Children's book reviews, all age comic books, Kidlit, mglit, movies, entertainment and parenting
Funny, as in genuinely producing a laugh, is something that eco books don’t normally do, especially picture books aimed at kindergarten through third grade. However, Earth Friend Forever, manages to produce a laugh or two, in addition to driving home the eco point to those young audiences. It’s an illustrated book on our use of plastic that’s not too heavy, doesn’t speak down to young elementary students, and provides basic ideas on how they can help with the problem.
“I’ve been taking my sons since here they were that age,” said the lady who checked us in when we arrived at Momocon. She went on to tell me that they now have a local hotel room so that they can enjoy Momocon to its fullest extent. I could relate to her on both levels. Our boys have been attending Momocon since the youngest was three and a hotel room to crash out for a bit would’ve been nice. On an entirely different level, it was great to attend a con again and to that end, Momocon 2022 did not disappoint.
Never judge a book by its cover. I led one other review like this and that book, much like Lifetime Passes was nothing like what I thought it would be. From the cover of Lifetime Passes one might think that it’s a group of teen social media savvy vampires who are being escorted through a theme park with their elder queen, who was donning red glasses underneath her umbrella. Had I looked at the back cover I would’ve discovered a more accurate read on what the graphic novel is really about.
When’s the last time you saw a great movie? And by that I mean, a really great movie that pleased virtually everybody in the audience, regardless of their age, sex or background? Movies like this just don’t come around often. They’ve been replaced by franchise tent films that dependably come around every couple of years and deliver the same level of enjoyment. It was a better than average Marvel film, the last Pixar film was better or some other milquetoast compliment is more often than not how we’ve come to realistically describe movies. Two years delayed from its intended release comes Top Gun Maverick, the sequel to its namesake that was originally released in 1986. Low and behold, Top Gun Maverick is a master class in filmmaking that perfectly combines any element that one could request from a movie. It’s one of the best films I’ve seen and is the complete package in its telling a story that’s wrapped in action and, not to mention, 30+ years removed from the original.
The Woman Who Split the Atom is a fascinating, entertaining, non-fiction book that dares you not to enjoy it. That’s a big claim, especially when you consider that the key group that the book is going after are those middle school, mglit readers who can be notoriously fickle. Now, factor in that the book is the true story about a scientist whose groundbreaking work as a physicist changed the world. Oh, and this physicist is a Jewish woman who you probably haven’t heard of who did the bulk of her research in Germany in the early 20th century. With all of that going against it, the book tells the story of Lise Meitner in a way that even the most reluctant middle school reader will eagerly turn the pages to see what happens next.
What’s the difference between a gay weightlifter and a weightlifter who is gay? That’s kind of a trick question because there is no correct answer and it’s one that just popped into my head as I was trying to recap Strong. Strong is an illustrated book and the story of Rob Kearney, a professional Strongman who is openly gay. Or would that be an openly gay professional Strongman? Regardless he competes on a global scale, but his biography describes him as the latter. However, either way you describe it, it leads to one of the main issues that school librarians will have with Strong, not that there’s anything wrong with that.
There is something familiar about The Prisoner of Shiverstone. It has a character or two that will remind you of others that you’ve read, or possibly some of the more creative movies that you’ve seen. Yes, Shiverstone seems like something that you know. However, when all of the elements come into play it forms a unique, weird, creative gem of an mglit graphic novel that dances with different genres and one in which future entries would be welcome.
Animals That Might Exist is a very clever book that could be viewed via two, different lenses. Either of them will agree that the book is an incredibly well-crafted and produced book. Its pages are thicker than regular ones and when combined with its interior drawings help the book exude an aurora of a long-lost encyclopedia from the Gary Lawson non-fiction wing of biology. And having said that, there’s a third lens that people might enjoy reading Animals That Might Exist.
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