mglit | Daddy Mojo

Flying Fillies coming-of-age with a historical fiction, female, WWII twist

There’s an advertisement on the radio that so sweet and schmaltzy that your initial reaction is to quickly change the station like some Pavlovian dog. But you’re too late and four seconds into the ad you’re disarmed by its quaint music and down-home copy. By the end of the ad its name is stuck in your head and you’re pining for a pint of that stupid ice cream that you know you shouldn’t eat. It shamelessly reminds you of a different era, a time when things were different, slower, and more patient. Flying Fillies: The Sky’s the Limit is upper-elementary and middle school mglit that harkens back to that feeling. It’s mglit that dances between a coming-of-age story, the non-fiction world of WASPs, and the backdrop of early 1940s WWII paranoia and pride with ease in a way that gives those younger readers an age-appropriate view into trailblazers that you never knew about.

Flying Fillies: The Sky’s the Limit is historical fiction about a real group of women pilots in WWII who bridged the cap and broke a barrier or two.

Historical fiction that resonates if you give it a chance

The Otherwoods, bait and switch mglit on acceptance donned in a horror robe

I love going to a beef jerky store. Due to my high blood pressure, I can’t frequent them too often, thus, it’s great that they’re not on every corner. There is a beef jerky store in the area where we vacation and I go in there just to tease my senses. Imagine that your version of this story exists for whatever you like. However, on the next visit to the beef jerky store, all of the jerky has been replaced by different types of string cheese. The name of the store hasn’t changed, they’re still claiming to sell beef jerky, but the only product that they’re selling is cheese. The Otherwoods is selling cheese when it’s advertising beef jerky.

The Otherwoods is LGBTQ acceptance in sheep-horror clothing. It’s not scary enough for the later, yet aims the book’s jacket at that audience.

This is not the ghost or spooky book that you’re looking for

The Things We Miss, a little time travel, a lot of life and a great book

There’s a new type of reluctant reader that I put my finger on, and I’m one of them- the dramatic reluctant reader. In the venn diagram of readers, this person crosses over into the realistic fiction persona with ease, but our new moniker avoids books that are overly dramatic. The Things We Miss is mglit that were it not for the inclusion of a tree house that’s developed a time porthole would’ve easily fallen into that category. The odds on it being read by even someone who loves to read, but doesn’t like drama would’ve shrunk at a more precipitous rate than the box office for recent Marvel films. However, include a time porthole, put it in a tree house and include all the middle school angst you can handle and you’ve got a winner.

The Things We Miss is mglit that brings in just enough science-fiction to the genre before they realize that it’s realistic fiction that they’ll enjoy as much.

Fear not the realistic fiction, with a touch of drama

The Sinister Secrets of Singe stumbles shortly out of the gate

The premise, as well as the hook in The Sinister Secrets of Singe, is very difficult to resist. There is a house that continues to grow, it literally gets larger and larger every night. There’s an 11-year-old kid, Noah, who lives there with his mother and their robot, who is size-wise the same age and stature as him. Noah’s job is to build things for the nearby city of Liberty, which he’s not allowed to visit. His mother keeps him under lock and key, under the watchful eye of Elijah, the robot. There’s so much to potentially love about The Sinister Secrets of Singe that it makes the fact that it didn’t pull it all together all the more frustrating.

The Sinister Secrets of Singe is mglit that could’ve benefitted from more action, fewer tropes and a haircut before planning the series.

Here’s hoping that the next one is better

Quest Kids and the Dark Prophecy of Doug doesn’t disappoint

An entertaining first book does not automatically ensure a series. Quest Kids and the Dragon Pants of Gold was a great book that sure looked like it had legs. Quest Kids and the Dark Prophecy of Doug is mglit that runs with fun. It’s a book that lives somewhere between the graphic novel and chapter book world that incorporates the illustrated manic fun of the former while building upon the text-based latter that kids need to know.

Quest Kids and the Dark Prophecy of Doug blends comic style art and quickly paced text for an mglit series that spans elementary and middle school.

Stop, collaborate and read this book

The Bellwoods Game, spooky, age-OK scary for mid-elementary and up

The heel is what drives the narrative. It’s why you watch wrestling and a stronger heel will always make a book worth reading. The heel, or bad guy, can make a decent book highly enjoyable or transform a movie that’s just ok to one that is a waste of your time. The Bellwoods Game lays down the heel in short order and does so in a way that any kid who’s ever grown up in any neighborhood will relate to. It will bring back memories of their childhood in an upper-elementary, mglit package that delivers the chills without skimping on the relationships.

The Bellwoods Game is mglit that has a great heel, genuine scares, monster creeps and an urban legend that every kid has in their neighborhood.

Dancing between scary, urban legend and real with aplomb

The Fall of the House of Tatterly, mglit that almost nails it

I saw a football game the other day that reminded me of The Fall of the House of Tatterly, but more about that in a moment. The Fall of the House of Tatterly is an mglit book about ghosts, mediums, exorcisms, family tradition, teen angst and the low country in South Carolina. That’s a place that we vacation yearly and this book jams the aesthetics to that area so well you’ll be checking the spine of the book for Spanish Moss. As a book, it does so many things right that it’s reminiscent of a football game where most of it is so one-sided, with such a dominant level of play that it’s unbelievable how far it fell when the final page is turned.

The Fall of the House of Tatterly is mglit that effectively lives in the ghostly low country, but aspires for greater cultural ambitions.

A strong 85%

City Spies: Mission Manhattan, almost measures up to its predecessors

The great thing about a franchise is that it’s dependable. City Spies by New York Times Bestselling author James Ponti is one of the go-to mglit book series for upper-elementary through middle school readers who know. The first four books, and about half of Mission Manhattan, read like a screenplay that is primed and ready to become the next movie franchise that you didn’t know you needed. They’re loaded with enough action, teen-centric humor, and intrigue to keep ages 8-12 entertained and invested in the group’s progress. The group goes on supervised missions where adult spies would look too out of place and each spy is named after the mega city from which they’re from, like Rio, London, Cairo, etc. City Spies: Mission Manhattan finds the group of teenage spies-in-training in Italy and New York embroiled in a plot to save a fellow teenager from danger within her camp.

City Spies: Mission Manhattan is the fifth book in this go-to mglit book series and almost hits the same league as its predecessors

City Spies 5 aims for the same highs, but falls just a bit short