Yesterday marked Babymouse's independence from elementary school as the first book in her new series debuted! The Tales from the Locker series follows Babymouse up to middle school, replacing the full graphic novel format with a mixture of both text and graphic pages.
Book one, Lights, Camera, Middle School!, opens with Babymouse stressing about the stereotypical middle school worries: right clothes, right friends, right ... whiskers? When faced with a decision about what after school activity to join, Babymouse realizes this is an opportunity for her to stand out and get noticed, so she joins the film club. As fans of Babymouse might suspect, not everything goes according to plan ... Typical.
My third graders were HUGE fans of the original Babymouse series, and these were among the most-checked out books in my classroom library. Babymouse ranked #2 in their all-time favorites list, and you can read a review of Babymouse: Beach Babe by one of my third graders here. I am excited to share this new series with them and think that they will highly enjoy Babymouse's new adventures.
I will say, as a teacher of actual middle schoolers, that The Tales from the Locker series is pretty firmly in middle grade territory and might not grab the attention of actual middle schoolers who are starting to gravitate into more YA-heavy material. But I think Babymouse will find plenty of new fans in the fourth, fifth, and sixth grade range.
Definitely a must-have book for any teachers or librarians in that age range!
