Middle school | Page 2 of 10

The Aftermyth is mglit you didn’t think you’d like, but end up absolutely loving

I never considered myself the type who would enjoy a young adult vampire romance book. The Aftermyth is by #1 New York Times Bestselling Author, Tracy Wolff. Wolff has written dozens of books and has a very extensive categorical list on her website. There are dark and sexy romances in Ethan Frost, sexy dragons in the Dragon’s Heat Trilogy, adult romance in Extreme Risk, sexy and heartwarming in San Diego Lightning and the aforementioned vampires in the massive Crave series. She’s also written some books for the Harlequin Superromance imprint. This is a series of books that my wife is wishing I’d take inspiration from; either for my abdomen workouts or romantic wooing. Out of the five sub-genres that Ms. Wolff writes books for, The Aftermath is the first one in the middle grade line up and it runs like a refrigerator.

The Aftermyth uses its wit, action, creativity and manic pacing to create an mglit release that’s hard to put down.

So good it’ll make you forget something something…

Brain Quest Presidents Smart Cards, the go-to car trip friend is updated

The United States of America is 250? I vaguely remember the 200^th anniversary and the Bi-centennial train that made its way across the country.Brain Quest Presidents Smart Cards is released the same year as its 250^th and is a surprisingly fun and engaging way to test your knowledge about the U. S. Presidents. I say ‘surprising’ because presidential facts doesn’t take up much, if any space in my wheelhouse. It’s an area that I’ve never purposely sought out information on, despite many U.S. history classes that certainly put a couple of facts in my hippocampus.

Brain Quest Presidents Smart Cards has the same format, great questions, durable cards, and engaging content, but is updated for America250 or its Bisequicentennial.

Presidents and trivia to make a road-trip fly by?

Do Not Disturb, a must-read on cell phone addiction-and stopping, for kids

Stop me if you’ve heard this one, but my kid’s cell phone is driving me crazy. As a teacher I know the struggle. The answers seem easy. Take the phone away, but it’s how they socialize. Limit their cell phone time, but they might need it for school work. If they don’t learn how to deal with it now, then they’ll be even worse when they’re out of the house. The quandary of how to deal with it, simply from the perspective of an adult is challenging. Do Not Disturb: How to Say No to Your Phone is for middle or high school kids who want to know more about the problem. But, I don’t have a problem, and it’s entirely possible that you don’t, but just for the sake of discussing it, let’s kick the topic around.

Do Not Disturb, a smart phone primer on its powerful control is a book that some need to read while others will falsely deny the need for its content or assistance.

If you have a kid in middle school there’s a 90% you need this

Deeply Dave: A fabulous, unusual graphic novel adventure

You have never read any book, much less a graphic novel, like Deeply Dave. It is a graphic novel, but it operates in such a unique fashion that it’s like comparing an apple to an orange. The two have one thing in common, but they are so utterly different that it does one of them a major disservice to group them close to one another. Deeply Dave is a graphic novel about a boy whose mother goes missing. She was in a spaceship, but it crashed in the bottom of the sea, and now Dave is going out there to rescue her. That’s the very basic plot, but you can throw out any ideas or preconceived notions as to how you think the story will evolve. The plot changes every five pages, with new characters, powers, locations, or secrets being disclosed that alter how others react to the Big Doom, and that is before the book’s format is taken in account.

Deeply Dave is a graphic novel that’s one of the most creative, unique and fun that we’ve read in years. It’s creative, smart and perfect for curious kids eight and up.

This graphic novel is so much fun to read

A Review of Almost Sunset: A Unique Take on Ramadan in a graphic novel

Hassan is a typical teenager in many ways. Almost Sunset is a graphic novel that follows him during that one month of the year when he’s not typical, and that’s the period of Ramadan. He’s a teen whose family respects the traditions of Ramadan and all of the sacrifices and inconveniences that accompany it. This is a graphic novel that’s not about religion, but is about the people and families that follow it. It touches on the practices of Islam, but doesn’t espouse or preach its beliefs.

Almost Sunset: A Graphic Novel takes a light hearted look at a teen during Ramadan and how it’s dealt with life’s other issues.

A teen graphic novel by any other name

Our Cosmos, an approachable big-picture space book for elementary ages

A reference book is too wonky. A book with illustrations can be too kid-ish. If it looks too much like a Nat Geo books those who are immune to its charms will run like a vampire nearing daylight. Is there a cartoon in it? The middle school kids who see anything remotely associated with elementary school will tune out. Our Cosmos: The Complete Guide to Space for Kids is built for some of those upper-elementary ages. Those who will get the most out of the book are middle school kids who are curious about space, but might just be a little reluctant in learning about it.

Our Cosmos: The Complete Guide for Space to Kids is big-picture thinking presented in nuggets of information for elementary ages.

Space, the cosmos by another name, can be fun to learn about

Why Kids Will Love The Mighty Bite: Hog-Rocket Ruckus

I love Phineas & Ferb. I’m convinced that a generation of scientists will reference it as a main inspiration for their endeavors and inventions. I also enjoy Ren & Stimpy. What if the former had a tiny sprinkle of the rudeness and over-the-top insanity of the latter? The Mighty Bite: Hog-Rocket Ruckus is the graphic novel representation of this idea. It’s incredibly smart. It’s also incredibly silly. At times, it’s just a little bit rude and noisy, but never enough to make parents or librarians lower their brows. Hog-Rocket Ruckus is the second book in The Mighty Bite book series that we’ve read, and the third overall. There’s something about Hog-Rocket Ruckus that will speak to some upper-elementary and older readers.

The Mighty Bite: Hot-Rocket Ruckus is slapstick silly, but also very intelligent, in this graphic novel series that speaks to audiences via flying pigs and viral videos.

Unique, awesome, funny, entertaining for mid-elementary up

Discovering Fun in The Secrets of Lovelace Academy

If the end result of a bait and switch is fun or beneficial, does it really matter? That depends on how strict you want to stick to your initial interpretation of the subject matter. Did you mis-judge it based on its cover or did it change its trajectory during the course of the story? I don’t even remember what I thought The Secrets of Lovelace Academy would be about. However, by the third chapter I didn’t care, and was fully engrossed in the story of a teenage orphan girl who was living in group home. If you’re like me; you need to read mglit about an orphanage at the turn of a century, as much as you need to spill coffee on the essays that you need to grade. That’s not bloody likely, is it?

Why books are read