Children's book reviews, all age comic books, Kidlit, mglit, movies, entertainment and parenting
This is quite the adventure, I thought to myself as I was one chapter into reading Socks & Secret Quests: The Wandering Shop. That further got me thinking of how few books I read that can truly be called “an adventure”. There are a majority of books that are entertaining, and some that are great, but “an adventure”, that all-but reads itself is quite rare. Socks & Secret Quests: The Wandering Shop so perfectly nails the it factor that some books lack.
The Battle of Attu. As I started The Forgotten War: A World War II Battle on American Soil, it was a battle that sounded familiar, but I could’ve easily been confusing it with something else. Attu does sound very Star Wars. The Forgotten War introduces Attu in the first chapter as American and Japanese troops are engaged in combat in WWII. An omnipresent narrator starts the book with our main character Charlie, in the midst of a battle on the island of Attu. Attu is part of the Aleutian Islands. This chain of islands is the spiraling strand of land that spews off of Alaska. It’s a remote location that teeters into the North Pacific Ocean like a kid scared to jump from the high dive at the swimming pool.
Last year I was teaching ELA in high school. One of my writing prompts was to write a short story from the perspective of an inanimate object. I had a photograph of a streetcar, an automobile, advertising sign and more. All of the photos, plus our detailed speech about the essay, had enough details to inspire those high school kids to write something with a modicum of meaning, creativity or heart. Olivetti was an mglit book that we really enjoyed. Author Allie Millington’s book, Trunk No. 3 follows a similar set up. Does it payoff as efficiently as a story from the perspective of a typewriter?
It’s tough to introduce worlds to audiences. What makes a young reader want to explore a new book with unknown characters? In my over simplified mind I view the world of authors as being similar to cartoonists. Assuming that all of the work is done under the same name, the content needs to have enough of the footprint that brought the audience, without being repetitive. I know, there are many adult authors who defy that mantra and flaunt the sheer volume of published or co-authored books. The Intergalactics is the first book in a series by Erik Jon Slangerup. It’s mglit that introduces young readers to aliens, who are surprisingly like us, despite being unique and in fantastical situations.
Children’s books are not automatically guaranteed a sequel. Granted, many, if not all of them, aspire to have a lengthy run, but there are some stories and books that just peter out on the literary vine. This is not something that Game of Pets: The Boy Who Knew Too Much, by Aaron Blabey, has to worry about. Elementary school-age children know Blabey from his work on The Bad Guys. That book series was one of the few that our youngest child would pick up, and has since been made into movies that probably do the same thing to kids in that demographic. Game of Pets is effortless to read. It’s a world-building start to a funny, science-fiction world that ages eight and up will want to explore.
Golden Boy is kind of like the Afterschool Special that you never saw. The Afterschool Special was usually smaltzy movies that were on ABC ( a television network that Disney purchased….) and usually had soft melodramatic lessons on empathy. They had popular teen actors like John Travolta, Jodie Foster or maybe even Kristy McNichol staring in them. Golden Boy reminds us of those movies, but is a much more lighthearted, comedic version. It’s very easy to enjoy Golden Boy, but it does require you to suspend disbelief and believe that a dog can be transformed into a teen. OK, maybe to some people Golden Boy is the canine and football version of Freaky Friday. However, since that inspiration also starred Jodie Foster and was from the mid-70s, we’re taking the win on the reference. *
The Sherlock Society: Art Attack, AKA, The Sherlock Society 3 knows its family, and its role. It’s very important to know your role. The Sherlock Society is the literary sibling to City Spies, which is the literary best friend to Spy School. Note that the first two series are related and the third one is RIYL. The Sherlock Society is mid-elementary through middle school as middle school metaphorical manna. Art Attack is a fun, confidence-building romp that’s got travel, age-appropriate relationships, a surprisingly twisty plot and characters audiences will grow along with.
File under: adult ADHD. As I look at Relic Hamilton, Genie Hunter on my desk it mocks me. The book knows that it was read many months ago. The book knows that the praise I thought about it stood true and was higher than most upper-elementary and mglit releases. The books also knows that it’s one of the few releases that speaks to boys more than girls. The educator in me knew that I needed to speak from the mountain top to my upper-elementary school teacher friends, that this was something they needed to be aware of. Yet, with all of that wind in the book’s sail, it sat on my desk, silently judging me. It was doing this while all the time boys, aged eight through twelve, were tilting at the literary windmills looking for a book with action, yokai, and a twist.
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