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Spy School The Graphic Novel, the go-to mglit series in illustrated form

Yeah, but the book was better. People might be used to hearing that when engaging in discussion about popular movies. It’s a similar conversation and vibe to those who softly gloat about first hearing a band. Spy School The Graphic Novel will elicit the same Pavlovian response to some upper elementary through middle school readers. The Spy School mglit book series has been a go-to franchise since 2012. It breathlessly threads the needle between action, believability, and life in a manner that results in these books constantly being checked out from libraries. We are massive fans of graphic novels and realize that they fill a need in getting young audiences to read. The nagging thought in our mind was questioning if a graphic novel was able to capture the fun and joy that the Spy School books brought out in readers.

Spy School The Graphic Novel is a textbook graphic novel that can inspire kids to read more novels.

Graphic novel or novel: this is hard wired to be great

The Great Stink, non-fiction, illustrated book STEM that kids want to read

Joseph Bazalgette we salute you. Actually, everyone in London salutes you in their own special way. Bazalgette had an idea in the late 1840s; and while his idea wasn’t a new one in the greater global perspective, it was one that would forever change the capital of England. His job was to map London’s sewers, but this wasn’t the job that the short employee pulled. As an engineer, this was a challenge that he lived for and was one that had life and death results. The Great Stink is the illustrated book of this story that those young readers won’t be able to resist.

The Great Stink is an illustrated book that details engineer Joseph Bazalgette and his quest to solve London’s poop pollution problem in the mid 1800s.

More illustrated books should take this STEM cue

City Spies Forbidden City, full STEM ahead in this must-read series

Sometimes we write about all-age comic books. What distinguishes a great comic book from a great all-age comic book is that the latter doesn’t dumb down the content in order to be appreciated by younger audiences. It’s a great read that just happens to not have any content that would prohibit it from being voraciously enjoyed by elementary or middle school readers. City Spies is a book series that’s mglit, middle-grade literature, and one might presume from that categorization that it’s only for grades three through eight. That’s where the catch-all description of leisure reading kicks in and puts the series, including City Spies: Forbidden City, into the age-defying group of mglit without boundaries.

Book 3 in the City Spies series, Forbidden Series still roars ahead

Stuntboy is the start of a fabulous, fart-free, graphic novel series

In the best of all possible ways, Stuntboy has an old-school strand woven all through the book. Even before you read the graphic novel that seed is sown when you turn the cover and see what author Jason Reynolds has written. It’s the dedication page where authors and illustrators dedicate the book or thank influential people in their lives. Reynolds’ blurb simply says “For ten-year old me” and illustrator Raul the Third’s is dedicated to the Village Two apartments where he grew up. Stuntboy has the DNA of a 10-year-old all through it. It’s also a graphic novel with the sensibilities of a traditional book, where the written words navigate its direction.

Stuntboy is the start of a great graphic novel series that will sit alongside Captain Underpants in elementary school libraries.

A graphic novel series that will be shared and constantly checked out

A Day In The Life of A Poo, A Gnu and You is a go-to STEM reference

Everything old is new again. That phrase comes to mind when realizing some of the great books that came out during the pandemic that didn’t receive the attention that they deserve. A Day In The Life Of A Poo, A Gnu, and You, a Laugh-Out-Loud Guide to Life on Earth is one of those books. It’s as big as an illustrated book, yet has the depth and weight of a reference book, but has more colors and graphics than some comic books or graphic novels. As if the book is attempting to pile on its brownie points, it’s educational, funny, ridiculously entertaining, and wait for it….one that kids will really want to read.

A Day In The Life of A Pooh is at the intersection of comic book, reference material, large-form graphic novel, and humor mag that’s been given a STEM jacket to wear.

The intersection of comic/graphic novel/reference, funny book

A World of Wisdom, phrases that we know, in ways that we don’t

If upper elementary school polyglot students had a collection of bathroom books, then A World of Wisdom would be in every single one of them. The same could be said if those ages also had a coffee table in their living room for those coffee table books that people pick up when they want to make interesting, idle chatter. A World of Wisdom is an illustrated book that humorously shows the absurdity that some idioms mean to those who don’t speak their native tongue. As a former ESL teacher, I can 100% tell you that “it’s raining cats and dogs” is incredibly silly to Chinese students. They’ll gamely play along as they practice and try to master one of the more common idioms in English. However, every country on the planet has some phrase or idiom that uniquely states a condition with such precision that it leaves text 50 times as long for want.

A World of Wisdom takes the phrases that we know and show us that they exist everywhere in one shape or another.

Phrases that we know in ways that we don’t

The Bones of Ruin is big scope sci-fi with an alt-steampunk edge

The Bones of Ruin is a big book. It’s the thick kind of upper mglit book that starts with that age range, but demos north for some readers. This is a story whose scope of action grows with each chapter and new character introduction and mysterious ability that they have. Aside from having one of the coolest titles I’ve seen in ages, The Bones of Ruin comes across as a book that will make the rounds for high school kids as a smart, alternate history tale that could possibly lead to the apocalypse.

The Bones of Ruin is the first book in a series about an immortal girl, circus freaks and the end of the world in Victorian England.

A meaty book on social outliers, shady characters and the end

Pizazz, the hyperkinetic intersection of graphic novel and chapter book

What attracts an elementary school reader to a book? They might be assigned to read it, as in Because of Winn-Dixie, it’s a book their older sibling had, it’s a subject matter they’re interested in or it has that thing that speaks to ages seven and up. Pizazz has that thing. It has a pre-teen on the cover who’s wearing a cape with a star on it. She’s on a turquoise-colored cover that’s complimented with neon orange dots interspersed among the bubbled white explosion. That collision of colors and energy carries on into the book as Pizazz sets its sights on being one of those books that elementary students reach for.

Pizazz is book enough to please adults who want kids to ‘read’, yet illustrated enough for ages 7 and up to actually do so.

Manic energy in its illustrations, text and story young readers want to discover