Graphic novels are meant to be entertaining and are incapable of being educational. Granted readers might gleam something from the art and the book’s cultural relevance, but on the whole, it’s for fun. It’s OK if you have thought that. Education and entertainment sometimes don’t mix. That’s why the best teachers, the ones that you still remember from middle school managed to entertain you while they were teaching you. They lower your defenses and then –BAM, start the soft messaging of teaching you something. Science Comics: Cats is like that and for middle school readers and up who want to learn about animals that will leave you feline fine keep on reading.
One expects excellence from a Cirque du Soleil show. It’s as
high as one can get in the world of acrobatics and performance. It’s a brand
unto itself, all you have to do is say you’re going to a Cirque show and you
have an idea of what to expect. That fact is completely put in its head in
Volta. It starts out similar to other shows, where a loosely constructed story
is laid out. However, even as you’re watching the first act, which was a team
of people jumping rope; it’s obvious that Volta has an energy that you haven’t seen
in a Cirque du Soleil show in a while. For me it was evident that the
performers were having fun. Sure they were jumping rope and doing Double Dutch,
moving as quickly as touching the ground seven times in one second. They were doing that; but the performers were
grinning from ear to ear, high-fiving one another and utterly enjoying
themselves.
In a parallel universe Joker is an indie film that was shot in the backwoods of Norway. The film is a serious approach to mental illness, gorgeously shot, with a bleak and powerful soundtrack that matches its visuals. It’s also masterfully acted and doesn’t pull any punches. The art house crowd loves every minute of the film and singing its praises. While the mainstream audience is appreciating the film, but it’s not breaking records. Joker is like that description, for the most part, except in reverse.
Joker is a drama for those 18 and up. It fully presents itself as a story in which we’re watching a mentally troubled character whose life is one step away from imploding. Arthur Fleck is bullied, beaten up, delusional and suffers from a form of Tourette Syndrome that causes him to laugh at inappropriate times. The film paints a world that we wouldn’t knowingly want to live in, yet also mirrors the one that we currently live in.
This week in all age comic books you’ll notice that the
demographic is noticeably younger. Some
weeks it just happens that way for elementary school readers and this week has
a number of things for those ages including Mr. Wolf’s Class: Lucky Stars,
Hilda and the Mountain King, Pokemon: Sun & Moon and The Baby-Sitters Club
with Boy-Crazy Stacy. For those upper elementary kids and older check out Star
Wars Jedi Academy Volume #8, Amazing Spider-Man #29, Unbeatable Squirrel Girl
#48 and more. For a complete list of this week’s all age comic books just
scroll down. The rating system is quite easy to follow and the books will be
appropriate for those ages. Whether or not they will like the individual reader
will like it is up them, but it’s something that’s age appropriate.
This is a sponsored post. All thoughts are our own. We have a family friend who just went off to college. Aside from making me feel old at dirt I was amazed at the fact that they were going to college without a car. Color me surprised to find out that many college age students (and older) don’t think twice about not having a car. Part of that reason is due to the popularity of people using scooters as a supplemental mode of transportation. Color me even more surprised to find out that scooters are priced to, pardon the pun, move. Parents, the annoying scooters at busy intersection do not need to be your student’s de facto way home. Students, you can own a scooter that’s 100% owned by you and not some other yee haw who walks the same way home. Case in point is the Hover-1 Electric Folding Scooter that you can purchase from Best Buy.
The Hover-1 Electric Scooter is a personal mode of transportation that is affordable, yours and utterly unique.
The Hover-1 Electric Folding Scooter get’s it going
The Hover-1 Electric Folding Scooter checks off every imaginable want, need or concern for people who need a ride around campus or the neighborhood; as well as, those older people who are concerned about safety.
For those taking the
Hover-1 around campus this scooter can make a round trip journey at an 8-mile
school. You don’t have to be Eminem to realize that’s a long way to travel 16
miles without needing to re-charge your wheels.
As I go back in the time
machine I think to my college campus and there were paths galore and hills
aplenty. This scooter could easily get through all of those areas and do so in
a quicker and cooler way than my bike back then. The bike I had then weighed
about 40 bulky pounds. If I had a flat or otherwise couldn’t ride it home I’d
be at the mercy of my friends with a truck.
The Hover-1 folds up within seconds and weighing in at 27 pounds can easily be transported by most people to their dorm, apartment, class or the three steps up to the first floor. This is a light, portable form of short-range transportation that you can own and your friends will be jealous of.
If you’re late for
something the Hover-1 has enough get-up-and-go to move you there poste haste. It
can move at 14 MPH and that’ll get you across campus or down the street quicker
than you can say “What do you mean I have to pay my own phone bill?”
It also brakes with ease
because it has electronic and foot brakes. Parents, this one is for you so that
you don’t worry about your distracted young adult who is looking at cute coeds.
Students, two methods of brakes mean that you are much less likely to take that
unfortunate tumble in the corner when the leaves are wet. This is a win-win
situation.
The Hover-1 Electric Folding Scooter can be purchased at Best Buy. This is a mode of transportation that’ll give parent’s piece of mind and students the ability to get around campus on their own terms.
I love chocolate. I also love my family. Grandpa Cacao by Elizabeth Zunon is the story about a grandfather who she never knew. He grew up harvesting cocoa beans in West Africa and she grew up in Albany, New York. It starts off with her dad making a chocolate cake while mom is running an errand. There are lots of things in the book for some people to love, but as a book with broad appeal Grandpa Cacao falls short, despite its obvious good intentions.
