Fann Club: Batman Squad is not a story that exists in the multiverse. There also isn’t a typo in the book’s cover. Once you see the cover it’s obvious that it’s a graphic novel intent on making elementary school-age readers and up laugh, which it succeeds at very quickly. Our sometimes surly 13-year-old picked up Fann Club: Batman Squad, plopped himself on the sofa, and proceeded to read it. This is worth noting because he’s an avid reader, but mainly sticks to mglit. “This is from the Catwad guy, isn’t it?”, he asked. Yeah, some readers might know Jim Benton from that, but they also might recognize his work from the Dear Dumb Diary book series, Franny K. Stein books, Victor Shmud or his cartooning work. For me, the most entertaining was Attack of the Stuff, which was criminally ignored and still is by most elementary school libraries that I visit. Fann Club: Batman Squad is a Jim Benton book because it’s his style, set against the background of a young boy who knows everything about Batman.
When the first book in The One and Only Sparkella series came out I was not a fan. Because it’s written by Channing Tatum I placed the book in the category of ‘published due to his fame’ and not on the merits of the book. Well, here we are three books into the series and I find myself eating a large plate of crow. The One and Only Sparkella and the Big Lie is cut from the same template as the first two books which ran with energy and color.
For a time period in every kid’s life, they’ll hopefully be best friends with a book. For many of those on the younger spectrum, it’ll happen when they’re in pre-k or even younger. It’s those board books that they’re able to wrangle with their evolving hands. When they get slightly older the pages get skinnier and are combined with more content. Abrams Extend-A-Book has created a new category that overlaps those two and created an entirely new area. All Aboard! The Sesame Street Subway is an Extend-A-Book that will make the eyes of those pre-k kids bug out as if they’re tasting chocolate ice cream for the first time.
This is the start of a beautiful friendship. When you read Schnozzer & Tatertoes: Take A Hike! you might be reminded of when you first dug into Dog Man or InvestiGators. When you read both of the first books in those series, especially the latter one, you immediately wanted more once the last page turned over and the book was finished. Schnozzer & Tatertoes: Take A Hike! leaves you with that same desire. Take A Hike! operates in that early graphic novel space that lower to upper-elementary school kids crave. It’s relentlessly silly, has chapters to provide confidence to those young ages, full-color illustrations, and effortlessly entertains readers whose minds can easily be distracted.
“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.
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