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All age comic books for May 2

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It’s the week of Free Comic Book Day. The first Saturday of every may is Free Comic Book Day and your local comic book store has full size comic books that are free! Truth in advertising is not dead. Even better, many of these free comic books are OK for all ages. To look at all of the comic books that you can choose from just visit their website. Most comic book stores will allow you to take up to five comic books, so take accordingly, experiment a little bit and ask one of the store employees if you have a question. Because it’s a special day, most stores will be crowded in the morning, but they’ll also have lots of special happenings which could include comic book authors, artists, specials on books or more.

As it’s a special week, the new releases are lighter than normal, but there are still a couple of great all age comic books out this week, plus some that we didn’t highly last week that merit your attention. In the podcast we’ll chat about All Summer Long, The City on the Other Side, Zero’s Journey and a couple others. For now though, let’s look at three comics that will interest kids aged five and up.

Zodiac Starforce: Cries of the Fire Prince #4

Think Jem and the Holograms, but with less music, but with more science-fiction and action. Zodiac Starforce is a blast of bright colors, team work action and loose fun that will appeal to girls more than boys. The U.S. Zodiac Starforce team has to team up with the U.K. Zodiac team to take down the demon Pavos. Can the two teams put the soccer/football and lift/elevator problems in the past and save the day?

Go Go Power Rangers #8

You may not be reading this comic book because you’re tied up, we get it. Consider this your chance to get in on the ground floor of a cool summer story in Go Go Power Rangers. This is the prelude to Shattered Grid, a story that’s taking place in the monthly Power Rangers, as well as Go Go Power Rangers. The first chapter in the Power Rangers comic book has sold out four times, this issue from Go Go Power Rangers is in its second printing. This is setting the ground for a great story so jump on in before it really starts to get good.

Betty and Veronica Friends Forever #1 At The Movies #1

There are 299 reasons to love Betty and Veronica Friends Forever At The Movies #1. Those first 299 reasons are the price, if you pay in pennies. Even if you pay in paper money or charge it this is still a great all age comic book for kids, mainly girls, aged 6 and up. This is classic Betty and Veronica, drawn in the style that parents will recall from back in the day. In this new series our two favorite girls from Riverdale either go to the movie or have stories about them in famous movies. Either way, this is a great price point and a classic title for young readers to get the book bug by.

Humor

Superhero

Action/Science-fiction

Is Avengers: Infinity War OK for children?

Avengers: Infinity War and the overall view of the cinematic MCU is fascinating. It’s an amazing cinematic experiment that, for better or worse, redesigned what people think of films. Avengers: Infinity War brings together almost all of the characters from the first ten years of the MCU on film in a fun-yet also quite dark at times movie that will satisfy most fans, but leave others in a lurch.

Bottom line: As an adult who has seen most of the Marvel movies I really liked it. It’s very quickly paced and has some great action sequences that will entertain people regardless of how many, if any, Marvel movies they’ve seen. The joy in seeing Avengers: Infinity War is the interaction that happens when the superheroes who don’t know each other finally meet.

Continue reading Is Avengers: Infinity War OK for children?

The City on the Other Side, an action based fairy story for 8 and up

Fairies are not the sort of thing that make up action stories-and other falsehoods. That’s one way to look at The City on the Other Side, a graphic novel from Mairghread Scott with art by Robin Robinson. The fairies in The City on the Other Side are made up by two groups who rule two different regions in the forest. Seelie are the fairies that make up the majority of the planet. However, those Unseelie fairies rule the crumbling logs, mushrooms and other forest spots that are typically more unattractive. The result of these two tribes and their story is a surprisingly fun, action packed original graphic novel that boys or girls, 7 years and older will enjoy.

Continue reading The City on the Other Side, an action based fairy story for 8 and up

Yellow Kayak, great art plus some poetry is all beautiful

When I saw that Yellow Kayak was a book that could be described as poetry my inner Fred Savage voice went off. “This isn’t a kissing book, is it?” questioned a young Savage in The Princess Bride. I have that same guarded line of questioning about books too, except ours warns us about poetry and unicorns. Yellow Kayak is a children’s illustrated book that does have rhyming words, but I wouldn’t call it poetry-if only to hold onto our stance of not liking poetry.