The book shows her grandfather scooping out cacao beans,
drying them out and then smashing them into the chocolaty extract that kids everywhere
love.
As an illustrated book with an emphasis on art, Grandpa Cacao succeeds wildly. The images are layered with collages, paintings and silk screening techniques. The pages have more in common with an art gallery then some children will be accustomed to. As an exercise in art appreciation that is great, however, the result as an illustrated book-which is what this is, is something different.
The mixed media pages clash together in some instance which
caused the story to become secondary. Granted, we love some children’s books
where the art or the presentation overtakes the story. But here it’s different
because it’s obvious that the story means so much to the author.
The other reason that the book felt jarring is because there is too much text. The book’s full title, Grandpa Cacao, A Tale of Chocolate, From Farm To Family gives a glimpse into the scale it’s attempting. The pages have too much text for the book to be a true “children’s book” in the sense that you read it to them. Most parents would check out halfway through the book if they’re reading it to a small child and the small children wouldn’t be too far behind.
Likewise, the vocabulary in the book is too advanced for young readers who might be drawn in by the cool visuals. The result is a well intended book that’s too artsy for older kids and too wordy for younger kids. Chocolate is great and there’s a cool children’s book out there to tell about how it’s farmed, but this isn’t it for most readers.
This is an ode to the surly children. Those kids whose moods are more often than not, negative. These are the dour children who want to be happy, but don’t want others to want them to be happy. They want to have friends and be loved, as long as it’s on their terms. Picture a pint sized Louis Black, albeit with fewer words and absolutely OK for children and you’ve an idea of the main character in Nobody Hugs A Cactus. Hank is the cactus who behaves like the prickliest human you’ve ever met-and believe me, you’ve met people like him before.
Hank simply hangs out in a pot on his window sill all day.
Nothing really happens in front of him, after all it’s the middle of the
desert. When something does pass by like a tumbleweed, jackrabbit, tortoise or
cowboy he’s more apt to yell at them. At best he’ll raise his cacti voice and
tell them that they’re on his property and to get off it ASAP.
That is until a very lanky cowboy walks by and suggests that he needs a hug. “It’s too bad nobody hugs a cactus”, he says as he saunters off into the sunset. For record we say something similar to our 7 year-old when he acts this way, except ours is slightly more condescending. “Is someone feeling grumpy?”, we’ll say when a certain someone needs a nap or is feeling a bit too big for their britches.
After the cowboy leaves Hank’s first comment to a wandering
lizard is to immediately proclaim that he does not need a hug. When the second
creature, this time an owl swoops by, Hank is slightly more amenable to the
fact of hugging someone. After a couple more moments Hank is in full on hug
mode, but can’t get anyone to give him the time of day. That is, until a cup
gets caught up the in wind, which then gets stuck to his prickly face. He’s
unable to remove it due to his dinosaur arms, so Rosie the tumbleweed swipes it
off his cactus mug when she passes.
This unleashes a torrent of kindness from Hank. He grows a
flower to thank her and waits patiently for her to blow by again. Does our
formerly curmudgeon cactus ever get that hug?
Carter Goodrich does the art and story for Nobody Hugs A Cactus. He’s designed characters for Brave, Ratatouille, Despicable Me and many others. Hank is a cactus with personality. Initially all of that is negative and it’s expressed in a variety of tans and browns to perfectly convey the atmosphere of the American southwest.
Hank evolves throughout the story. Initially being the
grumpy get-off-of-my-lawn plant, to the erstwhile friendly cactus who is in
search of a hug. It’s in this friendly period that Hank’s emotions are best
displayed. He’s still a relatively tiny cactus, but the minute movements that
his face and tiny arms tell speak more than the words on those pages. At times
Hank reminds me of teenage Groot and the perfection that both of these
characters reflect the age or mood they’re going through.
Nobody Hugs A Cactus isn’t just for children that can be
grumpy or crabby, because everyone can be that given the wrong circumstances.
This is the go-to book now for our 7 year-old. We read it to him at night and
let him handle the sentences that he’s comfortable with.
Great board books leave older readers grinning when they finish them. The purpose of a board book is to entertain those young readers with introductory vocabulary, bright colors and durable pages, just in case they get chewed on. Scratchie: A Touch-and-Feel Cat-Venture succeeds in all of those categories and one more. It does the rare thing for a board book in allowing older readers (see: the adult reading the book) to grin when they finish presenting the book to the young audience. The result is a board book with just a little bit of bite.
Let’s be clear, I’m not talking ‘bite’ as in societal
commentary or controversial parenting opinions.
Scratchie starts out talking directly to the human who is reading the book. The cat invites you to scratch along with them, first off the doormat and then climbing the wooden table that leads to the kitchen counter. Along the way young crawlers to pre-K kids can scratch the surfaces that present themselves on each page.
As cute as cats can be, they sometimes lead to trouble, which is what happens to Scratchie. Towards the end of the book our cat takes things one scratch too far and makes a big mess, just before the human in the book comes to break up the party. Suddenly Scratchie is at a loss of what to do. All that our cat can do is lie on her side and offer for you to pet her.
See, it’s just a little ‘bite’. However, this is just the
sort of non-saccharine board book that some parents clamor for. Every bit of
Scratchie is fabulous for children. It’s a board book that will allow their
emerging senses to touch, chew and turn every page with glee. It also has that
ever so slight gleam in those last two pages that accept and expect a mess, or
just a little chaos to happen. And that is just the spirit that some new
parents need to know is headed their way as said young reader grows.
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