Abrams books for young readers

It’s a Danny Go’s Volcano Adventure, world, we’re just living in it

When you know, you know, and even though I don’t have children in that demographic, you know when you see Danny Go. Danny Go! is the manic show for toddlers through first grade that your friend’s children are humming. The thing is, that the music is very catchy. It’s legitimately catchy-in a non-ironic manner, that adults will be bouncing along to the beats too. Their videos have millions upon millions of views. The videos have a wide cast of characters with distinct personalities. They’re hopelessly entertaining and Danny Go’s Volcano Adventure takes that spirit and jams it into an illustrated book for the same age.

Danny Go’s Volcano Adventure, preschool rockstar translates video energy to children’s interactive book fun.

Resistance is futile

The Atlas of Languages: Words Around the World educates and entertains

What’s the fastest-growing language in the United States? *Which language’s word for television is literally translated as “fool’s looking box?”**What language has the very flattering phrase that translates to, “even monkeys fall from trees,” to mean that everyone makes mistakes?*** The Atlas of Languages is loaded with those tidbits of information that younger ages and trivia fans love to share. The readable reference book is one that’s pretty rare, especially outside of the Nat Geo Kids Venn Diagram. That uncommon field is even rarer if it’s regarding a topic that is not animal-based.

The Atlas of Languages: Words Around the World makes a reference book on languages entertaining, a la the 500lb gorilla in non-fiction reference.

Refernce/entertainment/reference/entertainment/6,7

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

Rebels, Robbers, and Radicals makes the Bill of Rights interesting, for real

I just had an Arsenio Hall moment. During his talk show, he had a catch phrase where he’d say “Things that make you go hmmmm.” As best I can remember, Hall would pause his monologue or joke and say his phrase. He wouldn’t directly state the implication that he was going for, because that’s to be determined by the audience. In my “hmmm” moment, I was reading about the Dred Scott decision. It’s just one of the multiple dozens of court decisions that are discussed in a common-sense manner in Rebels, Robbers, and Radicals: The Story of the Bill of Rights.

Rebels, Robbers, and Radicals looks at one of the simplest, yet confusing documents in United States history and makes in interesting for ages ten and up.

The nat geo effect, but with government for middle school

The Music Inside Us, a look at the life of Yo-Yo Ma, with takeaways for all

As a younger man I was always skeptical of biographical movies because you always know how they end. Since then, my thoughts on entertainment have evolved somewhat as to what makes a movie entertaining. That same qualifier has never existed for books, even when it came to children’s literature. The Music Inside Us is the story of world-renowned cellist Yo Yo Ma. It’s a safe bet most elementary school ages don’t know Yo-Yo Ma, much less what a cello is or can isolate its deep, soul searching sounds were they to hear it. As an illustrated book, The Music Inside Us is not a typical biography. Instead, it opens the book by asking a question about the purpose of music. This soft introduction works in partnership with the art that is realistic, painted, and muted in all the right ways.

The Music Inside Us: Yo-Yo Ma & His Gifts to the World is the life story of the world’s most famous cellist, but has life applications for those who are a prodigy.

The life story of Yo-Yo Ma, but with a takeaway for everyone

Lost in a Book is a third wall-smashing great illustrated book, literally

Lost in a Book is easy to love. It’s easy to love being lost in a book. I have taught many students who have told me, with a glimmer of pride, they’ve never been lost in a book. Sometimes they’ll shake up that statement by saying that they don’t read books. Personally I love it when they say that because I’ll immediately say, “ignorance is nothing to be proud of” or something off the cuff that will make the class laugh and put the bully down a peg. It’s a different scene when you’re in elementary school because that is a time when your reading can shine. Ideally, it’s the time when you’ll learn to love to read, and Lost in a Book is the sort of vehicle that will accommodate that.

Lost is a Book is easy to love. It’s wordplay that revels in cartoonish delight and breaks the wall between young readers and the book.

Read it and love it

Just One Wave: A Picture Book, lazy summer dreams on beach anticipation

Just One Wave: A Picture Book is the illustrated book result of a child’s frustration, and creativity about going to the beach when there aren’t any waves. Kids want big waves, but they’re rightly scared of them. However, if the waves are too small, or non-existent, then it can act as fuel for a child to act out or complain. This is especially true for those who go to the beach at a lake. Just One Wave’s author is Travis Jonke who lives near Lake Michigan, and it’s a logical leap to imagine that the body of water in this book is in his backyard.

Just One Wave: A Picture Book lives in the soul of a four-year-old kid and their joys, frustration and happiness in a day at the beach.

Kids will relate. Adults will remember.

Here is a Book, lush, easy and calm for story time chill

Illustrated books are a genre whose entries have certain roles. Here is a Book has the role of calming elementary-aged students down. It’s the ASMR video students watch to make them realize that everything is ok. This is the book teachers will bring out when the class needs to chill out. The carpool line is forming. Kids are certain that they can see the front-end of their dad’s car, and the teacher is simply trying to get them to sit down. Here is a Book is the story of a book’s journey from quaint country farm with an ocean-view, to purchasing the book or reading it at school.

Here is a Book, a lush, lyrical story about the process on physically creating a book is a satisfying, chill, read aloud for young elementary.

A read aloud