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Graphic Novels: A Sneaky Way To Get Kids To Read

Graphic Novels: A Sneaky Way To Get Kids To Read

My daughter has been reading since she was three years old. She’s been reading books on her own since she was four years old. In Kindergarten when they were testing her reading skills, they stopped testing her when they ran out of words somewhere around sixth grade level. The girl can read. That doesn’t mean she always chooses to do so.

I mean, for a young kid (and in us adults, who am I kidding), it can be quite difficult for books to compete with other forms of entertainment. The television and the Internet are just so shiny. But in the end, books can and should win. Even if, as a parent, we need to game the system a bit.

I’m talking about graphic novels, television’s kryptonite. At least in my house with my six-year-old.

I talked about this a bit when I recommended Zita the Spacegirl. I bought that book on a Thursday and by the following Monday my daughter had read it four times.

I was sure I was onto something, with this graphic novel idea. So I headed to the library and picked up another book, that also just so happened to be one about a kid(s) in space: Astronaut Academy. A bit about that book:

About

The wild and wacky world of Astronaut Academy is back! It’s spring semester at this futuristic institution of learning, and Hakata Soy has lost his heart. Literally. And he’s not the only one…something is stalking the halls of Astronaut Academy, impersonating the crush-objects of students and making off with their extra hearts! With a sprawling cast of unforgettable characters, Astronaut Academy: Re-Entry is a high-octane, hilarious follow-up to Dave Roman’s quirky Astronaut Academy: Zero Gravity.

About Dave Roman

Dave Roman is the author of several graphic novels including Astronaut Academy: Zero Gravity, Teen Boat! and Agnes Quill: An Anthology of Mystery. He has contributed stories to Explorer: The Mystery Boxes, Nursery Rhyme Comics, and is the co-author of two New York Times bestselling graphic novels, X-Men: Misfits and The Last Airbender: Zuko’s Story. Roman is a graduate of the School of Visual Arts and worked as a comics editor for the groundbreaking Nickelodeon Magazine from 1998 to 2009. He lives in Astoria, NY with his wife and fellow comic artist, Raina Telgemeier.

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About the Setting

Astronaut Academy is the ultimate space station school of the future! Students can study rocket science, anti-gravity gymnastics, competitive fireball throwing, strategic randomness, and other stuff (not listed here). Since humanity has evolved and everyone has 2-8 extra hearts, children (and bunnies) lead hyper-kinetic lives, filled with advanced education, amplified emotions, acute self-awareness, and lots of run-on sentences.

via About | Astronaut Academy.

It makes me smile, watching my daughter read a book like Astronaut Academy. She blanks out to the world, much like when she’s watching television, but with a book it’s so much better. Your mind fills in the gap. You become who you are reading about.

I love that she’ll be reading on the couch and we tell her it’s time for bed and she’ll walk, nose in book, attempting to walk up the stairs to her room. Oh how I’ve been there with a book. Oh how I love that feeling.

Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong – A Comic You Must Read

Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong – A Comic You Must Read

From the About page of Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong, a new webcomic by Prudence Shen and Faith Erin Hicks:

Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong is a graphic novel collaboration between author, Prudence Shen, and comic artist, Faith Erin Hicks. The comic will be updated for free to read here at nothingcanpossiblygowrong.com, leading up to the release of the print edition coming May 2013 from First Second Books!

You wouldn’t expect Nate and Charlie to be friends. Charlie’s the laid-back captain of the basketball team, and Nate is the neurotic, scheming president of the robotics club. But they are friends, however unlikely — until Nate declares war on the cheerleaders, and the cheerleaders retaliate by making Charlie their figure-head in the ugliest class election campaign the school as ever seen. At stake? Student group funding that will either cover a robotics competition or new cheerleading uniforms — but not both.

Bad sportsmanship? Sure. Chainsaws? Why not! Nothing can possibly go wrong.

Page 1 - Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong
Page 1 – Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong

 

Above is the first page of Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong. I dare you to try to tell me that doesn’t make you want to read more.

I’ve known about Faith Erin Hicks’ work for a while now, having first heard about her excellent webcomic Friends With Boys a while back via boing boing. Recently, another of her works, The Adventures of Superhero Girl had gone into print. What had somehow managed to escape my attention, however, was that she has another webcomic, Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong, which she is working on and serializing at this very moment.

