School officially starts this week! Have your kids started yet? Each new school year brings different ideas, fears and excitement. There seem to be many books for the younger readers. There are the books like The Kissing Hand, Milk Goes to School, and Miss Mingo and the First Day of School and many more for younger kids starting school. Today we are going to share one picture book and two middle grade books. We will start with the picture book which is Proper Badger Would Never Trash the Classroom! by Lauren Glattly and illustrated by Rob Sayegh Jr. It is recommended for ages 4 to 8.
About the Book:
Proper Badger would never go to school . . . or would he?Proper Badger is going to school. It’s possible he got on the wrong bus, but he’s always wanted to go school, and after all, he looks exactly like all of the other well-behaved, well-mannered students. He can’t wait to get tons of gold stars. He has heard gold stars are crunchy and delicious. He will be on his very best badger behavior.
Take a bite out of the macaroni art? Release the classroom butterflies? Have the class pet for lunch? He would NEVER!
From author Lauren Glattly and New York Times bestselling illustrator Rob Sayegh Jr. comes a hilarious tale about a well-intentioned badger whose wild instincts just can’t be suppressed.
From Me:
This book is just a fun and bit silly book about going to school. Proper Badger claims to know how to behave in school. He also denies causing some of the issues but by the end the evidence is a bit too strong, so he somewhat admits it. The kids are also rather sick of his behavior. They may regret having him mistakenly gotten on their school bus.
Everything you can imagine going wrong seems to go wrong with Proper Badger at school. The tunnel the desk form is too much for him to resist running through and everyone's glue cup and paints spill. He also gathers all the snacks in hoards them in his desk. Oh, and he mistakes the class pet's tank to be a lunchbox and tries to eat the class pet. Yes, the kids are sick of him and don't think he belongs in school. This book has examples of what not to do at school. It also would be a great way to start a discussion about telling the truth or coming clean when you make a mistake. Kids will enjoy the hilarious behavior of Proper Badger in the classroom and it will be a fun book to read aloud.
Now we will share two middle grade books about school. They are recommended for ages 10 to 14. The first is a historical fiction book written in verse. It is Radiant by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson.
About the Book:
A historical middle-grade novel in verse from multiple Coretta Scott King winner Vaunda Micheaux Nelson.As school begins in 1963, Cooper Dale wrestles with what it means to “shine” for a black girl in a predominantly white community near Pittsburgh. Set against the historic backdrop of the Birmingham church bombing, the Kennedy assassination, and Beatlemania, Radiant is a finely crafted novel in verse about race, class, faith, and finding your place in a loving family and a complicated world.
Cooper’s primary concern is navigating fifth grade, where she faces both an extra-strict teacher and the bullying of Wade Carter, the only child of a well-to-do white family, whose home Cooper’s mother cleans for extra income. How can she shine when her mother works for the meanest boy in school? To make matters worse, Cooper quietly wishes she could be someone else.
It’s not all bad, though. Cooper and her beloved older sister have fallen for the Beatles, and Cooper is thrilled to have something special they can share. And what she learns about her British idols adds new complexity to Cooper’s feelings about race.
From Me:
This book takes place in 1963. Segregation has ended but there still is racism. The Beatles are coming on the scene. Teachers are still allowed to hit kids with rulers. And Cooper Dale is going into fifth grade. She is the only colored person in her class, and she has the teacher the kids call the Queen of Darkness. She has to deal with her own thoughts about being colored, her mom working as a maid and dealing with Wade Carter and his racist comments. Plus figuring out the schoolwork and trying to be radiant.
This book shares a bit of history but also empathy and understanding. Dale's mom starts working for the Carter family. Wade discovers that her mom is not a home decorator like Dale said but actually a maid. Wade's mom however is very sick and needs a lot of health. Dale finds out when she overhears her mom talking to her dad. She tries hard not to feel bad for Wade since he is so mean but as time goes on she does feel bad for him. She worries about him and more. It is a book that shares the history of racism as well as some other things happening in the 1960s but also another side about watching someone lose their mom and how hard that is whether you like the person or not. It is a powerful book and fun to read in verse. It has so many interesting topics to discuss from a historical view as well as the emotional view.
Our final book was released last week! It has a new twist on school and is very fun. The book is Schooled by Jamie Sumner.
About the Book:
A bighearted, compulsively readable novel from acclaimed author Jamie Sumner about new schools, unexpected friendships, and overcoming loss.Eleven-year-old Lenny Syms is about to start college—sort of. As part of a brand-new experimental school, Lenny and four other students are starting sixth grade on a university campus, where they’ll be taught by the most brilliant professors and given every resource imaginable. This new school is pretty weird, though. Instead of hunkering down behind a desk to study math, science, and history, Lenny finds himself meditating, participating in discussions where you don’t even have to raise your hand, and spying on the campus population in the name of anthropology.
But Lenny just lost his mom, and his Latin professor dad is better with dead languages than actual human beings. Lenny doesn’t want to be part of some learning experiment. He just wants to be left alone. Yet if Lenny is going to make it as a middle schooler on a college campus, he’s going to need help. Is a group of misfit sixth graders and one particularly quirky professor enough to pull him out of his sadness and back into the world?
From Me:
Lenny lost his mom. She was the glue of the family and Lenny's dad doesn't know quite how to deal with life right now. He moves the family to his old alma mater where he gets a teaching job. He joins his friends in sending their middle school students to a new school of their design. They believe in letting the kids attend the college courses and focus on what they are interested in. To Lenny it isn't school. Things with his father are up in the air and neither seems to do anything correct for the other. As they struggle to figure out life with Lenny's mom, they have moved away from each other and need to find the path back to being a family. Lenny is also discovering friendship with the misfits of kids and how special each is.
The book is a fun read. It has quirkiness to entertain. It has the misfit sixth graders who each are dealing with their own issues with their families. It has the misfits find ways to be friends and support each other. It has Lenny and his father coming to terms with the grief of such a major loss. There is even a start of a love relationship between two of the sixth graders. It is interesting and a pretty quick read. As a teacher I find the concept of the school a bit crazy but also interesting. It is crazy to think these sixth graders would be allowed to audit the college courses and basically walk around the campus like they are students there. Although I believe in letting students exploring their interests I do feel they need more structure than this school provides. But I am sure kids would find it fascinating and wonder about such a school. It definitely would also lead to some really interesting class discussions if it is read as a class.
Happy start of school!!
