Riot New Media

This sweet picture book follows in the vein of one of my favorite other books Grumpy Monkey. Though this isn’t as comedic in its approach, it illustrates the complexity of kids’ emotions and the need to allow the space to work through them. Take Jenny Mei, who’s sad but laughs and jokes through her sadness until she starts to cry, and her friend accompanies her through it all to let her know she’s there for her.

This sweet picture book puts a delightful spin on ballet stories as Zuri opts to try out ballet alongside her friend Jessie (because it’s Jessie’s turn to pick their activity). While Jessie clearly loves ballet (and is good at it too!), Zuri doesn’t like it all (and isn’t very good at it) and wants to quit. But she sticks with it. Long enough to realize that she still just doesn’t like it and is more at home with soccer. But Zuri and Jessie realize that, even though they don’t share hobbies, there’s still a lot to enjoy about spending time together.

I think it’s because it’s summer, but I’ve had this big desire to watch some shark movies. Unfortunately lots of them aren’t that good (and Jaws is apparently not available on of any of the streaming services I pay for). But have no fear because despite the hatchet job the movie did on sharks (sorry, sharks!), there’s still much interest and much to learn about the sea-faring predators (did you know that groups of them are called a shiver of sharks?), and young readers can start with this informational picture book, packed with realistic drawings of all kinds of sharks from the infamous great whites to hammerheads to ones that glow in the dark.

This new book from prolific children’s author and illustrator Vanessa Brantley-Newton is a new-to-school story about Vanessa, who doesn’t think making friends at school is going to be as easy as her parents promise. Her anxieties are realized when her special first day outfit doesn’t go over well with her classmates, and even her name spells trouble, leading Vanessa to try to dull her shine the next day. But with some encouragement from her parents, Vanessa finds the courage to be herself.

This companion novel to A Midsummer’s Mayhem is a fun spin on the Shakespeare story. Trish is once again new in town and has to try out for a new baseball team. Ben is a teammate and math whiz Trish beat in an academic competition. When the team’s snacks start mysteriously making everyone play better (magical effects included), Trish and Ben put their heads together to find the answer to cryptic puzzles arriving in the mail.

This historical graphic novel dips into a 19th century logging camp, where Mei, a Chinese American girl, entertains workers with stories of Auntie Po, a giant guardian who protects them. Meanwhile in the outside world, anti-Chinese rhetoric (including the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act) makes life difficult for Mei and her family at the logging camp.