WEIRD & WONDERFUL
BOOKLIST
Compiled by Kelly Milner Halls
Compiled by Kelly Milner Halls
Not every kid wants to read an award winner for fun. It isn’t the award that sends them
running. It’s the perception of
boredom. That perception may be
wrong. Books win awards for good
reason. But if you have a young reader
on your radar who avoids traditional books like homework or asparagus – a
reader not quite ready to tackle the books they fear – check out this
booklist.
Weird books break the ice and open the reader’s mind. Weird books offer an alternative path to
becoming a confident young reader. They
are the frozen yogurt of the children’s book world. They may seem like they taste too good to be
healthy -- like empty calories. But they
nourish and strengthen, in spite of their yummy exteriors…or maybe even because
of them.
Each of these books fall within my special IWIHWTB framework
– I WISH I HAD WRITTEN THIS BOOK. Enjoy!
Aliens are Coming! The True Account of the 1938 War of the Worlds Radio Broadcast
by Meghan McCarthy
Knopf, 2006
7 and up
Publisher Description: It was an ordinary night in October of 1938 until a news bulletin interrupted the dance music on CBS radio-aliens were invading the United States. Meghan McCarthy's hilarious ALIENS ARE COMING! tells the truth story of the Halloween radio prank that duped much of the country into believing that the Martians had invaded. The book uses excerpts from the actual War of the Worlds radio broadcast and includes information about the importance of radios in the 1930s (before the time of television and computers) as well as facts about Orson Welles and H.G. Wells, author of the novel on which the broadcast was based.
Kelly's Comment: Meghan McCarthy has her finger on the pulse of research AND a kid reader's funny bone. As a result, she nails the voice that draws reluctant readers like ice cream. Brilliant.
by Meghan McCarthy
Knopf, 2006
7 and up
Publisher Description: It was an ordinary night in October of 1938 until a news bulletin interrupted the dance music on CBS radio-aliens were invading the United States. Meghan McCarthy's hilarious ALIENS ARE COMING! tells the truth story of the Halloween radio prank that duped much of the country into believing that the Martians had invaded. The book uses excerpts from the actual War of the Worlds radio broadcast and includes information about the importance of radios in the 1930s (before the time of television and computers) as well as facts about Orson Welles and H.G. Wells, author of the novel on which the broadcast was based.
Kelly's Comment: Meghan McCarthy has her finger on the pulse of research AND a kid reader's funny bone. As a result, she nails the voice that draws reluctant readers like ice cream. Brilliant.
AlienInvestigation: Searching for the TruthAbout Aliens and UFOs
by Kelly Milner Halls (me)
Millbrook, 2012
9 and up
by Kelly Milner Halls (me)
Millbrook, 2012
9 and up
Publisher’s Description: Imagine . . . you're in the woods
after dark. Eerie green lights appear in the distance. Then there's a sudden
flash and everything is dark again. You decide to take a closer look. You come
upon a saucer-shaped craft hovering silently just above the ground. You reach
out to touch it, but the object suddenly shoots up into the sky. Have you just
seen a UFO? Some people say they have
had experiences like this. Are they telling the truth? To find out, Kelly
Milner Halls investigated stories of eyewitnesses from around the world. She
explored UFO sightings, landings, crashes, aliens, and even a few hoaxes. She
also interviewed several of the world's UFO experts. Examine her findings and decide
for yourself whether visitors from other worlds are real.
Kelly’s Comment: Man,
this was fun to research and write. I
hope it’s just as fun to read.
Publisher Description: Bursting with eerie photos and
Special Investigations, a nonfiction compendium of all things ghoulish and
ghastly--from Aliens to Zombies!
Vampires, ghosts, monsters, and more--ENCYCLOPEDIA HORRIFICA invites you
to join our quest for the terrifying truth about all things ghoulish and
ghastly. But beware! Surprises lurk at the turn of every page. . . . Discover a time line of ALIEN LIFE on
earth--beginning 4 billion years ago! Meet a man recruited by the U.S.
government to become a PSYCHIC SUPERSPY. Spend a dark and stormy night with
professional GHOSTBUSTERS. Visit a mysterious library in search of DRACULA's
shocking origins. Witness new photos of the actual sea monster that inspired
the mythical KRAKEN, and much more!
Kelly Comment: How I
wish I’d written this fantastic book.
How glad am I that Joshua Gee DID!
Amazon Review: This book dives face first into vats of
everything you're not supposed to talk about, with sections entitled Barf,
Boogers, Poop, Pee, B.O. and so forth. The
illustrations are disgusting and unattractive, the text is filled with
disturbing but entirely true passages such as "Snot is one part of your
daily diet that you never think about.... Yup, you swallow about a quart of it
each day. Just think: you swallow more snot that you drink milk", and
lists of how to say various forbidden words in many languages. All in all, tasteless, disgusting, and bound
to offend many people--but what would you expect of a book in a puke-green
plastic covered cover entitled Grossology. And, quite honestly,
everything it discusses is happening in and on your body right now. Sorry, but
it's all true.
