Welcome to a new school year. Start it off right by sharing books in the classroom!
Bounce! by Robert Munsch with art by Michael Martchenko is yet another wild story by Munsch – a much welcome romp in a hospital bed. Two sisters scrape a knee and get hauled off in an ambulance. But when they are placed in a waiting room, they get tired of waiting and soon discover the bed has buttons. Buttons to move the bed up, and down, and down and up! Until the entire bed folds double with the sisters inside. Funny doctors show up with interesting instruments, until the janitor saves the day by fixing the bed. Typical Munsch fantasy that will delight many young readers! ISBN 987-1-0397-1004-7, Scholastic Canada
It’s My Brain by Elise Gravel is a deceptively simple picturebook about brains. Adorable critters explain how our brains work and how each one is unique. Senses send messages to our brain, which in turns sends signals to other bodyparts to act on it. Your brain helps you to stay safe and is always learning new things. It explains how we all learn at different speeds and in many different ways. Brains also need to be looked after with healthy foods, sleep, even helmets. This is a great book to discuss feelings, perceptions and different ways of thinking or having opinions. ISBN 978-1-0397-1009-2, North Winds Press/Scholastic
Inside Scouts Help the Strong Cheetah by Mitali Banerjee Ruths, with art by Francesca Mahaney is part of the Inside Scouts series of early chapter books. The pages have very little text and the book is more like a graphic novel for beginning readers. Written by a medical doctor, the stories all focus on a physical problem that is fixed by the scouts who can travel inside a body to fix a problem. In this story, the scouts help a cheetah with leg cramp. Back pages explain some of the physiology in simple terms. ISBN 978-1-338-89504-9-50599, Scholastic
Mrs. Nobody by Y.S. Lee, with art by Marie Lafrance tells the story of Alice and her imaginary friend, Mrs. Nobody. Together they get up to no good – cut their hair, draw on walls, and are in separable. Until they start to argue. Mrs. Nobody is bossy and Alice has had enough. She knows she has to speak up and follow her heart. Alice learns to find her own voice and make her own decisions in this imaginary world.
ISBN 978-1773-068381, Groundwood Books
Today I Am is a collection of short stories by twelve different authors, edited by Jael Richardson. Each of the stories deals with the theme of ‘belonging’. Have you ever felt left out, like you were the one who did not belong? In a new city, a new school? These stories are placed in regular families in a variety of circumstances, like Thanksgiving Dinner, in a new school where one is a minority, but also on different planets. From sci-fi to realistic fiction, from free verse to graphics. These stories will appeal to anyone who has needed the courage to feel find themselves and feel accepted. ISBN 978-1-4431-9235-4, Scholastic
Margriet Ruurs reads, reviews and writes books from her home in BC, Canada. She conducts author visits to schools around the world.