Daddy Mojo, Author at Daddy Mojo

Her Eyes on the Stars, great story, but it’s been done better before

The story of Maria Mitchell is a fabulous one for many reasons. It’s about a young woman who has always loved studying the night sky and the objects that occupy its space. In the mid-1850s she was living in Nantucket and she’s noticing something amiss in the darkened sky. It’s a blur, a cottonball blur of a thing that’s set against crystal clear objects that are perfectly in focus. Her Eyes on the Stars: Maria Mitchell, Astronomer is the story about her childhood fascination with the sky; and her young adult life when she sees what just might be the first comet discovered by an American.

Deja vu, except, not as good as the first time

A Delicious Story, happily zips along with charm to spare

This is a thick illustrated book. That’s what you’ll be thinking when you first pick up A Delicious Story. This is a lot of pages it’s probably quite a delicious story indeed. Yes, it is, but open up the book and you’ll see artwork that is the hallmark of Barney Saltzberg. The cartoonish mice are drawn with big, thick lines and have been lovingly painted to illustrate the difference between the baby mouse and the adult mouse. His art and stories always have a muted allure of a slow, patient tale that’s able to pivot to a quick reveal, twist, or surprise that leaves young readers smiling.

The cuteness, oh, the cuteness for ages 4 and up

The Astronaut’s Guide to Leaving the Planet, 6th-grade go-to space project gold

Don’t tell yourself no. There are many dozens of wisdom nuggets in The Astronaut’s Guide to Leaving the Planet, but that one is a favorite of ours. Being an astronaut is a job that’s easily identifiable to an elementary-aged student. An analyst or working in public relations are amorphous jobs that are challenging to quantifiably explain what you do in a way that those age’s will understand. But an astronaut that’s a job that everyone knows, even if they don’t know how to become one. For a book centered on leaving the planet, The Astronaut’s Guide to Leaving the Planet has street-cred galore.

The Astronaut’s Guide to Leaving the Planet is an entertaining chapter book that’s custom made for 5th or 6th graders to learn about an out-of-this-world profession.

What Would the Astronaut do?

Hardy Boys Adventures: The Smuggler’s Legacy, trust the process

Let’s party like it’s 1977. The Hardy Boys are on television, it’s Sunday night and I’m about to relax and get my mystery on. I had read a couple of the books, but for me, it was the television version that I enjoyed. Your version of The Hardy Boys might be different. There was a series that ran from 2020-2023 on Hulu, the classic books, and now, their literary sibling has been modernized. Change is not a bad thing and when it comes to The Hardy Boys, their adventures and lifestyle are modern-day, but they still have the same hallmarks of the elements that brought them here.

Hardy Boys Adventures: The Smuggler’s Legacy is a fast-paced, mystery that has the hallmarks of its namesake, but is updated for today’s readers.

Just don’t tell the kids it’s a reboot and they’ll dig it

The Boy Who Tried to Shrink His Name, embrace the moniker and be patient

Being a substitute teacher I usually go to a different class in a different school every day. Sometimes I’ll engage in long-term assignments which will afford me the opportunity to learn students’ names. Whenever I take attendance I always say this disclaimer, “If I mispronounce your name it’s not meant to be funny or insulting, so please correct me when I do.” I then go on to mispronounce a handful of their names but do try my best to state them correctly. The Boy Who Tried to Shrink His Name is a book about one of those kids. In this case, the boy’s name is Zimdalamashkermishkada and he’s a little self-conscious about his long name.

The Boy Who Tried to Shrink His Name is a timely and heartfelt book about embracing your name and being patient to those who have trouble saying it.

Those early elementary kids will love this

A Walk Through The Rain Forest, is flora and fauna-forest perfection

Back to that art class that I was asked to teach the other week. One of the students produced an illustration that was absolutely stunning. It was realistic, which led me to immediately mention hyper-realistic as a way to describe certain illustrations. By a happy coincidence, I had A Walk Through The Rain Forest in my backpack and showed them some examples of this student’s work, but elevated to the next level. A Walk Through The Rain Forest is an illustrated book where the text isn’t simple, but it does tell a simple story.

A Walk Through The Rain Forest is an illustrated book whose subtle text and hyper realistic art willfully drags you through the dirt.

Stop, collaborate and stare at the images

Go: A Kidd’s Guide to Graphic Design, what kids 10 and up are curious about

The other day I was put into art class as the substitute teacher. The assignment was rather simple and as I was providing them their different options I was using terms like disparate, negative space, abstract, hyper-realism, scale or symmetry. Then, to illustrate what the students looked like, I brought in a deer and turned on my car’s headlights that illuminated its bulbous eyes. Go: A Kidd’s Guide to Graphic Design was originally published as a hardback book and is now available in soft cover. Students, don’t get freaked out because a book has now been released in a format that’s more palatable for you. This is an illustrated, reference book that’s effortless to look at and presents its information in page nuggets that educate through entertainment.

Go: A Kidd’s Guide to Graphic Design gives what ages 10 and up know is around them, but gives it a name and explains why they like it.

Design you seek is it?

Slow Down and Be Here Now, lyrical, illustrated STEM around us

Don’t judge a book by its cover. Repeat that to yourself a couple of times and look at Slow Down and Be Here Now: More Nature Stories to Make You Stop, Look, and Be Amazed by the Tiniest Things. You’re thinking that it’s a book about nature poems. It’s got the oversized look to where it certainly could be loaded with poems about nature. The cover is softly illustrated and shows dandelion seeds being blown off from its host; while a rodent of some sort looks on from a neighboring plant. However, open the book and you’ll see seeds of STEM-based fun that lets young readers know that this is not rhyme-based reads for short attention span theater.

Illustrated STEM, but in a lyrical, non-poetry way