Books | Page 62 of 83

Alice Across America is a non-fiction story on women, driving and history

It’s fascinating to imagine the picture books that could come out in 100 years. They’ll imagine a time when cars didn’t fly and there weren’t teleportation devices to get us around the globe. Those books will innocently look back at the people who invented them, as well as, the first barriers that were broken by those who used them. Alice Across America, The Story of the First Women’s Cross-Country Road Trip is a very fun and informative illustrated book that tells about a very different time in the United States.

This is fun non-fiction that kids won’t believe

Lift as You Climb is easy to love, but hard to like

Picture books that aim higher are ones that we really enjoy looking at. Guided by their illustrations they teach as much as they educate and entertain. They can also shed light on an area or person that young audiences might not know about or is one that they should be exposed to. Lift As You Climb is a picture book that fits this description. It’s the life story of Ella Baker who was a founding member of the SCLC and a civil rights leader who fought with Martin Luther King Junior.

LIFT as you climb is a great story in a long package

Exquisite, a picture book on Gwendolyn Brooks that lives up to its name

The cover and thickness of Exquisite might turn off some audiences. The subtitle of the book is The Poetry and Life of Gwendolyn Brooks. Many elementary aged kids we know don’t like poetry. This is also a thick illustrated book, implying that there’s a lot to read about poetry and an author that they might not have heard of. It’s worth having young audiences hang in there for Exquisite. While it is a book about a poet, Gwendolyn Brooks, the text in it doesn’t rhyme and isn’t boring. The book is thick, but the pages use the words sparingly on some of them. The result is a gorgeous book that will entertain readers aged five an up.

Exquisite, a picture book that’s equal parts art, education and entertainment

History Comics, The Roanoke Colony is a top notch graphic novel

:01 First Second produces one of the highest quality book series that you’ll find for middle school readers on science. Science Comics tackles any science concept topic, natural wonder, astrological body, animal or plant species and creates a graphic novel around it that captures the imagination and desire to learn that upper elementary readers and up innately have. Now, :01 First Second has taken that same approach, but shifted the focus to history in a new series appropriately called History Comics. One of the first books in this series is The Roanoke Colony, America’s First Mystery by Chris Schweizer. The Roanoke Colony is a great example of graphic novel storytelling; perfectly blending illustration and text in a way that makes middle grade students laugh, smirk or otherwise enjoy themselves as they’re learning.

History Comics, making history engaging for ages 9 and up

Willow the Armadillo, mixed results on a book with many messages

Somewhere between reality competition shows, Marvel movies and the love of books lies Willow the Armadillo. She’s an armadillo who wants to be a hero. She also loves picture books. A way to engage both of her passions is to become a hero in a picture book. The result is a cute book that never quite boils over with interest, but will entertain kids four through six who are looking for animal fun.

Willow the armadillo, it’s a good library read

Paint By Sticker Kids Dinosaur, interactive craft for busy, young minds

Our eight year-old is what I envision me when I was that age. It’s not destructive or malicious, but impossibly active. I always wanted to be doing something, anything and if it engaged my hands, as well as my brain then the activity would’ve been a win/win for my parents. Alas, back in the “vintage 80’s” as my children call it, there were no Paint By Sticker books. That’s right kids, it was the dark ages of children’s interactive books and we had to walk to school uphill both ways. However, now, for kids aged six and up they can entertain themselves for hours with Paint By Stickers Kids Dinosaurs.

Paint by Sticker Kids Dinosaurs is perfect made for kids six and up

Ick! National Geographic Kids is disgusting nature loved by students

Ick! is the National Geographic Kids equivalent to bad words in another language. “Did you know that the Dung Beetle can push something that weighs 50 times more than itself”, our 10 year-old said as he came into my office. After he finished this tidbit of trivia he showed me a photo of the little creature doing just that. In my mind’s eye I saw the Dung Beetle from Larva, except I never knew that it was a Dung Beetle. I always thought of it as that smart beetle that pushes balls of poop around, much to the chagrin of the two larvas that always fought. Ick!, the book from National Geographic Kids had been in our house for less than an hour and our oldest son was already enthusiastically reading it and sharing things with us.

Knowledge, kids 8 and up get your disgusting animal 411 here

Sloth Went, gets better the more that you read it

My knowledge on the digestion tracts of animals other than human is limited. Some domestic animals are in that Venn diagram, while jungle animals don’t have any representation. Sloths are jungle animals. I knew that sloths are slow movers, and had I known how infrequent they have bowel movements I would’ve loved Sloth Went the first time I read it. As it reads for people like me, it’s a soft entry into potty training or ad casual glance at the poop cycle of a very slow and cute animal. The

It’s the #1 book on sloths going #2 that kids will enjoy