Wellness-Geniar

Under Earth, Under Water by Aleksandra Mizielińska and Daniel Mizieliński is their fourth book I have reviewed here and their fourth book with the marvelous Big Picture Press, a publisher of oversized, highly illustrated, gorgeous books who believe that books should be "visually intelligent, surprising, and accessible to readers of all ages, abilities and nationalities." BPP definitely achieves this with every book they publish and, if you are a book lover, you will want to seek out all their titles. Under Earth, Under Water will appeal to anyone who likes to look inside things and understand how things work.
With Under Earth, Under Water, the Mizielińskis, who have an illustration style that is filled with tiny details and a unique palette, take readers on a detailed journey, from the top of the page to the bottom, over and under land and then sea. The endpapers serve as the introduction and table of contents, with images scattered across the spread, page numbers connecting …

Princess Princess Ever After by Katie O'Neill Published by Oni Press Purchased at The Strand Bookstore
Princess Princess Ever After is hilarious, fast paced - both in plot and dialogue - and groundbreaking. I can't believe how much O'Neill packs into 56 pages and how absolutely commonplace this story about two princesses who fall in love is. Back in 2012 when I reviewed Drama by Raina Telgemeier, I buried the fact that there are gay characters, questioning characters and a kiss between two boy actors, one of whom is playing the part of a girl character. As a bookseller dealing with a public (in my small, right-leaning-heavily-Christian city) that I knew would not be comfortable with this, I worried that my readers might share the same feelings of discomfort surrounding LGBTQIA+ characters in kid's books. It's so exciting to me that today I can write about a book like Princess Princess Ever After and, while I am still giddy that diversity in kid's books is growing,…

How to Choose Age Appropriate Books for Advanced Readers remains the most read post on my blog since I wrote it in 2012. Because of this, I have cleaned up this post, tightened the writing and added in any pertinent information that has come about since it originally ran. When I first started wellness-geniar.com in August of 2008, I was scrambling for content, finding my purpose and my voice and not always doing my best writing. How to Choose Age Appropriate Books for Advanced Readers was one of the first articles I wrote and, as a bookseller and a book reviewer, and now as an elementary school librarian where I have gone from working with kids reading well beyond their grade level to kids reading well below, this philosophy remains my organizing principle and central focus when reading and recommending books to parents and children. 

In the interest of my mission and the attention this article continues to receive, I have updated and expanded this article and included a guide to using …