Books | Page 2 of 86

The Snowman Code is the elementary school skeleton key to get kids to read

What makes a kid want to read? The answer to that breaks down due to their age and sex. Girls tend to read much quicker and advance at younger ages. Boys are apparently made of snips, snails, puppy dog tails and fart jokes or gas euphemisms. The Snowman Code is one of the cutest chapter books for elementary age kids we’ve read this year. Not only is it a good book, it’s one that will be effortless to read for children in elementary school. These are the readers who are able to graduate to chapter books, but might need a nudge to boost their confidence to get to books that look like The Snowman Code.

The Snowman Code uses pacing, succinct dialogue, humor, well developed characters and heart to create a fabulous chapter book for elementary school.

It’ll melt hearts and make kids want to read

The Christmas Contest: An Advent Novel, early chapter fun opening pages

Don’t think about The Contest from Seinfeld, don’t think about The Contest from Seinfeld. Nay you 90’s fans of quality television this is The Christmas Contest. It’s a book that’s been too long dormant on my to-do shelf, but is now seeing the top of my desk and ready for its close-up. And…I feel an initial pang of regret because its hook, if you’re down with Advent, is very logical and addictive. Side note: worst headline ever.

The Christmas Contest: An Advent Novel is for young readers that combines opening a new thing, with an early chapter book story.

hARK THE aDVENT ANGELS READ

The Black Market, age-appropriate scary or a prank too many?

It’s a fine line between mglit that’s age-appropriate scary, and those that skew younger. They’re both easy to wrangle because they have a cover that guides them to their audience. The Black Market is certainly in the correct category of mglit. Its content is the sort that upper-elementary will enjoy-to an extent. The cover has a spooky costume that’ll confuse those readers for just a moment. However, this is where mglit has varying lines of interest, with some crossing much higher than the name implies, and some sticking stubbornly to middle school, #67.

The Black Market is seasonally spooky MGLIT for ages eight through 11, but it’ll challenge itself to find those kids who find this to be their jam.

Leads who are hard to love

Howdy! Welcome to the Grand Ole Opry gives to the place past its fanbase

In 2023 I saw Crowded House at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. I didn’t know anything about the venue or its historical significance. I simply knew it was the first time they had toured in a decade and that this was the closest stop to me. Once you get to downtown Nashville the history and pedigree of that venue casts a long shadow. Howdy! Welcome to the Grand Ole Opry! Is an illustrated book that’s as much a love letter to live entertainment, as it is to country music and the physical entity where that great band from New Zealand played.

Howdy! Welcome to the Grand Ole Opry is an illustrated book that uses mixed media and short text to be effortlessly entertaining

Holla! YEE Haw! Hee Haw! Fun Reading come hither

Frankenstein and the art of high school under-achievement

For the better part of a year I’ve been teaching high school literature. For non-teachers, people who teach literature have access to large closets of books from which to choose for their classes. Sometimes they can dig into engaging books of their choosing, and other times the departments might decide on The Crucible. It’s like the wardrobe from Narnia, but it leads to a kingdom of knowledge or pain, depending on your perspective. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is in those closets. Realistically, it’s almost certainly reserved for the AP classes. However, somewhere I like to think there’s a rogue literature class, probably helmed by Mr. Escalante from Stand and Deliver. They’re being rewarded by the patient, well-told dread and gothic stench that also has romantic sensibilities.

Today’s high school kids stand a better chance at levitating off of the ground, than reading Frankenstein and understanding it.

Teacher rant in 3, 2, 1…

A Home for Felix uses dreamy art and an open story to its benefit

A publisher does not a good book make. However, there are some book publishers who are so consistent in their ability that it primes the pump for your expectations. Tra Publishing is one like that. Their books have an odd, slightly unfamiliar feeling about them, but not too much that it’s incomprehensible to its young audiences. A Home for Felix is familiar, but strange, with big, dreamy illustrations that will make early readers happy and keep the older people reading it entertained.

A Home for Felix has dreamy art, concise words and a timeless story that crosses boarders to charm illustrated book audiences.

Order up, one awesome book, order up.

The Rise of Neptune, has action and imagination for young readers

It’s a great thing when you can jump into the second entry in a book series and be entertained. It’s also quite rare. The Rise of Neptune is the second book in The Dragonships Series. It does something equally rare in middle-grade fiction, it makes you want to find the first book and read it so that you can connect the dots.

The Rise of Neptune is the second book in The Dragonships Series and proves that its predecessor laid the ground for a go-to mglit series.

It’s as good as it is pretty

Dark Fairy Tales, an entertaining collection of the evil in our global myths

Let’s be clear, Dark Fairy Tales is not in any way appropriate for children. This is not reverse psychology or some trick by educators to make you read something. Dark Fairy Tales is a collection of fairy tales from around the world that are set in areas where things go bump in the night. Do not confuse any of these stories with something that a child would read and be entertained by. Instead, think of something by Lovecraft, Clive Barker or Stephen King, condense it into a short narrative like a fairy tale, and you’re close to what’s in this book.

Dark Fairy Tales lives in the dark spaces of a worldwide collection of jinns and demons, closer to Evil Dead, than Disney.

This book is not for children, for reals