Children's book reviews, all age comic books, Kidlit, mglit, movies, entertainment and parenting
Jump scares in horror movies don’t do anyone favors. They cheapen the film and make audiences prepare for a lazy scare, rather than the steady buildup that has a much greater payoff. It’s not to say that a jump scare can’t be in a horror movie, but it shouldn’t be their bread and butter. Weapons has one very effective jump scare. Weapons is a fantastic horror film. More than that, Weapons is a great film that lives in the horror realm, but also serves as a thriller with dark periods of humor.
I just had an Arsenio Hall moment. During his talk show, he had a catch phrase where he’d say “Things that make you go hmmmm.” As best I can remember, Hall would pause his monologue or joke and say his phrase. He wouldn’t directly state the implication that he was going for, because that’s to be determined by the audience. In my “hmmm” moment, I was reading about the Dred Scott decision. It’s just one of the multiple dozens of court decisions that are discussed in a common-sense manner in Rebels, Robbers, and Radicals: The Story of the Bill of Rights.
Someplace, somewhere, there is a doctor’s or dentist’s office waiting for a copy of It’s Busy Down in the Woods Today. Wait, the mere thought of associating those offices with the book might put off the pre-K or kindergarten crowd. Instead, let’s say that It’s Busy Down in the Woods Today: Friends to Meet, Places to Explore and over 100 Things to Find is the rabbit hole, busy time, chill-out companion that young, manic minds need, even though they may not want it.
As a younger man I was always skeptical of biographical movies because you always know how they end. Since then, my thoughts on entertainment have evolved somewhat as to what makes a movie entertaining. That same qualifier has never existed for books, even when it came to children’s literature. The Music Inside Us is the story of world-renowned cellist Yo Yo Ma. It’s a safe bet most elementary school ages don’t know Yo-Yo Ma, much less what a cello is or can isolate its deep, soul searching sounds were they to hear it. As an illustrated book, The Music Inside Us is not a typical biography. Instead, it opens the book by asking a question about the purpose of music. This soft introduction works in partnership with the art that is realistic, painted, and muted in all the right ways.
If you are an elementary school aged girl, or otherwise that age and in ballet, Letters to Misty is your jam. From its soft pink and purple cover to the lovely ballet dancer on the cover this book knows its target audience. This is self-help for those young people (mainly girls) who are navigating soft social skills and personal interactions that have the potential to vex people of any age. It might be helpful if you know that Letters to Misty is written by Misty Copeland with Nikki Shannon Smith, but it’s not mandatory.
You have never read any book, much less a graphic novel, like Deeply Dave. It is a graphic novel, but it operates in such a unique fashion that it’s like comparing an apple to an orange. The two have one thing in common, but they are so utterly different that it does one of them a major disservice to group them close to one another. Deeply Dave is a graphic novel about a boy whose mother goes missing. She was in a spaceship, but it crashed in the bottom of the sea, and now Dave is going out there to rescue her. That’s the very basic plot, but you can throw out any ideas or preconceived notions as to how you think the story will evolve. The plot changes every five pages, with new characters, powers, locations, or secrets being disclosed that alter how others react to the Big Doom, and that is before the book’s format is taken in account.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps was not a film that I was looking forward to seeing. Granted, I knew that I’d see it, but I didn’t expect to enjoy it or be entertained. Of the past 13 MCU films, I’d only seen eight of them and from that figure only three of those favorably stuck in my memory. I’m not alone in those thoughts, and if anything, my scale was tilted in Marvel’s favor. Factor all of that into the fourth attempt to get Fantastic Four off of the ground and here we are. But, here’s the thing about Fantastic Four: First Steps: it has a lot in common with Superman and a kaiju film, which is an unlikely combination that adds up to a very enjoyable movie.
Donna Galanti’s books have inadvertently been on vacation with us twice now. The first was an emerging reading chapter book about unicorns. As a point of reference, I read Unicorn Island and found it to be mixed in with enough action and mystery to latch in kids, but mainly girls, aged eight and up. Loon Cove Summer snuck in our beach bag this year and mainly hammers that audience, but with one big difference.
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