Elementary school | Page 7 of 20

Can You Catch Me? Tutu and the Vehicles, story time fun for the very young

The sublime simplicity of Can You Catch Me? Tutu and the Vehicles is disarming, immediate and resistance is futile. Tutu is a cute cat with disproportionally big eyes and is dressed like a ninja. The first page starts with a taunt of someone telling Tutu that they can’t catch them, as a black tail wisps away. Then we see Tutu jump on all manner of vehicles as they venture through a setting and onto or into a moving object in gentle pursuit of the black thing. Can You Catch Me? has the timeless graphics that today’s crawlers will find just as interesting as those ages will in 50 years.

Can You Catch Me? is a sublime example of less-is-more when it comes to making an illustrated book engaging and fun for ages 3-6.

simple and fabulous for three through six

Are You Big? is picture book laughs for ages three through seven

Elementary school-aged kids know Mo. Mo Willems’ picture books have a way of gleefully speaking to those young students. His style is immediate and can make them smile as they relax, make them think just a little bit, or it can do both. Are you Big? is Mo Willems at his thinking and relaxing best. At its smartest it’s a book about relative proportionality and thinking about the bigger picture that might contain variables that are outside of your influence. As its happiest and simplest, it’s a silly book with anthropomorphic weather systems, land masses and planets cavorting about a picture book that will do what books like this should do, make em smile.

Are You Big? is picture book fun and glory all about size and scale that will delight ages three and up with happy art and simple text.

A picture book that makes em smile….and think…and laugh…

Quest Kids and the Dark Prophecy of Doug doesn’t disappoint

An entertaining first book does not automatically ensure a series. Quest Kids and the Dragon Pants of Gold was a great book that sure looked like it had legs. Quest Kids and the Dark Prophecy of Doug is mglit that runs with fun. It’s a book that lives somewhere between the graphic novel and chapter book world that incorporates the illustrated manic fun of the former while building upon the text-based latter that kids need to know.

Quest Kids and the Dark Prophecy of Doug blends comic style art and quickly paced text for an mglit series that spans elementary and middle school.

Stop, collaborate and read this book

Bunny Vs. Monkey, lays the ground for elementary graphic novel gold

Spy Vs. Spy was my jam growing up. Even when I was well past an emerging reader status, the simplicity of their wordless adventures, combined with the humor that I wanted Mad Magazine was the stuff of legend. Bunny Vs. Monkey offers up some of those same feelings but is collected in an elementary school package that’s shorter, more colorful and a graphic novel. Many people will compare Bunny Vs. Monkey to Dog Man, which is accurate to a point, but the latter has one has more of a staccato presentation which is well-suited to its young audience.

Bunny Vs. Monkey is a rabbit-paced graphic novel that grabs the attention of elementary school readers and keeps them engaged until the final page.

elementary and proud of it

The Solvers Mission 1: The DivMulti Ray Dilemma does new math proud

Remember the “new math” joke from a couple of years ago? Parents of elementary school-age students realized that division and multiplication had a slightly different way of being taught. It’s not “new” per se, it’s just described using the commutative property, which is also a very quick way to learn craps. The Solvers is an interactive graphic novel series that entertains and educates. The DivMulti Ray Dilemma is the first in the series that manages to explain division and multiplication in a way that new and old math people can understand and does so with a strong superhero story that will guide those reluctant math readers.

The Solvers: The DivMulti Ray Dilemma is a math graphic novel that runs with energy, entertainment and education.

Graphic novel + Fun + Math = mastery of the subject

Jump for Joy, a sublime new classic with a timeless story

Jump for Joy is an illustrated book that shows two sides of the same tail. It’s simultaneously very basic, has thought-provoking art, and allows young children to fill in the blanks so that they can make the story their own. It has the quality that Billy’s walkabout in the Family Circus does where you’re innately drawn to run your finger along the path that he’s intentionally, and aimlessly walking to avoid something. In Jump for Joy you’ll find yourself tracing your finger over Joy, as well as, the dogs, even though they’re a two-dimensional drawing on the pages. It could be an attempt for your subconscious to make the book last longer, but you’ll do it too and probably won’t be able to figure out why either.

Jump for Joy is a timeless story about a girl and a dog who both need each other, paired with pitch perfect art.

The art. The simplicity of the story. The universal appeal.

Schnozzer & Tatertoes: Shoot the Moon!, is a new elementary tentpole

When does a book beget a series? Sometimes a book series is forced upon readers. It’s part of a bigger story to tell with the promise of multiple books to leisurely tell the tale that didn’t mandate so many books in the end. And other times it’s a genuine story, the evolution of characters who readers want to spend time with. The latter is important and one of those things that have the ‘it’ factor for elementary-aged readers. Schnozzer & Tatertoes: Shoot the Moon! is the second book in this graphic novel/comic book series and it has the ‘it’ factor.

Schnozzer & Tatertoes: Shoot the Moon! establishes itself as one of the big dogs in elementary school graphic novels.

Easy to read

The Catwings Complete Collection, confidence-building fun for young readers

Confidence makes doing anything easier. Ask an elementary-aged kid if they can dance and they’ll contort six ways from Saturday. Ask an adult to dance and you’re likely to get a muted stare and a wavering hand in search of a drink. The same can also be said for asking if someone is an artist. Young readers need to gain confidence early too, the sooner that they realize that they can read, the easier it is for them to jump into more age-appropriate text and read to learn, instead of learning to read. The Catwings Complete Collection has the four classic books in the series from Ursula K. Le Guin in one package.

The Catwings Complete Collection is the book series for getting kindergarten through fourth engage in chapter books.

Early chapter book series, meet willing young audiences