Splendid Scenarios Under The Sea

When precious personalities from books make a return appearance readers rejoice.  When you find yourself smiling just from looking at the book case, without reading a single word, you know laughter is sure to follow.  The cheerful nature of the characters is contagious.   This is something you are more than willing to spread.

Last autumn we meet two very likable sea creatures who also happen to be best friends in Narwhal: Unicorn Of The Sea (A Narwhal And Jelly Book) (Tundra Books, a division of Random House of Canada Limited, a Penguin Random House Company, October 4, 2016).  The second book in the series Super Narwhal And Jelly Jolt (A Narwhal And Jelly Book) (Tundra Books, a division of Random House of Canada Limited, a Penguin Random House Company, May 2, 2017) written and illustrated by Ben Clanton adds three more marvelous chapters in the adventures of one unique narwhal and jellyfish.  Prepare to be entertained.  Prepare to have your heart swell with love for these two remarkable pals.

Ahoy, Jelly!
Hey, Narwhal!  What's up?
I was just about to go for a swim.  After that I'll have something for lunch, probably a waffle, and then...

Narwhal announces with great exuberance his intentions to become a superhero.  When Jelly points out the obvious fact you can't become a superhero instantly, Narwhal asks exactly what is needed.  During the course of their conversation the idea of super outfits, a superhero name, a secret identity, the necessity of a sidekick, and a superpower clearly demonstrate the truth of Jelly's statement.  Of course, Narwhal, with his usual super positive outlook on everything is not discouraged.  He lives for looking on the bright side.

One evening when out for a swim, Narwhal comes upon Star (a starfish) resting on a rock.  Star would much rather be shining in the night sky.  Ever helpful, Narwhal suggests several possibilities for Star's wish to come true, even attempting some of them.  It's the final effort which will give readers a hint of Narwhal's true power.

In the third episode Narwhal is moving through the sea wearing his secret identity when he discovers Jelly is feeling rather sad.  In perfect form Narwhal transforms into Super Narwhal using his awe-inspiring nature to work wonders on Jelly.  Before long readers and Jelly will be laughing.  The lively twosome lead by Super Narwhal continues to alter their entire briny blue realm.

Super-fied!


As soon as you start reading the dialogue penned by Ben Clanton you feel your spirits start to soar.  The exchanges between Narwhal and his sea friends, especially Jelly, are lively and positive.  Narwhal is always looking for solutions within each situation.  The humor comes in the answers and questions by Jelly and in the word play.

Through the contrast in the personalities of the characters readers are given the opportunity to place themselves in similar situations and ask themselves how they would respond.  Are they more like Narwhal or Jelly or a little bit of both?  As in the first book in the series Ben Clanton adds two extra chapters to shift the cadence.  He includes Super Sea Creatures which shares some fun facts about the mimic octopus, dolphins, blue whales, crabs, flying fish and sailfish.  A new escapade showcasing Super Waffle and Strawberry Sidekick (written by Narwhal and Jelly) will have you groaning at the puns and smiling nonstop.  Here is a sample passage from the book.

I've never had a mustache, Super Narwhal.
Too Bad! You'd look really great with a mustache.
Is that why you're blue?  Because you've never had a mustache?
Huh?  It has nothing to do with a mustache.
Did you accidentally set your hair on fire?

HAIR?  FIRE?
We're underwater!


The smiles on the faces of Narwhal and Jelly on the front of the book case set the tone for the entire title.  Readers will wonder what new excitement awaits these sea creatures turned superheroes.  To the left, on the back, readers can enjoy four square panels.  In one Narwhal is speaking, in two Jelly is adding to the fun and together in the fourth panel, the duo announce their new names.  Beneath the visuals we read:

Ben Clanton (A. K. A. Clantoons) is faster than a stationary bullet, more powerful than a toy locomotive, and can make super stories like this one and Narwhal: Unicorn Of The Sea!

The opening and closing endpapers done in two hues of golden yellow show miniature Super Narwhals and Jelly Jolts respectively on the first and second sets.

The limited color palette of a washed ocean blue, yellow, black, white and gray heightens the delight factor while also allowing for the punch which comes when adding spot color and full color in the Super Waffle And Strawberry Sidekick story.  Rendered in colored pencil, watercolor, ink and colored digitally the images span full pages, edge to edge, framed single pages, groups of panels on a single page and two full pages.  Shifting the sizes clearly contributes to the wonderful pacing.  All of the text is hand lettered by Ben.

