Fort Worth ISD News

Books for elementary students are both fun, and teaching kids life lessons, according to Meadowbrook Elementary School Librarian Kelly Fox. In the upcoming months, the next installments in several series her students enjoy will be here. Reading a series helps encourage young readers to keep picking up a new book, because they want to check in with characters they love.

Here are some of her recommendations for elementary school students, both series and standalone novels.

1. The Food Group series by Jory John and illustrated by Pete Oswald. Each picture book is a play on words with a food group, such as “The Bad Seed” or “The Smart Cookie.” Every book teaches a lesson to kids about self esteem or how to treat others. In “The Bad Seed,” the main character starts off as a “bad” kid, but he starts to realize that just because he’s done some bad things, doesn’t mean he’s a bad seed and he can change his ways. The next installment in the series, “The Humble Pie” will be released on November 4, just in time for Thanksgiving!
    
2. Three series that are getting a new book this fall that her students love are Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Dog Man, and Wings of Fire. “Partypooper” will be book 20 of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, which students really relate to because the main character is their age and the books actually look like a diary. Dog Man is a graphic novel series, making it fun and accessible for struggling readers. More advanced elementary readers enjoy the Wings of Fire series about dragons.
    
3. Every year, a committee of librarians around Texas select books for a Texas Bluebonnet Award book list, which Kelly Fox pulls recommendations for the library from. One of those recommendations is “Dogtown” by Katherine Applegate. The book is about a dog sanctuary for dogs that have been left, some are real dogs and some are robot dogs. Telling stories through animals is a great way to reach kids, she said. 
    
4. “Magnolia Wu Unfolds it All” by Chanel Miller is about a young girl whose parents own a laundromat and she goes on a mission to return missing socks to her neighbors. During her quest, she learns there’s more going on under the surface. Over the course of her investigations, she learns about the people in her neighborhood and more about her family.
    
5. “I am John Lewis” by Brad Meltzer is part of the Ordinary People Change the World series of books. The series of biographies of people making an impact in history are written and illustrated in a way that kids find cool and engaging.