Kids Picks
It’s always hard to see summer come to an end. Hopefully you spent your days riding the waves and building castles in the sand. Nevertheless, September is upon us and that means it’s time for fall sports and, of course, school! I like to think of fall as a time of new beginnings – new teachers, new grade, new classrooms and hopefully lots of new friends. Whether you are excited about school to start or wish it would wait a little while longer, here are some new books to get you in the back-to-school mood!
Ages 3-5
“Ally-saurus & the First Day of School” by Richard Torrey
Ally likes to be called Ally-saurus. After all, she is a dinosaur. On the first day of school, she can’t wait to meet new dinosaur-loving friends. She will sit with them at lunch and chomp her food with her dinosaur teeth and draw dinosaurs all over her stuff. Except, it seems dinosaurs are her thing, not theirs. All of the other girls in class prefer princesses and are unaccepting of Ally’s dinosaur behavior. It isn’t before long that Ally finds friends who think like her and they are roaring off to the playground together!
“Tool School” by Joan Holub
Even tools have to go to school. How else would the hammer, screwdriver, saw, pliers and tape measure learn how to do their jobs? The tools have a great time playing games and putting puzzles together. When the time comes to build something, they each decide to work alone. It isn’t long before they realize that the best way to get the job done is for them all to work together!
Ages 6-8
“How to Get Your Teacher Ready” by Jean Reagan
You’ve done your back-to-school shopping, you’ve gotten a good night’s sleep, you had a good breakfast and you are ready for the first day of school. But is your teacher ready? “How to Get Your Teacher Ready” is filled with all of the special tricks and tips needed to help your teacher get ready for the first day of school from students themselves. Along the way, various milestones are mentioned – field trips, the 100th day of school, concerts, etc., that are not only to get the teacher ready, but get the students excited for the school year, too!
“The Recess Queen” by Alexis O’Neill
Mean Jean was the recess bully. No one was allowed to use the slide until she did. No one could use the swing until she did. No one could run until she did. In fact, no one could do anything until she did it first. And if you did, she’d push you, hit you and remind you that she was the Recess Queen! But then a new student, tiny Katie Sue, comes to school. She finds a way to become Mean Jean’s friend and makes the playground safe for everyone! This is a great story about friendship, bullying and resolving conflicts so that everyone is happy.
Ages 9-12
“Spy School” by Stuart Gibbs
Ben Ripley already knows that he wants to work in the CIA. The problem is that he is the nerdy one in school and not exact super-spy material. It’s so bad that Ben can’t even get to school in the morning without something going wrong. Ben is recruited to join a magnet school that focuses on science. It isn’t until he get there that he discovers it’s really a fake cover and that the school is a junior CIA Academy. He can’t believe that the CIA really wants him! That’s because, they don’t. Chalk it up to a case of mistaken identity! But that doesn’t stop Ben from trying to prove to himself that he can be the super spy he always dreamed of being. It takes a lot of mistakes and funny adventures for Ben to see that he might be a decent spy after all.
“The Misadventures of Max Crumbly: Middle School Mayhem” by Rachel Renée Russell
Max Crumbly is back in the second book of this series. After a night of crawling through the vents at South Ridge Middle School because he was being chased by three criminals, Max lands on a Mighty Meat Monster pizza. He needs to get his father’s prized comic book back before his friend, Erin, calls the cops! After being trapped in a locker by the school bully, Max is stuck in school after hours. He sets out to capture the criminals, and if it takes cookie dough, gym robes and exploding bathrooms to do it, then so be it.
