actively turn the page eager to find out what happens.

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Calls for the National Geographic Bee are open to schools

When I was in 7^th grade one of the smartest people in our class was Doug. One of his party tricks, for lack of a better term was his in-depth knowledge of world countries and their capitals. During one slow class I remember him talking about Togo and its capital, Lome. Everyone in the class had never even heard of Togo and here he was schooling us on things about this relatively small African country. The questions that I’ve seen in the National Geographic Bee aren’t all that difficult; but it’s something that Doug would’ve certainly been our school champion at.

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Let’s Count Fish! adds up to more than just another toddler number book

Yeah, you need another counting book for your toddler like you need small pieces of LEGO bricks under your bare feet. I think we have four books that help teach the basic numbers. Each book does it differently; some have sentences on the way to telling a story while others show the roman numeral in addition to objects that the kids can count. Let’s Count Fish! is more like the later book, but it does so with such charm you’ll want to read it to your kids just so that you can look at the retro-inspired images.

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Super Genius First Words is sight word reading fun

We have a sight reader in the house now. We know that he can read certain words, but he needs to gain the confidence to say the sight words that he knows aloud. He has had some sight word cards in the house for years and is just starting to see why they’re important. Blue Orange provided us with a set of Super Genius First Words so that we could let our young reader at them.

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Win 5 free book downloads for young readers from Capstone

Hey, we were compensated for this post-all thoughts are our own. This is giveaway will excite parents for lots of reasons. We’ve partnered with Capstone Publishing to give away 5 free book downloads via their CapReader app on Apple devices. These are for 5 free titles including, Spelling Queen, Too Shy for Show-and-Tell, Zeke Meeks vs. the Stinkin’ Science Fair, You Can Write Cool Poems and Bus Ride Bully. The books are great for young readers and the total package has a value of over $35, plus we’re giving away 20 of them-so your odd on winning are great.

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Snow doubt, Are We There, Yeti? is a 1-pun book that small children will enjoy

Are We There, Yeti starts out with Yeti, the school bus driver being introduced. Yeti is about the take the kids on a trip and they want to know where they are going. Anyone who had driven children two or older around will have a Pavlovian response to the “Are we there yet” query. It’s closely related to the
“Are we done yet” query, but possibly more annoying because everyone involved in the conversation is trapped inside of a moving vehicle. Are We There, Yeti? takes that question, makes the driver of the vehicle a Yeti, combines it with soft, muted art to create a good-night book that kids 2-5 will really get a laugh out of.

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New All Age Comic Books for Wednesday September 16, 2015

Happy #NCBD ! New comic book day is yielding some new all age comics for everyone. This is the list that highlights the new all age comics that are released in a given week. All of these comics are OK for all ages, but some ages won’t enjoy them. Case in point are the new Princeless comics this week. Princeless Raven Pirate Princess and Princeless Be Yourself don’t have anything objectionable in them and have fabulous role models, but their realistic style might not be something that a five-year old wants to see.

It’s not that all ages comic books have to have an anime look about it with all of the characters having soft, rounded features. It’s the content that makes up something that’s OK for any age. A great example of this is a conversation with a seven-year old I had recently. I gave him a stack of our son’s all ages comics and some of our graphic novels. He looked at our graphic novels and wanted to see the action and superheroes that his friends like, but asked if there was blood. “Yes”, I told him. An all age comic book isn’t about lack of story or young elements, it’s about content and what is appropriate for kids.

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New all age comic books for Wednesday, September 9, 2015

It’s a great day to discover some all age comic books. This past weekend I went to Dragon Con and there were some awesome comic creators that I heard speak and had a chance to meet. Jeremy Whitley, the creator of Princeless and writer for My Little Pony among other titles was there talking about the importance of all age books to hook young people into reading. Any Runton from Owly and Bob Camp, the Creative Director (and cartoonist) on The Ren & Stimpy show were also on that panel. Tracey Yardley, the all ages comic artist who has drawn Sonic the Hedgehog since 2005 and whose new all ages book, Galaxy Man & Cosmic Girl comes out very soon.

Speaking with all of them was a real hoot and reminded me of the first place that many youth encounter comic books-the library. They all said that your local public library was a great place to get up to speed on characters or discover new ones that might be just what your young reader is looking for.

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