Back to School Books

The Kissing Hand remains a wonderful gem of a book to start a young student off to school. But if you’ve already read that one and are looking for new ideas for this school year, try these titles!

How Rocket Learned to Read, by Tad Hills (Random House). Here is a sweet story about a little puppy named Rocket who learns to read from his tiny yellow bird of a teacher. Watch and listen as Rocket spends time with “the wondrous, mighty, gorgeous alphabet”. Rocket makes steady progress through all the seasons in this lovely homage to the joy of reading. (3 and up)

The Fabled Fourth Graders of Aesop Elementary School, by Candace Fleming (Random House). If only every teacher were this understanding of unruly behavior! Truly, it is living life that teaches us the most. And as these crazy kids learn, you have to be careful for what you wish! Each of the short vignettes ends with a fable right from Aesop. If your child likes this one, the students become fifth graders in the next book, out this month. (8 – 12)

Dork Diaries: Tales from a Not-So-Fabulous Life, by Rachel Renee Russell (Simon & Schuster). This is the Diary of a Wimpy Kid from a girl’s perspective. Nikki Maxwell is transferred to a new school and documents the hilarity and trauma of middle school--and those kids can be really mean sometimes, including Nikki. Thank goodness a bit of self-deprecating humor goes a long way. (9 -12)

School! Adventures of the Harvey N. Trouble Elementary School by Kate McMullan, illus. by George Booth (MacMillan). Try this chapter book bursting with illustrations by New Yorker cartoonist Booth. The names of the characters are straight from the closing credits of Car Talk - - but not “Dewey Cheetham and Howe.” Instead, you have secretary Ms. Seeyalater and teacher Mr. Hugh de Mann! The names of the students? Sid Down and Ron Faster. See what can be learned in this most unusual school! (6 – 9)

Julie Hubble is in charge of school supplies in Leawood.