All age comic books, Kidlit, mglit, movies, entertainment and parenting
Author: Daddy Mojo
Daddy Mojo is a blog written by Trey Burley, a stay at home dad, fanboy, husband and father. At Daddy Mojo we'll chat about home improvement, giveaways, family, children and poop culture. You can find out more about us at http://about.me/TreyBurley
How to engage young readers? You can mention something slightly inappropriate like a butt. You can make age-appropriate jokes that are a little bit rude. You can involve pictures of animals, early elementary-age readers love animals. You can ask questions. Who doesn’t like to answer a question? It’s a reflexive action like catching a ball when one is thrown to you. Butt or Face? Revenge of the Butts, the target demographic might also call it Butt or Face #2 and are also lining up to see Butt or Face #3, as long as they get to say the name of the book aloud in class.
Jean Luc tried and failed. You will too if you attempt to resist the charm of Chicka Chicka Ho Ho Ho. But, I’m too old for an alphabet book. I don’t need to look at shapes, where’s my cell phone? Chicka Chicka is for babies and the level of creativity and enjoy for that tripe ends when you turn seven. Chicka Chicka Ho Ho Ho says hold my juice box. This is fun. This book runs with energy, has a contained story, but is reminiscent of something classic and punches with seasonal Christmas tidings that forces kids to have fun with a book-something they had unconsciously sworn off when the winter break started.
Whenever I substitute for a math or music class I run the students through a basic critical thinking question. What are the two universal languages that can be understood anywhere you go? On average one, maybe two students in a class of 28 will respond with music and math. Some might say “science” and while that’s not the desired response, it does illustrate the room’s temperature. Black Lives: Great Minds of Science is a graphic novel highlighting nine scientists from various fields. As a vehicle for information it grabs your attention and speaks to upper-elementary and mglit readers in a way that motivates reluctant ones.
Those reluctant readers, you know, the kids who secretly want to read, but have bought into the group-think, lemming-like fallacy that reading somehow makes you less cool. To those students I would posit this simple question, is it cool to earn more money, or less money? Yeah, money doesn’t make you happy, it’s just a tool, I know that. But if you’re going to fix or build something you need the correct tool and sometimes, if it’s a bigger job, you need more tools or the job becomes infinitely more challenging. Great Minds of Science is created for those reluctant readers.
It’s ok to have books geared more toward girls than boys. It’s also ok for boys to have books that mainly appeal to them. There are also some books that cross-over to both groups with varying degrees, but could have elements that interest each camp. Bunnybirds is a graphic novel, whose genre is typically associated with boys. However, this is one of the rare graphic novels that will appeal to girls just a little bit more than boys. There are dragons and action elements in Bunnybirds, but the main characters are bunnies with wings. If you suspect that your young reader could become a fan of the massive mglit juggernaut, Warriors, this graphic novel is the prep material for them.
I have never eaten a persimmon. It sounds more like an adjective than a fruit to me. The students felt quite persimmon when they realized the difficulty of the test. The Most Perfect Persimmon is an illustrated book that’s a love letter to family, patience, creature comforts and the fleeting search for perfection. That last bit might be too esoteric, but the nature of the young girl in the book and the brief period that a persimmon is perfect brings about comparisons to avocados.
Our wheelhouse has a litmus test called the Christmas Music (or Movie) test. In brief, people are more forgiving, and artists are more apt to create projects when they are centered around Christmas. The cynic says that it’s a built-in holiday audience that will create traditions around a song or a movie. The artists will say with a straight face that they’ve always loved the holiday and are out to entertain the kids. There are some songs or movies that are wonderful regardless of their Santa inclusion and those creations pass the Christmas Movie (or music) test. Red One is a Christmas movie, does it pass this test?
Why do children want to read books? For illustrated book audiences they want to read books because they’re weird, grab their attention, or have characters/situations that they know. It can be any one of those three or a combination of them. Gotta Go! is an illustrated book that runs with weirdness. Well it kind of runs, more accurately it waddles, twists, and oozes originality out of every panel. Panel, yes, Gotta Go! flows like a graphic novel, but is in an illustrated book package. The result is something that’s overwhelming fresh, original and probably not what you’re expecting.
Penelope’s Balloons, an illustrated book about a girl and her red balloons is a strong metaphor about OCD and overcoming aspects of it.
Penelope’s Balloons is a brightly-colored illustrated book about an anthropomorphic elephant and the 10 red balloons she always carries around.
Penelope is a friendly and quiet girl who happily jaunts around town with her ten, red balloons. She’s known for this and has come to depend on them being around at all times. How will she respond when a massive storms hits the park where she’s playing and blows her balloons all over town?
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