After a long, hard year, most of you (I hope) are enjoying a long, well-deserved vacation in the location of your choice, sipping on your favorite beverage, taking strolls in the moonlight, and checking things off your Bucket List. Or maybe you’re just enjoying getting back out into the world, baby-stepping into our new reality. Whatever the case, I’ve been thinking about laughter and adventures. Books can be our passport to both, but with so many titles, which ones provide the respite we need?
This week I lost my dad after a brief battle with COVID. Among the many things I learned from him is how to laugh, how to seize the moment, and how to find your own adventure. I was fortunate to visit him last month and watch my 85-year-old dad tandem skydive—his second jump this year. So since you never know what tomorrow will bring, I say, “Seize the day.” Do things that make you laugh. Find an adventure. And if you can’t go somewhere, find a lovely spot to read where you can escape in a book that allows you to get away, at least for a little while.
Here are some new titles that may do the trick—no sunscreen required. You’ll find a longer list here.
For PreK- Grade 2
Follow That Frog! by Philip C. Stead and Matthew Cordell (2021)
When a curiously croaking stranger comes knocking at the door, Aunt Josephine launches into a rambling tale about her lifelong pursuit of a rare giant frog. Full of rambunctious fun, you get adventure and laughs in the same story. Take a look at the first few pages using the Google Preview Link on the
TeachingBooks book page.
Strollercoaster by Matt Ringler, Elaine Bay, and Raúl the Third (2021)
Buckle up as a toddler's tantrum is cleverly averted when a loving dad transforms an everyday neighborhood stroll into an extraordinary adventure, reminding us that all you need to chase away a bad mood is love and a little bit of imagination.
Go behind the scenes with a peek at the publisher’s video interview.
Grades 1-5
The Best of Iggy by Annie Barrows and Sam Ricks (2020)
Meet Iggy Frangi. He's not a bad kid, he's really not. Okay, so he's done a few (a few is anything up to 100) bad things. And okay, he's not very sorry about most of them. People make a big deal about nothing. What's a little pancake here and there? Is that something to get mad about? Iggy doesn't think so. No one got hurt, so there's no problem. No one got hurt except for that one time, that one time when the Best Idea Ever turned into the Worst Idea of All Time.
Watch the book trailer in this new series for elementary-aged readers.
Sydney and Taylor Explore the Whole Wide World by Jacqueline Davies and Deborah Hocking (2021)
Sydney is a skunk and Taylor is a hedgehog, but no matter how odd the pairing may seem, their friendship comes naturally. They live happily in their cozy burrow . . . until the day Taylor gets his Big Idea to go see the Whole Wide World. With a map and a dream, they bravely set off, soon discovering that the world is much bigger than they realized.
Learn more about how characterization was important in the development of the story by listening to the Meet-the-Author Recording.
Grades 4-8
Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston (2021)
Amari Peters has never stopped believing her missing brother, Quinton, is alive. Not even when the police told her otherwise, or when she got in trouble for standing up to bullies who said he was gone for good.
So when she finds a ticking briefcase in his closet, containing a nomination for a summer tryout at the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs, she's certain the secretive organization holds the key to locating Quinton. Now she must compete for a spot against kids who've known about magic their whole lives. If she doesn’t win, she may never find out what happened to her brother.
Enjoy the many resources TeachingBooks has created and curated for this new series, starting with the book trailer. You’ll be hooked!
Golden Gate by James Ponti (2021)
After thwarting a notorious villain at an eco-summit in Paris, the City Spies are gearing up for their next mission. Fourteen-year-old Sydney is a surfer and a rebel from Bondi Beach, Australia. She's also a field ops specialist for the City Spies.
Sydney is excited to learn that she'll be going undercover on the marine research vessel the Sylvia Earle. But things don't go exactly as planned, and while Sydney does find herself in the spotlight, it's not in the way she was hoping.
Meanwhile, there's been some new intel regarding a potential mole within the organization, offering the spies a lead that takes them to San Francisco, California. But as they investigate a spy who died at the Botanical Gardens, they discover that they are also being investigated. And soon, they're caught up in an exciting adventure filled with rogue missions and double agents!
This mission is hot! The City Spies are a go!
Jump into the series with Book Two, or back up to City Spies (2020) for a spy adventure full of sleight of hand, breaking and entering, observation, and explosives. Listen to the audiobook excerpt and you’ll be hooked.
Grades 7-12
The Boys in the Back Row by Mike Jung (2020)
Best friends Matt and Eric are hatching a plan for one big final adventure together before Eric moves away: during the marching band competition at a Giant Amusement Park, they will sneak away to a nearby comics convention and meet their idol-a famous comic creator. Without cell phones. Or transportation. Or permission.
The Field Guide to the North American Teenager by Ben Philippe Norris Kaplan is clever, cynical, and quite possibly too smart for his own good. A Black French Canadian, he knows from watching American sitcoms that those three things don't bode well when you are moving to Austin, Texas.
Plunked into a new high school and sweating a ridiculous amount from the oppressive Texas heat, Norris finds himself cataloging everyone he meets: the Cheerleaders, the Jocks, the Loners, and even the Manic Pixie Dream Girl. Making a ton of friends has never been a priority for him, and this way he can at least amuse himself until it's time to go back to Canada, where he belongs.
Before he loses everything, is it time to stop hiding behind his snarky opinions and start living his life?
Meet Norris in the book trailer and learn more about the inspiration for this Morris Award debut novel in the Meet-the-Author Recording.
You’ll find more laughs and adventures in this booklist. What about you? What laughs and adventures are you reading about?
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