This debut picture book by Nell Cross Beckerman, with illustrations by Kalen Chock, is absolutely stunning!
Kids are, of course, fascinated by caves, but this book isn’t just informational, Beckerman’s text invites the reader in, making them feel like real cave explorers and Chock’s gorgeous illustrations are dying to be explored!
The question to the reader of “Do you dare?” reminded me of THE BERENSTAIN BEARS AND THE SPOOKY OLD TREE, probably because I read it like a million times to all my kids when they were little, and it’s still one of our favorites!
The premise works in both books equally well. Curious readers and future spelunkers, alike, experience the thrill of adventure as they turn each page to peek into unbelievable caves found around the world, like the Glowworm Grotto in the Waitomo Caves in New Zealand.
This book came out in 2022 and won all kinds of awards, for good reason! I highly recommend!
The magical realism genre is a middle grade favorite, and THE ELEPHANT’S GIRL doesn’t disappoint!
The story starts with Lex, a girl who doesn’t remember her past. All she knows is that when she was little, a tornado swept her away from her home and into the elephant enclosure at the Lexington Zoo. Roger, the zoo’s train engineer, finds her and takes on the role of foster father.
This beautiful story plays on the mystique of elephant communication, only taken one step further–a very special elephant in the zoo, named Nyah, begins to send images directly to Lex’s mind!
The images start Lex on an adventure that involves ghosts, treasure, and the unraveling of secrets.
It’s a charming story of friendship and found family, and Rimington brings out all the feels with her delicate handling of the main character’s emotional journey.
I love this book and highly recommend it!
And…once you’ve peaked your child’s curiosity about elephants, I also recommend THE ELEPHANT SCIENTIST by Caitlin O’Connell & Donna M. Jackson!
This middle grade nonfiction book takes you on a journey with elephant scientist, Dr. O’Connell, as she makes awesome discoveries about how elephants really do communicate. It’s won many, many awards, including a Sibert Honor, and it’s a fun way to learn more about these incredible animals!
And, yes! This was a two-for-one book recommendation. 😊 There are just so many incredible books out there to share!
Winnie the Pooh is such an adorable, lovable character, and until I read FINDING WINNIE, I had no idea he was based on an actual bear! And it’s an absolutely charming story.
Basically, a veterinarian from Winnipeg enlisted in the military and by chance, while stopping at a train station, came across a trapper with a bear cub on a leash. The trapper had killed the bear’s mother and didn’t want the cub. The vet bought the bear for $20 and named it Winnipeg. Everyone at the army post called the bear “Winnie” for short, but then, when they had to ship overseas, the vet arranged for Winnie to stay at the zoo.
Now, because Winnie was so tame, and because this was over 100 years ago, the zoo allowed children to play with him! One of the kids was no other than Christopher Robin! His father, A. A. Milne, watched them play and used them for inspiration for all the stories that the world knows and loves today. How cool is that?
The illustrations by Sophie Blackall won this book a Caldecott Medal and the author, Lindsay Mattick, is actually the great granddaughter of the vet!
She writes the book as a story in a story, where she is telling the story to her son, who is the vet’s namesake. This structure is difficult to do in a picture book, where you have such limited space, but Mattick pulls it off beautifully. The real photographs of Winnie with the soldiers and with Christopher Robin are such a treasure, too!
The same year that FINDING WINNIE came out (2015), so did WINNIE: THE TRUE STORY OF THE BEAR WHO INSPIRED WINNIE-THE-POOH by Sally M. Walker! Basically, that’s a writer’s worst nightmare to have the story you’ve been researching and laboring over for years go out with a different publisher at the exact same time, but I think the world is better off with both of these versions.
The story is much the same, but there’s more fun details and photographs that you wouldn’t know from just the one. The illustrations by Jonathan D. Voss are beautiful as well.
Whether you’re a fan of Winnie the Pooh, or not, these stories are fascinating pieces of history that are definitely worth checking out.
Do you know any kids who love dinosaurs? How would they feel if they found real dinosaur bones right in their own backyard!? Well, that’s what happened to Ruth Mason, only she didn’t know what they were at first!
This is an incredible true story that took place in South Dakota in 1905. I love the beautiful illustrations by Alexandra Bye and that the story is about a girl! Girls can love dinosaurs and paleontology, just as much as boys!
This is a great book to give as a gift or pickup for your own collection.
