Bone

Bone is the quite popular graphic novel about the Bone family, Fone Bone, Phoney Bone & Smiliy Bone. This first book follows the cousins as they are exiled from their home and then become separated in a vast dessert. Each of them separately end up wandering into a mysterious wooded valley where they meet strange creatures and even stranger happenings...

Much humor and action are the trademark for this series. These books never last a day on the classroom shelf. Once someone is done reading one, it quickly gets snatched up by the next eager Bone fan.

Great for grades 3/4 and up.

Rachael - 4th/5th teacher

Ricky Riccota's Mighty Robot

From Dav Pilkey, author of Captain Underpants, comes this great series about a mouse named Ricky Ricotta who lives in Squeekyville, where all the inhabitants last names are a type of cheese. The first book describes how the Dr. Stinky McNasty created the Mighty Robot to destroy earth. The Mighty Robot refused and Ricky saved him from being destroyed by the evil Doctor.

The next books of the series tell the tales of how Ricky and his Mighty Robot save the world from various villains from different planets. The creatures happen to alliterate with the planets their from (Vultures from Venus, Monkeys from Mars, Unicorns from Uranus...).

This series is written at about a 1st/2nd grade level so the books are perfect for primary grades, or struggling upper grade readers. There are tons of great pictures, and almost have a chapter book meets graphic novel feel.

~Rachael - 4th/5th Teacher

Hope for the Flowers by Trina Paulus

Hope for the Flowers by Trina Paulus is a sweet story of two caterpillars that grow into butterflies. Yellow and Stripe are two caterpillars who meet while trying to find out the meaning of life. They decide to break away from the pack of caterpillars and fall in love. Then one day Yellow discovers a butterfly and learns about what her fate may be. Stripe’s destiny leads him on another path. Yellow builds a cocoon and finally hatches. Stripe is heartbroken that he cannot find yellow but continues on his own journey. Stripe and Yellow cross paths again and it is clear what he needs to do. The illustrations are all delicately hand drawn. Hope for the Flowers is lovely story for any reader who loves a happy ending!

Lauren R elementary school teacher

Pirates Don't Change Diapers by David Shannon

Pirates Don’t Change Diapers is another fabulous picture book by David Shannon. Jeremy Jacobs is back to tell another story about his pirate ways. It is his mother’s birthday and Jeremy does not yet have a gift for his mother. Jeremy is left to care for his sleeping baby sister while his mother runs out and father is napping. Right away some old friends show up to dig up some buried treasure. Jeremy's baby sister is awoken and the pirates are clueless about baby-sitting. Jeremy attempts to show the pirates how to change a diaper, serve lunch, and even how to play a game of peek-a-boo. The pirates finally get baby Bonney to sleep and are ready to dig up the buried treasure when the map goes missing. Will they find the map and a gift for Jeremy’s mom in time? Aargh, I hope so!

Lauren-elementary school teacher

I'd Tell You That I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You by Ally Carter

First in the series of three books thus far, I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You by Ally Carter is great if you are into espionage. Cammie Morgan is a student at a very special school for girls and her mother is the head mistress (mom went there too). One thing, the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women isn’t some snooty prep school as it appears on the outside; it is actually a spy school. Cammie like all the others girls at the school is a genius, she is highly trained in hand-to-hand combat, is an excellent “pavement artist” in fact, they call her the “chameleon”, and she knows the languages and social skills of fourteen plus cultures. But when she is on a practice assignment in the local town she gets noticed, by an ordinary guy (who happens to be a hottie!). The boy, Josh, is her first “subject” in an offical report and her heart’s first flutter. She can handle just about any spy situation, but to handle a boy? Her life is less than ordinary, both parents were spies, dad never came back from a mission, and now her life is the academy, training for her future life. So how is she going to have a relationship with a normal guy who can never really know the truth? This is a great book and series for any girl or woman who dreams of being a part of a clandestine organization to protect the world from bad people. It is filled with secret passages, tech gadgetry, sub-ground levels that can only be accessed through retinal scans, and quirky ex-spy professors who test them to the brink of life. After all a spy’s life is just that. Because this was written in 2006, it is fresh and contemporary. It is a great vicarious experience! C. Murray

Pockets

This 1998 fanciful, oceanic tale by Jennifer Armstrong weaves magical realism into the lives of simple town’s folk through the gift of embroidery secretly stitched in the pockets of their clothes. This stoic work-oriented folk invite this disoriented, broken-hearted, beautiful young woman to join them until she rights herself. They of course ask if she has a trade or skill, upon which she shares her gift of sewing. The town’s people tell her she can stay because the tailor has recently died, but only if she keeps things simple, plain, and unadorned. They don’t want distraction from their duties. She complies for a while, then sews in her own pockets; sewing of the sea, sailing, and oceanic adventures, then realizes she could give this as a gift to people without the even consciously realizing it. Slowly the town’s people, with hands in pockets, begin to ponder and notice things, stop and smell the roses, look at the sky, and dream. This magic brings husbands and wives closer, children more joyful, the town simply comes alive. Once all is well, she herself is healed and ready to turn her sails for her old home. Personally, this book is the best worded picture book I have found because of its subject matter of the sea, its magical realism, and the artistry by Mary GrandPre is just stunning, carrying me away to those far distant places she stitches in pockets. C. Murray

Rapunzel's Revenge
by Shannon and Dean Hale

We all love a good fairy tale, but sometimes we have to question the messages they deliver. I often want to replace the sweet, compliant, sleeping beauty with a smart girl who can rescue herself.
Newberry award-winning author Shannon Hale and her husband Dean present a humorous re-telling of the tale of the princess with outrageously long hair. I especially love that the burdensome tresses of the traditional tale become both Rapunzel's tools and weapons in this story. Rapunzel sets out to save not only herself, but a whole society enslaved by the same woman who trapped her and tried to control her. This tellling is set in a mythical western landscape, and Rapunzel speaks in the vernacular and idioms of a cowboy movie.
I gave it to middle school girls who gravitate to books about cliques of boy-crazed girls, and they each read it through in a night and passed it to a friend. Sixth grade boys also read it through voraciously, with no objections to the female heroine.
Graphic novels provide a visual hook for kids to enter the story, and the illustrations offer clues to the meaning for struggling readers. Rapunzel's Revenge also offers good evidence that a graphic novel can demand the same reading skills of a traditional novel. Students can practice with narrative structure, symbolism, use of puns and inference while reading Rapunzel's Revenge . This story is a hero's quest, filled with fun and adventure.

by Lauren , secondary English teacher

Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover, #3 in the Gallagher Girls Series

Third in the Gallagher Girl’s series, Don’t Judge a Girl by Her Cover, by Ally Carter has everything a girl, teen, or woman for that matter, whose alter-ego is a spy, thrives on. There is action, romance, cool spy gizmos, and intrigue! The basis for the series is an elite girl’s prep school, the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women, is actually a serious spy school for girls. They train the best of the best—secret service, CIA, you name it, all unbeknownst to the world outside its doors. This particular book focuses on Macy (a Gallagher Girl), the vice presidential nominee’s daughter, her safety or lack thereof, and Cammie (our protagonist) the headmistress’s daughter. Their skills are seriously tested by the school and bad guys; mystery surrounds exactly who really is the target, and why. We get an intimate look into the school, how it was founded and the extraordinary teacher’s specific talents and secrets. The Gallagher Girls have a sisterhood of a whole different level. It is a page-turner, complex enough to hijack an adult’s weekend--I can’t wait for the next book! C. Murray