The facial features Ben Clanton creates with dots, curves and lines are fantastic.  You can't help but be connected to his characters.  Their emotions and moods are experienced by everyone.

One of my favorite of many illustrations is a full page panel with a heavy black line and generous white space for a frame.  It's a close-up of Narwhal in his secret identity.  All we can see is the portion of his body from his tie up to the tip of his horn.  His is looking straight at the reader wearing a yellow tie, mustache and spectacles with a fin raised.  He's exclaiming:

Sounds like a job for...


Super Narwhal And Jelly Jolt (A Narwhal And Jelly Book) written and illustrated by Ben Clanton is a fun-filled read, silently or aloud.  These under-the-sea buddies are sure to find a place in each reader's heart.  This is a graphic novel series you will want on your personal and professional bookshelves.  Ahoy!

To discover more about Ben Clanton and his other work be sure to visit his website by following the link attached to his name.  There is a link there to his Instagram account.  By going to the publisher's website you can view some interior pages.  Narwhal and Jelly have their own website here.

Hidden Heroine That Shines

You would have to be a hermit living high in the Himalayan Mountains not to have been in an uncomfortable social situation at least once. Certainly there was a time when you wish you could have been somewhere else doing something else either alone or with different company.  We endure with grace knowing it won't last forever; being unkind to another is unacceptable.

Finding yourself in this position without warning though could be a problem.  It could be downright difficult if you have a secret identity.  The Princess in Black (Candlewick Press, October 14, 2014) written by Shannon Hale and Dean Hale with illustrations by LeUyen Pham takes readers on a rip-roaring royal adventure.

Princess Magnolia was having hot chocolate and scones with Duchess Wigtower.  

All is going well even if the Duchess dropped by unannounced.  Although the pleasantness definitely lessens when the intrusive woman reveals her true reason for the visit.  She loves to catch people unaware.  She seeks out secrets people might be concealing.

Princess Magnolia becomes even more uneasy when a ring she is wearing starts to ring.  Begging the Duchess to excuse her so she can check on what surely must be a bird in distress, the Princess races to the rescue.  By now you know this is no ordinary ring, this is a monster alarm.  By now you know this is no ordinary princess in pink, this is a princess with a purpose.

Jumping into a broom closet, much like Clark Kent into a phone booth, she quickly exchanges her rosy attire for clothes of black, donning a mask.  With the agility of a gymnast she leaves the confines of the castle, leaping on to the back of not Frimplepants the unicorn but her trusty stead Blacky who has a transformation process of his own.

Within the pages of the next twelve chapters readers shift from the mind of the big blue monster whose hunger trumps his memory, to Duff, a boy who desires no more than to tend his goats, to the Princess in Black who swirls, kicks and grapples her way toward victory and back to Duchess Wigtower who is sure everything is too perfectly perfect at this castle Princess Magnolia calls home. What the monster cannot know is he has met his match; no tree can withstand the scepter turned staff in the hands of the Princess in Black.  Duff begins to think the impossible in the midst of this newest battle, even making plans for himself.  With the determination of a bloodhound the duchess discovers not one but two secrets.

Will the big blue monster learn a valuable lesson?  Will Duff continue to be content as a goat boy?  Is Princess Magnolia doomed when she returns to the castle?  The Princess in Black will never tell and neither will I.


Even after several readings, the fabulous fun in every chapter written by Shannon Hale and Dean Hale is as fresh as it was the first time.  A snappy narrative with spirited dialogue connecting one chapter to the next, keeps readers eagerly turning pages; not sure what will happen next.  Limited text in each of the fifteen short chapters contributes to exquisite pacing.  Humor is present throughout.  Here are some sample passages.

"Fly, Blacky, fly!" she said.  "To the goat pasture, as fast as you can.  There's a nosy duchess in the castle."
They charged through the forest.  Birds flapped out of their way.
The birds squawked.  The birds cheeped.  The birds sounded nothing like a ringing ring.

Could the two princesses be the same girl?
But Princess Magnolia wore glass slippers on weekdays.  Princess Magnolia was afraid of snails.  Sunlight made Princess Magnolia sneeze.
And at the moment, the Princess in Black was hog-tying a monster.


As I was "tomboying" my way through girlhood back in....well back a long time ago, I would have loved to have seen a book with a dust jacket showing the zip, zap and pizzazz of the Princess in Black and the back revealing a princess with a secret peeking around a corner.  The shiny black book case with only the title and a tiny circle portrait of the Princess in Black is excellent.  It's like looking into a key hole discovering a whole new world.  Smooth pink opening and closing endpapers complete the design.  Every portion of narrative is framed in a curly-Q pink style with a small magnolia at the bottom center.