In honor of Halloween, here is a true story for you and/or your older teens that will give you all the chills! 👻
Candace Fleming is an incredibly talented author and she has taken mountains of primary source material and crafted it into a true crime tale that feels like a thriller.
Back in the 1920s in Chicago, two teenagers decided to brutally murder an innocent child in order to collect ransom money. More than the money though, their main motivation was to prove they could pull off the perfect crime and never get caught.
And they might have gotten away with it, but for one little mistake–a dropped pair of prescription glasses. 👓
The first part of this book is about the actual crime and capture, and then moves on to the boys’ confessions and the ensuing courtroom battle.
The part I found most compelling was the courtroom arguments regarding mental health. This was a landmark case because there wasn’t a lot of precedent at this time for pleading insanity or for trying teenagers for murder.
This book isn’t for the weak of heart! That being said, Fleming keeps the violence matter-of-fact and the focus of the book is really on the psychology of the boys and the legal system of the time. She addresses relevant contributing factors like police corruption, anti-semitism, the boys’ homosexual relationship, nature vs. nurture, and wealth & privilege with exquisite care, which makes for great discussion starters for you and your teens.
If you’re feeling brave, go ahead and give this thought-provoking book a try.
I posted earlier about reading the Thrifty Guide to the American Revolution with my boys. What I didn’t anticipate was how it opened up their desire to learn more about the war. I love seeing it, and I was quick to take advantage with Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales graphic novels.
While these books have a fictional storytelling framework, most of the information is nonfiction. These two are about the Revolution, and my boys swallowed them whole, as well as some of his others. They’re funny and silly, all while teaching about real events.
I pulled out my copy of 1776 by David McCullough, and they loved all the handwritten letter, map and newspaper reproductions. It was interesting to see the difference between the maps the Americans had, with the poorly drawn ones in the hands of the British.
If you haven’t read this book yet, you simply must pick it up! The literary STEM prose of Henry Herz and the gorgeous, ethereal illustrations of Mercè López are the perfect combination.
Growing up, we learn how dangerous smoke is, but this book also shows how it has been used for good over time. I love the fun twist of the smoke itself narrating the story. It speaks in riddles with a poetic rhythm that gives it an alluring timelessness that is just so, so perfect!
Herz and López also teamed up for a follow up book that released this spring called I AM GRAVITY.
Both of these books are great for reading out loud and discussing, plus they have excellent backmatter for the truly curious!
This true crime thriller is the perfect book to hook kids on nonfiction. Did you know that in 1865 over 50% of America’s paper money was counterfeit? It was a HUGE problem for the country, and so it became the one and only task of the nation’s new Secret Service organization to put a stop to it.
Steve Sheinkin is one of my all-time favorite authors, and this book was my first introduction to his work. It’s a real page-turner, filled with daring escapes and unbelievable plots, and the best part is that it all really happened! Sheinkin pulls actual dialogue and fantastic details from the audio transcripts and reports that are available because one secret service officer was able to infiltrate the counterfeiting gang that was trying steal Abraham Lincoln’s dead body!
My boys loved this book as much as I did, and I’m sure you will, too!
Lots of giggles with this fun counting down picture book! You start the book with 13 flies, and each then gets caught and eaten in a different way–whether they’re wrapped up like a burrito by a garden spider or stuffed in a hole to feed the larvae of a wasp.
The animal world is weird and wonderful, and there is plenty of gross factor here to go along with it! David Clark’s illustrations, with the delightful animal expressions, are the perfect complement to Sue Heavenrich’s prose.
Check out the hilarious nutritional facts for eating a serving of flies at the end!
As a mother and a writer, I find great satisfaction from what I call “sneaky teaching.” When I can read something to my kids that gets them laughing out loud while teaching them about our world, it is just so rewarding! They don’t even know they’re learning!
The “Thrifty Traveler” series of books are perfect examples of sneaky teaching. They have a cleverly-designed fictional framework, in that they are set up as guidebooks that are produced by a fictional time travel company. It is a fantastic hook for all the fascinating and fun nonfiction material about what it was really like during these times in history.
Every morning before school, when my youngest boys were about 8 and 10 years old, they begged me to read them these while they ate breakfast. The first one we devoured was American Revolution where we learned how to fire a musket, what to do under cannon fire, and all about the Sons of Liberty, Henry Knox and his cannons, Bunker Hill, the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and much more!
How do you get in “sneaky teaching” with your kids?
Books for Curious Kids 