#easyreaders

If You Love Cooking You Could Be... (Ready To Read Level 2) by Elizabeth Dennis, Illustrated by Natalie Kwee. Simon Spotlight, 2019. 9781534454545.  32pp.

If You Love Dolphins You Could Be... (Ready To Read Level 2) by May Nakamura, Illustrated by Natalie Kwee. Simon Spotlight, 2019. 9781534444690. 32pp.

If You Love Video Games You Could Be... (Ready To Read Level 2) by Thea Feldman, Illustrated by Natalie Kwee. Simon Spotlight, 2019. 9781534443990. 32pp.

If You Love Fashion You Could Be.... (Ready To Read Level 2)  by May Nakamura, Illustrated by Natalie Kwee. Simon Spotlight, 2019. 9781534448773. 32pp.

Each of these easy readers goes into a bit of detail about three careers, and has a list of more cool jobs at the back. The stars of each are Kwee's happy, simple drawings. Everyone is smiling, and it feels like every little thing she draws is, too.

The book full of dolphin love is probably my favorite of the four -- it has a subtle, pro-environmental message as it contains details about being an aquatic veterinarian, marine biologist, and underwater filmmaker. (The other careers mentioned briefly at the end are oceanographer, aquarium curator, underwater archaeologist, environmental lawyer, and environmental social scientist.)

In 2020, it's hard to argue that it's ever too early for kids to start thinking about a career and a couple of fallbacks.  

Kiwi Cannot Reach (Ready to Read Level One) by Jason Tharp. Simon Spotlight, 2019. 9781534425125. http://www.powells.com/book/-9781534425125?partnerid=34778&p_bt

Kiwi can't reach a rope above its head, so it enlists the help of the reader to shake the book and push buttons and do other stuff to help it. The best thing about this early reader is that it's a very short and simple (and wonderfully drawn) comic book in disguise. (In fact most of the books in this review are.)

Barry's Best Buddy (Easy-To-Read Comics Level One) by Renée French. TOON Books, 2012. 9781935179214. http://www.powells.com/book/-9781935179214?partnerid=34778&p_bt

This is about a small bird named Barry. His friend Polarhog wakes him up because he has a surprise. He buys Barry a hat (but Barry doesn't like hats). He buys Barry an ice cream (Barry doesn't like ice cream, either). (The ants at the bottom of the pages offer a clue to Polarhog's final surprise, which Barry does like.)

My family loved French's Tinka, about a tiny sheep. They'll love Barry, too.

Mr. Monkey Bakes a Cake by Jeff Mack. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2018. 9781534404311. http://www.powells.com/book/-9781534404311?partnerid=34778&p_bt

Mr. Monkey puts a lot of bananas into his cake and his stomach. Since he's not hungry for the cake, he decides to enter it in a show. Now he's got to get it there. A lot of things make that difficult, including weird vehicles, ravenous birds, and a hungry but ultimately friendly gorilla. My favorite two-page spread has a lot of those birds on it. Have a look at it, it's spectacular.

Knight Owls (Ready to Read Level One) by Eric Seltzer, illustrated by Tom Disbury. Simon Spotlight, 2019. 9781534448810. http://www.powells.com/book/-9781534448810?partnerid=34778&p_bt

I’ve been a bad blogger lately.

I started RaiseThemRighteousbecause I wanted my work about LGBTQ* #kidlit to reach an audience beyond academics. And, it has! I’ve only been blogging for a little over 3-months and I already have 800+ followers on WordPress and 750+ followers on Twitter. I love it! Because I’ve had such an amazing experience blogging and only recently started to blog, I feel bad…

Book Recommendations for Emergent Readers

Do you have a young child in your life that is just starting to ‘get’ reading? Emergent readers are those that have developed an understanding of the alphabet, phonological awareness, and early phonics. They have command of a significant number of high-frequency words, reads in a left-to-right and top-to-bottom progression, may tell the story from memory, may invent text, and are developing a…