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
Stop me if you’ve heard this before. A young girl’s parents have mysteriously disappeared and are presumed deceased. This youth mourns their absence and is trying to figure out the meaning behind the object or writings that she’s worshipped since they’ve been gone. Suddenly a porthole, new person in town, or traumatic event happens that leads our protagonist to a far-flung world where she discovers new things, realizes that she has powers beyond her imagination and just might be able to see her family again. This is a trope that’s running rampant through children’s literature now. Actually, one could say that it’s been a common theme for a long time. However, what was a theme, is now a de facto, almost mandatory synopsis in books that are in my review queue. So, how does The Kingdom Over the Sea fit in relative to this landscape?
“Is this the good Star Wars or the bad Star Wars?”, said the 11-year-old when he saw Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (A Collector’s Classic Board Book). Internally I was hoping that my bias towards certain Star Wars movies hadn’t prejudiced his opinion about the cannon. But then, after thinking about it for a moment I realized that some of those films deserved the negative scrutiny that they received. Then, I remembered that Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (A Collector’s Classic Board Book) is not intended for audiences who hold debates with themselves questioning the ranking of the films.
I don’t like unicorns. Certainly, I’m not too fond of kittens. Pugs are the lowest form of canines. Resistance is futile. If you’re a pre-k through second-grade student, and you think any one of those first three sentences is a resolute truth, then resistance is futile to Party Hearty Kitty-Corn. This is the sort of vivid, in-your-face, read-to-me book that runs with enthusiasm and speaks loudly to those who hear it.
The Ready To Read book series is one of the most easily identifiable line ups for kids who level up their reading. They consist of five levels that range from sight words to chapters that deal with challenging vocabulary levels, as well as, character development. Flashback to the….. Awesome ‘80s! is a level two book that puts it in the Superstar Reader! category. Most nine-year olds will be able to Flashback to the…. Awesome ‘80s! with ease. Some eight-year olds will be able to read the book with assistance. There’ll be a couple of first graders who will open the book, curious to see what sight words they can wrangle from the text. Any elementary school student will be attracted to the book. They’ll giggle at the fashion, marvel at the brick, and try to fathom a time when all children’s television programming was only available on Saturday morning.
Stop, collaborate and read-it’s fun for pre-k through 2nd grade
Yes, mom and dad are weird and grew up in a time that was much closer to the dinosaurs than you’re growing up. Now you have a book that you early elementary-aged kids can read, all the while, mocking your parents for not have a mobile computer in their shirt pocket. The only radio that you had was a massive, grey box that weighed about 13 pounds. It could play the radio, but couldn’t stream anything and was only able to play mix tapes.
Yeah, but we also had the Sony Walkman, which was a portable way to play those cassette tapes in a way to where only we could hear them. Of course, there were some off-brand portable cassette players that were similar to them, but quite different. Our off-brand Walkman couldn’t rewind, so if we wanted to repeat a song for friends then we had to flip the tap over, fast forward, and then guess as to where our new favorite song started.
Thankfully, for today’s elementary school readers, there’s a glossary of terms used in Flashback to the….. Awesome ’80s! That 13 pound weight was also called a boom box. The device that answered our phone was an answering machine. Rad was what kids used to say when something was worse than mid. Mid, you kids today know all about that, don’t you? While we’re revisiting the 80’s, let me suggest that the mullet be one of the things that we leave back there, even though it breaks my achy breaky heart.
There are three chapters of glorious 80’s throwbacks that will make kids laugh out loud and shake their heads in disbelief. Yes, we were that lame, that gloriously, shoulder-padded, video game controller that wasn’t wireless, floppy disc having, neon colors aplenty lame. It’s a Ready to Read book that wallows in the fun, slaps color patterns that make parents grin out of remembrance to the days when movies weren’t all remakes or created using CGI.
Flashback to the…… Awesome ‘80s! is elementary school water cooler fun that has the ‘it’ factor. Those young ages will share the book, howl with laughter at the thought of their parents having such things, and then hide in the corner when their parents actually have the real deal in their basement. This is where it’s important to distinguish between collecting memorabilia and having too much stuff. If I have one rotary telephone it’s being quirky and not hoarding. Granted, this could also qualify as office supplies or background details for Youtube, but now it just sounds like I’m making excuses for my messy office…..back to the book.
This book series is dependably great and Flashback to the….. Awesome ’80! is the sort of LOL book that younger kids will want to read. Those kids who can read it easily will do so and have conversations about how great it is now when compared to when you grew up. While they do that, you can start earmarking all of the touchstones that today’s kids have that will seem archaic and quaint in 40 years.
Flashback to the….. Awesome ‘80s! is in the Ready-to-Read book series and is available from Simon Spotlight, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.
The Adventurous Kid’s Guide to The World’s Most Mysterious Places is the literary equivalent to Youtube food. Those who hang around upper elementary through lower middle school students can relate to that metaphor. It’s those ages that are apt to start a sentence with “Did you know that…?” to which you’ll be regulated to something that’s questionable true, demonstrably false, fake news or a little-known fact that makes those ages stop, repeat it to their friends and then find more like that. The difference is that The Adventurous Kid’s Guide to The World’s Most Mysterious Places is 100% non-fiction. It’s an impossibly addictive, oversized illustrated book that examines 19 places that exist, or have existed and lets fourth through sixth-grade student know why they should be interested in them.
Peculiar Woods: The Ancient Underwater City is a graphic novel by Andres J. Colmenares that’s the brother from another mother of Adventure Time. That isn’t 100% correct, let me break that down a little bit. Peculiar Woods is a much more kid-friendly version of that sense of quirky sense of humor and style of animation that television shows and comic books exhibit. Peculiar Woods is the start of a graphic novel series that’s weird enough to be cool for middle school but has the reading level appropriate for some third-grade students. It’s that mystical all-age graphic novel that makes the older kids enjoy it due to its content, and also allows the younger readers to be able to understand it.
I wanted to really enjoy Princess of the Wild Sea. It’s from Megan Frazer Blakemore and I was a big fan of her previous release, The Story Web. That book had its hooks firmly in the realm of fiction, with just enough power behind the character’s relationships that you wanted it to be real, or at least possible. Princess of the Wild Sea has planted its seeds firmly in the garden of fantasy, with a side dose of magic, heroes, and expectations. It’s mglit that will speak to those who want a patient, lyrical story of a once-magical place that’s now populated by hope.
Somehow or another, we didn’t read The Beast and the Bethany book 2. We did read The Beast and the Bethany and absolutely loved it. That book has an appeal that’s a blend of Wednesday, the more malevolent parts of Despicable Me, and just a touch of gross characteristics you want from a beast that’s capable of vomiting anything it thinks of. It’s a book’s testament if it’s able to allow readers to skip a book in the series or to jump into it cold, and still be able to follow along, enjoying the story. The Beast and the Bethany: Battle of the Beast does that in a way that drags along reluctant middle school readers with monstrous ease.
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