Kelly Comment: When Sylvia first released Grossology, I was
writing short nonfiction for magazines and newspapers. I saw her book and was amazed. She made weird wonderful. This book is OUT OF PRINT but I couldn’t make
a weird list without it. Truly
wonderfully weird.
Haunted Outhouse
Edited by Kim Griswell
Portable Press
Publisher Description: What do you get when you cross a classic scary story such as “The Tell-tale Heart” with Uncle John’s trademark sense of humor? You get “The Tell-tale Fart” (Pee-uw!). And that’s just one of many twisted classic and original tales of humor and horror you’ll find inside The Haunted Outhouse. You’ll also find a spine-tingling collection of facts about topics such as real-life mad scientists, history’s terrible tyrants, and the world’s deadliest weather. Uncle John’s scare-fest is packed with page after page of crafts, recipes, poems, jokes, tongue twisters, and experiments straight from Dr. Johnenstein’s Laboratory. Graphic novel-style tales add plenty of illustrated pages to the mix. This haunted book of horrors could only come from the Bathroom Readers Institute, and it’s “For Kids Only.” ENTER IF YOU DARE!
Kelly Comment: I confess, I am a contributing author to the Uncle John's Bathroom Readers for Kids Only book series edited by Kim Griswell. But even if I didn't write for these books, I'd buy them and give them out liberally to kids who love Guinness and Ripley's books. They make me laugh, and I have the heart of a 10 year old kid. So you can draw your own conclusions.
Edited by Kim Griswell
Portable Press
Publisher Description: What do you get when you cross a classic scary story such as “The Tell-tale Heart” with Uncle John’s trademark sense of humor? You get “The Tell-tale Fart” (Pee-uw!). And that’s just one of many twisted classic and original tales of humor and horror you’ll find inside The Haunted Outhouse. You’ll also find a spine-tingling collection of facts about topics such as real-life mad scientists, history’s terrible tyrants, and the world’s deadliest weather. Uncle John’s scare-fest is packed with page after page of crafts, recipes, poems, jokes, tongue twisters, and experiments straight from Dr. Johnenstein’s Laboratory. Graphic novel-style tales add plenty of illustrated pages to the mix. This haunted book of horrors could only come from the Bathroom Readers Institute, and it’s “For Kids Only.” ENTER IF YOU DARE!
Kelly Comment: I confess, I am a contributing author to the Uncle John's Bathroom Readers for Kids Only book series edited by Kim Griswell. But even if I didn't write for these books, I'd buy them and give them out liberally to kids who love Guinness and Ripley's books. They make me laugh, and I have the heart of a 10 year old kid. So you can draw your own conclusions.
Publisher Description: Over the
course of history men and women have lived and died. In fact, getting sick and
dying can be a big, ugly mess-especially before the modern medical care that we
all enjoy today. How They Croaked relays all the gory details of how
nineteen world figures gave up the ghost. For example:
It is believed that Henry VIII's remains exploded within his
coffin while lying in state. Doctors
"treated" George Washington by draining almost 80 ounces of blood
before he finally kicked the bucket.
Right before Beethoven wrote his last notes, doctors drilled a hole in
his stomach without any pain medication. Readers will be interested well past the final curtain, and feel lucky to live
in a world with painkillers, X-rays, soap, and 911.
Kelly Comment: What
genius – to explore and write about how famous people met their maker! Who wouldn’t read this?
Publisher Description: Kids love stuff that's gross. From
the liquids, solids, and gases--especially the gases!--or their own bodies to
the creepy, crawly, slimy, slithery, fetid, and feculent phenomena in the world
at large, kids with a curious bent just can't get enough. Oh, Yuck! The
Encyclopedia of Everything Nasty brings together, in one book, all the good
things about some of the baddest things on Earth. Exhaustively researched and impeccably
scientific, yet written with a lively lack of earnestness, Oh, Yuck! is
an ants to zits encyclopedic compendium covering people, animals, insects,
plants, foods, and more. Here are vampire bats, which sip blood and pee at the
same time so that they'll always be light enough to fly away; and slime eels,
wreathed in mucus and eating fellow fish from the inside out. Oh, Yuck!
explains why vomit smells; where dandruff comes from; what pus is all about;
and why maggots adore rotting meant. Other features include gross recipes,
putrid projects, 10 foods that make you airborne, and more. With hundreds of
cartoon illustrations and real-life photographs, Oh, Yuck! is the
complete guide to the irresistible--at least to an 8-to-12 year old--underbelly
of life.
Kelly Comment: Are
you sensing a pattern here? I hope
so. The wild child I was is exciting for
the wild child waiting to read this.
