Daddy Mojo

Onward, keeping Pixar weird and wonderful

Keep Pixar weird. If it were a city then this could be its rallying call among some of its citizens. They’re the folk who’ve lived there for a long time and love the place, but they also like the time when it just got started. Onward is a film from brings the oddity back to Pixar does it with an original story that feels unlike anything they’ve done since the late 2000s. In short, Onward manages to assure critics of Pixar that they’re too reliant on sequels or need them to create ‘those’ moments that we’ve come to expect from them.

Onward is original, weird, emotional, creative, human and very fun

One More Hug, feelings of déjà vu-both good and bad

One More Hug is a children’s illustrated book by Megan Alexander with illustrations by Hiroe Nakata. It tells the story that most parents have when they look at their child and can see them grow up right before their eyes. One moment you’re assuring them that the wind blowing outside is nothing to worry about and then before you know it you’re watching them drive off down the street on the way to college. This is a feeling that parents see in their mind’s eye or when they’re looking back at photographs that seem like they were taken yesterday.

One More Hug. cute premise, but nothing you haven’t seen before

Chirp, middle grade life & mystery, with a side dose of serious

Chirp is from author Kate Messner. She’s someone who your middle school student knows, who is probably chastising you for not buying this book or getting it from the library yet. For us, Chirp is a great representation of why middle school audiences love Messner’s books. They look at the life of an early teenager from a fun angle, but also address some of the serious things that might be going on in their life.

Crickets, growing up, friends and confronting the uncomfortable

Orchestra, a love letter to the symphonic for elementary school

Orchestra is a massive, over sized book by Avalon Nuovo with illustrations by David Doran. This is a richly illustrated book that feels at home in any elementary school library, classroom or wherever music is a language that’s practiced. My knowledge on orchestra is limited and that’s being kind. However, I’m a huge fan of books by Flying Eye Books. They produce high quality books that stretch the imagination or have one of their toes in the STEM pool.

A must for the music curious, with great art and thorough elementary aged info

Diary of a 5th Grade Outlaw, upper elementary go-to fiction

The presentation is one of the first things that elementary aged readers will notice about Diary of a 5^th Grade Outlaw by Gina Loveless and Andrea Bell. It’s much more of a rectangular prism than other books. This allows smaller hands to easily grasp the hardback book and look at its cover. From there those readers will see the rough notebook like appearance to the book and might erroneously presume that it’s cut from the same cloth as Wimpy Kid. It’s not and once you open up the book you’ll see that Diary of a 5^th Grade Outlaw is exactly what some kids need in order to become better readers.

Its text, layout and subject are perfect for mid-elementary ages

All Age Comic Books for February 19

This week in new all age comic books has a lot of superheroes that are just below mainstream and perfect for middle school readers. Art Baltazar’s Powers In Action has its first trade paperback, The Hero Squadron released this week. If you have an elementary school reader who is looking age appropriate action this is just the ticket. Over the podcast we’ll chat about Archie meeting another pop culture icon-The B-52’s! This one-shot will be great for those that love Archie, the 80’s (or late 70’s) and those that like the previous Archie ‘meet-ups’ that you never thought would work, but were ridiculously entertaining. We’ll also chat about Superman Smashes the Klan, Lumberjanes and more. For now, here are all of the all age comic books for this week. New comic book day is every Wednesday, to find out where your closest comic book store just dig into comic book store locator.

Late February is a great time to head out to the comic book store

Greta’s Story, mid-elementary book on the climate strike wonder

Why isn’t she in school? I wondered to myself when Greta Thunberg first burst onto the scene. If your mid elementary aged child was wondering that; or possibly other things about the schoolgirl who went on strike, then this book is exactly what they’re looking for. Greta’s Story, The Schoolgirl Who Went on Strike to Save the Planet by Valentina Camerinia, translated by Moreno Giovannoni with illustrations by Veronica Carratello is a middle-elementary school book that gives ages 8-12 at this young eco-warrior.

Greta’s Story digs into the reason and history behind the school strike climate girl

Counting The Stars, the illustrated story of math pioneer Katherine Johnson

Books like Counting The Stars don’t get the respect or attention that they deserve. They’re illustrated books at a middle elementary school reading level, but might be intimidating to some readers in that age group. Normally an illustrated book has the impression of it being geared as one that’s simple to read and expresses easy concepts. Counting The Stars does that, but it does so with more advanced paragraphs and introduces children to Katherine Johnson. She’s the NASA mathematician who many people (including myself) were first introduced to via the film Hidden Figures.

This is a great story to teach elementary aged readers for many reasons