“Why did the farmers plant cellphones?” Funny question? Well, the answer is even funnier: “Because they wanted to grow call-iflower!” Now that’s a funny joke I might actually remember, especially the punchline. But, even if I can’t remember the punchline, which for me is often...

The Adventures of Artie and Zac by Judeh Simon is a story about a boy whose dad is an inventor whose inventions always work. Dad also has the habit of talking about pixies and dragons and other creatures that Zac is sure don’t exist. Until...Dad...

Getting to Know Matrix and Blaze, written by Dan Kunz and illustrated by Leslie Osmont, is the story of Danny’s trip to the art museum where he meets two talking snakes and learns about how they eat and grow, where they live, when they sleep,...

Capturing Cow Burps and Farts, written by Erin Twamley, illustrated by Vova Kirichenko, and designed by Baris Celik, isn’t as silly as the title sounds. Cows produce 37% of the methane on planet Earth. Methane can be used for cooking and heating if we can...

Children who love poems will be fascinated with this teaching collection. How Many Lines in a Limerick?, written by Shobha Tharoor Srinivasan and illustrated by Jennifer Gibson, begins with a section of poems that teach many different types of poetry, not just limericks. This book...

Sasha Savvy Starts It Up is an educational novel for middle-schoolers and preteens written by Sasha Ariel Alston. Sasha’s excitement over starting the new school year as a sixth-grader became even more intense when her mom announced there was going to be a hackathon at...

Chrystal Eve Jackson has an otherworldly friend named Solis. Solis is always there when she needs her and teaches her very important lessons along the way. Grabbing her trusty camera, Chrystal heads off with Solis as she learns important things to remember such as don’t...

The Secret of the Magic eyePad by Marsha Tufft is a beautifully written story for fourth to sixth graders, featuring an interesting female protagonist: Putney Hicks. She is an imaginative twelve-year-old girl with a magic eyePad, an aspiring artist who is worried sick over her...

A sixth-grade girl confronts some of her biggest fears in the exciting middle-grade novel, Sophie Washington: Class Retreat by Tonya Duncan Ellis. Three days before going on a camping trip with her classmates, Sophie Washington watched the television show Finding Bigfoot with her eight-year-old brother...

The Bully Brigade: The Turn Over is a social issues novel for children, grades 4-6, written by Tamala Floyd. Petey, Diego, Ruthie, Pudge, Bustah, and Charlie are Misfit Elementary’s bully brigade. They have a thing about bullying and the misery bullies inflict upon their victims,...