LIS 721 Books to Inspire Childlike Wonder

Marshall III, J. (2015). In the footsteps of Crazy Horse. (J. Yellowhawk, Illus.) Amulet Books. This book is a historical fiction novel retelling the legends of the famed Native American warrior Crazy Horse that uses a parallel plot structure with the overarching plot of a boy taking a road trip with his grandfather to learn the history and find a solution to his bullying problem. This plot structure provides context for the stories told and gives this history a modern breath of life to keep readers invested and make the story relevant to their lives even though it happened generations ago. By connecting Crazy Horse’s stories to the life of the protagonist, the relationship between past and present are clear to the reader helping them understand the importance of learning about this history. An integral part of this story is the setting. Throughout the road trip, the boy and his grandfather hit different geographic locations which are the real settings of the historical stories being...

Tan, S. (2017). Cilla Lee-Jenkins: future author extraordinaire (D. Wulfekotte, Illus.) Square Fish. This is the story of a girl who is against the idea of sibling coming into the world because she is afraid to share her life.  Written in first person, the book is meant to take the form of a journal that the protagonist is writing to make into a bestselling novel believing that is the best way for her to stay important and remembered after her baby sister is born. This is immediately established by a letter from the author (Cilla) to the reader which opens the book to inform the reader of what to expect and why the book was written. Because it is written this way, the tone is very conversational and light, for the most part. There are moments where Cilla learns a lesson or experiences an issue which can lead to a more somber tone, but it always returns to a lighter tone. It also always stays in the realm of what is easily understandable to young readers, sometimes branching off wit...

Holm, J. & Holm, M (2005). Babymouse: queen of the world. (J. Holm & M. Holm, Illus.) Random House         Babymouse: Queen of the World is an introductory graphic novel to a series about a young mouse with lofty dreams and a strong imagination. The series includes many titles, but each is a standalone story, so you don’t need the entire series to understand the plot of one of the books. In this particular story, we get to learn a bit about who Babymouse is and how she goes about living her life. We are provided with a character breakdown page right at the beginning of the book so as not to slow down the story with introductions to the world and characters. The story takes on a plot that many children will be able to relate to: wanting to be invited to a popular kid’s event and discovering who your true friends are. This plot is similar to many others in children’s media, so a child should be able to understand it and learn the life lesson it is trying to tea...

Kibuihi, K. (2008). The amulet: the stonekeeper. (K. Kibuishi, Illus.) Graphix.       The Stonekeeper is the first book in The Amulet series, a magical fantasy series that revolves around family. From learning about ancestors to rescuing family members, the theme of family stays at the forefront of the story with a number of relationships the reader can relate to. This allows the story to stay grounded even with the crazy fantastical elements that are constantly present. To assist in portraying the unique qualities of the created world, the color scheme is unorthodox but pleasant rather than distracting. A mix of warm and cool colors like blues, purples, oranges, and browns fills each page. The illustrations also help keep up the forward momentum; there are many panels drawn with action lines which lets the readers eyes glide across the page with ease, making this a quick and fun read. Though it begins pretty somberly with a car crash resulting in the death of the fathe...

Craft, J. (2019). New kid. (J. Craft, Illus.) Quill Tree Books. New Kid follows the story of a twelve-year-old Black boy, Jordan, who starts to attend a new mostly white private school in graphic novel format. Each illustration is full of color bringing to life the wide range of characters and the many New York settings. In a full page spread split into three panels describing the crowd of students arriving to school as zombies, the street setting as a background shines through with rows of unique bodegas that could actually exist on a New York City street. Alongside the typical comic panels, this book also features sketched illustrations that are meant to represent the sketches that Jordan draws in his journal throughout the story. These spreads are black and white and look to be drawn with pen or pencil to look as close to a journal sketch as possible. The only bits of color on these spreads are items that are on the border of each image to really enhance the perspective the reader i...

James, L. (2017). Safari pug: the dog who walked on the wild side. (E. Ceulemans, Illus.) Bloomsbury Children's Books. This book can be categorized as something between a Level Three book and a Transitional Level book though it leans closer to the Transitional Level. The book includes chapters that span up to fifteen pages and tell their own short stories with simple plots like understanding a nightmare and getting tickets for the safari. Each problem introduced is resolved by the end of the chapter, but they still leave a lingering idea to encourage children to read on to the next chapter. The illustrations are not completely black and white but are also not full color either. They are a unique mix of this being mainly grayscale with the inclusion of yellow and green to give the images a little more life and math the safari theme. The typeface is large and there are a few spreads with only text or very minimal pictures. One spread is three quarters filled with text with a simple i...

Hale, D. and Hale, S. (2014). The princess in black. (L. Pham, Illus.) Candlewick Press. The Princess in Black is between a Level Three and Transitional. Most of the characteristics match Level Three but I would mark it as in-between because the content feels slightly more advanced and the book includes chapters. The words and their structure are what would mark it at Level Three with no more than eight words per line and fifteen lines per page. Pages with only text only take up about twenty percent of the book, but there is never a full spread without illustrations. These illustrations are often decorative, never really necessary but more used to break up the text into smaller looking parts. Most of the illustrations are smaller and placed in the middle of a page of text describing a reaction or action. They are more placed to bring the story to life rather than help define the text which is what brings the book up to a Level Three. This book also gets more advanced by including cha...