Children's book reviews, all age comic books, Kidlit, mglit, movies, entertainment and parenting
Middle school has the potential to suck. Countless variables determine if you find your people early or meander through three years of school and life. By eighth grade you’re certainly ready for high school, but is it because you hit the wall or you’re ready a bigger, more appropriate challenge? There is a lot of that in Weirdo. I also feel a lot of ‘reviewer’s remorse’ now because Weirdo has been silently judging me from my book queue for a while.
It’s great to see things mature and evolve as new books come out in a series. Investigators is not that book series. Instead, Investigators came into the all-age graphic novel space as a plucky, genuinely very funny elementary school book that older readers will also want to jump into. When the first Investigators graphic novel came out we said something along the lines that it was the next must-read book series for elementary school readers and that there was a new captain (underpants) in town. Now, five books after their debut, Investigators: Heist and Seek is still providing dependable, smart laughs, all the while making young readers enjoy something that they need to do.
Upper elementary school readers and older want to be respected, and-to an extent, challenged when they read for fun. There comes a point when elementary and middle school readers become aware of the fact that the books that they read are a direct reflection of who they are. They’ve got the staples that most of them are reading in fourth and fifth, with a few brave souls venturing out to discover something unique. That funnel opens up much more in middle school. Crocs is our first encounter with a book in the Sharks Inc. book series by New York Times-Bestselling author Randy Wayne White. It checks off so many columns in what ages nine through 15 are looking for in a great fiction book that it resembles a dog’s shopping list at the meat market.
It’s great to be teaching in elementary schools. I get to see what they’re learning and hopefully add to that in a manner that makes some kids get it, or further their knowledge. I also get to see what they’re reading and in every ELA classroom, there’s at least one Bad Kitty book. Author and illustrator Nick Bruel’s latest installment is Bad Kitty Gets a Phone and he was kind enough to answer 14 questions from some of my ELA students.
Rodrigo – Why is Bad Kitty the only bad cat in the book?
Find out the answer to this and other kitty-inspring qustions after the jumpIt’s over already? That’s an odd thing to say when you’re reading a physical book because your fingers gauge how thick the unread side of it is. Despite that, when I was finished reading Fart Quest: The Barf of the Bedazzler I was surprised that it was finished. I even thumbed back in the book a couple of pages, just to ensure that I didn’t skip a chapter or something like that. It was the equivalent of a dog licking the bottom of their bowl because they really liked dinner, and I was the golden retriever, paws deep in Fart Quest.
Readers have to hand it Fart Quest. It clearly states what the book is about in its title. Granted, you have no idea what the quest entails, but are fairly certain that someone is on a journey and they’re probably gassy. Author Aaron Reynolds takes a simple premise and makes it so much more. Not content to simply make an upper elementary through middle school book; he’s written an adventure book about a mage in training that, at times, has more in common with Lord of the Rings than Captain Underpants.
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