Posts tagged "Kids Books"

While the sun is currently trying to kill us with it's fiery rays of doom here in Seattle (and no, I'm not being dramatic), I have compiled a list of bright and colorful young adult and kids books that scream summertime (with slightly less apocalyptic heat wave vibes than this week). 

If you're feeling nostalgic for lemonade stands, summer camp, and first loves, this list is for you. If you're dreaming of summer vacations, plunging into crystal clear waters, and a sandy beach to scrunch your toes in, this list is for you. If you're craving fruity popsicles, boppin' tunes, and road trips, you guessed it, this list is for you. The books are organized in the following order: Young Adult Fiction, Young Adult Graphic Novels, Middle Grade, Middle Grade Graphic Novels, and Illustrated books. The sweet escape of a good story awaits you. Happy reading friends and I hope you're staying as cool as you can in this merciless heat.

As the school year comes to a close and children’s summer reading challenges begin (keep an eye out for TPB’s list), we have a new kind of challenge for you: seek out magic in your everyday life. 

Most people I know fell in love with the magic of reading as a child - engrossed in worlds with endless possibilities. We imagined ourselves flying off to Neverland, sitting for the sorting hat at Hogwarts, training with extraordinary teens at Camp Half-Blood, going on an unexpected journey with a band of dwarves - reading meant endless possibility and discovery. It’s a lot harder to find that same feeling in the pages we read as adults. When we open a book today, we bring all our grown-up anxieties, fears, and unrealized dreams with us, and we’re not always ready to confront them in the fiction we read. When I read, I want to rediscover love and hope and magic - the magic that came so easy as a child.

Happy Pride Month everyone!!! To kick off celebrating the many different LGBTQIA+ stories out there, I have put together a list of kids books (illustrated & board) that feature diverse families in all different forms. There are titles on this list that go over a whole bunch of different families at once as well as stories that focus on one individual family. 

For the latter, I have focused particularly on stories with queer family members. Seeing queer kids, parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts, and uncles of all different races, genders, and with disabilities in these stories is incredibly powerful and something I never saw as a little kid but wish I had. I hope these books will be a positive presence on your shelves and help the kids in your life better understand their own families as well as the families in their communities.