LeUyen Pham rendered all the illustrations in watercolor and ink giving them her own personal touch of playful liveliness.  Whether she extends a picture over an entire two pages, a single page or weaves the text around smaller images, every scene is sure to bring a smile.  Her details pair wonderfully with the humor in the writing; the looks on the farm animals faces as the Princess in Black leaps over the wall, the monsters eating a bathtub, bicycle and palm tree, or Blacky keeping score on a board while the Princess in Black fights the big blue monster.

One of my favorite scenes is of Duff eating popcorn along with two goats during the tussle.  One of the goats is eating popcorn too as the other waves a YAY! flag.  Blacky is taking a picture of the victorious Princess in Black.  I can't even write this without laughing.


I urge all of you to make sure your princesses and princes have a chance to read The Princess in Black written by Shannon Hale and Dean Hale with illustrations by LeUyen Pham.  It's a charming and clever early reader you won't want to miss.  The best news of all is it's the first in a new series.

To discover more about Shannon Hale, Dean Hale and LeUyen Pham and their work please visit their websites by following the links embedded in their names.  Here is a recent entry at Shannon Hale's Tumblr about this title.  The Princess in Black has its own website with two wonderful links, A Conversation with Shannon and Dean Hale and Seven Things You Didn't Know About the Princess in Black.  Here is a post on Shannon Hale's blog about the origin of The Princess in Black.  Enjoy the two videos below.

Minion by John David Anderson Blog Tour

Remember thirty years ago when Bonnie Tyler's voice rang out loud and clear singing the lyrics for Holding Out For A Hero?  She sang about what readers of mythology and folktales have always known; people throughout history seek a champion.  People want to believe goodness with always be triumphant over evil.

The line between right and wrong can get very fine; people who are basically honorable can make flawed choices and those thought to be bad can unexpectedly be downright respectable.  John David Anderson created the alternate world of Justicia in his novel, Sidekicked (Walden Pond Press, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, June 2013); a world much like our own but populated with superheroes, supervillains and their sidekicks.  In the newly released companion volume, Minion (Walden Pond Press, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers) in another town, New Liberty, no superheroes or supervillains have chosen to make an appearance for years.  This does by no means equal the absence of good and evil.

I want you to know, right from the start, that I'm not evil.  I'm not saying I'm Captain Fantastic, either.  I just don't want you to misinterpret everything that I'm about to tell you.

Michael Marion Magdalene Morn has been raised by nuns at the St. Mary of the Woods School for Wayward Boys having been found as a baby abandoned in a White Castle restaurant.  When he had all but given up hope of ever being adopted a Professor Benjamin Edson shows up one day and three days later Michael is no longer a resident of St. Mary of the Woods School for Wayward Boys. His life with Professor Edson does not follow what people would call the straight and narrow.

First and foremost Michael has a gift, the ability to look people straight in the eyes and command them to do his bidding.  Secondly, Professor Edson, Dad, is a genius creating small black boxes of various sizes filled with technology capable of doing anything you can imagine...really.  This duo, son and adopted father, have made a life for themselves, carefully leaving no real trace of their existence except for a few carefully selected friends.  They have survived by crossing that fine line drifting into the criminal element.

For protection Michael is homeschooled studying year round.  His best friend, Zach, is a henchman for one of the local mob kings, Tony Romano.  Romano is also a business associate of his father.  After a trip to the local mall one afternoon, on their return home, Michael and Zach witness a crime the likes of which New Liberty has rarely seen.  What makes this event even more startling is the ear-shattering sonic boom which announces the return of a superhero, a streak of blue which drops from the sky and returns with equal speed, named by the media as the Comet. The game being played by Michael, his Dad, Zach and the controlling mobs in town is about to change in far-reaching and frightening ways.

Relationships will be tested, the meaning of family will be defined by the actions of Michael, his Dad, Zach and Tony Romano and a chance meeting with a girl named Viola adds a new dimension to Michael's musings about the direction his life will take.  Understand that woven into all the action of superheroes, supervillains, mobsters and the three teens (not to mention several plot twists and turns) is the constant weighing of choices balanced by intention.  Even the final sentence leaves readers wondering, albeit with a smile on their faces.


