I’m at the beach, reading a book for mid- elementary-aged and up students about unicorns. Shouldn’t I be putting my feet in the sand, walking, and looking for shells or something? Instead, I’m under an umbrella, willingly reading Unicorn Island, and enjoying it immensely. I could speed read it, but I’m taking my time reading the book, digging into the vivid descriptions and adventure that Sam is experiencing in Foggy Harbor.
Dana Simpson is the author of Phoebe and Her Unicorn. When you visit a middle school or elementary school library you’ll be lucky to see any of them in their collection. They are certainly in the collection, but there’s usually a line of people who are trying to read them. Ozy and Millie are two foxes who have lived in Simpson’s mind since before Phoebe or her unicorn saw the ink of a printer. Perfectly Normal is the second collection featuring Ozy and Millie.
Mutts Go Green, Earth-Friendly Tips and Comic Strips by Patrick McDonnell is a collection that laughs in the face of the Christmas music test. We use that test as a barometer for holiday music. If said Christmas song is great, then we can listen to it anytime, not just during December. Currently only Kelly Clarkson and Hanson are the ones to survive our Christmas Music Test. * Mutts Go Green is a collection of classic comic strips that are being released around Earth Day; but go hand-in-glove with Earl, Mooch, and the overall vibe of perfection that McDonnell has created during its 25 plus year voyage.
Our youngest son can melt like butter on a hot day. It’s that zone where a child can become overwhelmed by the situation around them and any parent to a kid under 10 has seen it. They’ll hold their breath, lie on the floor, scream, become unresponsive, scratch themselves, or worse. There’s a really sweet video that’s making the viral rounds now showing an older brother demonstrating to his younger sibling how simply breathing deeply can calm you down. Breathe Deep, Little Sheep, A Calm-Down Book for Kids by Jessica Lee with illustrations by Lucia Wilkinson accomplishes the same thing for kids through second grade.
For a period in most boy’s or young men’s lives, they love Minecraft. Granted there are some girls who enjoy and can craft circles around their Y chromed counterparts, but for the most part in our experience. So for those girls that like ghosts, warriors, creepers, wolves, and more, Diary of an 8-Bit Warrior, An Op Alliance is for you. This is a surprisingly good and effective original graphic novel that fills a void that exists in regards to a literary version for this immensely popular franchise.
Our 9-year-old son is an emerging reader. Sometimes he’s a reluctant reader, but that all depends on his mood. Recently we wrote about the Big Foot and Little Foot book series that is great for those emerging, reluctant readers. That series is great for those first through fourth graders that are comfortable reading chapter books with lots more words than pictures. If your reader is on the younger end of that scale we discovered a new series that’s more graphic novel oriented, but still has chapter elements for those pre-k through second graders. It’s Kitty and Dragon and is great for those readers who want lots of pictures, but need to learn the skill of following the story by reading it too.
Our now 11-year-old son loved the Trapped in a Video Game book series by Dustin Brady. He read all of them and was quite bummed out when that series ended. Thus, when Escape from a Video Game: The Secret of Phantom Island arrived he was very excited. That excitement didn’t last long and I was curious as to why he gave up on the book less than 10 minutes after starting it. The answer will make some readers agree with him, might re-categorize the book for others, or have those puzzle kids jumping through book hoops to do the book.
Even before I had children I was reading Zits. Back then I enjoyed reading it because teenager Jeremy’s slacker behavior was something that I could relate to from my recent past. It was the late 90s and I was somewhere after college, but before getting a proper job and light-years away from maturing. While that last one is still in question, I’m still a fan of Zits, but for an entirely new litany of reasons that all revolve around children. They’re my children, as well as my nieces and nephews. The latter two I’ve seen go through or are going through their teenage years. The oldest of my children are knocking on the doors of teenage-dom and that makes Zit funny on a whole new level. The latest Zits collection, Screetime is out now and succeeds regardless of where you are in life, as long as you’re older than nine.
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