reading

Books Make Good Friends

Sophie Rosen ,

Mount, Jane. Books Make Good Friends. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2023.

Lotti loves books. She may have difficulty making friends at school, but she has no trouble at all finding friends in books. Slowly, though, she starts to overcome her shyness and enjoy spending time with people. I’m not usually fond of books that have a main story line in large print and then additional details in a smaller font, but this picture book is an exception. Every page contains little comments and descriptions, and illustrations of book spines. Dozens and dozens of book spines: My Side of the Mountain, Inkheart, A Wrinkle in Time, Holes, Bridge to Terabithia, Goodnight Moon, Beezus and Ramona, Starfish, Raymie Nightingale, Liar & Spy, Skunk and Badger, Amos & Boris, The Little Prince, The Saturdays, Abel’s Island, Lionboy… This brilliantly conceived picture book is recommended as a read-aloud for children five to nine years old. But it is even more recommended for older readers who have their own memories of happy times with books. Jane Mount invites readers to a party where they get to meet people they love but maybe haven’t seen in a long time. They get to smile, laugh, and maybe even discover a great new friend!

How to Love Reading

How to Connect to Stories

More books about reading and libraries

A Library

Sophie Rosen , ,

Giovanni, Nikki. A Library. New York: Versify, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2022.
A young girl helps her grandmother with washing the dishes and doing the laundry before setting off for the public library. Later, back home again, she helps fold the laundry and prepare a meal, before settling down on the back porch with her new books. The beautifully bold yet gentle illustrations by Erin K. Robinson combined with the brief text in a large font have created a wonderful story – by an award-winning poet – to read aloud to a group of primary-school-age children. Perfect as an introduction to talking about the joy of libraries. Perfect as an introduction to talking about the value of reflecting on life. Highly recommended for teachers, teacher-librarians, and readers 5 to 8 years old.

More stories related to the author’s own life

More books about reading and libraries 

How Do Dinosaurs Learn to Read?

Sophie Rosen , , ,

Yolen, Jane and Mark Teague. How Do Dinosaurs Learn to Read? New York: The Blue Sky Press, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., 2018.
Cheerful, zany, full of huge colourful imaginary dinosaurs, this is the twelfth book in the “How Do Dinosaurs…” series. Beautifully designed and illustrated – with large full-page illustrations and a large font – this story told in rhyme is recommended for parents and teacher-librarians of children 3 to 6 years old.

More books about reading

More rhyming picture books

More books to make you laugh

A Place to Hang the Moon

Sophie Rosen , , , ,

Albus, Kate. A Place to Hang the Moon. New York: Holiday House, 2021.
Three orphaned siblings – 12-year-old William, 11-year-old Edmund, and 9-year-old Kate – are evacuated from London during World War II and sent to live in the countryside.  

You may have read other stories about British WW 2 evacuees: Good Night, Mr. Tom by Michelle Magorian; The Sky is Falling by Kit Pearson; and The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Baker. You may have read other stories about orphans: Anne of Green Gables  by L.M. Montgomery; the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling; Pine Island Home by Polly Horvath. The list of similar stories could go on and on and on. So why read this new novel by Kate Albus?  

A Place to Hang the Moon is as heartwarming as stories by Beverly Cleary and Eleanor Estes.  It is as unflinching in its description of hardships as novels by Avi and Karen Hesse. Kate Albus’s three protagonists display all the determination and resilience found in the best of children’s stories. Why not read another novel that will bring joy to your heart? Recommended for readers 9 to 12 years old.  

More stories about World War 2 

More stories set in England

Digging for Words

Sophie Rosen , ,

Kunkel, Angela Burke. Digging for Words: José Alberto Gutíerrez and the Library He Built. New York: Schwartz & Wade Books, 2020.
A night-time garbage collector, Señor José collects books from the trash of wealthy homes. Then, every Saturday, he opens the doors and welcomes eager children into his neighbourhood library. Set in  Bogotá, Columbia and based on a true story, this inspiring picture book – illustrated by Paola Escobar and accompanied by a detailed author’s note – will appeal to readers 7 to 12 years old who already know the joys of using imagination to enter new worlds. 

More books about libraries

More stories set in South America

Biographies

The Oldest Student

Sophie Rosen ,

Hubbard, Rita Lorraine. The Oldest Student: How Mary Walker Learned to Read. New York: Schwartz & Wade Books, 2020.
Once in a while, a book soars above the rest. The illustrations convey emotions as well as plot details. The size and style of the font matches the tone of the text and the age of the intended readers. The words sing with the rhythm of a story told over and over aloud, and the design turns it all into a work of brilliance.
This picture book is brilliant right from the beginning. It tells the story of Mary Walker, born a slave in 1848 and growing up to labour in the cotton fields, toil in the Big House, and follow the rules: work, work, work. Do not learn to read. When Mary was fifteen years old, freedom came, but she was desperately poor and still had to work. Mary Walker married, gave birth to a son, was widowed, married again and gave birth to two more sons. Year after year, she kept working and working – and dreaming of being able to decipher the squiggles she saw on billboards and signs. Finally, when she was 114 years old, she decided it was time she learned how to read. And she did!
This inspiring picture book – illustrated by Oge Mora – is most highly recommended for all readers 8 years old and up.

More biographies

More stories about people of African heritage

Prove It, Josh

Sophie Rosen , , , , ,

Dear Reader,

I’m so glad that you want to be a reader. I’m glad that you are asking for good books. But – as you’ve noticed – it’s hard to find stories for middle-schoolers that are well-written, interesting, but not too difficult to read.

What you’re already noticing is that the books that are easy for a middle school student to read tend to fall into one of two groups:

  1. Humorous stories. Silly stories. Lightweight stories about characters who like playing pranks and avoiding work.
  2. Stilted stories. Slightly awkwardly written stories intended for students who find reading difficult. 

You have now heard enough stories in class and read enough stories yourself that you know how good writing should sound. You also are mature enough that you’d rather read more serious stories than The Diary of a Wimpy Kid books.  So what should you do?

Two solutions:

  1. Expand your interests. Read stories that are set in places and times that are unfamiliar to you. Read novels about characters who are unlike you. View reading as a chance to discover what it is like to be someone else. 
  2. Read the easy-to-read novels that are especially written for poor readers. Because that is what you are right now. A not-very-skilful reader. You need to build up your strength with easier books so that you can get to the novels you’d prefer to read. If you read for an hour every day, you will be amazed how much stronger you will be in a few months. 

Here’s a novel that will expand your general knowledge and help build up your speed:

Watson, Jenny. Prove It, Josh. Winlaw, BC: Sono Nis Press, 2013.

Josh has moved from Toronto to Vancouver Island to live with his dad aboard a boat. But he hasn’t made any friends and he finds it impossibly difficult to read. His dad makes him see a reading tutor but that isn’t helping his social life. Maybe winning a boat race will show the world that he isn’t worthless.

This 157-page novel has widely-spaced lines of print.The messages are easy to find: everyone has difficulties, so don’t give up when life is hard;  good character is more important than being a good reader or winning a race. The writing is somewhat awkward and there are some technical terms about sailing but just skip over the parts you don’t understand and carry on with the story. You are on your way to becoming a serious reader.

Happy reading!

Ms. R. 

P.S. Find more easy-to-read books HERE!