Parts is a book about a kid who thinks his body is falling apart.
There are also two sequels: “More Parts” and “Even More Parts”
The book is written in rhyme:
“I stared at it, amazed, and wondered,
What’s this all about?
But then I understood. It was
My stuffing coming out!
And has whimsical, cartoon-ish full-page illustrations.
Who is it for
Kids from 4 to 8 are the core group, but younger kids might enjoy it. There is a bit of gross-out humor (boogers and ear wax) so kids of the age to enjoy that are the right age.
What Kids Like
The book is funny. The character gets increasingly anxious as he thinks he’s discovering evidence that his body is falling apart. The pictures are fun in their detail.
Part of the pleasure is having an anxious kid finally realize that there’s not really a problem after all
I’m not sure what the magic ingredient is for this book, but it’s one of the few that gets pulled off the shelf at bedtime every few months. The kids remember it, even after months have passed, which is much more than can be said of most of their books.
What Parents Like
There is just a hint of education in the book, with simplified explanations of the relationship between skin and bones and teeth and guts. It’s not much, but it’s enough to spark curiosity about anatomy and lead to conversations about it.
Most of these are so-called Japanese-style paper-and-pencil logic puzzles that you see in many newspapers.
Who is it for
Anyone who likes puzzles will like the site. Kids need to be old enough to think abstractly so I would say 7+ for some of the easier variants of the simpler types of puzzles.
What Kids Like
Puzzles are fun, and kids like mini-challenges that don’t take much time but make them feel smart.
Web Words is fun. The New York Times has a similar (and slicker) version of this, called Spelling Bee.
The site also has various brain teasers, optical illusions, and word puzzles.
The site also saves your progress, if you want, without requiring an account.
What Parents Like
It’s free! And there is a huge amount of content. You could spend hours every single day on the site since it’s updated daily. I have to assume the creator has a program that generates all the puzzles automatically.
Logic puzzles are a great way of exercising the brain and I’m happy to let my kids spend as much time as they like on it.
Many sites have logic puzzles on them, but require you to print them out. Brain Bashers let you play right on the screen
Concerns/Flaws
The interface has not changed all that much since it was started and it now seems a bit clunky, and not quite as mobile-friendly as other sites. This site really ought to be an app at this point.
Who Made it / History
The site began as Puzzles4U way back in 1997 by Kevin Stone
From graphic novel superstar Gene Luen Yang comes Secret Coders, a wildly entertaining new series that combines logic puzzles and basic coding instruction with a page-turning mystery plot! Follow Hopper and her friend Eni as they use their wits and their growing prowess with coding to solve the many mysteries of Stately Academy.
What is it
Secret Coders is a series (6 as of October 2018, and I think they are done) of graphic novels where kids have to fight bad guys using programming concepts.
This may sound dry, but the writing and drawing is compelling and the education value is high, but never at the expense of storytelling.
Who is it for
This is for kids who can understand abstract thinking. 7 may be too young, depending on the kid, 8 and up is probably right. A kid who has shown an interest in chess or writing code, is probably old enough and a good match.
What Kids Like
The kids like the fun, funny, exciting storytelling. The content is easily digestible and the experience of reading the books is similar to watching a cartoon on TV.
What Parents Like
I like that the educational aspect is deeper than many other STEM-focused books. These books cover topics such as binary trees, if/else statements, variables and other essential computer science concepts. But again, not in a way that takes away from the pleasure of reading.
The books are a great introduction to computer science, and there are really very few of those. Most CS intros for kids just start with a bunch of code without that initial hand-holding and explanation that many kids need, especially with such an abstract subject.
In Secret Coders, Hooper, Eni, and Josh learn Logo, an ancient and nearly-forgotten programming language! You can learn Logo, too, by downloading and installing UCBLogo! UCBLogo is a Logo interpreter — a piece of software that allows your computer to understand the Logo language. You can download it for free here.
The illustrations are black-and-white (or really, black-and-white-and-green) and it’s possible that some kids, who are used to saturated colors in all their media, will be turned off by this. But that is a minor concern.
Gene Luen Yang writes, and sometimes draws, comic books and graphic novels. As the Library of Congress’ fifth National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, he advocates for the importance of reading, especially reading diversely. American Born Chinese, his first graphic novel from First Second Books, was a National Book Award finalist, as well as the winner of the Printz Award and an Eisner Award. His two-volume graphic novel Boxers & Saints won the L.A. Times Book Prize and was a National Book Award Finalist. His other works include Secret Coders (with Mike Holmes), The Shadow Hero (with Sonny Liew), New Super-Man from DC Comics (with various artists), and the Avatar: The Last Airbender series from Dark Horse Comics (with Gurihiru). In 2016, he was named a MacArthur Foundation Fellow. National Book Awards Finalist
Mike Holmes has drawn for the comics series Secret Coders, Bravest Warriors, Adventure Time, and the viral art project Mikenesses. His books include the True Story collection (2011), This American Drive (2009), and Shenanigans. He lives with a cat named Ella, who is his best buddy.
