The Leak is a graphic novel that centers around a tween girl and four issues that are central to her life. There are boys (actually one in particular), her family, her hobby-which is writing and creating her newsletter, and midnight black sludge that she finds near the lake that she goes fishing at. It’s written by Kate Reed Petty with illustrations by Andrea Bell. The graphic novel is interesting because it has a laser tight appeal to a certain age range due to several characteristics.
As a family, we are knee-deep in the struggles of getting an elementary-aged student to learn to love reading. One series that he does enjoy is the Diary of a 5th Grade Outlaw series by Gina Loveless with illustrations by Andrea Bell. The third book in the series is Who is the Bucks Bandit? and it feels very different than the first two. Elementary-aged students who are already enjoying the series will gamely follow along. However, those passive readers who were reading the book just to placate their parents will feel like they’ve been here before. The result will leave librarians and parents of those younger kids who are coming into the series hoping that the fourth book in the Diary of a 5th Grade Outlaw series finds its mojo again.
Epic! Originals is a book imprint line within Andrews McMeel Publishing. This imprint of books is worth mentioning because it nails to the floor how elementary aged kids think. Some of their books skew younger than Diary of a 5th Grade Outlaw. This series of books by Gina Loveless with illustrations by Andrea Bell has its second release, The Friend Thief out now and pull a bit of an Empire Strikes Back on its readers.
The presentation is one of the first things that elementary aged readers will notice about Diary of a 5th Grade Outlaw by Gina Loveless and Andrea Bell. It’s much more of a rectangular prism than other books. This allows smaller hands to easily grasp the hardback book and look at its cover. From there those readers will see the rough notebook like appearance to the book and might erroneously presume that it’s cut from the same cloth as Wimpy Kid. It’s not and once you open up the book you’ll see that Diary of a 5th Grade Outlaw is exactly what some kids need in order to become better readers.
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