Children's book reviews, all age comic books, Kidlit, mglit, movies, entertainment and parenting
Fruits In Suits by Jared Chapman is the sequel to one of the greatest books that our children have read. That book is Vegetables in Underwear and is one that I credit in helping potty train our then 3-year old to stop wearing diapers and to use the potty. His latest book is all about suits and fruits, that being sometimes fruits in suits and packed with puns galore.
Continue reading Fruits In Suits, a worthy sequel to one of our favorite children’s books
The story of Cinderella is timeless and offers lots of avenues for twists. That is important especially when your audience might have short attention spans. Cinderella Della Circus has roots in the classic tale, but also offers up some strange twists and bigger laughs than some in the audience are expecting. It’s appearing at Center For Puppetry Arts in Atlanta through July 23.
Continue reading Cinderella Della Circus adds quirky twists and puppets to shake up story
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Happy July and lets jump into the new all age comic books that kids as young as 5 can enjoy. If you live in the northern hemisphere here’s a great reason to visit a local comic book store-it’s air conditioned. And if it’s like our local comic book store they sell sodas for .75, so go hot and hydrate when before you leave. To find your local comic book store simply dig into Comic Book Store Locator and type in your zip code. The all age comic books this week are super, lot more superheroes than in previous weeks, plus some cool Doctor Who books, Hero Cats, Star Wars, Riverdale, DC Super Heroes and more.
Gumby
Fans of a certain age will say something spicy when they utter Gumby’s name. In this instance, Gumby is a new all age comic book, with classic appeal-but don’t tell the kids because those as young as 5 will love it. These are new stories from everyone’s favorite green character (don’t tell Kermit) that bring the old school character to today’s new school readers in a format that will make parents enjoy it as much as the kids they might be reading to.
DC Super Hero Girls: Katana At Super Hero High
Is this the summer of DC girl super power or have audiences finally caught up with it? DC Super Hero Girls is the latest in a series of graphic novels that feature the DCU girls in high school. These are original stories and art by Lisa Yee and they just keep getting better. Katana at Super Hero High features everyone’s favorite noble warrior as she’s assigned with guarding hundreds of sacred ninja swords. Her friends help out to teach everyone a lesson, have fun, kick butt and get kids interested in reading. This series is great for ages 7 and up to read on their own, but can be read to ages as young as 6.
True Believers: Spider Man
There was a popular tweet this week that said that Spider-Man is for kids period. To an extent that is true, let’s not quibble about the exact age and say that kids 7 and up will love True Believers: Spider-Man Brand New Day. This is a reprinting of Amazing Spider-Man 546 from 1999 and is great for that age and older. Everyone will love the True Believers price point of $1, so jump in and get the kids hooked on some old school Spidey.
Pokémon Omega Ruby Alpha Sapphire
Our 7 year old is all Pokémon-all the time. He’s been going to the comic book store since birth, but he’s only recently discovered the Pokémon books. In our local comic book store they’re with the all age graphic novels, but your local store could keep them with anime or manga. Either way, they’re one of the best bangs for the buck that you’ll purchase. They’re thick, cost $4.99 and kids 6 and up will devour them.
Star Wars Dot To Dot Book
Dot to Dot books are another thing that our 7 year old is really into now. Thomas Pavitte does some fabulous 1000 puzzle challenges for Marvel, like GOTG, The Avengers and Spider-Man that he’s been doing and loving for the past year. Now Disney is getting into the advanced game with Star Wars Dot To Dot Book that has over 1,000 dots on every puzzle. Technically these books are geared towards the YA audience or adults, but if you have a puzzle kid then ages as low as 7 will love these challenges. If you’ve never done one of these you should be prepared to use a magnifying glass. Our child doesn’t need them when he doing one, but I need it whenever I do them.
Humor
Superhero
Action/science-fiction
Imagine a children’s book that takes root from a classic game that every child plays at one point. The game takes place usually when kids are between 5 and 7 years old, doesn’t require any money, is difficult to have a proven winner and sometimes involves a little man who is ¼ inch tall. Don’t Blink! is a children’s book that takes the seminal children’s game, blink and provides it with visual cues for kids to laugh along to.
