Daddy Mojo

Raised on the 80s, life lessons from that decade of cinema, music and more

Somewhere between John Hughes, Aztec Camera, a business/self-help book and The Tao of Pooh lies Raised on the 80s. 30+ Unexpected Life Lessons is the main subtitle to the book and when you combine the two of them it provides a nice overview of the book. The family and I are going through the classic 80’s movies now, some of them we’ve seen before and others are being viewed for the first time. Raised on the 80s is a comprehensive look as movies, music, and culture that happened in the 80s, combining real-life stories from Chris Clews, and then give it some gas to make it relevant to today’s culture.

Raised on the 80s, a more comprehensive than you’re expecting dig into 80’s culture and lessons that we can apply today.

80s trivia, with life lessons and deep dive stories from the decade that didn’t care

The Underground Abductor Bigger & Badder Edition is also better

How do you make the already good, even better? That beautiful bacon, spinach, and garlic pizza is great when it’s small, but when you make it a medium or large and it reaches a new level. Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales, The Underground Abductor-An Abolitionist Tale was good, but the Bigger & Badder Edition is just that. All of the books in the Hazardous Tales graphic novel series that we’ve read have been entertaining and educational to some degree. Ironically, it was their initial size always left us wanting more. Imagine seeing a painted or drawn work of art that is great, but one whose small stature handicapped its enjoyment.

The Underground Abductor, Bigger & Badder Edition is the bigger version of the engaging and excellent non-fiction graphic novel by Nathan Hale.

It’s ok to not know everything, as long as you’re open to learning more…

Win a complete series of Explorer Academy, realistic fiction w/a STEM backbone

Explorer Academy is an ongoing mglit series that weaves in non-fiction globetrotting adventure travel, STEM smarts, and aspects of a family quest. Our protagonist, Cruz Coronado attends a prestigious school where 23 other kids from around the world study and learn the art of becoming explorers. It’s here where you can all but hear Miss Frizzle saying something motivational about questioning the process, outcome, or possibility as to how something can occur. I’ll be honest, I forget what she used to say, but it was a catchphrase that made her students reach further intellectually. I need a phrase like that for my students. The seventh book in the series is out and we’re hosting a giveaway for all of the Explorer Academy books. This giveaway ends soon, so double-time it on those responses.

A dande addition to your home (or school) Mglit library

More Reinhart magic in Marvel Super Heroes The Ultimate Pop-Up Book

Where did you go to school? How is it that you’re able to envision things in such a manner that they fold out into such a grandiose, artistic fashion? If I were able to chat with Matthew Reinhart those are only a couple of the questions that I’d ask him. Reinhart’s pop-up books defy logic. It’s obvious that they pop-up, and one might expect a book along those lines to come off of the page. What Reinhart creates is mind-blowing art that comes off of the pages 12’ high and has multiple elements. Marvel Super Heroes The Ultimate Pop-Up Book takes on the MCU and entertains, as well as educates in ways that’ll make this a coffee table book for the pop culture savvy.

Clever Marvel Super Heroes The Ultimate Pop-Up Book is by Matthew Reinhart, paper engineer extraordinaire and gives the MCU comics a 3D rendering. Publishing has a trio of My First Spanish board books that are smart enough for sixth or seventh grade, and young enough for crawlers.

a LABRYNTH OF A GOOD TIME FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO

Giddy joy abounds in The Cosmic Adventures of Astrid and Stella

Joy and utter happiness, there was a character in one episode of Phineas & Ferb that always amped up a party. It was the one where Cheesetopia in their backyard happened, and Perry was turned into a butler for Doofenshmirtz. The Cosmic Adventures of Astrid and Stella is a kid’s first graphic novel that lives and breathes happiness. Its colors, glossy pages, big illustrations, and emotive characters lovingly scream off of the pages in a way that will make early elementary school readers immediately attracted to the book.

The Cosmic Adventures of Astrid and Stella is a graphic novel that takes the joyous cues from Hello! Lucky and gives it a bigger, longer stage for early elementary.

Resistence to happiness is futile

Big Nate: Prank You Very Much, a work in process

He’s been through the process. I’m paraphrasing, but that was one of the funnier jokes from the Chip ‘n Dale, Rescue Rangers movie on Disney +. It was referring to Chip (or Dale, I can’t tell them apart) who had been through the process of computer animation. What was once a 2-dimensional character in comic books and television, is now a slightly more 3D creation that seemingly pops off of the page or screen. Big Nate has undergone the process in a series of graphic novels cut directly from the animated show on Paramount + and Nickelodeon. Big Nate: Prank You Very Much is a graphic novel that follows the line that’s been established by episodes that readers might have seen on television.

Big Nate: Prank You Very Much, a graphic novel with some DNA from the comic strips, melded with art and humor from the Paramount + show.

Where TV meets a classic character

P.S.-We Made This!, unexpected crafting that lives up to its title

The issue with most craft books that we’ve run across is that they’re too complex. The end creation looks great, but it requires too many things to make it and has far too many steps. It’s worth noting that I’m a relatively handy guy also. I have a garage full of stuff to fix most simple things in a house and have two boys over ten, so we’ve acquired lots of craft things too. Having said that, every craft or maker book that we’ve tried to do has fallen short. P.S.-We Made This! does not the aforementioned issues. Instead, it’s a book of 85 relatively simple crafts or projects that mid-through upper elementary students can do with minimal to no assistance.

P.S.-We Made This! is the very rare crafting/activity book that can really, yes really, be done with normal, everyday things in your house.

It works, it really really works

The Little Bear continues the charm and love that Killen’s books evoke

It’s a fine line between déjà Vous and going back to the well once too often. The process of critiquing that can get thrown a curve ball when you factor in that authors and illustrators have a style that they’re known for. Dance with who came with, goes the old adage. Nicola Killen has a way with illustrated books. Her drawings match the style and flow of each book of hers so perfectly that it’s a case of hand in a well-fitting glove. The Little Bear is the fourth book in the My Little Animal Friends series and has elements of what made the other three books such a joy, but blazes its own path for those young elementary school ages.

The Little Bear is a joy of an illustrated, first day of school book. It’s the fourth in the My Little Animal Friends series that hasn’t lost an ounce of overwhelming charm.

The quality, cuteness and love is deep with this one