Maybe I need a vacation, maybe. I ask myself that when an mglit book that I’m reading is challenging to get through. It’s a saying that I echo even more so when it’s the second book in a series to which I really enjoyed the first one. The Afterlife of the Party is an mglit book that I should have loved. Grounded For All Eternity is an mglit book that we really enjoyed. In theory, a sequel would’ve been one that resonated as quickly with us, but that wasn’t the case, and I’m not sure why.
Emerging readers want a sense of mystery. They want dark tales that are just enough to make them imagine what goes bump in the night, before squinting at them just enough to let them know that everything is fine. It’s the aura of a book that has age-appropriate dread or genuine curiosity. This allows their young imagination to fill in the blanks, which can be infinitely scarier than the text that they’re reading. The Skull is a perfect example of the feeling that kids want, and in many cases need. Aside from the title which inspires creepy questions in its own right, the book’s cover has a little girl hiding behind a big tree that’s been dusted with snow as she’s holding a skull. The background light is a soft pink that’s happening just around the sunset golden hour and it’s a place that you want to be.
After reading Ludwig and the Rhinoceros audiences, those young readers who were most likely having it read to them might have some questions, and that’s okay. As a teacher, and as a parent, unless it’s 9:00 and time for them to go to bed, I love questions. However, Ludwig and the Rhinoceros is an illustrated book, a brightly illustrated one at that, about Ludwig, a young boy and his imaginary large mammal friend. Elementary ages have seen books on imaginary friends before, what makes Ludwig and the Rhinoceros so much fun, in addition to feeling like a classic illustrated book that you’ve seen in your youth, is that it takes its talking points from a real-life person.
Kids of a certain age think that everything revolves around them. Heck, some adults haven’t realized it yet and still think that everything revolves around them. They’re the only one who has experienced whatever circumstance they’re wrestling with and nobody is capable of understanding or relating to their issues. I was that way as a kid and I see children in classrooms every day who are wrangling with those same emotions. A Sky of Paper Stars by Susie Yi is a graphic novel that tackles all of that, with a side order of cultural differences, maybe a yokai and a death in the family. It blends all of those things together, with an added sense of wonder to create a book that gives you the feels and makes you think.
When I was a teenager I saw The Last Temptation of Christ. I was no budding theologian; it was the fact that the movie was being picketed that piqued my attention. Enlightened is not the graphic novel, Buddhist version of that experience. This is the lightly fictionalized story about the early years of Siddhartha, the human who would later be known as Gautama Buddha.
In my office, I’ve got a very small shelf that I affectionately call the best books that I never reviewed. Why didn’t I review them? Sometimes my schedule just got too busy, the new release got to be not so new or I just completely forgot. The Constitution Decoded: A Guide to the Document That Shapes Our Nation by Katie Kennedy is one of the books on that shelf. This is a reference book that presents the Constitution of the United States of America in a way that makes it entertaining and teachable, without diluting the content or presenting it in an intimidating manner. The Presidents Decoded: A Guide to the Leaders Who Shaped Our Nation is cut from the same cloth and delivers similar, but not an identical level of enjoyment.
Children’s non-fiction book are useless unless they are read by children. It can be a great book all day long, but if younger readers don’t jump in the pool it’s merely an exercise in publishing. How It Happened! is a series of non-fiction books created by WonderLap Group. They take a common subject that kids are interested and give it the “Nat Geo Kids” treatment. That’s the way in which books look engaging to those elementary ages by offering up colored pages, a wide variety of illustrations and photographs, big print and text that takes their hands and makes reading fun.
When learning another language, full immersion is the absolute best way to do so, if that’s an option. Depending on your age it certainly can be more confusing, but the results will happen quicker, once your brain stops trying to fight the process. This is where children’s books in a second language can be a very important learning tool. El Dia Del Agua is an illustrated book that exemplifies that fact. It’s 100% in Spanish and provides Spanish language learners the opportunity to practice their pronunciation, inferential clues, and grammar.
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