admin, Author at Daddy Mojo

Brain Quest Presidents Smart Cards, the go-to car trip friend is updated

The United States of America is 250? I vaguely remember the 200^th anniversary and the Bi-centennial train that made its way across the country.Brain Quest Presidents Smart Cards is released the same year as its 250^th and is a surprisingly fun and engaging way to test your knowledge about the U. S. Presidents. I say ‘surprising’ because presidential facts doesn’t take up much, if any space in my wheelhouse. It’s an area that I’ve never purposely sought out information on, despite many U.S. history classes that certainly put a couple of facts in my hippocampus.

Brain Quest Presidents Smart Cards has the same format, great questions, durable cards, and engaging content, but is updated for America250 or its Bisequicentennial.

Presidents and trivia to make a road-trip fly by?

Dance in the Desert, an illustrated, timeless, allegorical wonder of a book

This past Christmas season I watched A Charlie Brown Christmas with our youngest child. I was hoping that the spirit of Linus Van Pelt would move him. After reading Dance in the Desert by Madeleine L’Engle, it could be more appropriate for him to be moved by that spirit. Dance in the Desert has been revised, abridged, and re-released after 55 years. Middle school readers will know L’Engle from A Winkle in Time, which is one of the first books they’re required to read. Dance in the Desert is from her early days as a writer, and displays a sense of wonder, optimism and joy, that’s tempered with the rough edges of life.

Dance in the Desert is re-released after 55 years and tells a fanciful story, with an allegory-if you want it, about family, bravery and wonder.

To Christmas or not-Christmas, that is the question

Are You Snuggly? is good, silly board book fun with a big vocabulary

Snuggly is one of those adjectives that couples in the early phases of their relationships, as well as, parents to kids under two can earnestly use. It is a very appropriate adjective that correctly describes its intention. The ability to be seen as cuddling up with is a rare commodity. Are You Snuggly? is a playful board book that goes through a handful of animals and the very descriptive, and uncommon words used to describe them.

Are You Snuggly? is board book silliness that’s well constructed, with lots of cute animals asking simple questions.

chew on the pages, it’s all board book good

Gird your loins for The Gland Factory, you’ll wish it was twice as long

Have you seen Inside Out or Inside Out 2? Both of those movies did a fabulous job in explaining emotions. They were especially effective with those complicated ones, like anxiety and jealousy. The Gland Factory: A Tour of Your Body’s Goops, Juices and Hormones is the literary sibling by another mother to those movies. This is a book that’s funny, legitimately LOL funny on so many levels that you’ll begrudgingly find yourself learning something in-between a chuckle, grin, guffaw or laugh. Author Rachel Poliquin proves that she knows her audience because The Gland Factory is sufficiently gross enough to attract upper-elementary through middle school readers.

The Gland Factory straddles the line between reference book and graphic novel in a funny, LOL, and educational way that kids will want to experience.

You’ll want to go back to your 10 YO self and read this

Arctic Adventure: A Tundra Tale, illustrated, poetic, STEM gold for 4-8

That’s a handful of alliterations in that short title, aren’t they? And while young readers might not appreciate its clever wordplay, they will immediately notice the glossy aspects to the book’s cover. The arctic fox is looking at its kit, while a mother and her daughter are in a boat in the horizon. In the background are whirling colors that older readers will associate with the aurora borealis. Younger readers might not know that fascinating light show, but will associate the pattern with something akin to Willy Wonka and be immediately curious about the show. That magic will continue as kids open Arctic Adventure. They’ll fall into wanderlust and become the armchair traveler that great illustrated books can help kids embark on.

Arctic Adventure: A Tundra Tale is an illustrated book that uses fabulous, dreamy art and succinct text to create a world that young readers will willingly get lost in.

An arctic Adventure that’s great any time of the year

Christmas Together with Polar Bear and Friends, is scaled down Carle magic

When is a board book not a board book? When it turns into a store! I needed to twist that old joke from Bazooka Joe to illustrate the difference between Christmas Together with Polar Bear and Friends. It’s a picture book from The World of Eric Carle, which brings to mind visions of oversized glossy pages, or possibly thick board book pages of friendly, multi-hued animals asking simple questions or saying simple things. Christmas Together with Polar Bear and Friends can frustratingly be both of those or neither of those. However, if you accept Christmas Together for what it is, it can be a happy, non-secular look at Charistmas via a classic name in children’s literature.

Christmas Together with Polar Bear and Friends is from the World of Eric Carle, but is presented in a scaled down size that will disappoint those familiar with his style.

I liked the 14″ pizza, not the individual size

Fearless Firsts: Athletes Who Changed the Game, a one-note song for fans

Fearless Firsts: Athletes Who Changed the Game is a book with a very narrow scope and interest level. The subject matter is mainly on par with those upper-elementary school students. These are those students in fifth grade who will have to do their first essays on inspirational people, careers or interesting animals. It’s quite the juxtaposition because it’s comparing athletes from somewhat different time periods, in different sports, yet their ‘firsts’ have a frustratingly high amount in common. Not surprisingly, the solution to their ‘firsts’ and the athletes’ reactions to them are the same too.

First!

Cosmic Cadets: Accused, great graphic novel fun for ages 9 and up

Reluctant readers, mainly talking to you boys in middle-elementary school through middle-middle school, hear me when I say this. I hear you when, through one manner or another, you say or infer that you don’t want to read. Cosmic Cadets (Book Two): Accused! is a graphic novel (a format that you love), is set on a ship in space (science-fiction!) and has a group of peers (kids your age) who are working together (a lesson that your teachers and parents will love). This is a younger-skewing all-age graphic novel that pays attention to the subject matter most graphic novels that age ignore.

Cosmic Cadets: Accused continues the all-ages, science-fiction graphic novel fun for ages nine and up

A great graphic novel for elementary school, sans fart jokes