In this novel inspired by history, a sudden loss sends 11-year-old Kofi Offin on a “harrowing journey across land and sea, and away from everything he loves,” reads the publisher’s description of the story.Ī graphic novel with heart and humor, eighth-grader Drew Ellis is one of the few kids of color at a prestigious private school. “The Door of No Return,” by Kwame Alexander With that goal in mind, here are five books for middle school readers recommended by Kinney: I think we all should be making sure that our kids experience different types of views because it makes us better as people and makes us better as a country.” Sometimes it’s essential to a kid’s long-term survival. “Representation isn’t just a buzzword,” Kinney added. When asked about a recent cultural move to ban various books from school and public libraries, Kinney cited a letter to Congress signed by him and more than a thousand other authors, written by two-time Newbery Honor-winner Christina Soontornvat: “‘Reading stories that reflect the diversity of our world builds empathy and respect for everyone’s humanity.’” It’s kind of a cool thing to think that you’re a part of the fabric of people’s growing up years.”Įxposing kids to a wide range of books is something Kinney values, both as an author and as co-founder of independent book store An Unlikely Story in Plainville, Massachusetts, which he owns with his wife. “Kids grow out of my books, of course, but there’s a ton of a comfort in knowing that the story continues… these books have been a consistent part of many young people’s lives for a great long time. “When you have a cartoon character, it’s a promise to the reader that they won’t go away and that they won’t change or really evolve that much. With that, he explained, comes a commitment of consistency to his audience. Kinney said he thinks of Greg more as a cartoon character than a literary character. He feels like he’s sort of shouldering the weight of the world on that backpack that he carries.” “If you look at him on the cover of book one, you know everything you need to know about Greg. And I think that Greg feels that way,” Kinney said. Usually, it means kind of like a physical weakling, but it can also just mean somebody who’s not that effective. Graphic novels like these use a visual language of comics and drawings to tell stories and convey the narrator’s state of mind or private imaginative world.Kinney's next "Wimpy Kid" book, "Diper Överlöde," releases on Oct. Diary of a Wimpy Kid is also part of a wave of popular and influential graphic novels, such as Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis (2000), which tells the story of a young Iranian girl growing up in pre-revolutionary Tehran, and Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home (2006), a family memoir. With its intricate depiction of the social world of Greg’s middle school and his quest for popularity, Diary also recalls non-fiction works on the social lives of teenagers like Rosalind Wiseman’s Queen Bees and Wannabes (2002), which emphasize the importance of social relationships and “fitting in” for teenage life in American middle schools and high schools. All these narratives share a common interest in a young person’s transition from childhood to the world of adult responsibilities. ![]() Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye (1951) or Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games series (2008), which focus on teenage or young adult characters who experience various forms of physical or mental transformation on their way to adulthood. More modern coming-of-age stories include novels like J. Classic examples of the genre first known as Bildungsroman-literally a “novel of education”-include Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre (1847) and Charles Dickens’s David Copperfield (1850). Diary of a Wimpy Kid is a coming-of-age story, charting Greg Heffley’s social, intellectual, and emotional development over the course of his first year of middle school.
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