This week on What We're Reading, Grand Rapids Area Library children's librarian Tracy Kampa shared two new picture books on tough topics for kids and a couple of new middle-grade books.
Kampa said that while we often read picture books for the joy they bring us, they can also be the "most efficient teaching tool" we have. Here are two new picture books to help introduce children to tough topics:
- Finding Papa, by Angela Pham Krans, ill. by Thi Bui, and
- Hidden Hope: How a Toy and a Hero Saved Lives During the Holocaust, by Elisa Boxer, ill. by Amy June Bates.
"It is the best thing I've read this year. Don't miss it."Tracy Kampa, on the new book Simon Sort of Says, by Erin Bow
Kampa also introduces us to two new middle-grade books:
- Not an Easy Win, by Chrystal D. Giles, and
- Simon Sort of Says, by Erin Bow.
Erin Bow's Simon Sort of Says is of particular note. It is the story of 12-year-old Simon, whose family moves to a National Quiet Zone after he is the only kid in his class who survived a school shooting.
"This book is about life and how we survive," Kampa said. "This book is about life and how we heal. It is the best thing I've read this year. Don't miss it."
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What We're Reading is made possible in part by the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.