Children's book reviews, all age comic books, Kidlit, mglit, movies, entertainment and parenting
Call Me Moby was entirely unexpected. It has allusions to a story that most high school students won’t read, yet its inspiration is from a classic book. The illustrations in Call Me Moby don’t care about any of that. Its playful cover, with a massive, friendly white whale jumping over a tiny ship, will bring in young audiences as if they were a hungry bass looking at a bloodworm dangling from a hook.
Silly illustrated books need an ending that simultaneously makes young children roll their eyes and yearn for more. Kitty Caterpillar got that memo. This is an illustrated book about a cat with too many legs, her misadventures when curiosity gets the better of her and her short, but eventful quest to find her early elementary school human best friend. Kitty Caterpillar has illustrations that bring home the bacon. When kids engage with the book, they’ll giggle at the story, but be enthralled with the art.
When I was in elementary school I entered a regional writing contest. All of the regional winners were published in a book with a forest green cover that my family kept in their magazine rack for decades. Georgia Public Broadcasting is having their annual PBS KIDS Writers Contest. It’s open for kindergarten through third grade and kids can write fiction, non-fiction, poetry or a graphic novel.
City Spies is seven? How is it that this go-to middle school series is seven books in and there hasn’t been a movie yet? The City Spies book series is mglit gold and the kind of books your adult self wishes existed back in the 80’s, 90’s, naughties or aughts, depending on where you’re from. Every book that we’ve read from the City Spies series is constant like gravity. They’re easy, breezy and one step away from being a CoverGirl, but this is a team joint. City Spies: Europa got the memo and author James Ponti is holding course. It set sail for age-appropriate action and intrigue to those in grades three through seven.
If Daddy Mojo did an annual top 10 list, To Activate Space Portal, Lift Here would be in that list. It’s a picture book that practically reads itself. The book’s cover reels in older audiences, as well as, those sophisticated folks who appreciate Bat Boy and his origin. Bat Boy was on the cover of Weekly World News in 1992. He was a boy who resembled a bat and was found in a West Virginia cave. The cover of To Activate Space Portal, Lift Here has a more scientific, glossier, STEM-centric appeal for the most part, but then has a giant star on it inviting people to “Be the FIRST to meet alien life-forms!”. It’s that bit of over-the-top cheese that sold WWN and helps sells To Activate Space Portal, Lift Here.
Middle school has the potential to suck. Countless variables determine if you find your people early or meander through three years of school and life. By eighth grade you’re certainly ready for high school, but is it because you hit the wall or you’re ready a bigger, more appropriate challenge? There is a lot of that in Weirdo. I also feel a lot of ‘reviewer’s remorse’ now because Weirdo has been silently judging me from my book queue for a while.
I never considered myself the type who would enjoy a young adult vampire romance book. The Aftermyth is by #1 New York Times Bestselling Author, Tracy Wolff. Wolff has written dozens of books and has a very extensive categorical list on her website. There are dark and sexy romances in Ethan Frost, sexy dragons in the Dragon’s Heat Trilogy, adult romance in Extreme Risk, sexy and heartwarming in San Diego Lightning and the aforementioned vampires in the massive Crave series. She’s also written some books for the Harlequin Superromance imprint. This is a series of books that my wife is wishing I’d take inspiration from; either for my abdomen workouts or romantic wooing. Out of the five sub-genres that Ms. Wolff writes books for, The Aftermath is the first one in the middle grade line up and it runs like a refrigerator.
Pencil is a wordless book. Wordless books take a moment to appreciate. If young readers don’t have the patience or don’t realize that the book intentionally has no text, they’ll be confused. Author/illustrator Hye-Eun Kim put a page in Pencil called How to Read a Silent Book. It’s a page whose irony is rich in its title, but whose information is needed to help readers appreciate what isn’t there.
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