Continue reading Yellow Kayak, great art plus some poetry is all beautiful

All That Trash is a solid, fun, educational children’s book

Waste. Rubbish. An entertaining book about trash, much less a children’s illustrated book about the subject; without being preachy is an almost impossible task. All That Trash by Meghan McCarthy is about a trash barge and a business plan that started with earnest intentions; but wound up drifting for months while politicians, the media and the public debated the fate of 3,186 tons of garbage from New York.

The year is 1987 and why didn’t garbage from New York simply stay in that area is due to a businessman in Alabama who had a novel and forward thinking idea. Lowell Harrelson owned National Waste Contractors in Alabama and heard about a landfill in New York that was about to run out of space. His idea was to purchase the garbage, put it on a barge (called the Mabro 4000) and then ship it to North Carolina. There the garbage would be buried in a landfill and then have the methane gas that the decomposing garbage collected. The gas would then be converted through a generator into electricity that could be used anywhere along the power grid. Continue reading All That Trash is a solid, fun, educational children’s book

Star Wars Workbooks helps eliminate the summer slide

The summer slide can happen anytime. As a greater definition the summer slide is that period when the kids aren’t in school and the things that they learned the previous year start to slip away from their mind. “I can spell cat!”, I remember telling my parents at the end of first grade*. It’s obvious my parents never did after school or summer work books to reinforce my studies. My response to said 7 year old would’ve been, “That is great, but what else can you spell?” As a family we do workbooks almost every day. The Star Wars Workbooks are some of the best out there for introducing or reinforcing math, reading or writing to reluctant kids who need a little Force fun with their education. Continue reading Star Wars Workbooks helps eliminate the summer slide

All age comic books for April 18

Busy. That’s the one-word adjective to describe the new all age comic books this week. This week has the most superhero comic books that are OK for young readers that I’ve seen in a very long time. Over in the podcast we’ll talk a bit more in depth about some cool books staring The Avengers, a new Marvel superhero comic for all ages, the classic Underdog, Ghoul Scouts and much more. For now though lets take a look at three go-to all age comic books or graphic novels that will entertain readers as young as 6.

Simpsons Comics

We absolutely love The Simpsons. The television show is still remarkably funny and we watch it from time to time. Simpsons Comics is just as funny as the show and the comic book is accessible to ages 7 and up. Truth be told, our 8 year old has been reading it for two years, but I understand why some parents don’t want their kids reading this comic book that young. This really is OK for kids that young. The sass, attitude and bad habits that happen in the television show that parents don’t want their kids emulating is not present in Simpsons Comics. Those elements were all done vocally. Without the voice talent all that’s left are the words and in this case they’re funny, complemented with sharp are and a timeless appeal.

Teen Titans Go!

Similar to the above title, this comic book is toned down from the television show. Its manic, speed or volume level isn’t present and in its place is just the story. A story that kids 6 and up will want to read, factor in that Teen Titans Go! is only $2.99 and you’ve got spring time reading that is good to go.

The City on the Other Side

Fairies, battling fairies on two sides of a coin, that’s the premise behind The City on the Other Side. This graphic novel was utterly surprising in how much I enjoyed it. In theory, a graphic novel about fairies is not the stuff that I’d hold my breath as I turned the pages; but The City on the Other Side combines action, a fast paced story and a wide range of characters to make this a great graphic novel-that happens to have some fairies in it.

Humor

Superhero

Science-fiction/action

A Friendly Town That’s Almost Always by the Ocean! Review

If Phoebe from Friends started a business relationship with Monica, where they’d write a book, the end result might be something like A Friendly Town That’s Almost Always by the Ocean!. The is quirky with a capital “Q” and geared towards middle school readers. Think of this as a book that’s perfectly suited towards fans of Lumberjanes or Adventure Time, but want something more (slightly) grounded in reality, with characters that skew evenly towards boys and girls.

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