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history, lgbtq+, middle grade, social-emotional

Middle Grade Must-Read: Alice Austen Lived Here

Seth Harris

Alice Austen Lived Here (Scholastic Press)
Written by Alex Gino

There is an ugly event happening within portions of America at the moment, a rising tide of transphobia & gender ignorance prodded on by greedy media interested in driving up traffic and morally rotten politicians who think throwing hateful red meat to their voting base guarantees them electoral success. All of this spits in the face of reality which is that LGBTQ+ people have existed and lived in our societies since the earliest days humans walked the Earth. Transgender people are not a “new fad”; they have been ever-present; in the United States, reactionary forces have been very efficient at driving these people into even further marginalization. That does not extinguish the truth, though. There is hope that we can end this hate, not by listening to the transphobes but by holding up and supporting transgender youth.

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black lives, hispanic, social-emotional

Author Spotlight: Christian Robinson

Seth Harris

Christian Robinson grew up in situations very similar to the characters in the stories he illustrates. He grew up in Los Angeles, raised by his grandmother in a one-bedroom home shared by six people. Christian credits his high school art teacher, Elizabeth Kim, as his greatest influence in working full-time in the visual arts. She helped him build a portfolio and even drove him to college campuses for tours and interviews. At first, Christian wanted to pursue animation. Ben Butcher, an writer/illustrator, made adaptations of Disney films that helped mentor the young man in this new medium. Additionally, Christian’s boyfriend is a 4th-grade teacher and has helped the artist interview children in pieces used in the books’ trailers. One of the lessons I see from Christian’s life and his work is the importance of community & mentorship. Everyone needs a helping hand, and in turn, they should be that for someone else in the future.

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humor, social-emotional

Book List: Back to School

Seth Harris

Amanda Panda Quits Kindergarten (Doubleday Books for Young Readers)
Written by Candice Ransom
Illustrated by Christine Grove

For ages: 3-7
Amanda is extremely excited to go to school, but she doesn’t have the social skills to be a good friend. She’s intimidated by the other kids and doesn’t know how to respond when they interact with her. It takes some time, but eventually, Amanda finds courage and a good friend in Bitsy. The artwork effectively communicates the mixed emotions Amanda feels, even when she is not being very nice. The character arc here is pretty unrealistically fast, so having a conversation with your students about fiction compressing time might be good. In our lives, we take a little longer to learn and grow our empathy, and that’s perfectly fine. 

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humor, social-emotional, spotlight

Spotlight: Don’t Hug the Quokka/I Want To Be A Vase

Seth Harris

Don’t Hug the Quokka! (Magination Press)
Written by Daniel Errico
Illustrated by Mia Powell

For ages: 4-8
If you have never heard of the quokka, you are in for a treat. Quokka are a small marsupial found on some small islands off the coast of Western Australia. It would be best if you googled them because I guarantee their pictures will surprise you. They have such an open, happy face and have little fear of humans. They are cases of a quokka biting a person, but for the most part, they are curious when these outsiders visit them. They have no natural predators on their island, so they have never needed to develop fear-based instincts to survive. Quokka can carry salmonella, though, so touching them is not safe. 

Author Daniel Errico and illustrator Mia Powell take the incredibly enticing quokka and use it to illustrate the importance of consent in their book. The quokka is so cuddly and friendly that every fiber of your body wants to hug & cuddle it. But you can’t just do that. If the quokka says “No,” you must respect it. Throughout the book, the child proposes different scenarios to ask if it’s okay to hug the quokka now. With each one, the adult reminds the child that the animal said No, which means No. Only if the quokka says “Yes,” may you hug one. Much like in life, we shouldn’t violate people’s personal space & always ask permission to touch another person, respecting their No. 

Activities

1. Have students work in groups to make posters warning visitors that they should not hug the quokka without permission. The posters should emphasize the text’s central theme that consent is critical.

2. Having students research the quokka or other Australian native creatures is always a great idea. The diversity & uniqueness of animal life in that region always captivates children. 

3. Students can write a reflection about consent. What do they think about the message of the book? Why is asking for consent necessary? What should we do if someone is not respecting our choice?

I Want To Be a Vase (Atheneum Books for Young Readers)
Written by Julio Torres
Illustrated by Julian Glander

For ages: 4-8
Shapes are all around us. Comedian & former SNL writer Julio Torres is obsessed with shapes, which you would know if you saw his HBO special. Torres brings his love of shapes & inanimate objects to this lovely children’s book, all about defining your own shape. Plunger knows he was not meant to sit by a toilet his whole life only used to unclog it. He’s meant to be something beautiful & admired. Instead, Plunger wants to be a vase. This starts chaos among the other objects in the bathroom and eventually the whole house. Some things want everyone to stay as they are, while Plunger has awakened others. They have always felt off, and now they want to be who they truly are.

It’s pretty easy to see this is a text about gender identity. Still, it’s also about pushing back against the negative thoughts people get tangled up in so easily. So often, people are labeled and shelved by society. They tell us that because of a few external physical features, they know who we are. But anyone who listens to themself and is truly honest knows we are so much more than that. Torres brings along illustrator & animator Julian Glander, who delivers digital images that feel like something torn out of the 1990s but also still so fresh & relevant. There will not be another book on your classroom shelf that looks anything like this one; I guarantee it.

Activities

1. Have your students pick an everyday household object they can imagine themselves being. In writing and/or illustration, have students explain what they would do if they got to spend their day as a teapot, for example. 

2. Taking this a step further, create a T-chart with students. On one side, give Plunger and the other objects’ reasons for wanting to be other things. On the other side, list the vacuum cleaner’s rebuttals from the text.

