June Books For (& About) Kids

(for the littlest readers)

Cute little story about a little panda named Chu who might have to sneeze. Bad things happened when Chu sneezes. 

(slightly older)

A fun nonfiction read about the life of mathematician Paul Erdos. What I love about it is that it shows math as being a) creative and b) social and NOT c) boring. The illustrations are filled with colorful numbers and real-life uses for math. Its all about why math is cool. 

For more picture books check out my May recommendations

(middle reader)

When mom leaves dad with the kids for the week, disaster strikes at breakfast. There is no milk. Not for breakfast cereal, and not for dad’s tea. Dad goes out to get milk but takes ages and ages to get back. Upon his arrival, he regales the epic story of his hunt for the milk, filled with time-travelling dinosaurs, aliens, wumpires (NOT the sparkly kind), and other mayhem.

Verdict: A fun bedtime story for the kiddos. It reminds me of a Shel Silverstein poem that I memorized in elementary school. If they liked it, try reading Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy to them. If YOU liked it, try TheOcean at the End of the Lane, also by Neil Gaiman, which I would not recommend reading to the kiddos.

The book was also gorgeous, and used all of the illustrations (and even the fonts) to tell the story and add emotional colors to the book. It’s definitely worth getting the physical book as opposed to the kindle version. 

For Grown Ups, but About Kids

In How Children Succeed, journalist Paul Tough explores the education system and current research on what factors make a child grow into a successful adult. The story told to children now is that if you study hard and get good grades AND good test scores, you will get into a good college and then you will get a good job and be a successful adult. According to Tough's research, intelligence and a good SAT score will only get you so far, and children who are well equipped with skills like grit, curiosity, conscientiousness, and optimism will be more successful in college and beyond. Having these skills can help a child/adult more than raw intelligence or even growing up in a more financially stable home. Tough discusses how we can teach children these skills and how they will help them in later life.

I don't know if you've heard yet, but I'm going to grad school to get my Masters in Teaching. I've always been very interested in teaching, but that whole being super interested in acting thing took over my life for a little while. I always assumed I would one day be a teacher, but what and where I was going to teach were questions that kept me from getting my BA in Education.

I feel like it got a little lost near the end, when we got so involved in the chess world I sort of forgot what was actually being discussed. Overall, this book reminded me of all the reasons I want to get involved with the public school system.

For more on teaching, read The Book Whisperer

My New Spirit Animal + May Kid's Books

Boyfriend: Are you reading a picture book?

Me: Yes

My inner monologue: Don't you read my blog? what kind of a boyfriend are you? the non-stalker kind?

Me: For teaching. I want to find good books to read to the kids. And I use them for acting class scripts sometimes.

Boyfriend: Oh!

His Inner Monologue: I thought the recent Game of Thrones had so psychologically damaged you you gave up reading books for grown ups.

See, he cares.

This Month's Picture Books

Super cute book for little ones that gets them involved in the action, with something for them to do before you turn each page. 

"Make loud noises to distract them!" -- my favorite thing to do in class, probably not my neighbors favorite thing for me to do in class...

Definitely saving this one for the little kid classes I'm teaching this summer!

I have a confession: I was never super into Maurice Sendak, as a child. I think Where the Wild Things Are scared me. (So did The Muppets and most of the rides at Disneyland, to be fair.) This book is like an acid trip eulogy, so also probably would have scared me as a child.

I mean, it is a eulogy. To his brother, his partner, his youth. So it's sad. But pretty.

Good thing I have like six months till I'm actually teaching because I'm pretty bad at finding kid's books I would actually read to children.

This Month's Middle Reader

(good enough for adults)

I LOVED this book. I would argue that this is good enough for adults to read -  like the Disney movie equivalent of a middle reader book.

 Thirteen-year-old Nate, with the help of his best friend Libby, decides to run away to New York City to audition for E.T. The Musical.

This is every (theatre) kid's fantasy, obviously: to run away from his hick town where no one likes him or understands him, and find a place where he feels home. Yet, author Tim Federle makes the tale feel fresh, peppering Nate's inner monologue with his own brand of swearing -- using sensationally terrible Broadway musical flops instead of your average swear words, such as: "Holy Sideshow! - A Broadway musical about circus freaks." This made it extra fun for me, since I have actually heard of most of these shows. I really believed Nate's experience in the audition room, and I think it's the kind of story every theatre kid should read, because it's filled with some Don'ts, but also some Do's, aand I think it really shows that the most important thing in the audition room is to Be Yourself and to remember that Broadway is Everything....you are here because you love it more than anything. And sometimes, that's a fun reminder for adults as well.

It's everything NPH is singing about at 6:00

(PS I am 100% sure he deserved his Tony Award nom this year, even if he is super famous.)

Tim Federle used to dance on Broadway and now writes children's books and cocktail recipes, which I realized when I glanced at the cover of this book that I bought last week sitting on my desk:

SO BASICALLY Tim Federle is my new spirit animal and I'm going to go stalk him on twitter now.

More Books for Kids!

Super cute little book. Bear cub wanders off chasing a bee and papa bear has to go find him. They run through an opera house. Excellent illustrations, kind of a Where's Waldo with bears.

So I actually never read the full title until I had it at my house, and I thought it was called "Unicorn Think's He's Pretty" and I thought it sounded mean and vapid and about beauty. It's not. It's an adorable little book about a goat who's jealous of a magical unicorn that moves into the neighborhood, only to find out that the unicorn is also jealous of him SPOILER ALERT they end up being friends.
Kind of like Enemy Pie, but for tinier children. Like 4-6 year-olds. Maybe? I don't have kids I don't know what's appropriate anymore!!!

Spoilers abound. Because this book is 12 pages long.
This book is wonderfully illustrated, and shows the relationship of a friendless schoolboy and a bluebird. No words, only pictures.
I'm kind of traumatized by the ending.
I would only make a child read this as punishment if he was an awful kid like Peter from Ender's Game and I wanted him to stop sacrificing animals in his backyard.

Picture Books

I figure if I'm going to school for teaching, I should bring something to the table in September when I start student teaching - yikes!! So I started reading some books. If you happen to have little ones or little ones you can borrow and read to, here's some books:

Cute book, loved the illustrations. I turned it into a reader's theatre script for my Acting Basics class (ages 8+) and also used it to introduce the idea of monologues and auditions. My 13-year-old was not impressed, but the 8-10s loved it.

Probably could make a good introduction to an art activity where they need to fill the whole page with color or use color in a creative way.

"Laszlo is afraid of the dark. The dark is not afraid of Laszlo. 

Laszlo lives in a house. The dark lives in the basement. 

One night, the dark comes upstairs to Laszlo's room, and Laszlo goes down to the basement.

This is the story of how Laszlo stops being afraid of the dark."

- from GoodReads, too good a description not to steal. I loved this short, short book.

 This is a fabulous historical fiction book about Magulu, a nine-year-old girl who is sold into slavery. On the ship, there's a rebellion, the ship is captured, and all who participated in the mutiny are brought to trial. Magulu and the other children are brought in as witnesses. Its a wonderful account of pain, hope, and triumph. 

This is my favorite. Don't let the cover fool you, it's a wonderful book about conflict resolution and friendship. Adorbs.