Booklist: In an info-dump redolent with Gosh! Yuck! moments,
Albee deposits a heaping history of human sanitation—or rather the lack
thereof—and its effects. Developing the premise that three of the four means of
spreading disease—air, water, touch, and insect bite—can be blamed on bad
plumbing, she pumps out a steady stream of comments on the miasmic effects of
urbanization, waste disposal, and the roles of (not) bathing in ancient Greece,
Rome, medieval Europe (“The Age of Shovelry”), and the “Reeking Renaissance.”
She then digs into the gradual adoption of better practices in the nineteenth
century in response to recurrent epidemics of cholera and other horrors. The
cartoon illustrations feature sludgy green highlights; frequent sidebars offer
stomach-churning profiles of relevant “Icky Occupations”; and if systematic
scholarship isn’t exactly her fecal—er, focal point (“Sorry about the
Eurocentricity thing,” she burbles in the preface), she does close with
generalized source notes. A good choice for readers who feel that Susan
Goodman’s The Truth about Poop (2004) and Charise Mericle Harper’s Flush! The
Scoop on Poop through the Ages (2007) haven’t quite squeezed the last drop out
of the topic. Grades 4-6. --John Peters
Kelly Comment: What
can I say? It’s a fun, interesting book
– for me and the kids I write for. Love
it.
Publisher Description:
Gum. It’s been around for centuries—from the ancient Greeks to the
American Indians, everyone’s chewed it. But the best kind of gum—bubble
gum!—wasn’t invented until 1928, when an enterprising young accountant at Fleer
Gum and Candy used his spare time to experiment with different recipes.
Bubble-blowing kids everywhere will be delighted with Megan McCarthy’s
entertaining pictures and engaging fun facts as they learn the history behind
the pink perfection of Dubble Bubble.
Kelly Comment:
Shhhh…don’t tell anyone, but this book has won plenty of awards. Reluctant readers just don’t know it. Sensational, fun, informative book – like all
of Meghan’s books.
Publisher Description: Everyone loves the stories of
legendary creatures that just might really exist. This book relies on the
latest information from cryptozoologists, experts who study these mysterious
beings, and the counter-arguments are explored from experts who strongly
believe they do not exist. Stories from eyewitnesses are recounted, as well.
Included in the book are Bigfoot (Sasquatch), Loch Ness monster, Mokele Mbembe
(Africa), Kongamato, Shunka Warak’in, Mapinguari (South America), giant squids,
mermaids, coelocanths, and more. An extensive "For Further
Investigation" section, offering readers more places to find information,
concludes the book.
Kelly Comment: When I
wrote this book, I wanted to prove Bigfoot was fake. Boy was I surprised to discover there was
strong evidence that it might be real. I
offered evidence for and against, and left it for the young readers to decide.
Publisher Description: We call it a waste product, but poop
can also be bricks to build a house, fuel to power a trip to Mars, wipes for a
baby’s bottom, buttons for your next sweater. Poop? YES! POP! And that’s not
all. Birds drop it as bombs. Mole-rats use it as a password. Sharks track their
prey with it. People cook with it, sculpt with it, and even use it as a
Frisbee! While we politely avoid the subject, amazing things are happening in
digestive tracts all over the world. Kids (and adults too!) will be captivated
by the astounding facts contained in this fascinating book, featuring hilarious
illustrations.
Kelly’s Comment: Not
all kids will love this or other fun books about poop. And that’s okay. Those who will love it, will read without even
thinking about the fact that they don’t like to read.
Witches: TheAbsolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem
by Rosalyn Schanzer
National Geographic, 2011
10 and up
by Rosalyn Schanzer
National Geographic, 2011
10 and up
Publisher Description: It was January, 1692, and as an icy
winter wind shrieked through Salem Village, Massachusetts, two young girls
began to twitch and choke and contort their bodies into strange abnormal shapes
and speak in words that made no sense. Their family tried every remedy in the
book, but nothing worked. Finally a doctor announced his dire diagnosis: The
girls were BEWITCHED! And then the accusations began. This book tells the
gripping true story of the victims, accused witches, scheming officials, and
mass hysteria that turned a mysterious illness afflicting two children into a
witch hunt that took 20 lives and ruined hundreds more.
Kelly’s Comment: Growing
up, I loved all things spooky – especially when they were real. Rosalyn has created a compelling book – a
true story that reads like a novel, in the best possible ways.
More weird books may follow, so keep checking back. And feel free to email me at kellymilnerh@aol.com if you have books you'd like to add to the list. I'd love to hear from you!
2 comments:
What a weird, whacky list. May I add The Beginner's Guide to Animal Autopsy by Steve Parker, with illustrations by Rob Stone?
http://www.amazon.com/The-Beginners-Guide-Animal-Autopsy/dp/0761306277
Whoot! Very weird!
Fabulous list. I'd also like to add Rebecca Johnson's "Zombie Makers:True Stories of Nature's Undead. Here's a link for more:
http://www.rebeccajohnsonbooks.com/books/zombie-makers-true-stories-of-natures-undead/
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