Children's book reviews, all age comic books, Kidlit, mglit, movies, entertainment and parenting
The kids wanted to see sea life. A ‘sea cruise’ for me sounds kind of boring. What to do in Hilton Head when the family want to spend a couple hours on the water, perhaps see some sea life and maybe, just maybe catch a couple pounds of fresh shrimp? It was an unexpected answer for us that turned out to be one of the more memorable times during our vacation. The Tammy Jane operates its shrimping expeditions from May through mid-January each year and combined something for everyone in our group.
Now a major motion picture, that phrase used to be the marketing stuff of legend. The book that you read is now a movie! You and your friends can be the first to say that the book was better and then clamor for more books that can be made into sequels. When some of the toys, I’m looking at you Transformers, started to get into the game it did water down the reputation a bit. When video games were made into movies it was a tipping point in the universe where up was down. Thankfully that also signaled a bit of a change. It said, without actually saying it, that if the fans are there, then a movie could be made of a property that was once on the small screen. That’s where Downton Abbey, The Motion Picture succeeds as a fan’s film and one that’s enjoyable for people who enjoy cinema.
Wait; didn’t Bad Kitty just have Thanksgiving? Yes, she did, but it’s a Bad Kitty world and we’re just living in it. Bad Kitty Does Not Like Thanksgiving was a board book. Bad Kitty Searching For Santa gives our grumpy cat an illustrated book format and has her try to figure out is she’s been naughty or nice. For readers in elementary school the answer to that question is an easy ‘yes!’ However, in the world of Bad Kitty it’s never as simple as that.
We were compensated by Best Buy for this post. All thoughts are our own. I have a cell phone, but I use my camera to take the majority of my photos. That’s because the camera on my cell phone doesn’t do what I would like it to do. It doesn’t shoot fast enough, it shoots poorly in low light and takes too long to boot up. I realize these are all first world problems, but when you’re trying to get that one shot, for either your family photos or a client it’s got to happen now-and it won’t be repeated. The Sony Xperia 1 Smartphone levels up the photo capabilities in your cell phone. Consider this the translator that’s never been present between your mind’s eye and that photograph or shot you’ve always known was there.
The Hadley Academy For The Improbably Gifted sounds like a young adult hit movie, doesn’t it? In my mind’s eye I see the characters already cast and to an extent that’s completely accurate. The Hadley Academy is a young adult novel that establishes a new world, one that exists within sight of ours, but can only be seen by a few, select people. See, it has similarities, ideas or tropes that other well known middle grade fiction books try to achieve. Author Conor Grennan wastes no time in creating this slightly alternate world and dropping readers right in the middle of it.
It’s natural to be scared of one thing or another. Let’s be clear, it’s not that I was scared of Star Wars A Merry Sithmas Pop-Up Book; it’s just that I was hesitant to get started on it because I thought I wouldn’t be able to finish the book in a way that’s presentable. Any Star Wars fan knows that once you open the packaging or break the seal its collectible value plummets. That’s where this book is utterly, thankfully different. “Daddy, can we do the pop-up book”, asked the 10 year-old. It’s when he asked that question I knew it was time, for better or worse to get the tape, read the directions and jump into the book.
When The Last Jedi came out I was reluctant to criticize it because the one before it was so entertaining. It had some built-in good will that made it relatively critic proof initially. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker doesn’t arrive in movie theaters with that luxury. That’s unfortunate because the movie tries very hard to succeed. It jams so much content, loose plot stories and guest stars from previous films that the final third of the film feels like a talk show saying goodbye as previous guests walk on screen.
Ode to be trapped inside Matthew Reinhart’s mind. Reinhart is an author and pop-up book genius. He’s constructed dozens of pop-up books that make you want to be a piece of paper just so he can engineer it becoming whatever magical thing might come to life in his books. We first discovered his work in Encyclopedia Prehistorica Dinosaurs and Encyclopedia Sharks and Other Sea Monsters. These, and his other pop-up books are the stuff of legend and will engross anyone aged 5 and up. They’re also very complex, so if you value your books you’ll want to handle them yourself when looking at them with children under 10. Star Wars, The Ultimate Pop-Up Galaxy lives up to its name and is now our favorite Reinhart book. It maintains the intricate pop-up aspects of his other work, but digs down into many Star Wars elements that pop off of the page.
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