Amazing Abe, an illustrated book that’s more than niche history

Not Lincoln, Abraham Cahan, nonetheless amazing, but not as well known as the stovepipe-hat-wearing President of the United States. Amazing Abe: How Abraham Cahan’s Newspaper Gave a Voice to Jewish Immigrants could be a tough sell to elementary age audiences. It could be, but it overcomes the non-fiction, biography resistance to unknown figures that those ages have by making the book accessible in its brief text that highlights enough of Cahan’s interesting life to make kids want to care. Amazing Abe also detailed art, but not so much so that it looks real, it’s right in the area encompassing the kind that clever kids want to see in their illustrated books.

It follows the template for making unknown figures interesting

Bounce! A Scientific History of Rubber-STEM story and fun for ages 6 and up

This is a thick book. Why is this book so thick? It’s either loaded with fluff or has too many white pages. Alas, it is thick, but its physical pages are thicker than the average illustrated book, plus it’s loaded with fun, easy-to-understand, STEM facts about the evolution and process of rubber. To those first reactions I say, don’t be intimidated by its thickness. Instead, just enjoy the fact that Bounce! A Scientific History of Rubber is able to create a non-fiction, linear story with STEM nuggets woven in that young readers won’t be turned off by. It can be challenging to get young readers to accept illustrated books that don’t have unicorns or animals in it, thus the first hurdle towards getting them in the book is not getting in the way.

Bounce! A Scientific History of Rubber is an illustrated book that gleefully dances between narrative story and a STEM primer for ages six and up.
Bounce! Before it was a verb that the kids say “to leave”

The Mad Files Review: Nostalgia and Humor Explored

I bought a Mad Magazine at our local comic book store a couple of years ago. As a teenager, back in the early-to-mid 80’s, I read Mad Magazine quite often. My friends and I would sleep over, share our monthly copies, bring the Mad paperback books we’d collected, read silently and occasionally repeat one of the jokes aloud. My favorite flip-flopped between the art by Sergio Aragones, Spy Vs. Spy, and the Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions segments. If The Mad Files: Writers and Cartoonists on the Magazine that Warped America’s Brain! had a song that played along while you were reading it would be Little River Band and Reminiscing.

The Mad Files, a collection of funny and thought-provoking essays about the genius irreverence of Mad Magazine brings back good love.
Take an essay-bourne trip down Mad Magazine Memory lane

Exploring LGBTQ Themes, milquetoast horror in ‘Wishbone’, Book Review

This is a very gay book. This is a very queer book. Wishbone wears either descriptor as its badge of honor and positions itself as the queer hybrid between A Nightmare on Elm Street and Stranger Things. There are some interesting horror angles presented in Wishbone, but this is mglit that’s about reassuring gay, queer, and trans kids that they have a place in society to be themselves. It’s about an 80/20 split on the lifestyle and interpersonal story to the horror angles. By looking at the written description on Amazon, the book is also disingenuous and looks like it’s trying to present itself from two fronts. A casual look will tell you that it’s about a kid confronting their bullies who is granted the powers of magic wishes, however just by looking at the back jacket you’ll see what the heavier ratio of the book is about.

Wishbone is the sibling to The Otherwoods, and not in a good way. It’s too preachy for mglit audience to enjoy it and staggers the fun with ‘message’.
This is not the horror you’re looking for

Why You Need to Read My Vampire vs. Your Werewolf

The problem with a Paul Tobin book is that you want to read every word. That’s not really a problem per se, but you want to get to the end of it so that you can find out how all of this silliness ends. And we mean that in the fondest of ways. My Vampire vs. Your Werewolf takes a premise that elementary ages, middle school students and RPG gamers have kicked around since they were first staked or howled at the moon. The moment you mention the title your mind starts to play out how they would fight, what environment would be friendliest to each monster and how could such a battle realistically take place without attracting massive amounts of attention.

My Vampire Vs. Your Werewolf is MGLIT with an addictive premise that’s paced well with action throughout.
Think about the title and try not to read it

Discover Why Kids Love The First Cat In Space Ate Pizza #1,

Young readers and reluctant readers have more in common than they think. Reluctant readers in most cases just think that they don’t want to read. Assuming that we’re talking about young, elementary school ages, both groups have to find the vehicle that can get them to realize that reading is not punishment. It’s got to be a book so relentlessly fun, over the top silly that it commands young people to engage in something by themselves, for their own enjoyment. The First Cat In Space Ate Pizza is the first book in the series that takes its rightful place alongside Dog Man and Investigators as the go-to graphic novel series for ages seven and up. This book also came out a couple of years ago, so if you’re judging as to why it’s just being reviewed now, I say be curious, not judgmental.

The First Cat In Space Ate Pizza is the start of a beautiful graphic novel friendship for ages seven and up.
Like a cat video and a potato chip, but in a book

Theodora Hendrix: A Fun Chapter Book for Young Readers

It’s a great feeling for parents, educators and most of all, children, when they can comfortably carry around a chapter book. Those first and second graders might carry around Dog Man, but it probably belongs to their older sibling. It’s in late second grade, third grade and hopefully by fourth grade when kids start carrying books like Theodora Hendrix and the Curious Case of the Cursed Beetle. That’s an alliteration in case you’re reviewing that term for seventh-grade ELA. This is second entry in a ridiculously fun chapter-book series that run with silly characters, age-appropriate monsters, and just enough evil to thrill ages 7-10.

Theodora Hendrix and the Curious Case of the Cursed Beetle is the second book in this series that melds monsters, family and friends in an early reader chapter book.
Don’t fear the reaper, embrace the book

Discover a Zen Monk’s Guide to Peaceful Living

So, you’re telling me it’s not a problem if I wander without direction or purpose through life? No, that is not what the book, nor I, are saying that’s what you should do or how you should act. It’s Okay Not to Look for the Meaning of Life: A Zen Monk’s Guide to Living Stress-Free One Day at a Time sounds like it could be an alternate title to a Korean drama or a positive affirmation statement you’d see in a middle school. However, in the latter situation, those students might’ve taken it as a carte blanche to do even less than their doing now. This is not a Spicoli get-out-of-jail-free card, it’s simply a book that encourages you to take a step back and think.

It’s Okay Not to Look for the Meaning of Life is immediately disarming and puts living stress-free in the driver’s seat with vignettes on living a more chill version of you.
Stop, collaborate and zen
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