Continue reading Don’t Blink! is an interactive, fun picture book for 6 and younger
Despicable Me 3 and Cars 3 are out within two weeks of each other. They both target the same audience, those families that want a good film to take the kids to when summer requires a break or just 90 minutes inside the air conditioning with the smell of popcorn everywhere. Both films are entertaining, but there are differences that might influence how you decide to spend your precious movie theater dollars.
In this corner, Cars 3, the G-rated juggernaut from Walt Disney that is one of the most popular franchises in the world. Children love these characters; have birthday parties after them and their parents purchases million of dollars in Cars merchandise. As a film Cars 3 returns to the quality roots of the franchise. Forget the silly spy escapades of Cars 2 because with Cars 3 it’s back to the track with an aging Lightning McQueen.
Continue reading Despicable Me 3 vs. Cars 3-What should the family see?
We’re part of the StreamTeam for Netflix and were compensated or received product for this post. All thoughts are our own. Back in 1988’s Big starring Tom Hanks they had a prescient scene where his character, Josh, a 12 year old boy in a 30 year old man’s body had an idea. What if a comic book allowed you to select different directions within the story? Choose Your Adventure is the literary equivalent of that and now technology has caught up with the idea. Netflix has debuted an online streaming version of that with Puss In Boots: Trapped in an Epic Tale. This is a standalone episode, not included in one of the streaming seasons that are available on Netflix.
Continue reading Puss in Boots: Trapped in an Epic Tale on Netflix breaks a wall
Geek life, parenting, family, pre-teens who like manga or anime and college students who want to cosplay and party. To some extent all of those variables exist at any con; however, at MomoCon they exist on a level so perfectly other cons wish that they could bottle its secret sauce. The tricky part of that equation is the family element. If you have a con that’s too family friendly then it won’t be interesting to the kids. If the con has too high of a demographic then it’s great for adults, but too much for children.
MomoCon manages to assemble the standard elements that make a con fabulous, but has deftly managed to keep it incredibly family friendly. A family that cons together stays together and families that attend MomoCon can usually be divided up into two groups. There are the families that go there to cosplay and those that go for the games.
Continue reading Plan ahead for MomoCon next year, May 24-27, 2018
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The last week in June is not specifically known for a bumper crop of all age comic books, but this one seems packed. Think of a genre, worthy sequel or young reader comic book that you wanted your child to read and it’s somewhere in this mix. To find your local comic book store just type in your zip code into the Comic Book Store Locator and it will magically appear. Now-on with some of the coolest all age comic books that you’ll find this week.
Archie 75th Anniversary
This is classic Archie and features the story line where he supposedly marries someone. The cover has Betty and Veronica on it in wedding dresses. Who does he choose? Why is a high school kid getting married anyway? Don’t worry about these things and jump on into the Archie fun as they celebrate 75 years of Riverdale.
Lumberjanes
Lumberjanes is one of our go-to comic books each month. The plot varies from surreal supernatural, teens dealing with semi-common summer camp problems to their parents not understanding. You can pick up any issue of Lumberjanes and immediately understand why it’s one of the best comics out there today.
MLP Movie Prequel
File under: Redemption for Equestria. The My Little Pony is hitting the big screen soon and this mini-series features a character from it in each issue. There is a new, big bad villain and they’re sure to rock Equestria in ways that they’re not used to.
True Believers: Peter Parker The Spectacular Spider-Man
True Believers: Peter Parker The Spectacular Spider-Man reprints the first issue from 1976 and it’s only $1. It’s just in time for the film, which is earning great reviews and is being welcomed as one of the first true Marvel films that embraces youth culture. They were aiming for this since The Fantastic Four and it appears they’ve hit the nail on the head.
Cleopatra in Space
Cleopatra in Space, The Golden Lion is a treat. We’re late to the party as this is the fourth book in the Scholatic series by Mike Maihack, but we’ve seen the prior graphic novels and realize what the hubbub was about. This is a fun adventure based series of books, set in space, with lots of Egyptology references and a side of girl power. Kids 8 and up who are looking for an action packed book that will also whet their appetite for historical source material or earlier books should dive into this.
The music in the podcast is fabulous and it’s from Ending Satellites that we found over at Free Music Archives.
Humor
Superhero
Action/Science-Fiction
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