Summer Fiction and Fantasy or Beach Reading for Kids

Who Wants to Be a Princess? By Bridget Heos, Illustrated by Migy

 

A fictional princess from the middle ages shows and tells the differences between fairy tale princesses like Cinderella and Snow White and a real medieval princess. Some of the dialogue is tongue in cheek, like when she describes the mess made in the dining hall by the bones, grease and crumbs that fall on the floor and are not cleaned up. “Rats are everywhere. We’d prefer they leave, but what can we do? (Other than tidy up, I mean.)” Each two page spread shows what it’s like in modern fairy tales for princesses and contrasts that with how a princess in the middle ages actually lived. Colorful, entertaining and informative.

Princessland by Emily Jenkins, Pictures by Yoko Tanaka

 

This is a perfect companion book for Who Wants to Be a Princess? (See above) Romy wants to visit princessland and as she describes what it is like in Princessland, her Lady Cat goes along with her turning her imagination into reality. Only Romy’s idea of what it is like in Princessland is just like the fantasy that is debunked by Heos! Read them together to discuss the similarities and differences or read this one alone for a little bit of pure fantasy time!

Princess Tales Around the World Adapted by Grace Maccarone, Illustrated by Gail de Marcken

 

Maccarone has taken ten stories of princesses from various places in the world and retold them in rhyme. de Marcken adds to the charm with colorful, intricate illustrations retelling each story again with art. On each page, there is a list of objects to find that may or may not be important to the story. Adults and children alike will be enchanted with these stories that originate in Persia, India China, England and other parts of Europe. This book is worth it just for the illustrations!

DC Super Friends: Girl Power

 

 A simple book to advertise the women in DC Comics may help to counteract all the princess books!

Go Big or Go Gnome by Kirsten Mayer, illustrated by Laura K. Horton

 

The pun in the title gives a premonition about how this story will progress: it begins with a silly premise and gets sillier as the story progresses. But, Mayer and Horton make a great team and the silliness is fun the gnomes are all so nice to one another, it makes me want to live in gnome-land. Poor Al does not have a beard like all the other gnomes, and wants to participate in the B. I. G.: Beards International Gnome-athon. Read to find out how he gets to not only participate, but win a trophy. For once, I was not concerned that all the characters were male!

Two from the Adventures in Cartooning

Hocus Focus by James Sturm, Andrew Arnold and Alexis Frederick-Frost

 

Ogres Awake! By James Sturm, Andrew Arnold and Alexis Frederick-Frost

 

The continuing saga of the Little Knight and Edward his horse. In Hocus Focus, the Little Knight cannot wait to learn magic and messes up a potion, turning Edward into a monster worm. In Ogres Awake! Little Knight is excited and scared about the ogres sleeping on the castle lawn. Every step of the way, he misinterprets the reason for the making of potato stew. In reality, the King and his minions have decided to feed the ogres when they awake to prevent damage to the kingdom. Each story is told with cartoon panels moving the story forward and the end papers give drawing lessons for drawing Little Knight, Edward and other characters from the stories.

The Cow Said “Meow” by John Himmelman

 

Using cartoonish drawings and a few simple words in word balloons, Himmelman tells a story with humor and irony. This would be a perfect picture book to use when teaching inference! And the teacher could ask: what were the animals thinking? Loveit!

Mac and Cheese by James Proimos

 

This falls under the category of: What? You published a book about what? Here goes: Mac and Cheese are characters who meet others throughout their day like P. B and Jay, and Oil and Water. They go through a day having an inane conversation about a myriad of things; in fact, they sound like two grade schoolers jumping from topic to topic. You may love this book and it’s mindless chatter, or you may feel like I did: What?

Ned the Knitting Pirate by Diana Murray, illustrated by Leslie Lammle

 

No two ways about it, Ned likes to knit and the captain hates a knitting pirate. Murray uses rhyme to tell this story that includes a captain with a wooden leg and a hook, tough as grit pirates, a Rusty Heap for a boat, and a sea monster that “cannonballs bounced off his sides as if his skin was Jell-O.” In other words: all the ingredients for a story about pirates, including the ubiquitous, “Yarrrrh!”

A Unicorn Named Sparkle by Amy Young

 

A mail order unicorn for 25 cents? A fantasy of a unicorn is contrasted with the mail order animal that looks and acts like a goat! Lucy is expecting one thing and gets another. While she initially wants to send back the ornery unicorn, she eventually sees that the unicorn she got is the one that is perfect for her. Is this a metaphor for life?