3. Taking the T-chart from the last activity, have students compose a single-paragraph opinion essay about whose point of view they agree with more. Make sure they defend why they think that character has the right perspective with details from the text.

humor, middle grade, mystery

Middle Grade Must-Reads – The Mysterious Howling

Seth Harris

The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: Book I – The Mysterious Howling (Balzer + Bray)
Written by Maryrose Wood
Illustrated by Jon Klassen

So…this is a knock-off of A Series of Unfortunate Events. The author doesn’t try to hide it by including witty asides and long-winded introductions to chapters. Every page is filled with baroque language that evokes some laughs. It’s not a bad book, but because it is so obviously attempting to mimic an outstanding middle-grade series, you cannot help but compare the two. That means the flaws of this book stand out more. The inclusion of illustrations by Jon Klassen drew my attention to the text in the first place. His style evokes the macabre work of Edward Gorey in this context, and I think that helps give the story personality. 

Miss Penelope Lumley is a recent Swanburne Academy for Poor Bright Females graduate. Her first job will be the governess at Ashton Place, an estate hidden in the forest. When she arrives, Penelope cannot find a trace of any children in the house. Instead, there is a constant howling coming from the barn outside. Penelope investigates and finds three feral children being kept there. The staff and the owners explain that these children appeared one day and could not speak. They want Penelope to train the children and make them presentable by the holiday ball a month away. Penelope begins to uncover a mystery in Ashton Place that may help her discover where these children came from.

If your student is very into Gothic flowery stories, you will not be able to go wrong with this one. I personally love A Series of Unfortunate Events and wasn’t overly excited about this one. I can’t put my finger on it, but the language doesn’t flow as smoothly from Wood’s pen as it seems from Lemony Snicket’s. It’s not a bad book, but it pales in comparison to the original.

author spotlight, humor

Author Spotlight – Jon Klassen

Seth Harris

Jon Klassen is one of the essential comedic children’s writers working in the business. You will know what I am talking about if you have read his work. I see his books as a distillation of the comedic ethos behind things like Monty Python but made appropriate for kids. What I mean by that is that the work presents some heady philosophical concepts but presented in a manner that a child will have no problem digesting them and finding the humor in the deceptively simple work. Klassen is a Canadian, born in Winnipeg but grew up in Toronto. His art career started in animation, and Klassen contributed to the hit film Kung Fu Panda. His illustrations for other children’s authors gained him several awards and spurred Klassen to write his own books. I Want My Hat Back was his debut as an author/illustrator, and it has been hit after hit since. The recurring aesthetic in all of Klassen’s work is minimalism. The drawings are never overly complicated or filled with detail. It results in a very deadpan style of humor.

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animals, family, social-emotional

Book List: The Family Pets

Seth Harris

Pet Show! (Puffin Books)
Written & Illustrated by Ezra Jack Keats

For ages: 2-5
Ezra Jack Keats was a transformative force in children’s literature, choosing to make his protagonist Black children as he saw they had limited representation in the medium. Most people know A Very Snowy Day, but Pet Show! is also a great book. Archie wants to enter a pet show but can’t find his cat anywhere. He comes to the pet show with a seemingly empty jar and says it contains a germ, which is an animal. An older woman shows up with a cat she found in her neighborhood, which just happens to be Archie’s. This is a fantastic story about thinking outside the box and learning how to talk to people before you make assumptions. 

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culture, food, spotlight

Spotlight: Paletero Man/Meet the Latkes

Seth Harris

Paletero Man (HarperCollins)
Written by Lucky Diaz & Dr. Carmen Tafolla
Illustrated by Micah Player

For ages: 3-7
Very few things are as satisfying as an ice-cold treat during these scorching summer months. A Latinx boy has the same idea, but he can’t find the Paletero Man. So he races down the streets, hearing the sounds of the Paletero Man’s bell. Along the way, he runs into other street vendors and shopkeepers encouraging him. Eventually, everyone in the neighborhood comes together, and the boy is so inspired he makes sure everyone gets to enjoy paletas. As temperatures rise, that sounds absolutely divine to experience.

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fantasy, mexican, middle grade

Middle Grade Must-Read – Paola Santiago and the River of Tears

Seth Harris

Paola Santiago and the River of Tears (Rick Riordan Presents)
Written by Tehlor Mejia

Some saw Rick Riordan as piggybacking off of the popularity of Harry Potter when he began publishing his Percy Jackson. And while there are some surface-level similarities, it’s ultimately a celebration of Riordan’s love of Greek mythology. The same sentiment is present in Tehlor Mejia’s first entry in her Paola Santiago series, which Riordan presents. This is a celebration of Mexican folklore and culture delivered in an exciting manner that will draw in children whether they have a personal connection to the figures presented or not. The key to the book’s success are richly-drawn characters and a pace that keeps the reader hooked.

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culture, folktales, mexican, social studies

Author Spotlight – Duncan Tonatiuh

Seth Harris

Duncan Tonatiuh was born in Mexico City in 1984 to an American father and a Mexican mother. Duncan’s family moved to the States when he was a teenager, and he finished high school in Massachusetts. Growing up, Duncan was drawn to the vibrant art of comic books and anime. This inspired him to make his own comics and prompted his exploration of art. In high school, he took up painting and claims his most significant influences to be Vincent Van Gogh and Austrian expressionist Egon Schiele. In college, Duncan began studying Mixtec art, the painting style found in indigenous Mexican art of the Oaxaca and Puebla peoples. This art style is the core influence in the children’s books Duncan writes & illustrates. It’s his way of reviving an old art form in a contemporary context that tells relevant stories to children.

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