116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
11 books that will flex your brain
The Cedar Rapids Public Library shares the best books for readers of all ages:
Picture Books (Ages 5-8)
(Courtesy of the Cedar Rapids Public Library)
“Time for School, Little Blue Truck” by Alice Schertle and Jill McElmurray
Little Blue Truck meets a school bus and is so excited. Look at all of the animals in the windows on their way to school! Little Blue Truck wants to be a school bus too, but it just might be too much work for such a little truck.
(Courtesy of the Cedar Rapids Public Library)
“Vampenguin“ by Lucy Ruth Cummins
Baby Dracula visits the zoo with his family. Baby Penguin lives at the zoo with her family. The two switch places for a full day of adventure.
(Courtesy of the Cedar Rapids Public Library)
“Milo Imagines the World” by Matt de la Peña and Christian Robinson
Milo is on a long subway ride surrounded by strangers. What are their lives like? He passes the time imagining who they are when they’re not here beneath the city.
(Courtesy of the Cedar Rapids Public Library)
“Isabel and Her Colores Go to School” by Alexandra Alessandri
Isabel is going to a new school, but English still feels uncomfortable. Spanish feels right, but her classmates don’t understand it. Together, they realize they can still speak to each other through art.
Fiction (Age 8-10)
(Courtesy of the Cedar Rapids Public Library)
“Rowley Jefferson’s Awesome Friendly Spooky Stories” by Jeff Kinney
Rowley Jefferson comes back for yet another adventure as his imagination runs wild creating a hilarious world of zombies and ghosts along the way. These spooky stories have comical endings and make for a fun independent read.
(Courtesy of the Cedar Rapids Public Library)
“The Bad Guys in Cut to the Chase” by Aaron Blabey
The Bad Guys are here to do good deeds and be heroes, whether you like it or not, gosh darn it, and they are probably going to mess it up. That is certainly not going to stop them from encountering a mysterious doorway and discovering what is behind it.
(Courtesy of the Cedar Rapids Public Library)
“Maybe Maybe Marisol Rainey” by Erin Entrada Kelly
Marisol loves adventures, or rather, the idea of adventures. She’s not very brave, which makes her different. Her mother was born in the Philippines, and her father works in Mexico, which also makes her different in her small Louisiana town. Maybe this is the summer when she isn’t teased for being different, and maybe this is the summer when she is just a little bit brave.
Fiction (Age 10-12)
(Courtesy of the Cedar Rapids Public Library)
“Last Gate of the Emperor” by Kwame Mbalia and Prince Joel Makonnen
Yared lives in Addis Prime, an Afrofuturist, Ethiopian-inspired empire, with his uncle and bionic lioness, with no one else to see outside of a popular augmented reality game. As a star player of the game, Yared lives out his dream life as a daring adventurer — until suddenly the myths come alive, and his uncle is kidnapped.
(Courtesy of the Cedar Rapids Public Library)
“The Last Fallen Star” by Graci Kim
A debuting series in the Rick Riordan Presents imprint, Riley is excited to support her sister Hattie being initiated into a clan of Korean healing witches. Despite her own efforts to learn the spells, Riley does not have the same magic until the sisters decide to cast a spell to share Hattie’s magic. It’s a great idea until chaos takes hold, and everything falls on Riley to fix.
(Courtesy of the Cedar Rapids Public Library)
“Amina’s Song” by Hena Khan
A follow-up to the award-winning “Amina’s Voice,” Amina has just had a wonderful trip to Pakistan, enjoying the food, people and culture. Now that she is back in America, she wants to share her adventures with her classmates. She wants to share with them the joys and beauty of Pakistan, but everyone fixates on the negatives that they have heard.
Non-fiction (Age 10-12)
(Courtesy of the Cedar Rapids Public Library)
“Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Boy” by Emmanuel Acho
In an adapted follow-up to the New York Times bestseller, Acho looks at his experiences with race and racism as a younger man and compiles some of those stories for younger readers. This title works to encourage an open dialogue about systemic racism as it affects the young people of our communities.
(Courtesy of the Cedar Rapids Public Library)
(Courtesy of the Cedar Rapids Public Library)
(Courtesy of the Cedar Rapids Public Library)
(Courtesy of the Cedar Rapids Public Library)
(Courtesy of the Cedar Rapids Public Library)
(Courtesy of the Cedar Rapids Public Library)
(Courtesy of the Cedar Rapids Public Library)
(Courtesy of the Cedar Rapids Public Library)
(Courtesy of the Cedar Rapids Public Library)
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