mglit | Daddy Mojo

Golden Boy-good-time chapter reading for those who think they don’t want to

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. *

Golden Boy is the implausible, silly on the face of it, mglit that you didn’t ask for, but can’t resist reading about a dog that turns into a boy.

Resistance is futile

The Sherlock Society Art Attack balances intrigue, family, action and humor

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.

The Sherlock Society 3, or The Sherlock Society: Art Attack, is the answer for upper-elementary, mglit people who want a semi-grounded, great book.

Neatly fits in the upper-elementary through mid-middle school puzzle

Relic Hamilton, Genie Hunter hits the reading itch for elementary-aged boys

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.

Relic Hamilton, Genie Hunter is mglit that starts in upper-elementary and goes through middle school that’s fun to read and wicked quick.

Come get some

Little Monsters, a fun twist on Little Women that engages girls aged 8-12

I never read Little Women. I saw the shout-out that the classic book received in Ride or Die, felt momentarily guilty for it, but it’s not enough to make me read it. Little Monsters alludes to that classic title by having “Little” in the same regal font as “Women”, but having the latter word physically scratched out via a series of horizontal claw marks. Underneath that is “Monsters”, hastily scrawled as if someone’s leaving the scene of a cattle mutilation. You don’t need to have read the timeless book it references to be attracted to Little Monsters. This is a retelling of that story, and updated in ways that will engage young readers.

Little Monsters twists the time and setting of Little Women, and adds some monster paranoia, that will entertain girls in upper-elementary through middle.

Girls, gossip, monster, paranoia the destroyer

Blood in the Water is younger-skewing mglit that speaks to grades 4-7

Blood in the Water has a nice, bubbling sense of tension. Creating a book for mid-elementary school through mid-middle school can’t be easy. That age is learning to read chapter books, reluctant to read anything, or too ensconced in fart-borne books to care about anything else. Young readers in that eight through 14 demographic want to read something with bite and suspense. Throw in the caveat that said book needs to be age-appropriate, and you’ve got a bit of a challenge on your hands.

Blood in the Water is realistic fiction, albeit on the dramatic end, that will speak to kids in upper elementary through lower middle school.

For a season, this book will scratch the itch

A Tale of Plagues and Perfumes, fast-paced, original mglit that pays off

As kids get halfway through middle school they could lose their ability to use adjectives. I’m normally a glass-half-full kind of a guy. However, the essays that I see in 9^th grade have a majority of students who need a map, compass and guide dog in order to find adjectives. They’d be overly excited if they came up with two ways to describe the weather in July and then ask for a waiver on future assignments. A Tale of Plagues and Perfumes is one of the more original middle-grade releases you’ll read this year. It does that by delving into a world that mglit readers know as familiar, but not too familiar, and exploring a realm that other books haven’t had the scents to do.

A Tale of Plagues and Perfumes is fast-paced mglit that cuts its own path in a very original and entertaining story.

smells like teen reading

The Traitor Moth, adventure fantasy that hides in plain sight for 8 and up

It could’ve begun as a side comment, or maybe even a dare. Write a book that has an action backbone, with the heart and emotive lessons that are age-appropriate, and entertaining, for upper-elementary and mglit audiences, with a moth as the main character. A moth. That flighty, lightweight, seemingly pointless creature who is hopelessly attracted to light and the punchline to a classic Norm Macdonald joke and its nemesis, Gregory Illininivich. Author Katherine Orton heard this sidebar, slipped into her moth exoskeleton, said hold this light and created The Traitor Moth. This is the first in the Moon Realm fantasy book series that lives in the world of eight through twelve-year-old, reading-because-it’s-awesome space.

The Traitor Moth places an adventure, action, fantasy world within the confounds of a potentially lame insect.

Adventure fantasy at a jumping off point

Double Crossed, the kind of can’t-miss, non-fiction that kids want to read

Double agent: an agent who pretends to be a spy for one country or organization while in fact acting on behalf of an enemy. The concept of a double agent makes my head spin. I understand who a spy is and what they do. A double agent gets a little tricky when it comes to fully comprehending who or what they’re spying on. They have to report to their handler in their home country, as well as their contact in the country they’re spying on. Additionally, they have liaisons in both countries and need to keep their cover identity intact. Failure to do so is almost certainly torture and death, plus all manner of pain their families and loved ones would be subject to. Longest prologue ever. Double Crossed: The WWII Spies Who Saved D-Day is the amazing, non-fiction account of D-Day and the duplicity that was needed in order for it to succeed.

Double Crossed aptly tells the story of Operation Fortitude and how D-Day’s success hinged on four double agents.

Operation Fortitude: for mglit, and it works