Daddy Mojo

Louisa Learns to Write, illustrated book works for kids aged seven and up.

Louisa Learns to Write is an illustrated book that’s unlike anything you’ve seen before. It tells a story, but not in a manner that elementary school audiences are used to. It operates on two levels without audiences realizing it until the end of the book. As the titular character is growing up, she’s learning deeper life lessons that translate to anyone, regardless of age. Louisa Learns to Write: Louisa May Alcott Creates Little Women isn’t so much about the creation of the seminal piece of literature, as it is about the things that shaped Alcott’s life.

Louisa Learns to Write is not the illustrated book you think it is. Little Women author, Louisa May Alcott’s macro look at the characteristics that made her successful.

Louisa May Alcott, yes, but more

Actual Factual Files: Ancient Egypt, gets young ages to read non-fiction

When I was in elementary and middle school I was knee-deep in curiosity about ancient Egypt. I also wasn’t a reader at that age. The internet didn’t exist and if I wanted to browse information on a topic I had to look through an encyclopedia. Yes, my family had a set of them, which weren’t used nearly as often as my parents would’ve wished. I remember my sister searching in vain for information on the cold war and having to ask my father instead. RIP, the physical monolith of Encyclopedia Britannica. Actual Factual Files: Ancient Egypt is the time-traveling book I needed when I was seven years old.

Actual Factual Files: Ancient Egypt is the most approachable, non-intimidating and informative text aimed at elementary school readers on the area we’ve seen.

Lock, meet key

The Furious is a new classic of an action film for fans of the genre

The Furious is a near-perfect action film. There are a couple of logical improbabilities. The biggest one being a skinny street kid holding an escape rope made from blankets for children who are exiting a fourth story window. In a movie that’s just under two hours long, and being a genre with a very lenient curve automatically applied to it, that’s amazing. People will compare The Furious to The Raid and they’re correct, but it’s so much more than just another martial arts movie.

The Furious is fabulous, and not in a Wayland Flowers way. This film hits the center of the target in action and martial arts movie enjoyment in sequences, and its craft.

Believe the hype, it’s a new standard in action movies

No, No, No, a timeless book that effortlessly teaches via fun and art

Noemi Vola has a style. It could be more appropriate to say that Tra Publishing has a style and Noemi Vola’s art fits nicely into their groove. No, No, No is an illustrated book that’s smarter than you think it is. Its eye-catching cover feature a large yellow thing that could be a frog, who is in a small pond on a sunny day. There’s a spider, or a small octopus behind this yellow thing who is holding two ice cream cones that are melting on its Kraken-like arms.

No, No, No is a sublime illustrated book that uses gorgeous art and a very simple premise that allows young audiences to become aware of un-needed variables around us.

Release the kraken to fight the negativity, be yourself

The Second Life of Snap is an elementary school reader’s dystopian best friend

Say this about The Second Life of Snap: it knows its target. Older readers might look at its cover and draw parallels to The Iron Giant. They could alter their opinion after looking at the back cover and see that our heroine is accompanied by three other kids. The three of them are seated on some nondescript rubble of a not-too-distant society, while Zuzu is on Snap’s shoulders. The subtitle to the book is, A girl, A robot, A race for the future, so readers will know that it’s dystopian to an extent.

The Second Life of Snap is a contained story with enough mystery, adventure, science-fiction and heart to equally hook in boy or girl elementary school readers.

Ages 8-12 come hither and read

The Boy Who Drew Cats, a more than century old story, still resonates today

Folk tales are different than fairy tales. The latter have to include magical or supernatural aspects, like beans that grow to the sky or a witch. Folk tales are passed down from generation to generation and are cultural in nature. They don’t have to have magic, but do focus on common people and could have a more graphic ending. The Boy Who Drew Cats: A Japanese Folktale got the memo on that. Originally translated in 1898, this is a new edition has illustrations on a grander scale.

The Boy Who Drew Cats: A Japanese Folktale uses gorgeous illustrations of cats, temples and an epic quest to make a 100 year old story feel alive.

Have cat art folktale, will travel

The Backrooms, it delivers for the thinking person’s horror experience

The marketing for The Backrooms is top-notch. As someone who appreciates good marketing and a well-produced trailer, I am in. Our 16-year-old son has been watching the web series of the same name. He made us aware of its cultural prominence and then I started to see it in the classrooms. My students were all watching it, once their assignments were done, I like to tell myself. As a film, The Backrooms has a high bar to overcome.

The Backrooms comes in with lots of buzz and mainly delivers. It’s much more of a mystery or a scare, than horror, and a slow burn at that, but it delivers in the end.

WALK ON THROUGH THE DOOR

Get the Wiggles Out: Playful Ways to Embrace Every Feeling for toddlers

There’s something unintentionally funny about a book called Get the Wiggles Out. Your silly adult brain envisions a toddler showdown with dancing and singing that involves non-Australian-based intellectual property, fending off other colored characters. Once you see it with your mind’s eye, you can’t unsee it. Thankfully, Get the Wiggles Out: Playful Ways to Embrace Every Feeling (Everyday Feelings with Sesame Street) stars the team who live where the air is sweet.

Get the Wiggles Out is a Sesame Street book that uses very short stories and movement to help toddlers through early elementary overcome frustrations.

Toddlers! (and your parents..) listen up.