Astra Books For Young Readers

Dog Days: The Crush and Other Stories, early graphic novel keeps it real

Elementary school-age kids want to read. Girls actively want to read and get it done, whereas boys want to read as long as their friends don’t catch them and the book has that factor. That factor can vary to the water cooler book of the playground to being laden with fart jokes (which also puts it in that first category), or maybe it’s just really funny for those ages. The secret sauce towards getting guys to read is more challenging than it is to get girls to open a book. Dog Days: The Crush and Other Stories is the sort of early reader graphic novel that speaks to younger ages. Pre-k kids through middle school who are looking for a graphic novel that has multiple, short stories in it will grin and enjoy it. It’s loaded with anthropomorphic animals who live in a coast town where everything is chill.

Dog Days: The Crush and Other Stories, a graphic novel for young readers that teaches life lessons in a way that’s not preachy and retains life’s energy and fun.

Soft, real, and earnest lessons through humor

Louisa Learns to Write, illustrated book works for kids aged seven and up.

Louisa Learns to Write is an illustrated book that’s unlike anything you’ve seen before. It tells a story, but not in a manner that elementary school audiences are used to. It operates on two levels without audiences realizing it until the end of the book. As the titular character is growing up, she’s learning deeper life lessons that translate to anyone, regardless of age. Louisa Learns to Write: Louisa May Alcott Creates Little Women isn’t so much about the creation of the seminal piece of literature, as it is about the things that shaped Alcott’s life.

Louisa Learns to Write is not the illustrated book you think it is. Little Women author, Louisa May Alcott’s macro look at the characteristics that made her successful.

Louisa May Alcott, yes, but more

Wild About Capybaras! packs a lot of fun in its early-elementary package.

Wild About Capybaras! What the heck is a capybara? Do capybaras, sloths and quokkas belong to a slow-moving club that secretly meets south of the Equator? Is it really possible to Giggle and Learn? Giggle and Learn Series are Toon Books by Kevin McCloskey that are smarter than they look and more fun than they seem. Wild About Capybaras! is a fun book to read, which raises the question, can early-elementary ages really have fun reading? So many questions, let’s unpack them. However, in case you’ve got to split, the answer is “yes”.

Wild About Capybaras! is a Giggle and Learn book for early-elementary ages. It educates without issue and entertains effortlessly.

No, they can’t be a pet

Jake Spooky and the Wolves Within Him is why kids read

There’s a 1 on the spine of Jake Spooky and the Wolves Within Him. Jake Spooky is a punk rock ghost. He’s got the surly soul of today’s teens and throws up wolves, at least in this first book does that. Jake lives with Brand-O, a cool, flip-flop-wearing human with an old-school television as his head and an upright walking cat who doesn’t speak much, named Quincy. Elementary school graphic novel readers-Are you not entertained? If a graphic novel were a character in a movie, then Jake Spooky and the Wolves Within Him is Maximus Decimus. Its absurd, playful content gleefully runs circles around other early reader, graphic novels. Amidst all of this running, it still has the bandwidth to ask an obvious question, and yes, we are.

Jake Spooky and the Wolves Within Him has the gross-out, absurd, LOL goods that can turn reluctant elementary school readers re-think their ways.

Yes, yes we are, part deux

Piece Out uses action, perspective and imagination to make it awesome

Homophones make for great elementary school comedy, in addition to dad jokes. Piece Out takes that homophone madness, adds a splash of early 90s slang, some Toy Story, and everyday things that kids will understand and laugh at. The frustration of a missing puzzle piece or someone’s favorite piece or character for family game night will provide a lifetime of memories. “You always had to be the car” or “I wanted to be red for the longest time” are just a couple of things people will remember from their youth.

Piece Out is so much better than I expected-and I expected it to be good. It’s a funny, action-based illustrated book that uses scale and perspective to its benefit.

Toy story meets die hard, kind of…, but it’s still awesome

Pencil is a wordless book about creativity, sustainability, and a pencil

Pencil is a wordless book. Wordless books take a moment to appreciate. If young readers don’t have the patience or don’t realize that the book intentionally has no text, they’ll be confused. Author/illustrator Hye-Eun Kim put a page in Pencil called How to Read a Silent Book. It’s a page whose irony is rich in its title, but whose information is needed to help readers appreciate what isn’t there.

Pencil, a gorgeously illustrated wordless book offers a sublime take on being creative, sustainability and individuality.

Smart and wordless, yet full of ideas and action.

Bread Days, an illustrated book on loss is grief over good memories

The habits and seasonal routines shape our memories and lives. Bread Days is an illustrated book by Hannah Chung. For me, one of the strongest smells and memories of my childhood revolves around Christmas. I’m sure that Chex Mix is as tasty any time of the year, but I always place it during the final two weeks of the year. It’s Christmastime baking, and the smell of those ingredients is flooding the house. That is my version of Bread Days.

Bread Days is an illustrated book by Hannah Chung that deals with a family tradition and its power to deal with grief.

Soft, lyrical

Bird Girl: Inspiring Young Minds through Nature and Art

Why should students care about the life story about a woman who lived more than a century ago and studied birds? Gene Stratton-Porter is well-known in ornithology, but outside of that arena you probably haven’t heard of her. This is one of the things about well-made illustrated books that make the genre so much more than it appears to be. Bird Girl: Gene Stratton-Porter Shares Her Love of Nature with the World doesn’t break any new ground in regards to the story, even though it’s one young audiences don’t know. At it’s core, the book is about finding your way and exploring what you love. Instead, this is a great book because of the unknown variable (Gene Stratton-Porter) and the illustrations by Rebecca Gibbon that are used to tell her life story.

Bird Girl is an illustrated book about a woman that kids won’t know, but whose topic they’ll love and is in a package they’ll enjoy.

Birds, passion, nature and photography