Children's book reviews, all age comic books, Kidlit, mglit, movies, entertainment and parenting
Author: Daddy Mojo
Daddy Mojo is a blog written by Trey Burley, a stay at home dad, fanboy, husband and father. At Daddy Mojo we'll chat about home improvement, giveaways, family, children and poop culture. You can find out more about us at http://about.me/TreyBurley
Young children are smart. At their core they want to learn, it’s just up to the older people who are taking care of them to get fun, educational materials in their way. For the sake of this review, young children is referring to those kids who are between two and six. These are the crawlers and first-grade kids who have nothing better to do than learn, so hop to it parents. That is where Hello Numbers! What Can You Do? An Adventure Beyond Counting can hardwire these kids for math brilliance, with a little assistance.
Readers have to hand it Fart Quest. It clearly states what the book is about in its title. Granted, you have no idea what the quest entails, but are fairly certain that someone is on a journey and they’re probably gassy. Author Aaron Reynolds takes a simple premise and makes it so much more. Not content to simply make an upper elementary through middle school book; he’s written an adventure book about a mage in training that, at times, has more in common with Lord of the Rings than Captain Underpants.
Everything You Need to Ace Geometry In One Big Fat Notebook is a high school academic’s dream. It’s from the Big Fat Notebook series of books on Workman Publishing. If you have a middle school student then you might be familiar with these books. They’re incredibly helpful, present information in a way that’s fun to read, and makes the content stick. The books are loaded with color, faux notebook paper, and real test examples of the subject that they’re covering. What you may not know is that the series has some books that skew older to those high school students.
This week in all age comic books has lots of our go-to comic books, some cool teen releases, as well as a couple of great board books for those pre-k through kindergarten geeklings. Our favorite and our 11-year-old son’s are Scooby-Doo Where Are You! #106 and The Amazing Spider-Man #50. The former is a classic comic book that’s at home in any elementary school library (or home setting!) and the latter is great for mid-elementary school readers and up (way up!).
Those middle school readers need to check out Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #55 or Jim Henson Dark Crystal Age Resistance #12. Both of these series will have enough action to keep ages 12 and up entertained, as well, as some great dialogue to push the comic forward to a deeper level.
There are also two awesome board books out for geeklings aged three and up (or younger!). Black Widow My First Mighty Marvel Board Book and The Dark Crystal Book of Opposites have those thicker than average pages that pre-K and lower elementary kids want to read. When I was that age the board books weren’t nearly as cool. For the entire list of all age comic books just jump on past the graphic.
Cheap Trick and The Flash have many things in common. If you ask 10 people to name a great rock band then Cheap Trick would be in many of their lists. They might not be their favorite, but their list will have some Cheap Trick in there. For our money, check out Cheap Trick Steve Albini rerecording. Albini had the band do their sophomore LP, In Color but amped up the power pop. It’s brilliant. The point is that most people like Cheap Trick and most comic book fans like The Flash in much the same way. The Flash 100 Greatest Moments Highlights From the History of the Scarlet Speedster is out and will reinforce your admiration of the yellow lightning cap hero or introduce you to the hero whose action you might have only seen on television.
This is not a pejorative to other graphic novels, but Nico Bravo and the Cellar Dwellers is a very smart graphic novel. It’s not that the book is trying to flout its intelligence. Cellar Dwellers is the second book in the Nico Bravo series and I just didn’t get the first one. Granted, part of my opinion could’ve been shaped by the fact that our then ten-year-old said he “didn’t get the book” when he read it. Note to self: be sure to double-check the book recommendations from your son before you bake them into your opinion.
Maybe it’s because I’m a year older or possibly because I read the book before our son, that I realized that this series is awesome. Nico Bravo and the Cellar Dwellers does have a lot of characters. There are three main protagonists and a couple of dozen second-tier or other minor characters. The drawing style is very clean and sharp by Mike Cavallaro. It’s the fact that the illustrations are all so individualistic and detailed that help readers define the mythical world that’s been created.
Ghoulia is back in her third entry from Barbara Cantini. You Tim Burton-inspired, middle-school, well-crafted, graphic novel loving people know what I’m talking about. Ghoulia and the Ghost With No Name may sound like a person who’s got the lyrics to that song by America wrong. We do things like that all the time when we’re in the car by ourselves. This series is the incredibly detailed world of Ghoulia, a spooky little girls whose family is even spookier. Think a more gothic Addams Family, but with much more charm and drawn to minute observations put into every page.
Our 9-year-old son is an emerging reader. Sometimes he’s a reluctant reader, but that all depends on his mood. Recently we wrote about the Big Foot and Little Foot book series that is great for those emerging, reluctant readers. That series is great for those first through fourth graders that are comfortable reading chapter books with lots more words than pictures. If your reader is on the younger end of that scale we discovered a new series that’s more graphic novel oriented, but still has chapter elements for those pre-k through second graders. It’s Kitty and Dragon and is great for those readers who want lots of pictures, but need to learn the skill of following the story by reading it too.
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