The novel The Road To After by Rebekah Lowell written in verse with beautiful illustrations will surely be a wonderful hit among middle-grade readers. Lacey and her sister and mother have long been kept captive by her father without realizing it, and now that her grandparents are here to set them free from his grip, Lacey now has the opportunity to explore outside with nature and maybe even make some friends. The wonderful descriptive language found in this novel, and the pictures alongside that are truly a marvel. It is a powerful story that will touch the emotions of readers. Review was written by a WMS Middle School student.

Kelly Yang crafted an excellent book with an easy to follow prose that teaches people about Asian American history and the people who have had a role in building a better future for us all. Each page is illustrated by a different Asian American and shows a point in history where Asian Americans were fundamental in the changemaking that happened there. The text and illustrations are also accompanied by a one line biography of the person or historical moment you see on the page.

The illustrations in this book are beautiful. They are dynamic and vibrant and full of emotion and motion. Get the book just to look at the illustrations!

At the end of the book, you will find an extended biography of all the people and moments depicted throughout the book.

This book is a must have for your school library!

That’s Not My Name is written by Anoosha Syed and is a picture book that covers a familiar scenario for many students with cultural names. In this lovely book Mirha starts her first day of school and when she shares her name with her new classmates, she finds out none of them can say it right. The illustrations add to her dismay with all the speech bubbles of kids calling her any number of variations of her name, none of them correct. Even teachers say her name wrong. Mirha goes through many emotions about people saying her name incorrectly and what she should do about it. Should she change her name to something no one could get wrong? At the end of the day, Mama saves the day reminding Mirha about the beauty behind her name and the strength she has behind her to make sure classmates and teachers say it correctly.

Many kids go through this exact same experience and because of that – this book is important!

I highly recommend this beautiful book and think it belongs in every school.

The illustrations, by Grant Snider, are one of my favorite things about this picture book. I love the torn paper and colored pencil drawings of the iceberg and airplanes and snow falling on the ocean.

The story is wonderful as well. Blue is an iceberg that breaks off from his parents and begins to float away from them. You can see the apprehension and nerves on his face as he unwillingly leaves them. But, soon he floats and meets friends and enjoys seeing the sights. He travels far from his home and the water becomes warmer. He is melting into the ocean – he becomes the ocean! His friends were a bit frightened when he disappeared, but then he transformed into a cloud and got to see new things from this new perspective.

This is a great story about the water cycle without throwing the water cycle in your face. I would way rather read this, than many others out there!

I highly recommend putting this book in your classroom library or school library! A must have for teaching the water cycle and there are some great art projects you could do alongside it.

While this book feels different than Jacqueline Woodson’s other picture books, I love the prose with which she writes. This story is about friendship, community and summer. Every kid can relate to the excitement of getting out of school for summer and all the plans they have. Set in Brooklyn, the vibrant illustrations, by Leo Espinosa, add to the energy of the words with smiles, movement and color.

Students run down the steps of their school building into the Brooklyn streets to begin their summer vacation. They play in fire hydrants, let their curls go natural, play street games like hopscotch and jump rope, told stories that had each person enthralled to the last moment, and joined together to lift each other up and bring everyone along for the ride…that is, until. the grownups call everyone home.

This is a relatable story for kids about the joy of summer – it would be a great addition to any library, but especially in urban schools where their experiences may be similar to those in the book.

This is a fantastic book about kids bringing lunch to school that are traditional to their home culture. Each kid who is highlighted is subjected to another student saying their lunch doesn’t look good or doesn’t smell good – and ultimately they decide to switch to a boring sandwich instead. After a few days of only sandwiches, the traditional home lunches start to come back, and smiles start to return on the faces of kids.

I love the illustrations, by Jing Li, of the food, the home kitchens, and the shopping markets. What a great window into some lives!

Words are powerful and this book is a great example of that. It uses real life experiences of four professional chefs who used to bring traditional home lunches to school and who were each in turn told it looked “ewww.”

A must have for any school library! My fourth graders give it a double thumbs up!

By Lauren Wolk

This story, My Own Lightning by Lauren Wolk, the sequel to a dashing book will pull you straight into the world it tells of and changes the way you perceive your own. Following the events of Wolf Hollow, My Own Lightning brings about summer to the story once more; with a tremendous storm to come with it. The story following the storm tells of growing up and finding ways to cope with change or to be the change. The figurative language and fantastical imagery leave your mind spinning with beautiful pictures created by the brilliant words in My Own Lightning A brilliant historical fiction gives you not only an intriguing image of the past but deep and wonderful characters to pull you into the words with them. If the intriguing image of the past is created by this historical fiction, the thorough figurative language will strike even the most reluctant readers as simply beautiful!

Reviewed by a WMS student

In this book written by Margriet Ruurs and illustrated by Wenjia Tang, you travel around the world to see how and where kids live. The book begins with a quick introduction to maps, going over a Compass Rose, Legend, and Scale Bar. After this, each page introduces a friend, their real neighborhood, describes their community, and gives you a word or two in their language.

This is a great book to introduce maps to your class. It has beautiful illustrations incorporating the maps with animals and the friends who live there.

I can see this book being used for social studies, introducing mapmaking, and when talking about community – it is a beautiful addition to your library.

Fly by Alison Hughes is a novel in verse that is sure to leave a mark. Felix Landon Yarrow or more commonly known as FLY sits in a wheelchair at the age of 14. Although this makes life harder FLY sets out to save his crush from a drug-dealing boy named Carter. When his original plan falls apart he realizes it’s time to rock the boat. The creative format of the verses generates an interesting, more inventive way of understanding the words on the page. This book would appeal to fiction and YA readers. The representation of FLY’s feelings as a teenager is both relatable and comforting. Even for readers who aren’t attracted to young adult fiction, the adventure in verse will pull them in. (Reviewed by a WMS student)