Page Street Kids | Daddy Mojo

Hornswoggled!, a super silly book that runs with wacky words

There’s a box social at the ole Smith place. There’s a difference between using outdated slang and using a large vocabulary. When I teach I often use a larger vocabulary because students need to practice their inference skills, of course, if there are any blank stares or questions I’ll re-state what I just said, and then say it in a way that they’ll understand. Horsnwoggled! is an illustrated book that looks at uncommon slang, peppered with a propensity of alliterations, and is set against a forest of anthropomorphic animals trying to solve a farcical whodunit.

Hornswoggled! Is a very fun book about silly sayings that will have early elementary ages alluding to much merriment.

Fun, nothing but fun, and that’s a great thing

A Penny’s Worth, a kid’s look at money that most wish was history

The other day our youngest son wanted to cash in all of his coins for paper money. His pirate treasure chest was loaded with jangles and clinks from various coins bouncing together. I explained to him that if he goes to one of the machines that count it for him he’ll be charged, whereas if he counts it himself and goes to the bank, he’ll get all of the money. Of course, being 10 years old and wanting to see a machine do things, he opted for the first choice. A Penny’s Worth is an illustrated book that one hopes will be a historical relic within 10 years. A book on a penny, how quaint, remember when we had that copper-colored useless coin, we’ll all sit back and think. If there’s any justice in the world, A Penny’s Worth will sit alongside the book about Daylight Saving Time as things or concepts that once existed.

A Penny’s Worth is a charming, rhyming, illustrated book for early elementary readers about money in the United States and its smallest, most useless increment.

A penny saved is two pennies that it cost to do so

The Natural Tolls of Digging Holes, playfully weird STEM for 4 and up

Moles Present The Natural Tolls of Digging Holes ironically reminds us of Dirt. That book was a vertical, poetic, look at something that we see every day. The art was varied and the whispy text showed how the tiny things that live in dirt can be a world unto itself. The Natural Tolls of Digging Holes takes that same spirit, has a more animated form of illustration, adds simpler text that rhymes and opens up its world to anyplace that you might see that’s been dug. This is an illustrated book that feeds curious young minds, softly teaches them and gets them to think while they’re smiling.

Moles Present The Natural Tolls of Digging Holes is silly on the surface, but makes ages 4-8 think about what’s under our feet.

STEm by any other name

With Great Power, a fab illustrated look at Stan Lee for grades 2 and up

Imagine that you are tasked with creating a book about someone whose life has made a worldwide impact. They help found an entire industry and the look of their creation is one that every kid aged three and up knows. That is a daunting task. Now take this person’s life and make an illustrated book on it without directly using the style that most people are familiar with. The task is even more daunting now. With Great Power, The Marvelous Stan Lee is an unauthorized biography that nails the early life of Stan Lee to the floor. It’s entertaining, has great non-Marvel type illustrations, as well as, nuggets of information that even the comic or Marvel kids in elementary school will be surprised to learn.

Read on, young true believers

Jonas Hanway’s Umbrella, makes non-fiction fun for early elementary

Without Jonas Hanway, The Umbrella Academy might not exist and Britons would’ve possibly continued letting the rain soak them since 1750. Jonas Hanway’s Scurrilous, Scandalous, Shockingly Sensational Umbrella is the sort of stranger than life, non-fiction illustrated book that young readers will love if they give it a chance. The last part of that phrase is key because the book ticks off all of the blocks needed for it to be ridiculously engaging and entertaining for ages six through ten.

A story of public shaming and the dry man who was right

It’s Showtime! A Pepper and Frannie Story shines for young ages

Frannie and Pepper are two best friends. It’s a tough animal world out there and these two rabbits make the best of it. Frannie is outgoing and loves to be the center of attention while Pepper is a bit more introverted. Pepper is more the planner, while Frannie is doing improvisational songs or dancing in the street. It’s the Odd Couple for pre-K through early elementary school kids and It’s Showtime! is all about their show.

It’s Showtime! succeeds with pre-K kids who haven’t seen this show before

The Fort, an elusive children’s book that perfectly captures their id

A great children’s illustrated book has a way of channeling into the way that kids think. It’s those centricities or absurd things that children think to themselves that make perfect sense to them, but no one else. This is the art of pretend play and the book is The Fort by Laura Pewdew with illustrations by Adelina Lirius. It manages to perfectly capture how the playground or rogue fort in the woods can dramatically change from one person to the next. It’s a book that exists in every child’s imagination, but is rarely seen in public.

The Fort, it gets children and captures their imagination

Nothing Wee About Me!, imagination play that’s just OK

The title of the book flows off the tongue. On the cover we see a young girl who we’ll come to know at Liesel, she’s taunting a dragon ten times bigger than her with a ladle. Once we open the book we’ll also meet her younger brother and her grandmother. They all go into her seaside cottager where the kids set upon playing with their imagination as they visit a castle, volcano and meeting all manner of friendly animals. But whatever you do, don’t accuse Liesel of being a wee girl. Grandma does and her response becomes the rallying cry for her as she fights down pirates or anything else that seems impossible.

The art is great, but the text is too long for a good-night book