It’s Your First Day of School, Busy Bus! review

Just in time for children who are going into pre-K through second grade, It’s Your First Day of School, Busy Bus!. This is a children’s illustrated book by Jody Jensen, with illustrations by Claire Messer that’ll hit home with the really small children who are over the moon about getting on the big yellow monster.

The big yellow monster, that’s what my mother used to call it. I don’t remember too much about that name, other than she used to say, ‘here come the big yellow monsters’. I can only assume it wasn’t too malicious or required music from The Exorcist in the background because I loved school and education.

To young children the school bus can be a symbol of independence and not being a baby any more.  It can also be terrifying. Having walked our kids to the bus stop this past week we’ve seen a couple kids who are in their first year of getting on the bus who did not take too kindly to it. Those kids that don’t want to get on the busy bus are akin to a cat who is being made to take a bath.

It’s Your First Day of School, Busy Bus! is just the sort of pre-K comfort book food that kids who are looking forward to things would benefit from. ‘Looking forward to’ varies from small one to small one. Some small ones look forward to things so much that they irrationally use their young minds to freak out about getting on the busy bus. That’s where the book comes in handy.

It’s soft and beautifully illustrated in organic, old-school manners that will sooth the eyes of small sight readers. The text uses simple, short sentences that focus on how the bus will feel on the first day of school. Not surprisingly the bus is nervous also, but Ben the trusty bus driver puts its nerves at ease.

Much like School’s First Day of School from Adam Rex, It’s Your First Day of School, Busy Bus! is squarely aimed at pre-K through second grade. Those older kids will be able to read it easily, but will still be able to learn lessons on dealing with new, potentially scary situations.

Win passes to the Mile 22 advance screening in Atlanta

 

I’ve been looking forward to seeing Mile 22 since the casting of Iko Uwais as announced. For action film aficionados 2011’s The Raid was a blast of fresh, manic, violent air from Indonesia. Think Die Hard in a building, full of hyper violent drug dealers and gangsters, with an elite SWAT team trapped on the seventh floor. Iko Uwais was the star of The Raid and made that film an action classic and a truly great film, even if you don’t like action-assuming you could stomach the violence.

Mark wahlberg, iko uwais, laurn cohan, mile 22, the raid, sneak preview, mile 22 advance screening, Atlanta Continue reading Win passes to the Mile 22 advance screening in Atlanta

Breakout, mixed results from a middle school book with good intentions

From the cover, Breakout by Kate Messner feels like an epic novel. It’s thick, clocks in at 433 pages and has notations at the end of the book for those that want to read more about the content in Breakout. Breakout takes place in a sleepy mountain town in New York as two inmates have just escaped from a prison. The story is told through the eyes of two seventh-graders in a variety of ways including text messages, cartoons, poems, and letters to the paper, their friends and more. Breakout is loosely based on the real 2015 prison escape from Clinton Correctional Facility. It sees a fictionalized account of how those youth might have imagined the situation as they saw it. Continue reading Breakout, mixed results from a middle school book with good intentions

All age comic books for August 8

Hello new comic book day! It’s every Wednesday and there are handfuls of great all age comic books that come out each week. In the podcast we’ll take a deeper look at the best selling comic book of all time in New Zealand, a summer special from one of the great go-to comics, a classic literary crime solving teen comes to comics and more. For now though let’s look at three all age comic books that’ll entertain readers as young as 6.

My Little Pony, Friendship is Magic #69

For girls aged 4 through 9 My Little Pony can be their jam. I say ‘can be’ because not all girls will like MLP, but most of them will. In issue #69 of My Little Pony Pinkie Pie finds a magical apple that gives her special powers. Try not to smile when you read that sentence. It’s the same with the comic book, this is happy stuff that will please anybody if you give it a chance.

Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #35

If you know of a middle school student or even one in their final year of elementary school who is looking for a truly cool hero look no further than Unbeatable Squirrel Girl. With tongue firmly in cheek, she hangs with supers, foils villainous plots and survives being a teenager. In this issue Spider-Man joins her for some fun and possibly to help take down Kraven.

Blastosaurus

Blastosaurus is the #1 selling comic book of all time in New Zealand. It’s being relaunched in the U.S. as an all age comic book. He’s a 6-foot-tall mutant triceratops who is helped by two 12-year olds as they fight monsters, robots, aliens and more. This looks fun, original and just like the sort of thing that will shake up kids 8 and up who can read independently.

