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.
Any book that sounds like a failed show on Netflix or has a page on “how to use this book” in it, can’t be entertaining, it’s probably needlessly complex or not interesting for young readers. Note: I prefer using the term young readers, as opposed to children or students because the latter will imply to them that it’s studious and not fun, while the former infers that they’re young and might not know certain things. Name That Thing! is a puzzle book that’s smarter than most elementary school ages, has a presentation that’s agreeable to anyone and information that runs the gamut from general trivia to world flags and food from around the world. With any luck, Netflix is working on a game show with the same premise.
We don’t have Apple TV+. It’s nothing personal against the streaming giant; it’s just that we can’t have every platform because that would nullify any savings that we earned from cord-cutting. However, if I were in early elementary school, and had control over the streaming options in our house, Apple TV+ would certainly be in the first two because of Camp Snoopy. Welcome to Camp Snoopy is a graphic novel compilation from Camp Snoopy, the aforementioned show. It’s a collection of short stories, lessons, and vignettes that the campers encounter during their stay at summer camp.
There are certain things or instances that, regardless of your adult age, immediately transport you back to when you were younger. It could be a certain place, a specific day, or a period in your life, but that thing can transport you back quicker and more accurately than any TARDIS ever will be able to. Highlights. Highlights for Children was the sole point of our visits to the dentist that we actively remember and didn’t loathe. You’d find the most recent issue of Highlights, and quickly turn to the activity that was least likely to have been filled in or marked by previous patients. Yeah, Highlights has always been available by subscription, but for you, it was your go-to dentist jam. Can I get a whoot, whoot if you remember that? The Highlights Big Book of Activities for Little Kids has the same go-to level of pre-k through mid-elementary school enjoyment and ownership as the magazine, except this packaging is bigger, better, and longer.
Which came first the chicken or the egg? That question is one that older readers might ponder after reading The Day the River Caught Fire. It’s the non-fiction story of how the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, Ohio caught fire and led to the creation of Earth Day. We just got back from Hollywood Studios in Orlando where the water catching on fire was one of the standout elements in a nighttime show. It’s a simple effect that does a great job at making audiences impressed due to the issue that one can easily defeat the other. However, water, due to its nature, should not catch on fire, should 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 only way that The Sublime Ms. Stacks could be more polarizing is if each book came with a lightning rod. There is no gray area on this illustrated book. It’s a book that can be admired for its forthright thinking but will also leave many wondering how it could be so tone-deaf. The Sublime Ms. Stacks will leave most readers wondering why the book exists, while a couple of them will say that it didn’t come onto the scene soon enough.
When I was a kid I wouldn’t talk for a couple of hours because I liked to imagine that I had a finite amount of words that I could speak on a given day. And if I was to use up my words with something silly, then that would just be wasteful, and my parents wouldn’t have liked that, would they? I Can Explain is an illustrated book from that same vein of illogical thinking that makes perfect sense if you’re a kid.
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