How I discovered Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong, is kind of a funny story. I was on the aforementioned boing boing and saw mention that they were hosting a new podcast: Tell Me Something I Don’t Know. Pretty cool, I though. I enjoy podcasts. Then I saw mention of Faith Erin Hicks, also cool. Then I saw that my college roomate, Jasen Lex was one of the hosts of said podcast. Sold! Note: listen to the podcast, it’s quite good.

So, back to Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong. Having first heard of it on Monday, I went over to check it out and managed to blow through all of the 220-ish pages in one sitting. It’s that good. The art is fantastic and unique. The characters are funny and the story is just enjoyable.

What I want you to do is go over there and give it a try. I bet you’ll be hooked too. Then, go ahead and pre-order Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong. My only regret is I can’t read the entire thing RIGHT NOW.

The Things They Say

The Things They Say

I was just cleaning out my wallet because it’s gotten to that point where it is so full of stuff it’s unable to close. And no, the “stuff” in my wallet is surely not money.

It’s mostly notes to myself, lost and forgotten story ideas, or lost and forgotten receipts. However, in all of that stuff was something awesome. It was a quote of something my daughter (now six and a half) said when she had just turned four. Amazingly, I actually had the forethought to write the date at the top. I share with you now what I had written on said lost note, because it is funny, and also because it needs to be saved somewhere.

I hope there’s a lot of boys in college because I want to get married and have some babies.”

Ah yes. That’s my girl. I would like to state for the record that I hope there are lots of boys for her to meet in college and that none of them break her heart. Now about that babies part…

Things That Should Have Existed: Heat Vision and Jack

Things That Should Have Existed: Heat Vision and Jack

I’m possibly late to the party, but I still had to post about this because it is too awesome not to. So, this was a real television pilot proposed in 1999 and turned down by Fox (another reason other than the cancellation of Firefly to hate Fox).

Just look at this description:

The on-the-run adventures of astronaut Jack Black who gets superpowers after a space accident, and fights crime with the talking motorcycle named Heatvision (voiced by Owen Wilson), powered by the mind of his unemployed roommate.streaming movie Transformers: The Last Knight 2017

Tell me that was not written by the gods of comedy themselves.

Just read these character descriptions (via wikipedia):

  • Jack Austin, a former astronaut. He was exposed to inappropriate levels of solar energy, giving him superintelligence. He appears to lose this intelligence at night, requiring only Earth-normal levels of daylight to reactivate it. His catchphrases are “I know EVERYTHING!” and “Knowledge is power… for real.” Played by Jack Black.
  • Heat Vision, a talking motorcycle. He was created when Jack’s unemployed roommate Doug was shot by a ray, causing him to merge with his motorcycle. He is capable of speech and can fight by ramming into opponents. He is unable to use doorknobs and is unable to right himself if pushed over. Voiced by Owen Wilson.
  • Ron Silver, the main villain. He works for NASA, and will stop at nothing to capture or kill Jack Austin, but he also dabbles in acting, perhaps as a diversion, perhaps as a cover. He appears to be invulnerable, shrugging off the threat of being shot and later displaying great annoyance but no injury or pain when he actually is shot. Played by himself.
  • An unnamed sheriff, played by guest star Christine Taylor. Ben Stiller and Christine Taylor, now husband and wife, met on the set ofHeat Vision and Jack.
  • A cook named Frank, who becomes possessed by an alien broadcast and thereafter calls himself Paragon. Played by Vincent Schiavelli.

Lucky for us that although this gem never saw the light of day, the pilot survives thanks to the Internet. Tell me you wouldn’t have watched the crap out of this. I dare you.


Lego Table With Top Panels

Lego Table With Top Panels

I had hoped to finish this thing this weekend. Then we had my son’s birthday party on Saturday,   and family staying over. So, I have acquired liquid nails to affix the Lego plates to the wood, but have not done so. I need one more layer of poly first. Anyway, here are some photos of how the table will look in stealth, non-Lego mode. And for the record, my son got a TON of Lego for his birthday. This table needs to be done ASAP.

CoffeTablePanels1 CoffeTablePanels2