Humor

Superhero

Action/science-fiction

All age comic books for August 8


All age comic books for August 8
All age comic books for August 8
All age comic books for August 8

Dog Days barking in theaters on August 8

We were compensated for this post-all thoughts are our own. We’re an animal house. My wife married into a house that had two cats and two dogs. As she ingrained herself into those that already lived with me they learned to tolerate and protect her. It was more complex for the dogs. One of them continued his lazy dog ways, while the other one immediately warmed up to her and became her steadfast defender, even though she had three legs-more on that in a moment. For people and homes that understand dogs, for my dog people or for those that simply want a safe, entertaining film for the family they can check out Dog Days, arriving in theaters on August .

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Continue reading Dog Days barking in theaters on August 8

How to Trick the Tooth Fairy delivers the treats for kids 4-8

How to Trick the Tooth Fairy is a prime example of not judging a book by its cover. If you look at the cover it appears to be a book that is squarely, 100% aimed at girls. It has glitter on it, the tooth fairy and a mischievous looking young girl with a pink comforter and a heart shaped tooth box on the bed. Upon receiving the book I had its chance of winning over our 6YO at 20%. Don’t take me to Vegas because I lost that bet and out 6YO loved How to Trick the Tooth Fairy, laughed out loud and could relate to the antics that the lead character Kayleee puts on.

It’s not that I need our children’s books to have the scent of Steven Segal on them to be immediately appreciated by our youngest. He is in a phase where I’m not sure what type of books will appeal to him. Normally he’s driven by fart jokes, kid friendly aliens or talking animals. In my mind having him like a book about a prankster youth and an even more prankster tooth fairy wasn’t on the radar. Continue reading How to Trick the Tooth Fairy delivers the treats for kids 4-8

All age comic books for August 1

This week in new all age comic books is dominated by one set of characters we regularly see and one publisher with a very specific niche. The other things that apparent more so than other weeks is just how overly kid-friendly all of the comic books and graphic novels are this week. In any direction you look there’s an all age comic book for readers as young as 6. Over in the podcast we’ll chat about the Disney comic books, the new Capstone superhero releases, Teen Titans Go! To The Movies, Steven Universe and more. For now though let’s look at three new releases that’ll engage readers in elementary school and up.

Justice League, You Choose, The Portal of Doom

Black Manta has unleashed lots of monsters all over the place and the Justice League has to stop them. Justice League You Choose, The Portal of Doom offers young readers the chance to re-tell the tale in a number of different ways. Most members of the Justice League get a shot to shine in this book that caters to grades 1 through 4 will enjoy. There are 12 possible endings, all of which offer young readers the chance to root for the good guys.

Gravity Falls, Lost Legends

Like Plants Vs. Zombies, this graphic novel from Gravity Falls is mandatory reading for elementary aged kids. They loved the show on Disney and the comic books or stand-alone books were very entertaining when they came out. Lost Legends is an original graphic novel with four new stories as they are told by Shmebulock. We’re now crossing our fingers for more Phineas & Ferb comic books or graphic novels and asking nicely to the Disney folks in bookland.

Delilah Dirk and the Pillars of Hercules

Delilah Dirk and the Pillars of Hercules is the third book in this action series by Tony Cliff. It’s realistically drawn and colored, plus it has action out the wazoo in an Indiana Jones style. Because of that, this graphic novel is going to be suited to middle to upper-middle school readers and up. Younger readers probably won’t want to read it due to its realistic approach. Older readers, even those not in school, will enjoy the intelligent story, action and characters in this great example of a graphic novel that entertains on many levels.

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This week in new all age comic books has lots of Disney books, Delilah Dirk for middle schoolers, Hotel Transylvania and much more.

Humor


All age comic books for August 1


All age comic books for August 1
All age comic books for August 1

Superhero


Action/Science-fiction
All age comic books for August 1


All age comic books for August 1

Teen Titans GO! To The Movies, the best family film of the year

If you look inside yourself and are honest, you know what to expect from a movie before you step inside the movie theater. Even if you don’t know what to expect, you probably have an inclining of how you’ll enjoy the film. “This is more of an animated feature, it’s not really a film” I glibly said to an adult next to me before Teen Titans GO! To The Movies started. It was partially because our 8 YO son had just asked what the film would be about and I had absolutely no idea. Within five minutes of the film starting I still had no idea what the film would be about, but I was laughing more than I had at any movie in years. Continue reading Teen Titans GO! To The Movies, the best family film of the year

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