The first book came out in 2015 and the others were published about every 6 months after that.
Secret Coders (Volume 1)
Gene Luen Yang is the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature and is a MacArthur Fellow, a recipient of what’s popularly known as the MacArthur “Genius” Grant. Welcome to Stately Academy, a school which is just crawling with mysteries to be solved! The founder of the school left many clues and puzzles to challenge his enterprising students. Using their wits and their growing prowess with coding, Hopper and her friend Eni are going to solve the mystery of Stately Academy no matter what it takes! From graphic novel superstar (and high school computer programming teacher) Gene Luen Yang comes a wildly entertaining new series that combines logic puzzles and basic programming instruction with a page-turning mystery plot!
Secret Coders 2: Paths & Portals
Hopper and Eni are back in the second volume of the exciting new computer-programming series by New York Times-bestselling author Gene Luen Yang.
Secret Coders 3: Secrets & Sequences
The coders are back in the third volume of the exciting new computer-programming series by New York Times–bestselling author Gene Luen Yang.
Secret Coders 4: Robots & Repeats
Dr. One-Zero has added a new class to Stately Academy’s curriculum. But in “Advanced Chemistry,” they only teach one lesson: how to make Green Pop! While their classmates are manufacturing this dangerous soda, the Coders uncover a clue that may lead them to Hopper’s missing dad. Is it time to use Professor Bee’s most powerful weapon: the Turtle of Light?
Secret Coders 5: Potions & Parameters
Dr. One-Zero won’t stop until the whole town—no, the whole world—embraces the “true happiness” found in his poisonous potion, Green Pop. And now that he has the Turtle of Light, he’s virtually unstoppable. There’s one weapon that can defeat him: another Turtle of Light. Unfortunately, they can only be found in another dimension! To open a portal to this new world, Hopper, Eni, and Josh’s coding skills will be put to the test.
Secret Coders 6: Monsters & Modules
The Coders always knew their programming skills would take them far, but they never guessed they would take them to another dimension! Or to be accurate, one dimension less—to save humanity, Hopper, Eni, and Josh must travel to Flatland, a dangerous two-dimensional world ruled by polygons. If they can return home safely with a turtle of light, they might just stand a chance in their final showdown with Dr. One-Zero!
Dr. Seuss wrote more than 60 books, many of them selling 10 million or copies or more over the past several decades. While “On Beyond Zebra!” has never been as popular as “The Cat in the Hat” or “Green Eggs and Ham”, it is one of his better ones, in my opinion.
I don’t actually recall how we got this added to our collection, but it was probably a gift. And of all the Dr. Seuss books on our shelf, this is the one the kids pull out most frequently. “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish” is fun, and we read that to the kids when they are very young, but they lose interest in that once they begin learning to read on their own.
And while I frequently push for titles such as “Bartholomew and the Oobleck”, that just doesn’t resonate with the kids as much as “On Beyond Zebra!”
What is it
The book is typical of most of Dr. Seuss’s books, where each page is a nearly standalone depiction of a whimsical creature in a whimsical location, with a few lines of verse. In the case of this book, however, each page is also devoted to an exotic novel letter. That is, the book suggests there are letters that come after ‘Z’, which are needed to spell these creatures and their locations.
Who is it for
“On Beyond Zebra!” is ideal for kids in the first few years of learning to read, but also appeals to older kids who enjoy wordplay. I would say ages 4 to 8
What Kids Like
The kids like the exotic creatures, such as the cow with 98 udders or the “Floob-Boober-Bab-Boober-Bubs” that float around as living stepping stones. They also like the invented letters. For new readers, the standard alphabet is already strange and foreign, so introducing them to ever stranger, more foreign letters actually gives them confidence about the standard letters that they do know.
What Parents Like
It’s a book that’s fun to read, and the images are so fantastical that I’m able to maintain my interest. And more than many other books, “On Beyond Zebra!” inspires questions about words and animals.
Some of Dr. Suess’s books have not aged well, with depictions of people or cultures or places that are now seen as offensive. This book has none of that, however.
Adventuron is a free web-based coding environment for creating text-based games.
The games created in Adventuron are similar to the classic Infocom text-based games such as Zork or Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. (My personal favorite from that era was “Infidel”)
Who is it for
The user needs to be able to read at a 3rd- or 4th-grade level to get much out of this. There is a fair bit of documentation, and the code itself requires accurate spelling.
Some adults will have fun with this as well.
