These are twelve titles that feature different themes, from early readers to middle school, and I always try to include graphic novels and comic strips with the rest.
Construction Site: Garbage Crew to the Rescue! by Sherri Duskey Rinker (Author) Ag Ford (Illustrator)
The Good Night Construction site books will always be a hit, simply because big machines are something young kids find fascinating.
It was time that the garbage crew was incorporated into the crew, and when an old neighborhood requires renovating, they come to help.
Before garbage trucks, the whole stinky mess was transported any old way, with open containers that were often smelly. The design of garbage trucks, roll-off trucks, container delivery trucks, etc., is something we take for granted.
It’s nice to see the crew give a hand, set up dumpsters and garbage cans, sort trash, offer a recycling and compost choice, and finally transport all the garbage away.
Construction Site: Garbage Crew to the Rescue! is on sale since September 24, 2024
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Pages: 48/ Hardcover
EAN/UPC: 9780744098983
Up next, this is a classic by the beloved Patrick McDonnell:
Breaking the Chain: The Guard Dog Story Patrick McDonnell (Author) Rob Thomas (Introduction by) Marisol Thomas (Introduction by)
Mutts are such a beloved staple of our lives. Thirty years and going strong, Patrick Patrick McDonnell’s work has been a source of inspiration for many, and for him to tell this story in this way has brought a lot of tears of joy to many animal rescuers. Guard Dog, who first made his debut in made his debut in the Mutts comic strip in 1995, will finally be free!!
Reading all the condensed books you just get struck by this poor mutt longing for freedom, and, even though I am glad he’s played an important role in raising awareness about the cruelty of tethering, I am much relieved by the loving outcome.
In October 2023, Guard Dog’s freedom story began to unfold, in newspapers and online: After being abandoned by his owner, Guard Dog was discovered by his animal friends Mooch and Earl, and will ultimately be rescued from his loneliness and suffering by Doozy, a kindly neighborhood girl, and Ozzie, Earl’s guardian.
After years of visiting Guard Dog to provide comfort and support, Doozy adopts him– the end of a long life of neglect and the beginning of one filled with love and safety. He also gets a new name: –Sparky–a nod to Patrick McDonnell’s greatest artistic inspiration, Charles M. Schulz, creator of Peanuts.
Schulz told MacDonnell he felt regret because he had never let Charlie kick the ball, I am glad that Guard Dogs’ story has broken that particular chain as well.
Small note: remember I said there were tears of joy? Maybe you might want to read it alone first so you won’t choke in front of your children with this one.
Breaking the Chain: The Guard Dog Story is on sale since September 03, 2024
Publisher: Abrams Comicarts
Pages: 192/ Hardcover
ISBN: 9781419779084
Up next, this is a loving take on a wish we might have had as children:
I Want to Read All the Books by Debbie Ridpath Ohi (Author)
Hana is doing very well reading books on her own. She started with a simple curiosity, and soon found herself thirsty for knowledge, reading everything she could get her hands on.
I distinctly remember how my mother taught me to use a dictionary, tired of my constant questions, and how I would have killed to get my hands on a public library (not every country has them). When she starts reading books, she wants to read even more, and so she begins, reading all the books in her house, her friends’ houses…and even the whole block. She likes to read everything: Nonfiction, fiction, mysteries, science fiction, romance.
But when you finally get to go to a really big public library, a sudden realization will come: you cannot possibly read all the books.
Hana’s reaction and decision to then get help and make a book club so more kids can tell her about their books is a phenomenal idea.
I Want to Read All the Books is on sale since September 17, 2024
Published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Hardcover | Pages: 48
ISBN: 9781481416306
Up next, this book combines fiction and real information about space:
Mousetronaut Saves the World: Based on a (Partially) True Story Mark Kelly (Author) C. F. Payne (Illustrator)
This a complex book with lots of data and endearing images of an astronaut mouse. When an asteroid is coming towards Earth, Madame President is faced with a choice: there is no time to build a big ship to prevent mass destruction, but there is time to craft a mouse-sized one. So, the president calls on Meteor the Mousetronaut, and Meteor gathers his team: Flint the scientist, and Luna the engineer.
They have to replicate what NASA successfully did a while ago and divert an asteroid’s trajectory (DART).
Of course, the mission will be a success, and the accompanying info describes what was attempted in great detail,
The author, Mark Kelly has been a US Senator from Arizona since 2020 and is also an astronaut. As a captain in the United States Navy, he commanded the final mission of the space shuttle Endeavour in May 2011.
