Graphic novels are one of my favorite type of books because it combines art and text to bring the story alive. Here are my favorite graphic novels for your middle grade reader. 

All's Faire in Middle School 

By Victoria Jamieson

Imogene (Impy) is raised by parents working the Renaissance Faire. She loves all that goes into a fair and can't wait to begin her own training. Impy's quest is to attend public school after being homeschooled her whole life. But public school is not as adventurous as she hoped and there are a ton of rules to follow. Will Impy complete her quest and become a brave knight? Watch the book trailer here. 

Guts

By Raina Telgemeier

It all starts with a stomach ache. Once her family gets over a bug, Raina realizes her stomach pain is not going away. Raina worries about a lot of things - school, friends, siblings, food and most importantly, if someone is going to puke around her. This is the author's true story about dealing with her food and...

Welcome to 2020! Some of you are (or already have) created resolutions and goals for the upcoming year. On the other hand, some of you may not be the New Year resolution type but believe progress and self-growth happen no matter the time of year.

In either case, are you including your kids in creating and setting goals for themselves? If you are, I applaud you, as goal setting is a powerful thing. It can literally alter our brains. This article from INC Magazine by Geoffrey James, explains beautifully the benefits of goal setting, with the scientific research to back up this amazing phenomenon. James says, “if you strongly desire a goal, your brain will perceive obstacles as less significant than they might otherwise appear”.  Our brains are chemically changing based on what we focus on. This is a huge benefit to teaching your child to goal set.  You child is growing, learning, and reprogramming new thoughts and belief systems every day. By goal...

When you were growing up you probably had someone around who taught you the colors of the rainbow, how to tie your shoes so they won’t slip off or sang the ABC song to help you remember the alphabet. Now that you either have your own kids or, like me, borrow your friend’s kids to enjoy and lovingly give them back, you try to teach them the basics, as well as values like sharing and being polite.  

We teach children by explaining, showing and doing. We give concrete items a label. This is a CRAYON. That is a DOG. This CHAIR is BLUE. 

We attach labels to everything; we even begin to attach labels to humans. You are FUNNY. She is MEAN. He is such a LOSER. Those type of statements start to show up early in life and we just keep sticking these labels to each other (and sometimes even ourselves). It becomes a problem when we believe that a label is...