Best New Books & How to Use Books You Don't Like

Because sometimes your readers want to read a book that isn't your favorite...

Imagination Soup recommends the best, thoughtfully curated children’s book collections, using my expertise & experience in education, parenting, and children’s literature. (Plus, I read 200+ new books a month!)

Sometimes books come along that you LOVE…but only mostly.

That happened to me a lot this past few weeks of reading.

Some I finished and many I abandoned.

Don’t worry, I still found plenty of new, good books to share with you! (YAY!)

The main character in one middle grade book that was otherwise a sweet and unique story, treated a group of bullies as badly as the bullies treated her. Which I didn’t love.

But it got me thinking about how to use this book with kids.

BOOK CLUBS!

Discussing books is such a valuable tool for knowing who you are as a person because it forces you to reflect on what you believe and why you believe it. In this case, readers could think about better options, instead of being as mean as the bullies.

So, I would still use this book with readers if we could discuss it.

It’s why I let my fifth grader read The Hunger Games series.

She didn’t love reading. So when she finally found a book she wanted to read, I said yes. But only if we could read it together! Then, I could help her unpack (or ignore) the parts that were more mature.

How do you handle books with parts you don’t love? Leave a comment!

Paid subscribers can read on for new book recommendations with reviews for 4 picture books, 1 chapter book, and 5 middle grade books, both fiction and nonfiction!

A paid subscription gets you:

• Best new book reviews

• Curated children’s book collections

• A PDF download each month

• A real person you know, like, and trust with experience and background in education, parenting, and children’s literature