This Week’s Book Drop

Looking for your child’s next can’t-put-it-down book? Or a cozy read-aloud to share side by side at bedtime? Each week, we highlight five standout books loved by moms, kids, teachers, bookstores and librarians. Plus, since Booktrition preaches about adults modeling reading, there’s one book recommended each week for grown ups!

The Academy

Cover of a book titled 'The Academy' by T.Z. Layton, featuring a colorful cityscape with a character in a sports jersey standing on a bridge, with skyscrapers in the background and a yellow sky.

If you need one book to bring with you to read aloud to your child (or have a fourth grader or older to read independently) over April break, make it this one. Parents report that they love reading this story as much as their child. Follow main character Leo as he navigates his position on the elite soccer academy.

The Spy Who Loved School Dinners

Cover of a children's book titled 'The Spy Who Loved School Dinners' by Pamela Butchart, illustrated by Thomas Flintham, featuring a stylized drawing of a girl in a hat and sunglasses with a plate of food.

These books are like the British older sibling of the “My Weird School” series. Written by Pamela Butchart as part of the fifteen-book series, this book, and all books within the series have more story, more chaos and smarter humor. Great for parents to read aloud of for kids to read independently third grade and up.

Ty’s Travels

Cover of a children's book titled "My First I Can Read! Ty's Travels." The cover features an illustration of a smiling child with dark skin and short curly hair, wearing a colorful jacket and a hat, waving from inside a cardboard box on train tracks. A happy dog with floppy ears peers out of the box. There are fluffy clouds and green bushes, with red flowers scattered around.

Having a staycation? Or just feeling bored? This book proves that a cardboard box and an imagination is all it takes to have fun and connect with those we love. The book is a “just-right” book for kids to read aloud to a parent or independently once they are at about an end of first grade reading level or higher.

Big Book of Search-And-Fun

Cover of a children's book titled "Walter Wick's Big Book of Search-and-Find Fun" with various small toys and objects inside a clear box, including a rubber duck, a toy alligator, a plastic ice cream, a toy dragon, and other colorful items.
Open book with a poem and colorful candy decorations on the right page, page number 70 at the bottom.

Just like the “I Spy” books, these books are wonderful options to keep kids busy while traveling. And while they look like books just full of pictures, don’t forget that kids will have to sound out and read through the long list of words!

Dragon Masters

Book cover of 'Dragon Masters: Chill of the Ice Dragon' by Tracey West, featuring an illustration of a large blue ice dragon with two children in fur-lined clothing standing on a staircase, surrounded by ice shards. Publisher logo of Scholastic is at the bottom.

This series is so popular amongst young readers that author Tracey West is up to book 32 in the series! Second and third graders report this series as one of their very favorite series to read independently. Each dragon has a special power and each dragon master must figure out how to train each of them.

The One

A book titled 'The One' by John Marrs with three darts stuck in the cover, one of which is bleeding red ink or paint.

When traveling, it can be hard to constantly stop and start a long novel. This fiction thriller is different. You will not forget which character you are reading about or the way you feel about it. In “The One,” all characters are matched with their forever partner through a DNA test. But often times being together is not an option and in most cases ends up being shocking. You won’t want to stop reading.