Daddy Mojo, Author at Daddy Mojo

Batter Up, Charlie Brown!, a Peanuts graphic is new, nostalgic awesomeness

The graphic novel genre is huge. It’s a massive cross section of books that can span any interest and are for any age. As proof of this, Batter Up, Charlie Brown!, it’s in the Peanuts Graphic Novels series on Simon Spotlight, and joins Snoopy Soars to Space and Adventures with Linus and Friends. There’s a timeless, classic aura that permeates every panel on every page of Batter Up, Charlie Brown! It’s comprised of six new, original stores that are punctuated with classic Sunday comics that Charles Schultz created.

Batter Up, Charlie Brown! is a Peanuts graphic novel that collects six new stories, some classic Sunday strips and reminds ages eight and up why it’s one of the best.

Timeless and classic, even when the stories are newly published

Once Upon Another Time: Happily Ever After sticks the finale

Trilogies are tricky business. Which came first, the trilogy or the story? That’s the question that sometimes vexes readers and reviewers. If you add too much backstory then it could water down the traction that readers would have with the characters, but if you don’t add enough then people won’t be emotionally invested in them. I completely understand the creative will to have more than one book, but am aware that it can be perceived as simply needing multiple entries to sell books. It’s a thin line, isn’t it? Once Upon Another Time: Happily Ever After (or Once Upon Another Time 3) deftly approaches that line, happily looks over it, and then dances back and forth over that line on repeated occasions.

Happily Ever After, the third and final book in the Once Upon Another Time series, pokes, dances and has fun with expectations and fairy tale tropes.

Rounding out the series with fun to spare

Oppenheimer sits alongside the best films ever made

Oppenheimer, the film by Christopher Nolan has usurped Russians from Dream of the Blue Turtles as the leading edge of cultural awareness for “father of the atomic bomb”. In that song, Sting flippantly introduced the subject as “Oppenheimer’s deadly toy”. In reality, his relationship was much more complex with nuclear weapons than that; but kudos to Sting for introducing a name to millions of folks who otherwise wouldn’t have heard it until now. Oppenheimer is a big film in the most Christopher Nolan manner possible. It’s a three-hour dramatic tour de force that grabs viewers by their shirt collars and maintains its grip for the vast majority of its run time.

Oppenheimer is a massive 3-hour movie that introduces a man who you probably don’t know, tells you why you should care and has parallels to today’s times.

You will remember the first time that you saw it

Time to Roll, continues to move with middle school, mglit ease

You don’t need to read Roll With It in order to enjoy Time to Roll. As a matter of fact, that first book snuck up on us because it adhered to the age-old saying of not judging a book by its cover. Time to Roll follows that formula so successfully that it doesn’t feel like a sequel to another book, but it is. Part of that is our fault because we’ve seen too many follow-ups, sequels, or properties that intended to make themselves multiple entries; but instead merely check off formulaic boxes. Middle school readers, if they give Time To Roll an opportunity, will find themselves enjoying a story that they never thought they would.

Time to Roll is realistic fiction, great storytelling that tells us about two people that we don’t know, but seems a lot like someone that we might.

Realistic fiction that’s on a roll with readers

Watch Out For The Lion!, fear not the young kids who want this book

Watch Out For The Lion! Is the brother from another mother to The Monster at the End of This Book: Starring Lovable, Furry Old Grover. It’s a trick that will cause young readers will lean forward as books like this are being read to them. The page shows a yellow tail with a bob of tan fur at its end, surely this is the lion that the book warned readers about. This is the fun, breathless sort of book that runs with energy when the reader and the crowd are synchronized.

Pre-K through Kindergarten, this is your sign

Bug Block, don’t let the board book nature fool you, this is smart stuff

We need to stop asking the folks at Abrams to stop trying to raise the ante with their Abrams Block Book series. Both of our children learned their ABC’s with them, mastered their numbers, had fun with dinosaurs, and more. They’ve gone to space with Space Block, learned about love with Love Block, and even went the Disney route with Star Wars Block and others. It’s an Abrams Block Book world and we’re just living in it. That’s what you think if you’re a four-year-old child who is digging into those high-quality, board books that don’t treat babies like babies. Bug Block follows the same format as the others, but if it’s not broken and your audience is always moving on, why change it?

Bug Block is the latest in the go-to board book series from Abrams, this time shining a light on the little creatures in our backyard.

Durable, engaging and entertaining for crawlers through K

Family Style, a moving graphic novel proving that less is more

Graphic novels are not all superheroes in tights. Graphic novels are capable of teaching lessons, even those that are biographical or non-fiction. It’s important to remind yourself of those basic truths every once in a while. Family Style, Memories of an American from Vietnam is a powerful and moving graphic novel whose potentially unattractive topic matter (to some) is made palatable with the thing that binds us all: food.

Family Style: Memories of an American from Vietnam by Thien Pham demonstrates the ability of a graphic novel to reach past where people think the medium should be.

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts

I Am A Tornado, a great read-aloud illustrated book that seeds STEM curiosity

Illustrated books teach best when it’s done via a metaphor that’s so obvious it makes adults question if the book is really about what they think it’s about. I Am A Tornado by Drew Beckmeyer is an illustrated book that completely fits that bill. The book is obviously about a tornado, in a meteorological sense, and presented at a level for early elementary school ages to enjoy. The book is an over-the-top metaphor about how kids can become out of control when their emotions aren’t in check. Isn’t it obvious? I Am A Tornado is a mix of the two ideas and is presented with infectious, energetic art that brims with movement and fun. No, I Am A Tornado is almost certainly an age-appropriate book on the whirling wind that kicks up in the summer months.

I Am A Tornado is an illustrated book on those windy cyclones, with a possible metaphor on cranky children, that will please all ages 4 through 8.

Metaphor or STEM, it’s up to you, but great for all