An illustrated book about a father daughter relationship. Grocery shopping can be stressful, and if she could, Tyya would buy every last candybar in the store. She just wants ‘something good’. Her dad reprimands her and tells her to not move until he’s done grocery shopping. She listens and stands so still that she’s mistaken […]
A relentless exploration of racial prejudice and finding your voice as a young adult. 16-year-old Starr is a black student attending an elite school with a white majority, always carefully presenting herself in order to fit in. When her friend is accidentally shot by a police officer in front of her eyes, Starr is not […]
This magic novel about the invigorating and healing power of nature, friendship, childhood, isolation and rebirth follows 10-year-old Mary, a sour child of wealthy British parents living in India. When Mary’s parents suddenly die of cholera, she is sent to England to live with her uncle in the Yorkshire Moors. It is not long after […]
In this collection of illustrated poems, Dahl gives his own versions of fairy tales that could do with some dark humour. Ranging from Cinderella to The Three Little Pigs, all of them come with a dark twist.
Imagine entering the world only to realize you’re all alone. In this illustrated story a baby bird hatches out of its egg but its mother is nowhere to be found. On a quest to find her, the baby bird encounters many different animals, always leading to the question ‘Are you my mother?’.
An illustrated collection of opposites ranging from big and small to whisper and shout. Each set of opposites has its own representative animal, no extra words needed. Sandra Boynton’s range of illustrated children’s books include various topics that cover the building blocks of basic vocabulary. Whether it’s From Horns to Toes about different body parts […]
A story about the well-known cat with the striped hat and his companions Thing One and Thing Two. On a rainy day, the cat visits Sally and her brother. He wants to show them tricks and play but the siblings’ pet fish strongly objects. This book is wonderful for getting to know adjectives and simple […]
Buddy the bunny may have big ears but that doesn’t mean they work well. He has the unfortunate habit of misunderstanding everything. If someone asks him to get potatoes, he brings them tomatoes. This gets him in trouble when he has to help a grumpy bear cook soup. Full of helpful illustrations, this book combines […]
A children’s book series about a sentient, anthropomorphic school bus that takes a teacher and her class on unusual field trips to explain different scientific facts or phenomena. Destinations include outer space, the human body, the past and more. The Magic School Bus Inside the Human Body provides a good entry point to the series. […]
A story about the staple food of many Native American families. ‘Fry Bread’ isn’t just food, it combines Native American culture and history. Additional information about Native American culture and historical context is provided on the last pages as well as a recipe for ‘Fry Bread’. The illustrations accompanying the text allow young readers to […]
An entertaining novel about the origins of the English language. It covers the etymology of English words, dialects, spelling reform, prescriptive grammar and swearing among other topics. This book can be both helpful and entertaining when dealing with difficult grammar quirks in 11th or 12th grade. Read as a whole or in excerpts, this novel […]
This dystopian novel leads the reader down a dark path towards the perils of religion and oppressive patriarchy. A religious shift in the US-American government calling itself the ‘Pure Movement’ results in women being stripped of their voices: Handcuffs every woman has to wear count their spoken words and if the daily number exceeds 100, […]
In The Crucible, Arthur Miller tells a tale about how little is needed for a small community to turn on each other. When rumors of witchcraft arise in rural Salem during the 1690s, it does not take long for people to start to denounce anybody in order to save their own skin. Eventually, truth is […]
A Shakespearian tragedy of forceful love, hate, violence, identity and society. In Verona two powerful families, the Montegues and the Capulets, are in a feud. One night, at a ball, Romeo, son of the house Montegue meets Juliet, a Capulet, and the two fall in love. They get married secretly, but Juliet’s father does not […]
A novel set in a town that celebrates an annual Pigeon Day, on which pigeons are released into the air and shot. Ten-year-old boys act as “wringers”, collecting injured pigeons and wringing their necks to put them out of their misery. Nine-year-old protagonist Palmer is pressured by his friends into becoming a wringer but finds […]
A collection of nine humurous short stories about the unusual exploits of different animals. The fifth short story, “The Ant-Eater”, provides a good entry point for poems that can easily be incorporated into the classroom. This poem presents the differences between American and British pronunciation in an unusually witty way. A spoiled American boy begs […]
A science fiction, fantasy novel about a girl fighting for her life and finding herself in the process. When her mostly absent father gives her a virtual reality gaming experience as a birthday present, she’s hesitant but up for it. It all goes downhill when she’s suddenly trapped inside this looping virtual reality medieval setting. […]
A fable about helping others. When an ant is stranded on an island and asks different animals for help, each one has an excuse as to why they can’t help the ant. Only the elephant helps him. Shortly after, the elephant falls into a ravine and a horde of ants comes to his rescue, showing […]