Feiwel & Friends | Daddy Mojo

Trunk No. 3, drama/fantasy mglit that engages kids who want to read

Last year I was teaching ELA in high school. One of my writing prompts was to write a short story from the perspective of an inanimate object. I had a photograph of a streetcar, an automobile, advertising sign and more. All of the photos, plus our detailed speech about the essay, had enough details to inspire those high school kids to write something with a modicum of meaning, creativity or heart. Olivetti was an mglit book that we really enjoyed. Author Allie Millington’s book, Trunk No. 3 follows a similar set up. Does it payoff as efficiently as a story from the perspective of a typewriter?

Trunk No. 3 offers a fly-on-the-wall take of a trunk that can mystically send objects to different locations. It’s mglit for the reading faithful.

It won’t do much to sway reluctant readers

Pocket Bear is go-to, early-chapter book magic for ages 7-12

Pocket Bear has a style and spirit that will easily tap into kids in early elementary school. Those kids who are already reading will feel accomplished because of its short chapters. The slightly older kids, say those in third through fifth grade will feel encouraged that they’re able to read a real book. By ‘real book’ they’ll mean a chapter book with very few, if any, illustrations. Everyone, even you adults who might read Pocket Bear aloud to young audiences, will quickly fall prey to its cuteness and the age-appropriate action.

Pocket Bear is by Katherine Applegate, a go-to author who again is able to tap into a story that will charm elementary ages in the best of ways.

Resistance is futile to Pocket Bear

The Flicker, dystopian mglit with too much message and not enough fun

Seasons Change as the classic song from Expose goes. And while some trends in mglit might ebb and flow, the dystopian, end-of-the-world novel with a plucky, female heroine will never die. The Flicker is an entry into that genre that wants to accomplish so much but ends up tripping over its intended inclusiveness. It’s challenging to find a sympathetic or interesting character in the first 85% of the book, and the lengths that it went to in order to check off virtue signal boxes has us recalling that classic Keanu Reeves scene from Always Be My Maybe.

The Flicker wants to be your favorite new dystopian mglit series, but its slow, preachy, whiny delivery will do all that it can to dissuade all but the most diehard readers.

Kids, there are better books out there than this.