Mousetronaut Saves the World: Based on a (Partially) True Story is on sale since September 10, 2024
Publisher: Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books
Hardcover | Pages: 48
ISBN: 9781665910224
Now comes a bilingual poetry book about Cuba:
Haicuba/Haikuba: Haikus about Cuba in Spanish and English by Carlos Pintado (Author) Lawrence Schimel (Author) Juan José Colsa (Illustrator)
This is a love song to this beautiful island that carefully circumvents its political problems, something I would find very hard to do. The only glimpse of reality is shared when they all talk about the guagua, the bus, the only means of transportation for thousands of pedestrian residents.
Cuba’s people, culture, and natural world are celebrated in bilingual haikus written in Spanish and English, a perfect addition to Hispanic Heritage Month.
Haikus are both simple in design and very difficult to do, they string together a few words and must convey a significant image that conveys a feeling, and the two authors succeed in both languages.
Havana neighborhoods, salsa music and dancing, guayaberas, and tocoro birds are celebrated in lavish illustrations.
Haicuba/Haikuba is on sale since September 10, 2024
Publisher: Ediciones Nortesur
Hardcover | Pages: 40
ISBN: 9780735845688
Good Night Thoughts by Max Greenfield (Author) James Serafino (Illustrator)
This book is, curiously, the second one I’ve encountered in the same month about children being unable to sleep and plagued by dark thoughts. Some of the fantasies presented by the authors I found truly disturbing: Earth popping up like a giant popcorn (in this one) or giant worms eating up the Sun (in another book) are things that had never occurred to me and now I quite can’t shake them off my mind.
I understand that the idea behind the book is that you must face these thoughts and settle down, find yourself feeling safe and in your bed and, in that regard, the creators’ intentions are good. You draw these things because you think the thoughts are not real. (But they might feel very real for a plagued child).
This book follows an anxious kid, his whizzing thoughts, and his only tiny grasp of sanity comes from considering if those thoughts have real value or if he is in danger right then and there. Finally, he is able to think warm thoughts about the love of his family and can settle down to sleep. Maybe it will work for you, and maybe it won’t, so I would advise reading it first by yourself and trusting your instincts.
Good Night Thoughts is on sale since September 03, 2024
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers
Hardcover | Pages: 32
ISBN: 9780593697894
It’s time now for some amazing nonfiction books, graphic novels and middle-grade novels:
Smithsonian Handbook of Interesting Bird Nests and Eggs b yDouglas G. D. Russell (Author)
This book is not necessarily geared towards children, I find that the pictures and data are all interesting and varied. Knowing that plastic shows up in birds’ nests across the globe is something to note, as well.
Featuring 100 samples collected from across the world, the book reveals how a simple bird’s nests or eggs can tell us extraordinary stories about the birds behind them, they give us clues about their habitat and might teach us a couple of new things about bird ecology.
Birds can nest anywhere and use every type of material available, and their size varies from giant (like the ostrich) to very tiny (like the hummingbirds).
Smithsonian Handbook of Interesting Bird Nests and Eggs will be available September 17, 2024
Publisher: Smithsonian Books
Hardcover | Pages: 256
ISBN: 9781588347831
Seven Small Inventions That Changed the World by Roma Agrawal (Author) Jisu Choi (Illustrator)
This nonfiction book is written and drawn in infographic style, and talks about seven things we could not possibly live without even though we seldom give them a second thought: the nail, the wheel, the spring, the magnet, the lens, the pump, and the string.
The book also mentions inventors from history, with sections on Josephine Cochran, Gladys West, Norm Mason, George Cayley, Robert Hooke, Rebecca Struthers, Takayanagi Kenjiro, Jagadish Chandra Bose, Ibn al-Haytham, Antony van Leeuwenhoek, Louis Jacques Made Daguerre, Frederick Douglas, Katherine Burr Blodget, Hamai Vyarawalla, John Gibbon, and Mary Hopkinson.
An homage to technology and engineering, the book features historical facts, samples of objects through time, and how they make up most of the things that surround us (nails in our shoes, magnets in space, wheels in pottery, you get the idea).
This is a children’s illustrated adaptation of Agrawal’s book: Nuts and Bolts.
