admin, Author at Daddy Mojo

The Five Wolves, a graphic novel that you’ll love or won’t understand.

The Five Wolves by Peter McCarty is unlike any book we’ve seen before. It’s a wordless book, but presented at a very high level and is 285 pages long, so it’s not for the very young. The narrative is grand and has more in common with Beowulf or The Odyssey, than a graphic novel. However, one could categorize The Five Wolves as a graphic novel, albeit one that’s unlike anything they’ve ever seen. It’s also not entirely a wordless book. There are pages with words on them, but they’re pages with only words, hundreds of words, symbols or numbers with the phrases that are relevant to the story that are bolded. I tried to read The Five Wolves one time and got too frustrated with it. And while that’s not a good first impression for a book, I rebounded, took my time with The Five Wolves, looked over all of it and have a better impression.

The Five Wolves is a graphic novel that’s heavy on art an interpretation and very light on words.

You’ll love it/you’ll be confused by it

Bread Days, an illustrated book on loss is grief over good memories

The habits and seasonal routines shape our memories and lives. Bread Days is an illustrated book by Hannah Chung. For me, one of the strongest smells and memories of my childhood revolves around Christmas. I’m sure that Chex Mix is as tasty any time of the year, but I always place it during the final two weeks of the year. It’s Christmastime baking, and the smell of those ingredients is flooding the house. That is my version of Bread Days.

Bread Days is an illustrated book by Hannah Chung that deals with a family tradition and its power to deal with grief.

Soft, lyrical

Do Not Disturb, a must-read on cell phone addiction-and stopping, for kids

Stop me if you’ve heard this one, but my kid’s cell phone is driving me crazy. As a teacher I know the struggle. The answers seem easy. Take the phone away, but it’s how they socialize. Limit their cell phone time, but they might need it for school work. If they don’t learn how to deal with it now, then they’ll be even worse when they’re out of the house. The quandary of how to deal with it, simply from the perspective of an adult is challenging. Do Not Disturb: How to Say No to Your Phone is for middle or high school kids who want to know more about the problem. But, I don’t have a problem, and it’s entirely possible that you don’t, but just for the sake of discussing it, let’s kick the topic around.

Do Not Disturb, a smart phone primer on its powerful control is a book that some need to read while others will falsely deny the need for its content or assistance.

If you have a kid in middle school there’s a 90% you need this

The Atlas of Languages: Words Around the World educates and entertains

What’s the fastest-growing language in the United States? *Which language’s word for television is literally translated as “fool’s looking box?”**What language has the very flattering phrase that translates to, “even monkeys fall from trees,” to mean that everyone makes mistakes?*** The Atlas of Languages is loaded with those tidbits of information that younger ages and trivia fans love to share. The readable reference book is one that’s pretty rare, especially outside of the Nat Geo Kids Venn Diagram. That uncommon field is even rarer if it’s regarding a topic that is not animal-based.

The Atlas of Languages: Words Around the World makes a reference book on languages entertaining, a la the 500lb gorilla in non-fiction reference.

Refernce/entertainment/reference/entertainment/6,7

The Snowman Code is the elementary school skeleton key to get kids to read

What makes a kid want to read? The answer to that breaks down due to their age and sex. Girls tend to read much quicker and advance at younger ages. Boys are apparently made of snips, snails, puppy dog tails and fart jokes or gas euphemisms. The Snowman Code is one of the cutest chapter books for elementary age kids we’ve read this year. Not only is it a good book, it’s one that will be effortless to read for children in elementary school. These are the readers who are able to graduate to chapter books, but might need a nudge to boost their confidence to get to books that look like The Snowman Code.

The Snowman Code uses pacing, succinct dialogue, humor, well developed characters and heart to create a fabulous chapter book for elementary school.

It’ll melt hearts and make kids want to read

The King and Nothing, oversized, illustrated magic for the forever bookshelf

I’m a middle-aged dude, and The King and Nothing feels like a great illustrated book that I had forgotten about. It’s that book you used to spend hours looking at the pictures, unconsciously learning the sight words and getting lost in a book in a beanbag chair. You were five-to-seven years old and learning to love to read, but you probably weren’t calling it that then. Sometimes books like this come across our desk. In a very polite, unassuming manner, they speak to us as if they’re a character from Wallace and Gromit and ask us to read it.

The King and Nothing is the best kind of illustrated book for young audiences. It’s simple with illustrations that take advantage of its big canvas, yet gives kids the opportunity to think beyond its pages.

This book will age very well

Bud Finds Her Gift is a beautiful nature book without the guilt

The intersection of picture and illustration book is a tricky one that only publishing executives know how to successfully navigate 100% of the time. Bud Finds Her Gift is a lovely book that could be seen in either one of those categories by some people. Does the text do more of the heavy lifting or it that left up to the illustrations? The answer to that question determines if it would be classed as an illustrated book or a picture book. Granted, as the end of the day, other than the author, illustrator, and publisher, who really cares? It’s when you trip over a book like Bud Finds Her Gift that you want to describe it accurately.

Bud Finds Her Gift is an illustrated book that takes advantage of its luxurious, approachable art and succinct, but impactful text, to entertain kids in a soft message book.

Calculating Chimpanzees is smarter-than-average STEM book that rewards readers

The educator wonk in me loves books that aren’t scared to display their intelligence. The realist in me knows something that’s too smart will scare off some readers. The second book in the Extraordinary Animals series is Calculating Chimpanzees, Brainy Bees, and Other Animals with Mind-Blowing Mathematical Abilities. That’s a mouthful of a title and it has the intellect to back up. Not that a reference, non-fiction book aimed at elementary school readers has a beef with anybody, other than ignorance.

Calculating Chimpanzees, Brainy Bees, and other Animals with Mind-Blowing Mathematical Abilities is STEM for kids that’s accessible, with more of a scientific, narrative flow than some its over-the-top brethren.

This book (and the animals listed therein) are smarter than some of my students