Children's book reviews, all age comic books, Kidlit, mglit, movies, entertainment and parenting
There was a period where I watched The Nightmare Before Christmas at least twice a week. I found it very coincidental that our 6 year-old started watching it-on his own accord and could sing the songs. Ghoulia, Making Friends Can Be Scary by Barbara Cantini is a spiritual cousin to Christmas, Coraline and Paranorman. It’s an emerging reader’s book that brings an all age appropriate scare and spook to readers aged 6-9.
Continue reading Ghoulia-Making Friends Can Be Scary, but this is 100% fun
Action movies don’t have to be mindless and there are many examples smart action films. Even mindless action films can be enjoyable if they have characters or fun sequences. Mile 22 aims high on paper and falters badly in execution. It has Mark Wahlberg, Lauren Conrad from The Walking Dead and Iko Uwais among others in a film that’s directed by Peter Berg. Some folks will look at Peter Berg and Mark Wahlberg and hope for a repeat of one of their earlier successes. If you’re like me you’ll watch Mile 22 because it stars martial arts super star Iko Uwais. Others will look at Lauren Conrad and are curious to see how she does when she’s not acting opposite some zombies.
Continue reading Mile 22 fails to deliver despite it being set up for success
Mixed A Colorful Story is a great example of a simple children’s book that succeeds beyond the demographics that its aiming for. On the cover there are three colored dots, red, yellow and blue. These are the primary colors as I’m often reminded by our children. A combination of them can create any color on Earth. In Mixed A Colorful Story we see that each color has their default personality. Reds are loud, yellows are bright and blues are the coolest. Everything is great until one day reds start saying that they’re the best. Continue reading Mixed A Colorful Story is as happy as a children’s illustrated book can get
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It’s new comic book day and there are some great all age comic books out this week. Over in the podcast we’ll talk about Bartman, Jim Henson Beneath The Dark Crystal, Teen Titans Go! and more. For now, let’s look at three all age comic books that will interest boys or girls as young as six.
Disney Princess Comics Collection
Disney Princess Comics Collection Volume 4 has stories from Cinderalla, Tiana, Rapunzel, Belle, Pocahontas and more. These are comic stories originally published in the monthly comic book Disney Princess. Think of this trade paperback as a Disney Princess greatest hits from the most recent couple of issues. Girls 6 and up will love this series. They might need help reading it, but you’ll have just as much fun reading it as they will hearing it.
Archie Meets Batman 66, #2
Robin and Batgirl must go undercover at Riverdale in 1966. Batman will most certainly make an appearance with lots of BAM!, POW! and ZOW! to entertain kids of all ages. Batman 66 is a great series of comic books and this mini-series makes total sense. Archie has teamed up with all manner of characters from The Punisher to The Ramones. Having the Riverdale gang team up with Batman in one of his most famous incarnations is like welcoming an old friend to dinner. Kids 6 and up will be OK with the content, but those younger kids might not know enough about either property to enjoy it. Ages 8 and up will know both properties and be able to enjoy the series.
Sonic The Hedgehog, #8
Go into any elementary school library and you’ll see some Sonic The Hedgehog comic books. You’ll see them there for a good reason. This is one of the go-to all age comic books for boys or girls. It’s jammed with action, has humor, characters that kids know and love-plus a history where some parents will enjoy reading it too. Check out any issue of Sonic The Hedgehog from IDW Publishing and you’ll see why it makes a great gift to any school library.
Humor
Superhero
Action/Science-fiction
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.
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.
Continue reading Win passes to the Mile 22 advance screening in Atlanta
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
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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
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