What Kids Like
Kids always like making their own games, whether its coming up for new rules for ‘Tag’ or for a board game that’s missing half its pieces. Most programmers I know got their start and developed their initial interest in programming by making computer games. Unlike developing high-end console games, though, creating simple text-based adventures is easy enough that an entire (simple, but complete) game can be created in a few hours with Adventuron.
There are other game-making tools out there. PuzzleScript is one, that creates simple 8-bit style puzzle games. And MIT’s Scratch is another. As is Blocksworld
Choicescript is another interface for creating text-based games, but the coding for Choicescript is a bit more advanced and the games are more like interactive novels than text-based games.
What Parents Like
I like that this system teaches actual programming concepts. Most junior programming environments have a drag-and-drop interface, which is a fun and easy introduction to programming, but such an interface is limited in how much the child can do, and it doesn’t teach aspects of coding such as the importance of syntax.
In Adventuron, variable names have to be spelled correctly and a stray quotation mark, or missing semicolon can mess up everything – just like with real code.
I also like that the games created are not violent. The games require typing answers and so can not include the kind of violence seen in most computer games.
What the Critics Think
Adventuron came out in 2019 and there doesn’t seem to be much awareness of it yet.
Some kids just won’t care for text-based games, so won’t have any interest in trying to create them. Modern games are so sophisticated compared to older ones and most kids I know are so used to sophisticated graphics that they just don’t have any interest in the 8-bit style.
The coding is potentially frustrating. Because the child writes actual code (mostly defining arrays and if-then conditionals) there is necessarily some debugging aspect. Introducing this kind of experience to a child before they are ready can backfire and they could end up thinking that writing code is just too hard for them. For a child with no coding experience, I would advise starting with Scratch or something similar and then graduating to Adventuron once they have a little mastery over writing code.
Who Made it/History
Adventuron Software Limited is based in the UK (Ireland, I believe) and has been developing the software since 2017
A mug brownie, or brownie-in-a-cup, is a single serving of brownies made in a mug and cooked in the microwave. They take just a few minutes to make, are vegan, and very tasty.
Mix equal parts flour, sugar, cocoa powder, oil, and water in a mug. Microwave for a minute. Done.
i.e. in a big mug
1/4 cup flour
+ 1/4 cup sugar
+ 1/4 cup water
+ 1/4 cup cocoa (this is unsweetened baking cocoa, not hot chocolate mix)
+ 1/4 cup oil
or:
50 ml flour
+ 50 ml sugar
+ 50 ml water
+ 50 ml cocoa
+ 50 ml oil
You can easily halve the recipe for smaller servings
Optional:
• a pinch of salt brings out the chocolate flavor
• add a dash of vanilla extract and/or almond extract and/or peppermint extract add/or a few shakes of cinnamon
• add 1/4 tsp (1 or 2 ml) of baking powder to make it a bit fluffier
• replace some (or all) of the flour with the same amount of cocoa powder for an extra chocolate-y brownie
Who is it for
Mug brownies are for anyone with a sweet tooth, but the activity of making them is for anyone who can manage a measuring spoon. 3+ is probably right.
What Kids Like
Kids are motivated by the speed of the process. From saying, “Let’s make brownies!” to actually having them in your mouth can take as little as three minutes. Cooking is a great activity to do with kids, but they often get bored or frustrated having to wait.
What Parents Like
Cooking is a great way to teach some basic math (how many teaspoons in a tablespoon? [3] how many milliliters in a quarter cup? [~60]) as well as basic cooking concepts (mix the dry ingredients before adding the wet, leveling the measuring spoons before dumping it) and this recipe lends itself to some scientific inquiry. For example, what happens if we add half the sugar, or half the oil, or use brown sugar?
Concerns/Flaws
Now, teaching kids to wait, and be bored for a bit is actually an essential concept these days, with instant access to almost anything, and these brownies are the food equivalent of on-demand streaming media, but they are fun and the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.
Idle Human is a game app that teaches human anatomy in a surprisingly fun way. It’s not easy to gamify a subject as dry as anatomy, but the developers of Idle Human (Funcell Games) have managed to do so.
Have you ever wondered how the human body works? In IDLE HUMAN we give you the unique chance to discover and create the various parts of a human right from the first cell! Discover the amazing sequence in which a human body unravels, starting from the very first bones to every organs leading to the nerves and muscles then, finally, a complete human body!
Ultimately, it is an ‘idle’ game, which means lots of mindless clicking in order to unlock levels and components. But unlike other idle games, the things being unlocked are bones, organs, and facts about the human body.
Who is it for
The app is rated 12+ but that’s only because it shows certain body parts. The game is not at all explicit when it comes to sexual organs and the developers handle that is a tasteful way. I would say the game is appropriate for kids 5 and up and adults looking to learn something while killing time would enjoy it as well.
