How do you make the already good, even better? That beautiful bacon, spinach, and garlic pizza is great when it’s small, but when you make it a medium or large and it reaches a new level. Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales, The Underground Abductor-An Abolitionist Tale was good, but the Bigger & Badder Edition is just that. All of the books in the Hazardous Tales graphic novel series that we’ve read have been entertaining and educational to some degree. Ironically, it was their initial size always left us wanting more. Imagine seeing a painted or drawn work of art that is great, but one whose small stature handicapped its enjoyment.
It’s ok to not know everything, as long as you’re open to learning more…Tag: Abrams books
More Reinhart magic in Marvel Super Heroes The Ultimate Pop-Up Book
Where did you go to school? How is it that you’re able to envision things in such a manner that they fold out into such a grandiose, artistic fashion? If I were able to chat with Matthew Reinhart those are only a couple of the questions that I’d ask him. Reinhart’s pop-up books defy logic. It’s obvious that they pop-up, and one might expect a book along those lines to come off of the page. What Reinhart creates is mind-blowing art that comes off of the pages 12’ high and has multiple elements. Marvel Super Heroes The Ultimate Pop-Up Book takes on the MCU and entertains, as well as educates in ways that’ll make this a coffee table book for the pop culture savvy.
a LABRYNTH OF A GOOD TIME FOR THOSE WHO WANT TOGiddy joy abounds in The Cosmic Adventures of Astrid and Stella
Joy and utter happiness, there was a character in one episode of Phineas & Ferb that always amped up a party. It was the one where Cheesetopia in their backyard happened, and Perry was turned into a butler for Doofenshmirtz. The Cosmic Adventures of Astrid and Stella is a kid’s first graphic novel that lives and breathes happiness. Its colors, glossy pages, big illustrations, and emotive characters lovingly scream off of the pages in a way that will make early elementary school readers immediately attracted to the book.
Resistence to happiness is futileP.S.-We Made This!, unexpected crafting that lives up to its title
The issue with most craft books that we’ve run across is that they’re too complex. The end creation looks great, but it requires too many things to make it and has far too many steps. It’s worth noting that I’m a relatively handy guy also. I have a garage full of stuff to fix most simple things in a house and have two boys over ten, so we’ve acquired lots of craft things too. Having said that, every craft or maker book that we’ve tried to do has fallen short. P.S.-We Made This! does not the aforementioned issues. Instead, it’s a book of 85 relatively simple crafts or projects that mid-through upper elementary students can do with minimal to no assistance.
It works, it really really worksThe Replay: 25 Greatest Moments in Sports, worldwide appeal play
There is a sport that no elementary school-aged kid likes. There is a sport that the vast majority of elementary school children like. There’s a sport somewhere that’s the official sport of a county or their national pastime. Some of these sports get more of the spotlight when the Olympics roll around, some have seasonal happenings and some of them have produced iconic images that folks around the globe will recognize. The Replay: 25 Greatest Moments in Sports is an illustrated book that looks at 25 specific instances in sports competitions that today’s elementary school students probably won’t know.
The Museum of Lost Teeth, far from being pulled-it’s a great-goodnight book
“I have no idea why you lost your tooth or what the tooth fairy does with them”, that’s what I told a kindergarten student earlier this month. They were over the moon with curiosity as to how the tooth disappeared from underneath their pillow last night. And while they were thankful for the money that it had been displaced with, their wonderment as to where the tooth could’ve gone took up as much real estate in their mind as their sudden financial gain. The Museum of Lost Teeth is an illustrated book by Elyssa Friedland with illustrations by Gladys Jose that examines one theory as to how baby mouth bones disappear from the cool side of the pillow.
It’s funny, clever and takes the scares out of that first lost toothLet The Monster Out, succeeds were it not for those muddling meddling kids
Allegory, teen-angst, outsiders, corporate shenanigans, and overcoming your fears meet in mglit, what’ll ya have? If you’ve ever been to The Varsity in Atlanta, which is a fabulous place to grab a hot dog, they’ll greet you that way. Let The Monster Out is mglit that wants to be in the Stranger Things, but with-more-heart club, and almost gets there. It has high aspirations and does offer plenty of thrills along the way, but left us feeling empty as though the book was playing favorites, let us explain.
Evil Corporation and kids overcoming stuff 101Unmasked gets to the big bad quickly and sustains the teen tension
I love it when a book series gets better with a subsequent release. Unmasked is the third book in the Fright Watch series by Lorien Lawrence and manages to do that. We also read The Collectors, which was the second book in the series and while it was enjoyable, it didn’t have as much of an age-appropriate scare that some readers want. Unmasked is about a middle school girl, Marion, who uses the artistic creation of monsters as therapy. Her latest creation is a sea monster that she calls Winston. It’s all happening as the Super Blue Blood Moon and the school dance are around the corner, and Marion has developed a crush on a boy. Things can get complicated when you factor in a super-realistic mask that even gives its creator the creeps.