Best Reads of T3 2023-2024

From all of my reading during third trimester, these are the books I liked the best. All images and summaries from Goodreads.

 

Beginning Readers

Fox has a problem: his kite is stuck in a tree! But every clever plan creates even more problems for him - and for all his friends. Can they work together to fix things before it's too late?

Carefully crafted using basic language, word repetition, sight words, and whimsical illustrations, Fox has a Problem is ideal for sharing with your emergent reader. 

Graphic Novels

A kid with a creative streak, Dale Donovan wants nothing more than to doodle, play video games, and create comics forever—maybe even as a full-time job one day. But between his grandfather pushing him to focus on his studies and a school with zero interest in funding arts programs, Dale feels like his future has already been decided for him. 

 

That is, until he comes up with the perfect plan:What if he starts an after-school art club, gathers a team of creative students like himself, and proves all the naysayers—his stubborn vice principal in particular—wrong? (RICBA 2025 Nominee)

Chapter Books

When a new kid comes to stay with his grandmother at the house next door, Shermy’s plans for a quiet, relaxing summer are completely upended. That’s because Shake is nothing like Shermy. And Shermy is nothing like Shake.

Shermy likes to read quietly in the shade of a tree. He knows the proper way to do a puzzle. He collects treasures in the pouch he wears around his neck, and the books on his shelves are alphabetized by author. Shake likes to play street hockey or space explorers. He gobbles up rocket ice pops and Toaster Tarts. He shows up unannounced and plays board games by his own rules. 

As the two boys are forced to spend more and more time together, will they learn how to get along? Or will it be one long countdown until Shake goes home?  (RICBA 2025 Nominee)

Laura Rodríguez Colón has a plan: no matter what the grown-ups say, she will live with her parents again. Can you blame her? It’s tough to make friends as the new kid at school. And while staying at her aunt’s house is okay, it just isn’t the same as being in her own space.

So when Laura finds a puppy, it seems like fate. If she can train the puppy to become a therapy dog, then maybe she’ll be allowed to visit her parents. Maybe the dog will help them get better and things will finally go back to the way they should be.

After all, how do you explain to others that you’re technically a foster kid, even though you live with your aunt? And most importantly . . . how do you explain that you’re not where you belong, and you just want to go home? (RICBA 2025 Nominee)

Nonfiction

As a boy, David loved exploring the wild places near his home in England, collecting fossils, rocks, and newts. When he grew older, he got a job in television, where he had an idea for a new kind of show. He would travel to wild places all over the world to film animals in their natural habitats. Over the span of seven decades, David's innovative documentaries have been treasured by millions of people.

But as time went on, he noticed the wild places he loved were shrinking. What could David do to help? What could we all do? (Will be on my Mock Sibert 2025 list)

For many animals, life is a constant battle to stay off a predator’s menu. So they’ve had to come up with lots of cunning ways to avoid being eaten.

From camouflage and color-changing, natural armor, playing dead, great escapes, detachable body parts, and impressive ways of fighting back, the range of survival tactics in the natural world is quite astonishing (and sometimes pretty disgusting).

How Not To Get Eaten is a fun introduction to the ingenious antipredator strategies in the natural world. (RICBA 2025 Nominee)

Who’s tops in the animal world? Readers get to find out, as they play a guessing game that uses delightful persona poems to introduce 19 animals who are the best in some way. Each poem offers hints about the identity of an animal and what makes it so amazing. Included are popular categories, such as Biggest Animal Ever (blue whale) and Fastest Short-Distance Runner (cheetah), as well as more unexpected ones, such as Best Engineer (North American beaver) and Longest Tongue (giant anteater). Poems full of personality combined with intriguing science - what a lively and fun way to learn!  (RICBA 2025 Nominee)

Encouraged by her mother, she graduated at the top of her high school and college classes, and studied electrical engineering in graduate school. An accomplished engineer by age 30, with three patents to her name, she kept learning and trying new things. 

When NASA began accepting women and people of color to the astronaut program, Ellen found herself drawn to this exciting and demanding career. On her first mission, she was the only woman aboard the shuttle Discovery and the first Latina to reach outer space. After four space flights, she became the first Latina director of the Johnson Space Center and has received numerous distinctions and awards. (RICBA 2025 Nominee)