How To Win The Science Fair When You’re Dead is the absolute best kind of click bait. I don’t care what the star of JAG is doing now or what happens next in the photo that might have had impeccable timing. I am a little curious, but not enough to unleash the torrent of spam or viruses that’ll be opened up to my computer. This book has that kind of title. Its predecessors, How to Sell Your Family to the Aliens and How to Properly Dispose of Planet Earth were like that also. For us this series has gone from enjoyable to great and now indispensable.
What do Nate Wright and Archie Andrews have in common? Both of them have the ability to cross generations in an entertaining manner with consistent characters who are totally different. Archie Andrews is Archie, that redheaded kid from Riverdale who has appeared in comic books for decades and a steaming hot television show for the past couple of years. The way that Archie has been reshaped to meet different demographics is remarkable. There’s a property that will engage Riverdale fans between the ages of 6 and 75*.
Nate Wright is Big Nate. Big Nate has been one of the most consistently entertaining and laugh out loud comic strips since it debuted in 1991. However, Big Nate has always been in the same middle-school packaging, until now. Little big Nate, Draws A Blank by Lincoln Peirce is board-book Big Nate, but it takes a look at the character as a pre-k kid. The result is a rhyming book that people will enjoy reading to those crawlers or mother’s morning out ages that want to baby step it into the world of Big Nate.
For a person who is not in elementary school I hang out a lot in an elementary school library. We volunteer at the school most weeks and usually end up where the books are. I like to talk to the librarians, see what the kids are reading and see what the librarians need. Lately, most of the chatter has been that they want more non-fiction books that will engage kids. Awesome Achievers in Science is the second book in this series and does exactly that. The book profiles 12 people in science who make a difference our everyday life. The kicker is that each profile is short, entertaining and fun to read for third graders and up.
October is a great time for all age comic books. It’s jammed
with some books that you’d expect, a couple new comics that will bring age
appropriate scares and the Halloween Mini-Comics. We’ve given out the Halloween
Mini-Comics to our child’s classes for years and this year has books from
Blastosaurus, DC Superhero Girls, The Loud House and many more. A pack of these
only costs $4.99, but get them quickly as some titles will certainly sell out
on New Comic Book Day.
In the podcast this week we’re talking about Cartoon Network
Gift Set, Wings of Fire The Graphic Novel-The Hidden Kingdom, Unbeatable
Squirrel Girl, Batman, The Unicorn Whisperer and a couple others. For now, here
are all of this week’s new all age comic books, some that will be OK for
readers in mid-elementary school and a couple left of center titles that will
be great for middle school.
Something odd happens in the beginning of October. Small children start to scare themselves on purpose. The older ones pretend to be scary clowns from movies that older kids say are scary, but are really quite horrible. While those middle school kids and upper elementary school ones are doing that, their younger siblings are curious about the classic monsters. Monsters Come Out Tonight! by Frederick Glasser, with illustrations by Edward Miller, is a Halloween lift-the-flap book that will provide the ‘fun’ scares pre-k kids want and need.
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.
Ghoulia, Making New Friends Can Be Scary was a lovely surprise when we read it. The characters had that slightly familiar, spooky family vibe about them. There were traces of The Addams Family, a little Hotel Transylvania and aspects of The Nightmare Before Christmas. Yet, at the same time, Ghoulia was a creation unto its own. And the Mysterious Visitor has more of her-and her family’s story to tell and it’s even more delightful than the first one for the same reasons and more.
What’s new with the all age comic books this week? One of
our favorite graphic novels has their latest entry out and it’s one that will
delight elementary school readers and up. Mighty Jack and Zita the Spacegirl is
the payoff to what was teased in the final pictures of the last Mighty Jack
book. This series is jammed with action, humor and heart that ages 7 and up
could enjoy. In comic books this week you should look out for Star Wars
Adventures, Marvel Action Black Panther, Casper’s Haunted Halloween and lots
more.
Over in the podcast we’ll chat about Star Pig, Flash, some cool Star Wars books and more that will interest readers 8 and up.
Humor
Caspers Haunted Halloween #1, E, M
Giant Days, M, H
Uncle Scrooge #49, M
Sunny Rolls the Dice, UE, M, H
Superhero
Dollar Comics Joker #1, UE, M
The Flash Giant #1, UE, M, H
Marvel Action Black Panther #3, UE, M, H
Powers in Action #3, E
True Believers X-Men, M, H
True Believers X-Men, Bishop #1, M, H
Action/Science-fiction
Avatar: The Last Airbender, UE, M
Carmen Sandiego, The Fishy Treasure Caper, UE, M
Cursed, M, H
Mighty Jack and Zita the Spacegirl, UE, M, H
Over the Garden Wall Soulful Symphonies #3 (of 5), UE, M
Sonic The Hedgehog #21, E, M
Star Pig #3 (of 4), M, H
Star Wars Adventures: Return to Vader’s Castle, UE, M
Star Wars: Be More Leia, M, H,
Star Wars: Be More Lando, M, H
Star Wars 39-Button Sounds Battles, E
Star Wars 10-Button Sounds Villains, E
Star Wars 10-Button Sounds Droids, E
Transformers Ghostbusters #5 (of 5), UE, M, H
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