The best family-friendly books for all ages to enjoy

Carole P. Roman has hit a home run with this nonfiction book. It paints an intriguing picture of the life of spies during World War II. Roman details the training, weapons, and tools used in spy craft. I found the chapters featuring biographical portraits fascinating. Chef Julia Child and author Graham Greene operated undercover. Roman discusses double agents and the Native Americans who broke the Japanese code. I would recommend this book to children who love adventure, espionage, and history. It’s a perfect read for middle-grade students, but an eye-opener for adults as well.

A group of toys discarded by their former owners get together to find a new home and someone to love them. I love this book because it shows children that they need to take responsibility for taking care of their possessions. By personifying these toys, kids learn how easily a friend or loved one’s feelings can be hurt. It helps them learn about empathy and compassion. Readers get the message that respecting feelings and the rights of others is a desirable trait.

What a wonderful adventure into a world of fantasy, mystery, and science fiction! While the plot and characters are well-developed, this short book is great for reluctant readers. Children love Christmas and by combining the magic of a store all decked out for the holidays with a time travel trip to a world without yesterdays or tomorrows, kids are drawn into a magical world filled with dazzling illustrations to stimulate their senses. I highly recommend the book, especially for middle-grade readers any time of the year.

Sally Huss is one of my favorite picture book authors. She teams up with mindfulness coach, Elizabeth Hamilton-Guarino to discuss how children and adults can look within themselves to find the best person possible. Trevor looks in the water and decides he will be someone special. Different animals that he encounters show the reader the importance of qualities like patience, cooperation, thankfulness, gratitude, generosity, paying attention, and friendship. All of us could do this. I especially appreciated the certificate children can reward themselves with when they discover and later accomplish practicing these qualities.

I adore the Auntie Lily character who has a penchant for telling silly stories. Each of these stories composed in clever rhymes feature a silly animal doing something outrageous. Children become interactive partners visualizing and acting out the hijinks like a stork riding on a subway train or a fly that works for the FBI. The fun continues because readers get ten riddles to solve at the end of the tale. This book is fun for the whole family from preschooler to grandma!