Elementary school | Page 7 of 30

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 King and Nothing, oversized, illustrated magic for the forever bookshelf

I’m a middle-aged dude, and The King and Nothing feels like a great illustrated book that I had forgotten about. It’s that book you used to spend hours looking at the pictures, unconsciously learning the sight words and getting lost in a book in a beanbag chair. You were five-to-seven years old and learning to love to read, but you probably weren’t calling it that then. Sometimes books like this come across our desk. In a very polite, unassuming manner, they speak to us as if they’re a character from Wallace and Gromit and ask us to read it.

The King and Nothing is the best kind of illustrated book for young audiences. It’s simple with illustrations that take advantage of its big canvas, yet gives kids the opportunity to think beyond its pages.

This book will age very well

Bud Finds Her Gift is a beautiful nature book without the guilt

The intersection of picture and illustration book is a tricky one that only publishing executives know how to successfully navigate 100% of the time. Bud Finds Her Gift is a lovely book that could be seen in either one of those categories by some people. Does the text do more of the heavy lifting or it that left up to the illustrations? The answer to that question determines if it would be classed as an illustrated book or a picture book. Granted, as the end of the day, other than the author, illustrator, and publisher, who really cares? It’s when you trip over a book like Bud Finds Her Gift that you want to describe it accurately.

Bud Finds Her Gift is an illustrated book that takes advantage of its luxurious, approachable art and succinct, but impactful text, to entertain kids in a soft message book.

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

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

Jasper Rabbit’s Creepy Tales! Troubling Tonsils!, chapter book fun ages 6-9

How do you make an excellent pizza even better, or at least maintain the same level of quality at a different location? Jasper Rabbit has that issue. The three illustrated book in Jasper Rabbit’s Creepy Tales had they problem when they were initially released, but more on that in a moment. Jasper Rabbit’s Creepy Tales! Troubling Tonsils! has the same spirit as those now classic illustrated books, but ups the demographic. This is a chapter book aimed at those early elementary age students who were, just yesterday laughing at Creepy Carrots! or Creepy Pair of Underwear! Can Aaron Reynolds and Peter Brown corroborate on a chapter book as cohesively as they did previously?

Jasper Rabbit’s Creepy Tales! Troubling Tonsils! is the first in a series of fun chapter books that continues the young creepies for ages 6-9.

You will want to become seven years old again…just to read this for the first time

It’s Almost Time for Halloween! is a seasonally silly book for kids

Here’s an ode to cute illustrated books of Halloween. These are the kid-friendly books that are heavy on illustrations. The book’s pages are glossy and the cover has embossed characters, letters, or both. These features help drive home the book’s movement and tactile enjoyment for young hands. It’s those ages who get more out of touching than they do sitting. It’s Almost Time for Halloween! is the silly sort of seasonal selection that exists to make kids fall in love with the idea of reading a book.

Pre-K through 3rd grade kids laughing? check.

Pocket Bear is go-to, early-chapter book magic for ages 7-12

Pocket Bear has a style and spirit that will easily tap into kids in early elementary school. Those kids who are already reading will feel accomplished because of its short chapters. The slightly older kids, say those in third through fifth grade will feel encouraged that they’re able to read a real book. By ‘real book’ they’ll mean a chapter book with very few, if any, illustrations. Everyone, even you adults who might read Pocket Bear aloud to young audiences, will quickly fall prey to its cuteness and the age-appropriate action.

Pocket Bear is by Katherine Applegate, a go-to author who again is able to tap into a story that will charm elementary ages in the best of ways.

Resistance is futile to Pocket Bear