What Kids Like
The benefit of idle games is that you can’t really lose, you control how quickly you win. So there’s no frustration like there often is in action or strategy/puzzle games. The gamification is strong and there is constant feedback about achievements and unlocking new bones and organs.
What Parents Like
Idle Human is both genuinely educational and actually fun. Our 6-year-old literally said, “This game is making me smart” and it’s obvious that there is a lot of knowledge in the game: names and positions of the organs and bones and “Snapple cap”-level factoids about the body, such as “The cornea is the only part of the body that does not need a blood supply. It gets oxygen directly from the air.” I did not know that.
The game does have ads. They are not as intrusive as on many other games, but a disadvantage of clicker-type games is that when you’re actively tapping the screen an ad may suddenly appear, which you then inadvertently click.
I have mixed feelings about idle/clicker games because they are so passive. The kid playing is not actively engaged the way he/she would be with a different kind of game. If the game were not educational I wouldn’t want my kids to play it.
Who Made it
The developer of Idle Human is füncell games, a very small (3-person) development team in India. The game is published/distributed by Green Panda Games which is a developer and publisher based in France.
History
Version 1.0 was released in July, 2019 and version 1.5 in October, 2019
This is a strange book and I can’t understand why it’s a classic, but it is. We got multiple copies as gifts when the kids were born, and we got a bit of a nostalgia rush when we looked at it for the first time since we were kids ourselves. But I don’t think the kids liked it much. I don’t recall them ever asking for it when we read stories at bedtime.
Margaret Wise Brown has a unique voice and her rhythm is evident in Goodnight Moon, but this is not one of her best. Yet, it seems every American kid needs to know it.
Sandra Boynton has had children’s books in print for the past 40+ years, ever since publishing “Hippos Go Berserk” in 1977. Her distinctive and very recognizable illustration style may be more familiar from her many, many calendars, coffee mugs, and cards. By her own estimate, she has drawn between 4,000 and 6,000 greeting cards! Her most famous is probably the birthday card that reads, “Hippo Birdie Two Ewes”
We have several of her 60+ children’s board books and they are an easy and popular gift to give and receive. The drawing style is fun and whimsical and the “stories”, as simple as they are, are great for read-along time. Our kids essentially memorize entire books and then can read along with us.
Her most popular books include “Moo, Baa, La La La!”, “The Going to Bed Book”, “Barnyard Dance”, “A to Z”, “Blue Hat, Green Hat”, and “Oh My Oh My Oh Dinosaurs!” A complete list of her books is on her Wikipedia page
She also has several children’s music albums, including:
“Rhinoceros Tap” (1996)
“Philadelphia Chickens” (2002)
“Dog Train” (2005)
“Blue Moo” (2007)
“Boléro Completely Unraveled” (2010)
“Frog Trouble” (2013)
“Hog Wild” (2017)
"Science Comics extends our non-fiction offerings to middle-grade readers. The Science Comics books will be narrow-focus, single-topic 128 page narrative nonfiction graphic novels, and a new volume will be published each season. The series will be written and drawn by some of the finest graphic novelists in the industry, and feature introductions by leading experts. Each book will cover topics from the fields of biology, chemistry, and physics, subjects that are part of the classroom curriculum and can be easily worked into lesson plans."
Who is it for
Based on my own observation, eight- to ten-year-olds are the most receptive to these books. They appeal to anyone with an interest in science topics, and who like having a lot of pictures.
What Kids Like
The books are fun and funny, as well as informative, and kids like that they can be entertained while also learning.
There are lots of fun, illustrated books about science topics, but this series gets the balance of humor and education just right.
What Parents Like
My kids like science and nature, but don’t want to sit through a documentary or read a book that is all (or mostly) text.
So I like that there is something that keeps them motivated to open the book and keep turning pages.
What the Critics Think
Goodreads reviews all 20 books with an average rating of around 4/5. The highest-rated of the series is Andy Hirsch’s "Science Comics: Cats: Nature and Nurture" and this is the one that got my kids hooked on the series.
First Second is an imprint company under Macmillan and they began the Science Comics series in 2016 with "Dinosaurs: Fossils and Feathers" (MK Reed and Joe Flood; Spring 2016), "Coral Reefs: Cities of the Ocean" (Maris Wicks; Spring 2016), and "Volcanos: Fire and Life" (Jon Chad, Fall 2016). There are now 20 titles with more on the way. The next three in the series will be "Rocks and Minerals" by Andy Hirsch, "Crows: Bird Geniuses" by Kyla Vanderklugt, and "Skyscrapers: The Heights of Engineering" by John Kerschbaum.
