City Spies is go-to reading for middle school and up

On average we read one book a year that runs. This is the descriptor we use when the book can’t be put down. The story that the author has put forth literally runs off of the page and into your imagination as fuel for what could be a perfect movie. Having said that, the book is almost always better, so be ahead of the curve and read City Spies by James Ponti. From the first two pages the book’s story runs into your mind with a credible, fun plot that has early teenagers as the main characters.  

City Spies is fast, fun and jammed with excitement for ages 10 and up

Onward, keeping Pixar weird and wonderful

Keep Pixar weird. If it were a city then this could be its rallying call among some of its citizens. They’re the folk who’ve lived there for a long time and love the place, but they also like the time when it just got started. Onward is a film from brings the oddity back to Pixar does it with an original story that feels unlike anything they’ve done since the late 2000s. In short, Onward manages to assure critics of Pixar that they’re too reliant on sequels or need them to create ‘those’ moments that we’ve come to expect from them.

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Onward is original, weird, emotional, creative, human and very fun

Greta’s Story, mid-elementary book on the climate strike wonder

Why isn’t she in school? I wondered to myself when Greta Thunberg first burst onto the scene. If your mid elementary aged child was wondering that; or possibly other things about the schoolgirl who went on strike, then this book is exactly what they’re looking for. Greta’s Story, The Schoolgirl Who Went on Strike to Save the Planet by Valentina Camerinia, translated by Moreno Giovannoni with illustrations by Veronica Carratello is a middle-elementary school book that gives ages 8-12 at this young eco-warrior.

Greta’s Story digs into the reason and history behind the school strike climate girl

Everest, illustrated book/large graphic novel excellence

Educational illustrated books get a bad rap.  When readers get to a certain age they feel that books with too many pictures are babyish. The exceptions to those books are graphic novels, which are more mature in their eyes. Everest, The Remarkable Story of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Nogay is an illustrated book in name only. In reality, the content, intelligence, details, information and length put this more in league with a graphic novel, albeit one that’s bigger in size than a standard comic book. 

Everest is a blend of illustrated book and graphic novel that will captivate you

FLCL: Progressive and Alternative, finally available on Blu-Ray

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a copy of the Blu-Ray that I reviewed in this blog post. The opinions are my own. Any intellectual property that spans more than a decade in-between releases we find interesting. FLCL: Progressive and FLCL: Alternative are the sequels to FLCL, an anime series that came out in 2001.  In its run on Adult Swim Toonami FLCL was #1 in its timeslot and earned a huge cult following. FLCL (pronounced Fooly Cooly), both Progressive and Alternative are finally available on Blu-Ray DVD in a combo pack with tons of special features.  

FLCL: Progressive and Alternative is finally available on Blu-Ray Combo pack

Playing With Fire family fun kit giveaway

Playing With Fire is available on Blu-Ray and DVD now. It features a ton of extras that will have elementary aged kids through middle school howling with laughter. When Playing With Fire was in theaters it was THE film that the kids at our elementary school wanted to see. It’s rated PG and offers the perfect combination of humor and action that will entertain kids and be just enough to keep parents loving it too.

Just yesterday we passed a DVD rental box and our 8 year-old had a meltdown that we weren’t going rent Playing With Fire that evening. We reminded him about the power of being patient, to which he responded that all of his friends want to see the film too.

Win this Playing With Fire prize pack

The Only Woman In The Photo is the most famous woman you don’t know

The Only Woman In The Photo is a book title that really baits the hook. Why was she the only woman in the photo? In this #MeToo era it conjures up all manner of scheming or wily characters that are lurking in or out of the picture frame. In reality, The Only Woman In The Photo has a much larger and impactful scope. This is the story of Frances Perkins, a woman whose work we come across daily due to the time she spent working in the White House.

Frances Perkins isn’t a household name, but millions are impacted by her work everyday

Downton Abbey The Motion Picture, the Crawley clan film works well

Now a major motion picture, that phrase used to be the marketing stuff of legend. The book that you read is now a movie! You and your friends can be the first to say that the book was better and then clamor for more books that can be made into sequels. When some of the toys, I’m looking at you Transformers, started to get into the game it did water down the reputation a bit. When video games were made into movies it was a tipping point in the universe where up was down. Thankfully that also signaled a bit of a change. It said, without actually saying it, that if the fans are there, then a movie could be made of a property that was once on the small screen. That’s where Downton Abbey, The Motion Picture succeeds as a fan’s film and one that’s enjoyable for people who enjoy cinema.

Downton Abbey jumps from the small screen to the big screen with ease
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