Seven Small Inventions That Changed the World is available since September 10, 2024
Publisher: Laurence King
Paperback | Pages: 64
ISBN: 9781510230767
What Jewish Looks Like Liz Kleinrock (Author) Caroline Kusin Pritchard (Author) Iris Gottlieb (Illustrator)
My father is a converted Jew with Ashkenazi Ukrainian roots, he lives in South America, and my mother is of Syrian descent. That means that both my grandmothers had migrant fathers escaping pogroms and war. The fact that Syria and Ukraine are still at war, a hundred years later, always sets my heart on edge.
Such mixes are usual in the Jewish community and I find that this book can help dispel some notions: that we are defined for what happened to us (the Holocaust) and what some are inflicting on other people (Palestine). As an ethno-religion, there are Jews of all types and races scattered around the globe, there are African Jews, Asian Jews, and Latino Jews, and we have some things in common and others that are vastly different.
Too many Jews have been told: “You don’t look Jewish!” It begs the question, “What does Jewish look like?” As there are over fifteen million Jews in the world, there are more than fifteen million ways to look and be Jewish, and yes, we can happily debate with each other.
This book portrays 36 Jewish profiles of American residents: ethnically diverse, in a wide range of professions, some disabled, migrant, or queer, but always fiercely advocate, they do not look like what you might imagine Jews to be.
What Jewish Looks Like is available since September 24, 2024
Publisher: HarperCollins
Paperback | Pages: 128
ISBN: 9780063285712
Now we go over to middle grade novels and graphic novels:
Carter Avery’s Tricky Fourth-Grade Year by Rob Buyea (Author)
Carter thinks no teacher has ever liked him. He doesn’t expect that Ms. Olivia Krane, nicknamed Owl-Livia, will be any different.
Carter can’t sit still, he can’t stop himself from blurting out what comes up in his head, he is a bit loud, but he is also sensitive and open-minded, always wondering about what is happening around him.
His new teacher is a total surprise, a woman that can handle Carter’s energy, and show his classmates another side of him.
However, Carter will find out that some people would like to see Ms. Krane replaced.
Carter will want to save his teacher, in a tricky school year that will test him at every turn, will he succeed?
You cannot but fall in love with fidgety Carter Avery and wish him well.
Carter Avery’s Tricky Fourth-Grade Year is available since September 03, 2024
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Hardcover| Pages: 352
ISBN: 9780593376188
The Frindle Files by Andrew Clements (Author)
I did not read the original Frindle, but it is now definitely on my TBR list. I love how a new generation can think about events in the past, and how not all changes that technology brings are good to us.
First, Josh Willet is a kid from this Century: he is comfortable with digital homework, loves coding and video games, is fast and intelligent, and is a bit taken aback by his old-fashioned school teacher.
Mr. N’s ELA class is a strict no-tech zone. Mr. N makes them write everything out by hand, won’t use a Smartboard, and is obsessed with an old, printed, grammar book.
Josh, however, is curious and wants to investigate this man, only to learn he has zero media presence, except for something related to the word Frindle and happenings that occurred almost 30 years ago.
With his best friend Vanessa, using all the computer skills they have, Josh is determined to solve the mystery of Mr. N’s past.
This is Andrew Clements’s final novel and is a great take on how sometimes you have to challenge what you think you know.
The Frindle Files is available since August 24, 2024
Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers
Hardcover| Pages: 224
ISBN: 9780399557637
Pearl: A Graphic Novel by Sherri L. Smith (Author) Christine Norrie (Illustrator)
This is such an intense story. There are a few things we should better never forget, like the Holocaust, and the awful suffering unleashed in Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the atomic bomb. Kids these days have no idea, and that is why novels like these need to keep being created.
Amy is a thirteen-year-old Japanese-American girl living in 1941 in Hawaii.
Her great-grandmother was a famous pearl diver, rumored to have found the largest pearl in all Japan when she was young. When she falls ill, Amy travels to visit family in Hiroshima, not anticipating that war will engulf them soon later.
The Japanese navy attacks Pearl Harbor, Amy Japanese American, will now be perceived as an enemy and will be prevented from returning to Hawaii.
Amy will struggle with her feelings of identity, will be conscripted into translating English radio transmissions for the Japanese army, (feeling like a traitor) and will resent terribly the internment camps for the Japanese in America. And of course, the worst is yet to come.
Torn between two countries at war, Amy faces some stark choices and harsh realities, she will be scarred for life but will never forget her great-grandmothers’ advice: ikinokoru, the will to survive against all odds.
Pearl: A Graphic Novel is available since August 20, 2024
Publisher: Graphix
Hardcover| Pages: 144
ISBN: 9781338029437
