Daddy Mojo

Hip & Hop In The House!, 4 fly 4YO and up

The tortoise raps slow. The hare raps quickly. There is no racing involved. They do walk briskly for a moment, but that’s only after the two anthropomorphic animals meet each other and see a poster for a rap battle. Hop lives in Breakbeat Meadow and Hip lives in Slowjamz Swamp, both of which are in Oldskool County. If you’re tongue isn’t fully in cheek yet there are more than two dozen cute puns that seal the deal in this book hits home for elementary school readers; or for those parents of young readers who want to have fun reading it to them.

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Baby Sees Colors! is a bright, kawaii-culture board book for 0-3

Baby Sees Color! is a statement of fact and a board book for those babies that just got off the baby boat. Why are board books important? Babies as young as 6 weeks old can make out shapes and colors. For parents who want their kids to see the brightest, most vivid and certainly the most kawaii book need to check out Baby Sees Colors! This board book is a phenomenon in Japan and has sold 700,000 copies there. Baby Sees Colors! is available in the United States for the first time in all of its bright colored, wavy-lined glory so that new parents can watch their babies go down the rabbit hole.

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Desmond Cole Ghost Patrol, The Scary Library Shusher review

Some first graders need a literary push. Our first grader is like that. He likes to read in theory, but he wants to read those books that he knows and for the most part they’re picture books. Kids need to love to read and parents need to challenge kids to read things that they love without it exclusively being books about toilets, poopypants and practical jokes. The struggle is real. Desmond Cole Ghost Patrol, The Scary Library Shusher is the fifth book in this series by Andres Miedoso, with illustrations by Victor Rivas.

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Secret Scouts and The Lost Leonardo, it aims high and mostly succeeds

Secret Scouts and the Lost Leonardo aims for the stratosphere. From the front cover we glean that it’s about four kids and a huge secret that involves history that could possibly propel them through space and time. All that’s missing is a Goonies-centric, blue phone box that’s bigger on the inside. The book angles itself as all age Da Vinci Code and for the most part it succeeds. Although for us it was more akin to a National Treasure with an upper middle school cast.

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Ant-Man and the Wasp review and giveaway

We were provided with the film for a review. Our 9 year-old had never seen a Marvel movie. I’ve been trying to drag him with me for a couple of years, but he was never game to see one until Ant-Man and the Wasp. When it came out in theaters he saw the trailer and was curious. He was even asking me questions after I saw it. Many of his friends at school saw the film when it was in theaters. He’s never been one for loud noises and if there’s one thing about Marvel movies, they aren’t subtle. They’ve big, rollicking spectacles with visuals to delight and explosions to compliment them. With Ant-Man and the Wasp out on Blu-ray DVD our 9 year-old has seen his first Marvel movie. He’s also bragged to his friends that he’s seen Ant-Man and the Wasp on DVD. At home.

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All age comic books for October 17

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Wow. If the all age comic books were a meal then this week’s selection would be a buffet. Some weeks are certainly better and more packed with quality than others and this is one of the high weeks. From single issue comic books, collected books of comic strips and original graphic novels there is something for boys or girls as young as 5. Over in the podcast we’ll go deep on two Nightmare Before Christmas offerings, the latest in the Hazardous Tales series by Nathan Hales, Science Comics: The Brain, the 35^th collection of Adult Time comic strips and more. In the meantime here are three comic books that are well worth your money and reading time this week.

Simpsons Comics #245

Don’t get emotionally attached. Don’t get emotionally attached. I said this when Plants Vs. Zombies ended their comic book run also. With issue #245 Simpsons Comics ends its monthly run as one of the best all age comic books around. Much like Spongebob Comic ended last week, their publisher is taking a break. That’s a vague and possibly inspiring statement. Maybe they’ll be back with seasonal issues or new graphic novels, but for now catch the final issue of Simpsons Comics and see why it was so fabulous.

Miraculous Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir TPB, Santa Claws

For our 9 year old Miraculous is the boomerang series. It keeps coming back. He loved it when he was 6, fell out of love for a year and then somewhere in the summer of his 8^th year he watched it again. The comic book follows an identical path to the series. Miraculous Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir, Santa Claw is a trade paperback priced at $6.99. Santa get akumatized by Hawk Moth-can Lady Bug and Cat Noir save Christmas? Kids 5 and up who like Miraculous will really enjoy this and it’ll get them reading.

Star Wars Tales from Vader’s Castle #2 (of #5)

We’re big fans of Star Wars Adventures, the monthly series from IDW Publishing. From its title, Star Wars Tales from Vader’s Castle seemed like it would be too old for an all age title, but it’s not. Issue 1 was lots of fun and it put a nice, spooky touch on the Star Wars mythos. Star Wars Tales from Vader’s Castle is a weekly series in October. You can jump in on issue #2 this week or gather all of them in a collected edition in late November. This is a Star Wars vehicle that ages 5 and up will be OK with and older kids will enjoy it just as much. It doesn’t dumb down the content. Rather, it’s a great story with fabulous art, that doesn’t have to make the story older in order to attract an audience.

Humor

Superhero

Action/Science-fiction

Born to Dance, for the dance (and photo) enthusiasts

I completely blame (or credit) Born to Dance for planting songs in my head. Ever since I received our copy of the book that fabulous (or horrible) song by Patrick Hernandez, Born to Be Alive, pops in my head. That song stays there until I’m able to clean the slate, then it’s immediately replaced by Maniac by Michael Sembello. That song is there for a moment and then it’s replaced by the current favorite, Carpenter Brut version of the song. I state all of this to say that I don’t really dance. The last time I danced was at my wedding just over a decade age-which I did because my bride was dancing and my sometimes friend Al Chol was there. Wait, I did dance last week in the house, but it was in a mocking sense that even led my still bride to ask to promptly stop.

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Bobs and Tweets, Trick or Tweet is emerging reader gold

Somewhere in an elementary school right now you can hear a giddy eeek, immediately followed by about 10 minutes of silence. Obviously the later sound is quite soothing and educators (and young readers) that first sound is associated with joy also. Bobs and Tweets Trick or Tweet is book #3 in the Bobs and Tweet series from Scholastic and for young readers of a certain age this staple, talk about on the playground reading.

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