Books | Page 42 of 82

Sharkblock, far from jumps the subject matter for ages 4 and up

Don’t judge a book by its cover. I know the saying. Yet, I was completely judging Sharkblock before looking at it. Ironically, my first thought was that the ‘block’ series has jumped the shark. How could Franceschelli and Peskimo make a block book about sharks that was something more than just a board book asking young readers to look at the sharks? Quicker than you can say ‘hold my cartilage they’ve made a book that continues the excellence that you’d expect from this series. Sharkblock has the thick, interactive pages that fans of the series expect to see, but has added education in the most kid-friendly way possible to their subject matter.

SharkBlock shatters board book expectations by being fun, educational and engaging for ages 4 and up.

Board books are just for babies you say…..

Otaku Japan, distills a massive amount of pop culture into a travel book

Geek culture, con life, and having a hobby all have some crossover within a Venn Diagram. Otaku is a Japanese word that has one meaning, with countless degrees of intensity. If you look it up online the meaning is “a young person who is obsessed with computers or particular aspects of popular culture to the detriment of their social skills”. Yikes, that doesn’t sound like a compliment, does it? Otaku Japan is a book that travels that county, documenting interesting sites on all four major islands. Also, as a former resident of Japan, I would take issue with the internet’s technical definition of otaku, but more on that in a moment.

Otaku Japan is an approachable, photo-rich travel guide to geek, cosplay, anime-centric, museums, festivals, parks and more in Japan.

Otaku, geek culture by another name, Japan style

Mission Multiverse, a great first entry into a mglit series for 9 and up

“This better not end in a cliffhanger”, I told my wife as I was finishing Mission Multiverse. It’s not that I don’t like cliffhanger endings, it’s just that sometimes when they end that way I feel cheated. Mission Multiverse is a great book. It sounds like I’m setting it up for some form of a backhanded compliment, but I’m not. It’s a very satisfying middle-grade book that exceeded my expectations. The reason that the words are coming out wonky is that it initially didn’t seem like it would be an entertaining book.

Mission Multiverse is a great first book in a science-fiction series that delivers for most mglit readers.

A great first entry into a series we hope continues its ascension

A Giant Mess, a confidence-building, kid’s first graphic novel for K-1

Getting emerging readers to actually read is a delicate mix of content and confidence. They will know how to read sight words, but getting them to read aloud is key towards their understanding and making the bridge to early chapter books. All of this is further complicated by what’s in the book. If there are too many words it could intimidate some readers. If there aren’t enough pictures then the books might not be engaging enough. I Like to Read Comics is an imprint from Holiday House Publishing that delivers the comic book feels in a contained story that’s on par for emerging readers. A Giant Mess is a hard-back book that nails all of those points to the floor in a story that’s big, manic, and just what the doctor ordered for kindergarten kids through first grade.

A Giant Mess is a double-meaning term that’s also a great short form graphic novel for K-1.

a picture laden graphic novel for K-1

Invented by Animals, a fabulously illustrated biomimicry STEM jam for 7+

In a middle-elementary class recently I went over the fascinating story about wall crawlers. It’s an amazing and true tale about entrepreneurship, luck, and not giving up. The technology might not be directly created from animals, but its hypnotic appeal sure was inspired by them. The closest parallel to that toy in Invented By Animals are the pages on the tree frog. The presentation in the book will immediately appeal to those middle-elementary readers. The vocabulary might be a bit much for them, but those fourth, and especially those fifth-grade readers will have a field day with this book. Invented By Animals will also introduce the fabulous new word, biomimicry, a term that they’ll learn a lot more about in their STEM classes in the coming years.

Invented By Animals, a very intelligent illustrated book on biomimicry, animal adaptations and STEM that 7 and up will want to read.

The nexus of smart and simple, in a biomimicry blanket

No Reading Allowed, a fun look at homonyms for ages 7 and up

Homonyms and homophones are evil, foul words that use the English language as their playing field. I watch as some of my ESL students twist and turn their minds in order to grapple with the fact that know or no and new and knew can exist in the same language universe. Having words that sound the same, but are spelled differently, yet pronounced the same, and have different meanings is a trick that’s exclusive to the English language. I thought that too, but homonyms are in fact, evil foul words that exist in every language. No Reading Allowed, The Worst Read-Aloud Book.

Bee not afraid of these fowl words

Round, it’s all around us and that’s the point of the book

What is art? It’s a challenging term to define but you know it when you see it. Round is an illustrated book that confused me at first. The irony of a very simple illustrated book making me scratch my head was not lost by my inner critic. From the get-go, Round is beautiful and has gorgeous illustrations of various things found in nature that are well, round. However, much like art doesn’t have just one definition, round can also have several shades of its shape.

Round, yes, yes it is

Baby Montessori Boxed Set is cranium food for new people

Montessori. Just the mere mention of it can confuse, intimidate and equally raise or repel parents to their education line in the sand. We think of Montessori as a way of teaching in a way that lets kids find the answer, lets them think more on their own, or uses different methods to engage the students. For example, I teach at a public school, but my methods are ‘Montessori-esque’, in that I’ll let the students dangle on the fishing line of education for a while before I give them the answer. It’s better to teach kids how to get to the answer than to just provide them with it. Those new or expecting parents who want to inspire newborns through crawlers with various concepts should check out Baby Montessori Boxes Set.

Baby Montessori Boxed Set uses disparate colors, hard lines and simple images to create cranium food for new people.

A board book by any other name, yet with more Rorschach