High school | Page 2 of 3

Courtesy of Cupid, mglit that asks what if the God of Love was your daddy?

Courtesy of Cupid disappeared from my book queue. It’s nothing fancy, just a series of books stacked up on top of one another, but I knew that something was missing. After a couple of days, my wife said, “This book is really good.” After a couple more days she let me know that Courtesy of Cupid would be leaving the house. It was going to someone else’s house so that they could read it. The finest form of book flattery is when it travels from house to house before eventually landing on my desk once more.

As much as it pains the stereotypical me, my wife was right on the money, and Courtesy of Cupid is a very entertaining book. Cupid is real, has a daughter and once she turns 13 will inherit the power to make people fall in love. It’s like Groundhog Day, but with love and in real-time. This is Bewitched, except Samantha can only make people fall in or out of love. Both of those aren’t what happens, but it’s where my mind, and possibly yours, immediately went.

Courtesy of Cupid, effortless-to-read mglit about a teen girl who’s the daughter of the God of Love and has inherited some of his abilities.

Just nod and say “Yes, dear”, but for real

Dia de Disfraces, un libro que passé el Navidad Musica exam

I just finished a contract where I was teaching advanced French to high school students. It was great practice for my guttural language skills and allowed me to read their library of French books. In this class library was a couple of dozen children’s books of all ages, with many of them being aimed at lower elementary school. I love it when I teach a foreign language and the teacher has a library of books in that language for students who are learning it. Dia de Disfraces is one of those illustrated books that are great for Spanish classrooms for a couple of reasons.

Dia de Disfraces is a charming illustrated book in Spanish about dressing up and being yourself, even when others aren’t with you.

Every library needs a handful of 2nd language books

Above the Trenches, a graphic novel that edutains with ease from all angles

Having taught a couple of classes to middle school grades about World War I, I know that the subject can be confusing. The time spent on WWI for most middle school classes is very brief, with more time allowed for the Treaty of Versailles, especially for those lower grades. Those ages know about the mythos of the flying ace, even if they get hazy on who were the Allied Forces and what were the causes that led to it. Above the Trenches is a graphic novel in the Nathan Tale’s Hazardous Tales series. This entry is specifically about the flying aces that took to the skies in WWI and how they came to shape this new form of combat. Ironically, the most famous WWI pilot, the Red Baron doesn’t factor into Above the Trenches that much. Instead, the graphic novel is about the Allied Powers and their build-up of the foreign legion and the men who jumped into this relatively new mode of transportation.

Above the Trenches is a graphic novel with dozens of characters, and country-spanning action, that manages to make people appreciate history.

a Graphic novel with brains, funs and airborne guns

Vern, Custodian of the Universe, a smart graphic novel that thinks and asks

Vern, custodian of the Universe is the strangest, most creative and surreal graphic novel since Neurocomic. It also echoes the sentiment from the classic Peggy Lee song, “Is that All There Is?”, and parallels to Janet Jackson’s “What Have You Done For Me Lately”, which was certainly more about relationships, but could be extrapolated to a greater sense. Vern deals with the multiverse, and before you dismiss this smart graphic novel as merely jumping on the bandwagon that movies have mercilessly pounded into the ground, hear me out. This graphic novel accomplishes readers getting interested in it by successfully and entertainingly melding so many areas of a science-fiction venn diagram some readers might not know what to focus on. They’ll come for the trope of the multiverse, but get sucked into the art, check it out for the art, but then dig deeper into the STEM or one of any other possible paths.

Vern Custodian of the Universe features beautiful art and an intelligent, STEM based story about the multiverse and the minute details that could alter it.

Trippy, fun, creative and great for upper middle and high school ages

Mile Morales Suspended: A Spider-Man novel like no other-for the better

In a very simple overstatement in the world of books, there are books for the genre fans, books for the general audience, and those that target the niche. Miles Morales Suspended: A Spider-Man novel, yet it’s unlike any web-slinger book, graphic novel or story that you’ve read before. “You” could be a Spider-Man fan who thinks that they’ve seen every vehicle that the character can entertain from. Miles Morales: Suspended is the most unlikely of superhero novels. We often point out to educators, parents or students the merits of reading graphic novels or comic book. This book takes that, turns it on its head, and literarily invites Spidey fans to go someplace that they’ve never been before.

Miles Morales Suspended: A Spider-Man novel that combines prose and any conceivable narrative caffeine to entertain readers.

Spidey has many forms and this one is just as engaging

How Do You Live?, the timeless Japanese classic translates effortlessly

After reading How Do You Live? you understand the book’s title on a much deeper level. On the surface one could surmise that How Do You Live? is a reflective book encouraging readers to take stock in their lives. It does have elements of that, but it’s not a personality Rorschach Test. Instead, How Do You Live? is one of the most popular Japanese books ever and has been a children’s book staple for generations. It’s scheduled to be the final anime film from Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli and was initially published in Japan in 1937. It’s also a very intelligent book that encourages thinking, introspection, and observations on various aspects of world culture. From an American teacher’s perspective, How Do You Live? is the book that you want your middle and high school students to read, but you know that less than 5% of them dig into the book for leisure reading, but more on that in a moment.

How Do You Live?, wow-it’s mglit that’s smart, timeless, inspiring and makes you a better person for reading it. It’s also challenging to describe and potentially frustrating for middle school readers.

For the smart kids, or those that want to be

Fear Street, True Evil is cutting-edge horror for ages 14 and up

Let your freak flag fly, that’s what I say. I said something like that to a student today, except it was the more school-appropriate version of “you do you, don’t worry about others.” We read our first R.L. Stine book last year and were exceedingly surprised by Stinetinglers. It’s obvious from that book that Stine has a knack, a hook at digging into the mglit psyche and dredging their fears and unsaid scares. Fear Street takes his angle, ups the demographic, increases the horror, and proves that he knows his role-and its capable of expanding. Specifically, True Evil: The First Evil, The Second Evil, The Third Evil is a book that’s in the Fear Street series of books that Stine creates.

True Evil is a book in the Fear Street series that oozes slow-boil dread and horror, that easily picks up the speed when it’s called for.

Much more than Goosbumps

The Changing Man, teen-age horror that hits the nail on the head

If I was in middle or high school then The Changing Man is the sort of book that I would’ve loved. It operates on a more mature level than Goosebumps. It oozes teen paranoia and angst on the pore of every greasy page. The characters are typical teens who don’t trust anyone over 20, but know that they have to acknowledge them and sometimes seek guidance when long-dormant problems rear their heads. More than anything, my teenage soul (and the erstwhile reader) would crave the horror, the monsters and the creatures that I know exist in the book, if only they can reveal themselves at the right time.

The Changing Man is a horror book that’s custom-built for teens. It lives in the soul of their world and paces the ick, life and monsters at a pace perfect for them.

Teens 14-18, this is your jam