Spider-Man: No Way Home rewards all who view it

Meta is a word that channels a phrase that’s used very frequently now. When I was a child meta wasn’t used too much and neither was porthole. Now those middle-elementary students are making porthole quips and the upper elementary kids are trying to grasp meta. Our first experience with the word, in a cinematic sense, was Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Movies that make use of meta in their plot have certainly increased, but it’s great to see it when they successfully pull it off. Spider-Man: No Way Home is a superhero meta that weaves together all of the aspects that people love from the webhead’s movies, the MCU, and to an extent, movies overall.

Spider-Man: No Way Home is solid entertainment that delivers a meta style funhouse for fans, and a great time for casual viewers.
The MCU, via Sony in this case…finds its groove again

Lia Park and the Missing Jewel, rippingly shreds the opening to this series

Librarians realize when book trends jump the shark. Too many books are made that are too similar, that are too closely related in too short of a time period. Sometimes that window is mercifully short, other times it wears out its welcome. Books on teen vampires, diversity and post-apocalyptic thrillers with a plucky cast of upstarts come to mind as recent trends that flooded libraries with too much of that content. There are times though when a publishing void is filled with just the right amount of books that previously weren’t represented enough. This can be a tricky thing because savvy young readers know when requisite categories are simply being checked off or were ordered en masse because publishers wanted a book that had this or that. Lia Park and the Missing Jewel is not a book that fits into any of those categories. I have to state it like that because one might put the book in league with others if they simply gloss over its plot.

Lia Park and the Missing Jewel is the first book in a new series that combines familiar elements, but adds a great heel, real tension and more for a great act.
if you’re looking for a ground floor entry into a great series-this is your sign

Once Upon Another Time, escapist mglit that’s a fun, summer, anytime read

I have a thing against film biographies because I already know how they end. Once Upon Another Time feels like a biography because readers will feel like they know the characters, and certainly will recognize the setting where it all happens. There are giants. There’s a magic beanstalk that the giants have used to go down to where the humans live. However, there is also magic, invisible beings, faceless knights, and kings, both good and bad. The result is an mglit book that lives in the world of James Riley’s, The Half Upon a Time series, but is an entirely new, three-book offering that’ll please those readers aged nine and up.

Once Upon Another Time is great, escapist fun that’s set in the world James Riley created in Half Upon a Time and perfect for ages 9 and up.
This is great, go-to stuff for ages 9 and up

There Are Moms Way Worse Than You, funny prose with legs

The other day I saw a sticker on a car that said, “Baby up in this witch”, except it didn’t say witch. What an odd sticker, I thought. Would that parent be comfortable with their middle elementary-aged reading the sticker that’s on their car to other kids or adults? Thus, because I’m positing those thoughts one could quickly deduce that I was not a fan of using asterisks in the place of curse words. Mind you, I’m no puritan, I just want to have one conversation with my kids and not have to interpret, or hear them sound like a surly college student before they actually get there.

There Are Moms Way Worse Than You is funny, approachable and not what you’re probably expecting. It’s animal moms and how bad they are, presented in stanzas, will leave ages 12 and up in stitches.
This was such an unexpected treat-and will be for you too

Nana Loves You More, sub-par illustrated pre-k with great sales numbers

Was it not for the author’s name of Nana Loves You More, very few people outside of those who already have the first three books in the series, would be talking about it? Having said that, it merits the question, if Jimmy Fallon hadn’t written Your Baby’s First Word Will Be Dada, would the others in the series have ever been written? It’s a case of which came first the chicken or the egg? In this case one could also factor in if Nana Loves You More gets more children to read because of its prominent placement in stores across the country, does it really matter?

Nana Loves You More is the fourth in the Jimmy Fallon series that could easily be driven more out of obligation and sales than a yearning to tell a story.
This might not the nana book you’re looking for

Kick Push, an illustrated book that runs with enthusiasm to kids 6 and up

A book that reaches out and grabs the nape of your neck is a rare thing. It’s not something that you’re expecting as it slams your senses, wakes up your eyes, and takes you on a trip to a place that you’ve never been before. Kick Push is an illustrated book that lovingly yells at you until you pay attention. At first, it seems like that manic, out-of-control student whose only goal is to distract the teacher from the lesson of the day. But then, after you spend a couple of pages with Kick Push you realize that it’s a picture book that’s unlike anything you’ve seen before and will challenge you in all the right ways.

Kick Push is an illustrated book that screams at just the right volume. It grabs readers’ attention, makes them curious and entertains, all while teaching a lesson.
Kinetic action in a book that teaches a lesson

The Secrets of Dumbledore, entertaining but mainly for Potterhead faithful

It was a dark, cool movie theater and I dozed off for just a second. However, it was during that second that my son’s friend poked me in the arm. “A muggle is someone who doesn’t have any magic, like a regular person”, he said. “Thank you, that much I knew about the series”, was my reply. He was just being kind because on the way to the movie theatre I told him that I’d only seen one Harry Potter film, hadn’t read any of the books, and had seen the first Fantastic Beasts film way back in 2016. This opened up a universe worth of ways for him to illustrate how great the books are and why each film in the cannon matters. Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore is the third film in the series of five and, based on his opinion, will build upon how much that audience reveres these characters.

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore is an entertaining movie, but will really please the Potterhead faithful.
C’mon in, the water’s fine Hogwartians

A Penny’s Worth, a kid’s look at money that most wish was history

The other day our youngest son wanted to cash in all of his coins for paper money. His pirate treasure chest was loaded with jangles and clinks from various coins bouncing together. I explained to him that if he goes to one of the machines that count it for him he’ll be charged, whereas if he counts it himself and goes to the bank, he’ll get all of the money. Of course, being 10 years old and wanting to see a machine do things, he opted for the first choice. A Penny’s Worth is an illustrated book that one hopes will be a historical relic within 10 years. A book on a penny, how quaint, remember when we had that copper-colored useless coin, we’ll all sit back and think. If there’s any justice in the world, A Penny’s Worth will sit alongside the book about Daylight Saving Time as things or concepts that once existed.

A Penny’s Worth is a charming, rhyming, illustrated book for early elementary readers about money in the United States and its smallest, most useless increment.
A penny saved is two pennies that it cost to do so

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