graphic novel | Daddy Mojo

The Underground Abductor Bigger & Badder Edition is also better

How do you make the already good, even better? That beautiful bacon, spinach, and garlic pizza is great when it’s small, but when you make it a medium or large and it reaches a new level. Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales, The Underground Abductor-An Abolitionist Tale was good, but the Bigger & Badder Edition is just that. All of the books in the Hazardous Tales graphic novel series that we’ve read have been entertaining and educational to some degree. Ironically, it was their initial size always left us wanting more. Imagine seeing a painted or drawn work of art that is great, but one whose small stature handicapped its enjoyment.

The Underground Abductor, Bigger & Badder Edition is the bigger version of the engaging and excellent non-fiction graphic novel by Nathan Hale.

It’s ok to not know everything, as long as you’re open to learning more…

Cat Ninja: Welcome to the ‘Burbs, all-age graphic novel action early elementary

Cat Ninja is an elementary-aged graphic novel series that runs with glee towards ages eight and up, all but taunting them not to read it. Welcome to the ‘Burbs is the fourth entry into the Cat Ninja world and is as much fun as one would expect from a graphic novel that’s brave enough to be called that.

Seriously, think of four things that eight-year-olds enjoy or want to talk about and it’s guaranteed that two of them are ninjas and cats. It’s a reluctant reader’s paradise if you’re able to make a book or graphic novel about ninja cats, or in this case, Cat Ninja.

Cat Ninja: Welcome to the ‘Burbs is the fourth book in the all-age graphic novel series that will have grades two through five feline fine.

Cat Ninja….born to save the day (insert James Bond theme here)

Trubble Town 2, The Why-Why’s Gone Bye-Bye, too 4 tout

Disparate is an adjective that I absolutely love. I’m currently teaching 8^th grade ELA and I used that term in conversation when comparing things that have nothing to very little in common, and then trying to make a compelling argument as to why they belong in the same classification. A cursory glance at the pages of Trubble Town 2, The Why-Why’s Gone Bye-Bye would yield the same conversation. That is if I were to tell you that this graphic novel is flat-out hilarious, weird, creative and constantly gives readers a smile, even when they don’t know what’s going on. It is.

Trubble Town 2: The Why-Why’s Gone Bye-Bye is a time-shifting, absurdly hilarious all age graphic novel that ages eight and up will celebrate.

Stop, elaborate and listen

Alcatoe and the Turnip Child, retro/modern charming graphic novel magic

Fables get a bad rap with upper elementary and middle school students. I taught a class to ESL students that were comprised mostly of fables, you know, those stories that teach lessons. And if there’s one thing that some kids that age don’t want, it’s a lesson. Alcatoe and the Turnip Child is not a fable. It’s also not a fairy tale and not entirely a folktale either. To some readers, Alcatoe could have elements of all of those things, but for us it’s a beautifully paced book about kids, a grumpy witch, the quaint town they live in, and magic.

Alcatoe and the Turnip Child is a graphic novel with a timeless vibe, a slightly evil undercurrent and an irrepressibly quirky demeanor.

Don’t call it a folk story, unless you want to

The Extincts, Quest for the Unicorn Horn, graphic novel go-to for 8 and up

When I saw the cover to The Extincts, Question For The Unicorn Horn it was an immediate connection to The O.W.C.A. Files. For a period in our life, when our kids were older than five and younger than 11, we saw Phineas and Ferb at least once a day. Thus, we’ve seen The O.W.C.A. Files, which was a stand-alone episode that aired after that series finale. In The Extincts, Quest for the Unicorn Horn, we see a cat, bird, frog, and wooly mammoth-looking creature all wearing spy gear and running towards the reader. It’s a graphic novel by New York Times Bestselling Illustrator Scott Magoon that does much the same in that it jumps into your hands like a kitten that wants its belly rubbed. And I say that in the best of all ways possible because I love it when a cat or kitten jumps near my hand and wants to be scratched.

The Extincts, Quest For The Unicorn Horn perfectly melds action, humor, STEM and more puns, into a graphic novel for ages 8 and up.

Start the school year off with your favorite new graphic novel

Sorceline, ethereal graphic novel with manga touches for upper elementary

Granga. Magic novel. I’m looking over those two Frankenstein words in my head whilst trying to describe Sorceline. They’re words that I made up because thinking of the audience that’s best for Sorceline constantly got my head moving. It’s a graphic novel with spooky sensibilities. It’s a manga with graphic novel touches and hooks in it that’ll make the book a slam dunk for Potterheads. Sorceline is all of those things, it just depends on what fandom or delivery, that you prefer as to how you’ll describe the book.

Sorceline is a mysterious, gorgeously illustrated graphic novel, sprinkled with manga that’ll attract girl readers aged 9 and up.

Manga graphic novel, spooky read

Lifetime Passes, a sly, graphic novel on friends, life and expectations

Never judge a book by its cover. I led one other review like this and that book, much like Lifetime Passes was nothing like what I thought it would be. From the cover of Lifetime Passes one might think that it’s a group of teen social media savvy vampires who are being escorted through a theme park with their elder queen, who was donning red glasses underneath her umbrella. Had I looked at the back cover I would’ve discovered a more accurate read on what the graphic novel is really about.

Lifetime Passes is a graphic novel that isn’t what you think. This is smart, sardonic, caring and darkly clever for middle school and up.

A darkly comic graphic novel that twists towards the end

The Prisoner of Shiverstone, old/new and completely awesome

There is something familiar about The Prisoner of Shiverstone. It has a character or two that will remind you of others that you’ve read, or possibly some of the more creative movies that you’ve seen. Yes, Shiverstone seems like something that you know. However, when all of the elements come into play it forms a unique, weird, creative gem of an mglit graphic novel that dances with different genres and one in which future entries would be welcome.

The Prisoner of Shiverstone is an all-age graphic novel that’s familiar, but utterly original for ages 10 and up.

All age graphic novel with an old soul, but 100% modern too