Feiwel and Friends | Daddy Mojo

Arctic Adventure: A Tundra Tale, illustrated, poetic, STEM gold for 4-8

That’s a handful of alliterations in that short title, aren’t they? And while young readers might not appreciate its clever wordplay, they will immediately notice the glossy aspects to the book’s cover. The arctic fox is looking at its kit, while a mother and her daughter are in a boat in the horizon. In the background are whirling colors that older readers will associate with the aurora borealis. Younger readers might not know that fascinating light show, but will associate the pattern with something akin to Willy Wonka and be immediately curious about the show. That magic will continue as kids open Arctic Adventure. They’ll fall into wanderlust and become the armchair traveler that great illustrated books can help kids embark on.

Arctic Adventure: A Tundra Tale is an illustrated book that uses fabulous, dreamy art and succinct text to create a world that young readers will willingly get lost in.

An arctic Adventure that’s great any time of the year

Olivetti, mglit that makes you believe that a typewriter can communicate

If these walls could talk. The aspect of inanimate objects communicating or having personalities is a fun way to think isn’t it? The walls of a school would have a different story than that of a hospital and a home would be something much more personal. Olivetti is the story of a typewriter and how it came to communicate with the family where it’s lived for years. Kids, a typewriter is a manual device that would create documents when the keys are pressed down. The hammer would physically move the specific letter that you pressed before raising a thin film of ink that would allow the indention of said key to create the letter on the paper upon impact. It’s also a go-to for some creative types who like the tactile process of creating manuscripts and find the clacking sound of keys rapidly and correctly hitting their intended destination soothing, cathartic, and an enhancement to the process. As a novel, Olivetti is a charming throwback of an mglit book that asks you to suspend belief, and then effortlessly brings you along if you chose to believe that a typewriter has a personality all its own.

Olivetti is mglit that delivers heart and a strong story in a very sneaky way that will charm reluctant readers and make fans of the genre happy too.

See: Charming and surprising

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

The One and Only Sparkella, celebrity-authored meh

I was at a big box retail store and saw about ten copies of The One and Only Sparkella on the shelf. For comparison, the other picture books on the shelf had one to three copies of them. The book is written by Channing Tatum, whose name is in font almost as large as the title and listed above it. I’m torn on my opinion about this for a couple of reasons that boil down to book advances, celebrity status, and the overall impression that the book leaves on children. At the end of the book (or day), is The One and Only Sparkella something that kids will want to read, or will they enjoy it?

The One and Only Sparkella, an illustrated book from Channing Tatum that’s bright and happy, but has been covered better previously.

A forgetable celebrity author’s turn at illustrated commerce