Investigators: All Tide Up, the seventh in the series shows no signs of age

As an adult, I know better than to laugh at repeated uses of puns. It’s the low end of the bad-dad joke pool.  I know that some would say that’s an impossibility, but there’s a distinct difference between puns and dad jokes, plus billiards is a highly underappreciated sport.  Investigators is a go-to series of all-age graphic novels and the seventh entry in it is All Tide Up. This series of graphic novels breaks the fourth wall, is loaded to the brim with puns, has colors that immediately give it a ‘classic’ vibe, and still maintains one of the highest laugh-to-page ratios that readers will encounter.

Investigators: All Tide Up is the seventh entry into this all-age-graphic novel series that continues to deliver laughs and puns aplenty.
Here be puns, and lots of humor to be had for ages 8 and up

Footsteps on the Map, young child-illustrated book utopia from Nat Geo Kids

When is a National Geographic  Kids book not a National Geographic Kids Book? Footsteps on the Map has the National Geographic Kids logo in the upper left-hand corner like others in their lineup, but something is different here. It’s obvious when you look inside, it’s a simpler book, with far fewer words than usual and mixed media illustrations that combine all manner of mediums.

Footsteps on the Map is a dreamy illustrated book about nature and exploring, done only the way that Nat Geo Kids can do it.
A nature book on exploring for those kids 3 and up

Kin: Rooted in Hope, novel in verse that’s more than the sum of its parts

In thinking of the many ways that author Carole Boston Weatherford could’ve told the story of Kin, the only possible way to effectively do it is poetry. Specifically, this is a novel in verse, basically a book full of poems that combine to tell a narrative. This is where things get hazy for Kin because it’s not a linear story. Instead, it spans hundreds of years, generations within a family and often shifts the focus of who is speaking. By the time you get to the end of Kin you realize that this is a strong, powerful book that examines slavery in the United States in a way that you haven’t seen before.

Kin: Rooted in Hope is poetry, a novel in verse experience that has non-fiction roots on various aspects of the human toll of slavery in America.
poetry, but derived from history and powerful

Fungi Grow, balances poetry, naturalistic STEM and entertainment

Fungi Grow is a smart illustrated book that operates like Chutes and Ladders, if it were laid over an MC Escher drawing with everything still making sense. This is the world of mushrooms. If you ever thought that it would be impossible to make a lyrical illustrated book that dances between poetry, educating kids about fungi and entertaining young readers all to the same degree, then this is just the sort of book that’ll grow on you. The fact that it’s an oversized book provides younger readers more opportunities to fill in the book at their own pace, hopefully letting them know that it’s normal to love to read. Will a cute rabbit and dozens of multi-colored mushrooms on the cover yield a new generation of mycologists?

Fungi Grow sounds like a rallying cry for a dude to get larger in the garden. In reality, it’s a STEM based poetry book that melds lyricism, nature and entertainment.
You don’t have to be a mycologist or stem-kid to love this book

Infested is age-appropriate horror for the reluctant teen reader soul

Stop me if you’ve heard this, but when I was a youth I was a reluctant reader. Throughout my life I’ve always read comic books, however, it wasn’t until I started reading horror that I truly enjoyed reading. Back then it was Clive Barker, Stephen King, and any horror movie adaptations that I could get my hands on. Infested is mglit that is cut from a similar cloth and directed at the same 13-17-year-old readers who don’t want to. Older readers or educators will immediately be skeptical because Infested is from MTV Entertainment Books. If you’re old enough to say Martha Quinn let’s all get “but they don’t play music videos” out of our system now so that we can move on with the order of talking about the book.

Infested is the teen horror book that will make reluctant readers jump into the book pool and declare that everything is fine, with millions of roaches.
Scary things for the middle and high school soul

Along Came A Radioactive Spider, the story behind Spidey’s other creator

It’s obvious to pop-culture or comic book fans from the book’s title, Along Came A Radioactive Spider, that Spider-Man is central to the plot of the story. The book’s subtitle, Strange Steve Ditko and the Creation of Spider-Man, fills in some of the blanks and might introduce some elementary school-age readers to the other man behind the spider. He was the peanut butter to Stan Lee’s chocolate and the man who helmed the illustrated manifestation of Spider-Man, Steve Ditko. This illustrated book moves with the same kinetic energy as a great comic book in presenting the strange aspect of how Ditko was perceived and his impact on the publishing world.

Along Came A Radioactive Spider uses effective, attention-getting art and the inspiring story of Steve Ditko that’ll entertain and motivate readers.
Spidey fan or not, young readers will dig this book

Ten-Word Tiny Tales to Inspire and Unsettle is curiously amazing

Start with a hook. If it’s a great hook then I won’t change the channel. If it’s a lame hook then you’re quickly going somewhere else. When I teach creative writing I use that analogy and the students completely understand it. Ten-Word Tiny Tales to Inspire and Unsettle is exactly what the title says it is. It’s a handful of stories, more accurately opening lines from stories that haven’t been told, that open up unlimited potential as to what they could become. Being that they are only ten words they have the capacity to be understood by children, yet some of the words and concepts are very dreamy, abstract, or nonsensical. It’s a very curious book indeed.

Ten-Word Tiny Tales: To Inspire and Unsettle is a children’s book that lays kindling at the base of imagination for any age.
For young kids to ponder over or older kids to inspire writing possibilities

Wonders of the Night Sky, an intelligent illustrated book, for the masses

Effective illustrated books have the potential for more purpose than telling simple stories. Granted, that is where most illustrated or picture books reside, but some of them live in a vein diagram world with more intersections. Wonders of the Night Sky is an illustrated book that has its fingers in the figurative pie of several circles and acts as a lushly illustrated reference book or a highly detailed illustrated book, just to mention two of them. One could also marvel at Wonders of the Night Sky just for its artwork as you appreciate the thousand shades of blue that are deftly mixed with the blackness of outer space. It also might make you gaze up at the night sky a bit more, especially if you’re in a more rural area, and are able to see more of the limitless palette of darkness that are interspersed with lights of different color.

Wonders of the Night Sky is an illustrated book that’s super smart, but not intimidatingly so, for elementary school and up on the vastness of the night sky view.
Space, it’s a great book with oodles of curious facts for kids.

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