Elementary school | Page 22 of 30

O is for Ossicone, a fun alphabet board book to plant smart STEM seeds

Treat kids as intelligent as you want them to be. I have that belief when I teach and it’s how we’ve raised our two children so far. You might’ve heard the tale about the baby who had a toy piano in their crib since they were born and they grew up to be a world-renowned concert pianist. I have no idea if that’s true, it sounds like the sort of information that lives in fables, but it could also breed familiarity with something that might psyche kids out as they get older. Was the child already a prodigy and the fact that they were given that toy just a happy coincidence? O is for Ossicone is a board book. Board books are meant for babies. I didn’t know most of the content in O is for Ossicone. I am not a baby. The proceeding four sentences are 100% true.

O is for Ossicone: A Surprising Animal Alphabet is the smartest, most enjoyable A, B, C board book that your kids have seen in a long time.

Don’t be alarmed if this board book is smarter than you

I Did It! is an I Like To Read Comics that build confidence in pre-k

Kids of a certain age know the I Like to Read comics logo. It’s a red, anthropomorphic book that’s encircled in a black speech bubble with “I Like to Read” above it. Their books also have the slogan on the spine of the book, that way when they’re in classroom libraries kids can find them without looking at the cover. This is the logo that those sight word kids are looking for when they’re putting together the building blocks of confidence. I Did it! is by Michael Emberley and tells the very simple tale of a cat who is trying to do things.

I Did It! is in the I Like to Read Comics book series that instills confidence in readers going from sight word to emerging reader and does just that.

For pre-k kids this is their confidence and enjoyment jam

Tangle-Knot, madcap silliness that gets kids laughing and self-discovering

Children are weird little beings that somehow grow up to become less-weird adult, in most cases. They put rainbow streaks in their hair, cut half of their hair to the scalp, let it grow to where it’s a mop-then shave it the next day for dramatic effect. Last year in middle school they referred to the latter one as “the flop”, because it would go from poofy to military within one school day. Tangle-Knot is an illustrated book all about picking your battles, and you parents and educators know what I mean by that. The book features a young girl whose hair resembles more of a Christmas tree laden with lights, ribbons, and leaves, but she’s holding a cat, because of the internet. It’s a silly, over-the-top illustrated book about being your own, unique self until you realize that you’re not that person anymore.

Tangle-Knot is an illustrated book that’s full of big, silly laughs about a girl whose hair is so unkempt that a bird comes to live in it, but it also teaches something.

it’s not the bird’s fault

Dare to Question, an approachable, illustrated book look at suffrage

The question behind Dare to Question: Carrie Chapman Carr’s Voice for the Vote seems so simple in hindsight. However, in the late 1800s, the fact that women weren’t able to vote was a given, a fact of life whose era was coming to an end thanks to suffrage. Dare to Question is an illustrated book that takes a look at the end of that issue thanks to Carrie Chapman Carr. And depending on the adult who’s reading the book it’ll take off in just the right direction and get young readers thinking about things that they think might be out of their control.

Dare to Question is an illustrated book on women’s right to vote that speaks on a level that early elementary will understand and maybe build their own questions.

non-fiction that early through mid-elementary will dig…and question

I Am A Tornado, a great read-aloud illustrated book that seeds STEM curiosity

Illustrated books teach best when it’s done via a metaphor that’s so obvious it makes adults question if the book is really about what they think it’s about. I Am A Tornado by Drew Beckmeyer is an illustrated book that completely fits that bill. The book is obviously about a tornado, in a meteorological sense, and presented at a level for early elementary school ages to enjoy. The book is an over-the-top metaphor about how kids can become out of control when their emotions aren’t in check. Isn’t it obvious? I Am A Tornado is a mix of the two ideas and is presented with infectious, energetic art that brims with movement and fun. No, I Am A Tornado is almost certainly an age-appropriate book on the whirling wind that kicks up in the summer months.

I Am A Tornado is an illustrated book on those windy cyclones, with a possible metaphor on cranky children, that will please all ages 4 through 8.

Metaphor or STEM, it’s up to you, but great for all

Zap! Clap! Boom! The Story of A Thunderstorm, a demystifying read aloud

Pre-k through middle elementary school kids know who their El Guapo is. It’s the thunderstorm. Those ages can be as happy as a clam in a tide pool but their mood will shift like the sands when they see black clouds on the horizon. Zap! Clap! Boom! The Story of A Thundstorm is an illustrated book that those ages, especially the younger ones, will enjoy. Older folks are able to appreciate the fringe benefits that are associated with thunderstorms. That’s one thing that the book does a great job of incorporating to those young ages. They have difficulty seeing how the big noise, torrents of rain and white-hot light can be beneficial at all. However, they can be and Zap! Clap! Boom! The Story of a Thunderstorm does a great job at illustrating to kids that everything has a purpose.

Zap! Clap! Boom! The Story of A Thunderstorm is an illustrated book that explains and demystifies the loud thing that scare so many young kids.

Explaining why they are could be the key to chilling them out

Fann Club: Batman Squad, big laughs in text and art for this all-age winner

Fann Club: Batman Squad is not a story that exists in the multiverse. There also isn’t a typo in the book’s cover. Once you see the cover it’s obvious that it’s a graphic novel intent on making elementary school-age readers and up laugh, which it succeeds at very quickly. Our sometimes surly 13-year-old picked up Fann Club: Batman Squad, plopped himself on the sofa, and proceeded to read it. This is worth noting because he’s an avid reader, but mainly sticks to mglit. “This is from the Catwad guy, isn’t it?”, he asked. Yeah, some readers might know Jim Benton from that, but they also might recognize his work from the Dear Dumb Diary book series, Franny K. Stein books, Victor Shmud or his cartooning work. For me, the most entertaining was Attack of the Stuff, which was criminally ignored and still is by most elementary school libraries that I visit. Fann Club: Batman Squad is a Jim Benton book because it’s his style, set against the background of a young boy who knows everything about Batman.

Fann Club: Batman Squad is an original graphic novel that aims at elementary school ages, but covers ages eight and up.

Proof that great IP can cross demographics and still entertain.

The One and Only Sparkella and the Big Lie wills itself into your bookshelf

When the first book in The One and Only Sparkella series came out I was not a fan. Because it’s written by Channing Tatum I placed the book in the category of ‘published due to his fame’ and not on the merits of the book. Well, here we are three books into the series and I find myself eating a large plate of crow. The One and Only Sparkella and the Big Lie is cut from the same template as the first two books which ran with energy and color.