Daddy Mojo

Barb and the Battle for Bailiwick nails the all-age graphic novel tone

The audience, it’s all about the audience and finding to whom it’s speaking. I’m teaching an AP Language class now and that’s a key trait that we’re discussing about certain texts. In Barb and the Battle for Bailiwick the audience for this graphic novel entry is crystal clear. If you’re eight-years-old and like to read, this is your jam. If you’re eight years old or older and a reluctant reader, because reading isn’t cool and you’re parents are content to let your brain turn to Minecraft mush, then this is your jam. If you’re looking for an action-packed all-age graphic novel that screams with enthusiasm, runs with energy, and has humor for days, then this is your jam.

Barb and the Battle for Bailiwick, the third book in this all-age graphic novel series, is the action and humor antidote for (reluctant) readers to avoid a bad time.

This is the sign your looking for, go no farther

Bitsy Bat, School Star is a two-tiered entertainingly illustrated book

In lower-elementary schools across the nation story time is nigh. The time of a school day when a parent comes into the classroom of pre-k through second-grade classes and reads one or two stories to kids is a precious time indeed. Bitsy Bat, School Star is an illustrated book that serves as comfort food to those older kids on that scale. It also does the trick of letting those on the younger end realize that people are different and that everyone’s a star in their own right.

Bitsy Bat, School Star is an illustrated book that serves as reassuring literary comfort food, but also as a very sublime autism primer.

An illustrated book doubling as an autism overview

Room On Top, a lovely book that’s more than the sum of its animals

Ten Apples Up On Top is a classic children’s book. However, more than that, it’s the first book that our two children really loved having read to them when they were younger. The board book version is slightly shorter, they preferred the illustrated book version because it built up the comedic tension when everyone had ten apples on top of their heads. Room on Top is a ridiculously cute illustrated book that entertains through its illustrations, sweet animal interaction, and manic chaos that exists for a brief moment.

Room on Top is a giddy, carefree, story time, illustrated book about various animals, joining in on a trip across an anteater’s back until they all fall down.

Images and text make you say ….awww….

Are You Gonna Eat That?, minimalist cartooning at its best

Sublime. If you wanted to make lots of money, and if such an index fund actually existed, I would invest in the patent that manufactures Sublime t-shirts. To a lesser extent, it would also include Nirvana and the Rolling Stones, but by the grace of the ska gods, they seem to be the most prevalent. You can walk into any middle or high school across America on any given day and see at least a dozen Sublime t-shirts. For a band whose posthumous career has exceeded their actual record-producing years by about 10:1, their ability to stay in the teen mainstream eye is stunning. I tried teaching sublime as an adjective to describe humor the other day to a class and the lesson took off like a lead balloon. Are You Gonna Eat That? is sublime, minimalist comic art at its best. It’s a compendium from The Essential Collection of They Can Talk Comics by Jimmy Craig and is just on this side of voodoo from capturing the soul of animals.

The hilarity and joy of dry, sublime humor in comic strip form

The Curious League of Detectives and Thieves 2: S.O.S, is story strong mglit

Charming is an underused and dangerous word to describe mglit. Some readers might view it as a less juvenile way to describe something when you’re tempted to use ‘cute’. The kitten is cute. The behavior of someone else’s six-year-old child is cute. The behavior of any 10-year-old does not want to be perceived as cute. That’s the sort of behavior that causes your grandmother to pinch your cheeks, and no self-respecting kid over eight wants that. The Curious League of Detectives and Thieves 2: S.O.S. by Tom Phillips, is a very charming book in the best of all possible ways. It’s mglit that’s the second one in the series and has enough humor, action, and intrigue to hook readers who are in middle school and older.

The Curious League of Detectives and Thieves 2: S.O.S. is story centric mglit that readers can jump into this sophomore entry and still be comfortable.

MGLIT in its sophomore book that hooks in readers who don’t know about ti

Misfit Mansion, an all-age graphic novel with just enough bite

Don’t judge a book by its cover. We all know that and I try, I really try to adhere to that mantra. However, with only so many hours during a week to read, it’s the cover that reels in one book over another. Misfit Mansion by Kay Davault is an all-age graphic novel that simultaneously embraces and keeps some of the clichés that live in neo-spooky books at bay. It’s surprisingly entertaining and will keep ages eight and up hooked with enough twists to keep things interesting. I say ‘surprisingly’ because it’s a graphic novel that snuck its way into our reading queue.

Misfit Mansion does resemble some graphic novels that didn’t measure up, but this one has enough variety to make it fun for girls aged eight and up.

A graphic novel that’ll connect with girls in grade 3 and up

The Great Mathemachicken 2 Have a Slice Day, giddy puns for young readers

Puns are an effective and short route to an emerging reader’s heart. Dog Man has been plowing that field for almost a decade and other children’s book series were most certainly doing the same thing prior to that. It’s also quite magical when a child understands a pun for the first time. The Great Mathemachicken 2: Have a Slice Day is an early reader chapter book that’s fun and educational, without being too much of the latter.

The Great Mathematchicken 2: Have a Slice Day deals with fun and math, both in equal measure so as to keep ages 5-8 engaged.

Ages 5-8 looking for a go-to, smart. early chapter book will dig it

Marie Curie and the Power of Persistence, silly + science adds up to fun

I’m currently teaching AP Literature and English. It’s fascinating because it looks at things from an entirely different angle, in addition to things that I never knew to things that I might be overthinking. For example, in my notes, there were several activities titled “MC practice”. I assumed that it was some AP or higher lever in dissecting text. In researching it I learned that there’s a musical group on Soundcloud by the same name and several consulting firms that probably help you practice things. In addition to remembering our basic abbreviations, I’m teaching lots of classes on perspective and how altering it will wildly change how the story is understood or enjoyed. This is relevant because I just read Marie Curie and the Power of Persistence. It’s an illustrated book that could’ve easily fallen into a trap of mediocrity but avoids that due to its perspective.

Marie Curie and the Power of Persistence is non-fiction illustrated book that adds elements of silly without watering down the power of her real life.

This is far from your typical illustrated book on Marie Curie