Daddy Mojo

Camp Warner Bros, Week 8 is all Family Matters and lots of Urkel

In the late 80’s I didn’t watch much television. I was aware of what cultural touchstones were out there and one of the largest was certainly the TGI-Fridays block of programming that was on ABC. It was equal, if not superior to the Must-See-TV era where Thursday night belonged to NBC. From 1989 to 1997 it was one of the largest cultural juggernauts on the planet that created a classic character and was go-to family viewing for a generation or two of kids. Family Matters was one of the lead television shows and every single season is available on disc or to stream at home.

Bonkers, can’t-miss TV from the 90’s is available on DVD and streaming

It’s Showtime! A Pepper and Frannie Story shines for young ages

Frannie and Pepper are two best friends. It’s a tough animal world out there and these two rabbits make the best of it. Frannie is outgoing and loves to be the center of attention while Pepper is a bit more introverted. Pepper is more the planner, while Frannie is doing improvisational songs or dancing in the street. It’s the Odd Couple for pre-K through early elementary school kids and It’s Showtime! is all about their show.

It’s Showtime! succeeds with pre-K kids who haven’t seen this show before

Moon Messenger, early elementary Mid-Autumn Festival poetry primer

Because I teach ESL to Chinese students the mid-Autumn Festival has been in our vocabulary for many years. Moon Messenger is an illustrated book by Wei Jie, with art by Xia Xinxin that tells the story of what most of my students say is their second favorite festival. Essentially, the Mid-Autumn Festival family and is centered on the full moon at the time. There is also a large component of the holiday where you eat moon cakes. Moon cakes are kind of like mochi, which is a bean paste that some people love and others can tolerate it if it has some fruit on it. Chinese snacks aside, the book is about one child’s desire to see his father, who’s on a business trip and how the full moon plays a part in it.

Moon messenger, a primer on mid-autumn festival for ages 4 and up

Superhero Playbook, super traits from heroes that kids can benefit from

Our children, in no way shape or form want to actively talk about emotions. Both of our boys can sense an upcoming talk on emotions or feelings from a mile away. And for two kids who don’t want to talk about emotions, they sure get emotional when it needs to be discussed. Granted, part of that stems from the fact that talking about your feelings could lead some kids to question their strengths or magnify their faults. That’s the beauty of Superhero Playbook by Randall Lotowycz with illustrations by Tim Palin. It looks at a myriad of superheroes, as well as their superpowers and presents it in a way that kids aged nine and up can learn from.

It’s more learning than super and equal parts both

All age comic books for August 12

This week in all age comic books has lots of great graphic novels that will appeal to a wide variety of readers. If you have a (mainly) girl reader who likes humor then The Magical Adventures Pheobe and Her Unicorn is a must-read series. That graphic novel comes out this week and is hilarious. It’ll mainly skew towards girl readers, but those boys that pick it up will laugh just as much as the girls. To that end, the boys have a new graphic novel from Ben 10: The Creature From Serenity Shore that is loaded with the same elementary-aged monster fun that the show has.

In comic books, check out My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic #89, The Amazing Spider-Man #46 and a couple others. We did pick up Transformers My Little Pony: Friendship in Disguise last week and absolutely loved it! It’s funny, loaded with ‘in’ jokes for Transformers and MLP fans and appropriate for ages 8 and up. Those younger fans might need some help reading it though. Below is a list of all age comic books this week. If you need to find your closest comic book store just check out comic book store locator.

Issues, get your all age comic books with issues….

Hurry Up! A Book About Slowing Down is apt advice and a great read

Less is more. A children’s book that capture that essence is truly the stuff of good-night book legend. Hurry Up! By kate Dopirak with illustrations by Christopher Silas Neal is one of those books. It’s the perfect pairing of illustrations, words and message that allow for the book to be read once a night or re-read a couple of times in one sitting. This is a great good-night book that audiences one through seven will enjoy.

We are guilty of this….sometimes kids just need to look at the little things

Feathered Serpent and the Five Suns, creation myth for ages 5-9

Myths are an excellent way to teach. Due to their repetitious nature they’re able to softly teach people of any age. I teach an ESL class and in each lesson on different cultures there’s a mythical story that I read with the students. One of my favorites is Crow Brings the Daylight from Canada, which is worth checking out if you’re unfamiliar with it. Feathered Serpent and the Five Suns is a Mesoamerican myth about the origin of humans and the Gods that are representative of Central and South America. The book by Duncan Tonatiuh reads like an elementary aged adventure story. There are monsters, a magical quest and lessons that the story will infer for readers to pick up on.

This is a creation myth for kids that don’t normally dig creation myths

Alice Across America is a non-fiction story on women, driving and history

It’s fascinating to imagine the picture books that could come out in 100 years. They’ll imagine a time when cars didn’t fly and there weren’t teleportation devices to get us around the globe. Those books will innocently look back at the people who invented them, as well as, the first barriers that were broken by those who used them. Alice Across America, The Story of the First Women’s Cross-Country Road Trip is a very fun and informative illustrated book that tells about a very different time in the United States.

This is fun non-fiction that kids won’t believe