I am going to try to list this mixed bag by reading order, but I don’t know if my particular idea of first readers and advanced readers might be the same as yours.
Let’s just say that sometimes a few pages are not the same as early readers, okay? Sometimes the concepts might appeal to all kinds.
Mouse & Giraffe by Kelly Dipucchio (Author) Jen Corace (Illustrator)
Sometimes friendships are unlikely. Take these two neighbors: Mouse and Giraffe, seemingly they don’t agree on anything, and still they say hello and take tea outside their homes every day, even if it is only to gripe at each other.
Their life experiences differ, (height has a lot to do with it), sometimes shade and rain will affect them differently, but when Mouse gets sick, Giraffe is there for him.
Sometimes friendship sparks even when you don’t have much in common to begin with, even when your POVs are vastly apart. It just takes a little empathy.
‘Mouse & Giraffe’ is on sale since July 18, 2023
Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers
Pages: 40
EAN/UPC: 9780593465035
And talking about POVs, check this adorable ramen:
I Want to Be Spaghetti! by Kiera Wright-Ruiz (Author) Claudia Lam (Illustrator)
Ramen is on a shelf and is worried because he is noticing a trend around him that has been much talked about recently: Japanese are loving Western noodles and leaving Ramen behind. Spaghetti propaganda is everywhere. Perhaps the problem lies with Ramen and he has to change to be loved.
The drawings are deceptively simple, and have a Kawaii quality, but the book is not that simple. When Ramen is finally bought it will be cooked with some beloved additional ingredients: Chashu, Narutomaki, and Nori, and (perhaps because we love Ramen in the house) the result could not be more perfect.
‘I Want to Be Spaghetti!’ is on sale since July 11, 2023
Published by Kokila
Hardcover | Pages: 56
ISBN: 9780593529874
Now, let us continue with the food analogy theme:
Cake Mix: Learning to Love All Your Ingredients by Mikki Hernandez (Author) Victoria Lewis (Illustrator)
A mixed-race girl cries in the bathroom when kids ask her: what are you?
Mom will bake a cake to try and explain what mixed race means. In the US, it has nothing to do with ethnicity, it would seem, but about looks: you are expected to look the part in order to “fit in” a demographic. I personally like the apple metaphor better: you can judge it by its skin or superficial flavor, but what is at its core is what makes us human.
‘Cake Mix’ is on sale since July 4, 2023.
Publisher: Paw Prints Publishing
Publish Date: July 04, 2023
Pages: 32
EAN/UPC: 9781223186436
We keep progressing towards more complex books, I’d say this one is a very funny one for readers aged 8 through 10:
The Unpetables by Dennis Messner (Author)
There is a place in the world called Uncle Milo’s All-Natural Petting Zoo.
As you may imagine, you go there to pet animals. But, what if some of those gifted animals would very much like NOT to be petted ever again? That is the case of Pigmund and Lizárdo, a pig and a lizard, who decided to run for it on a small train and then continue their escape by mounting two chickens. They want to be free and they want to see the world.
Will they be able to make it? These unlikely heroes are funny and well-drawn; you root for them from the start. Dennis Messner has a fantastic, loose, cartoonish style, guaranteed to draw attention to the details and funny dialogues throughout the entire graphic novel.
‘The Unpetables’ is on sale since June 20, 2023.
Publisher: Top Shelf Productions
Publish Date: June 20, 2023
Paperback Pages: 88 pages
EAN/UPC: 9781603095235
Now, for a proper middle-grade novel here is one that combines magic and rain:
The Umbrella Maker’s Son by Katrina Leno(Author)
Oscar Buckle lives in a city where it’s always raining. I mean, really, it rains all of the time, so much in fact, that there are tons of different types of drizzle and ways to call them. The townspeople have learned to embrace it, and Oscar’s father is one of the appreciated umbrella makers.
There’s more to the weather than meets the eye though, there is magic involved!
Something or someone is causing all of this rain, and, perhaps, there is one competitor against Buckle Umbrellas that might bear responsibility on all this rainy weather.
Oscar must ask for help from his best friend, Saige, to discover if there’s more than nature involved in their city’s rainy disposition.
‘The Umbrella Maker’s Son’ is on sale since June 27, 2023.
Publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers
Publish Date: June 27, 2023
Paperback Pages: 384 pages
EAN/UPC: 9780316470872
Finally, here is a nonfiction book filled with weird data for advanced readers, that invites us to journey through the Ocean:
Around the Ocean in 80 Fish and Other Sea Life by Helen Scales (Author) Marcel George (Illustrator)
For instance, let us consider the hagfish and its buckets of slime: it has been used in place of egg white, it helps the hagfish cover himself and avoid harm, no one knows how it produces it and scientists want to use it in a wild variety of ways.
We are the biggest predators of fish life, of course, and we eat, sometimes unknowingly, a large number of weird creatures: like the spongy dogfish and the common octopus, or we use them as clothing (noble pen shell), for jewelry (spiny oysters) or hunt them for different purposes (like the sperm whale). I had never heard of many of these creatures and the book is guaranteed to both entertain & inform you and your budding scientist.
‘Around the Ocean in 80 Fish and Other Sea Life’ is on sale since June 27, 2023.
Publisher: Laurence King
Publish Date: June 27, 2023
Paperback Pages: 200 pages
EAN/UPC: 9781399602785