The writing style of John David Anderson in this title, as in Sidekicked, keeps you constantly on the edge of your seat, flipping through the pages as fast as you can to discover what happens next.  Chapter by chapter he builds his plot, fleshing out his players' personalities, through Michael's voice and character dialogue.  You have to remind yourself to breath during the descriptive battles between those for whom you are silently cheering and those you hope will lose.

To provide understanding to the reader about the relationship between Michael and his Dad Anderson skillfully employs a technique of flashback at the beginning of many chapters blending it with the present.  His perception of how teens think, act and speak is right on target.  You can't help but want the less than good guys but not quite bad guys to win.  What follows are a few samples of his writing from this book.

"Are you planning on taking over the world?" I asked.
"No," the man said.  "That was a joke.  Why? Are you interested in taking over the world?"
"Are you kidding?" I cringed.  "That's like asking to have everyone's problems dumped on you all at once."
Professor Benjamin Edson pounded on the table with hairy-knuckled fists, causing me to jump out of my seat.  "That's exactly what I keep telling them, but they never listen to me."
I said I didn't know who them was.  He said he didn't either.  This man was bizarre.  I kind of liked him.

Villains wear masks because it gives them courage to do something extraordinary, something they might not have the guts to do otherwise.  But heroes?  Heroes wear masks because deep down inside, I'm guessing, they just want the chance to be normal.  That's my theory, anyway.
Personally, I don't trust either of them.

Minion written by John David Anderson is one wild roller coaster of a read exploring what it means to be good and evil.  Even when the last page is read, you will be reluctant to leave New Liberty and the people you have come to know very well.  I, for one, certainly hope this series will continue.

To learn more about John David Anderson follow the link to his website embedded in his name.  To read an excerpt from this title follow this link to the publisher's website.

ABOUT JOHN DAVID ANDERSON

ABOUT THE AUTHOR, IN HIS OWN WORDS:

John David Anderson writes novels for young people and then, occasionally, gets them published. Besides Minion, he is the author of Sidekicked, and Standard Hero Behavior. He lives with his patient wife and brilliant twins in Indianapolis, Indiana, right next to a State park and a Walmart. He enjoys hiking, reading, chocolate, spending time with his family, playing the piano, chocolate, making board games, chocolate, not putting away his laundry, watching movies, and chocolate. Those aren't his real teeth.

To read other posts on this tour please visit:
June 23 Maria's Melange
June 24 The Library Fanatic
June 25 The Next Best Book
June 27 The Book Egg
June 28 Word Spelunking
June 30 Ms. Yingling Reads
July 1 The Book Monsters
July 2 The Book Monsters
July 3 Read Now, Sleep Later
July 7 The Haunting of Orchid Forsythia
July 8 Candace's Book Blog
July 9 Middle Grade Mafioso
July 10 Librarian's Quest
July 11 Unleashing Readers
July 12 Trisha Perry
July 14 This Kid Reviews Books
July 16 Charlotte's Library
July 17 Literacy Toolbox
July 18 Small Review

Of Vacuums, Squirrels And Lamps With Names

When you live surrounded by lakes in a land of sand and have a furry friend who gets an entire new coat twice a year, there is one essential device necessary for survival and sanity.  What is this device, you ask?  It's a vacuum cleaner, of course.  Not any old vacuum cleaner will do either.  I'm talking about a brand and model whose suction is off the charts.

Fortunately, I've found the ultimate machine for my wants and needs.  In fact, I have to be careful not to get it too close to the lighter objects in my home.  By now you are wondering why I've elected to talk about this particular household appliance.  Newbery Medal author Kate DiCamillo's new title, Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures (Candlewick Press) with illustrations by K. G. Campbell, begins with a birthday and a present.  Yes, a vacuum cleaner is given as a gift.

Flora Belle Buckman was in her room at her desk.  She was very busy.  She was doing two things at once.  She was ignoring her mother, and she was also reading a comic book entitled The Illuminated Adventures of the Amazing Incandesto!

Looking out her window she sees the aforementioned birthday gift, a Ulysses Super-Suction, Multi-Terrain 2000X, dragging her neighbor, Mrs. Tickham, around the yard heading straight for a squirrel.  Before the squirrel can think of anything except how hungry he is, he's being sucked inside the vacuum, except for his tail.  Flora races to the rescue, surprised at herself (she is after all a natural-born cynic) but determined, as this is clearly one of the Terrible Things Can Happen To You! previously addressed in the back of an Amazing Incandesto comic.

Shaking the squirrel, who at this point is missing much of his fur, loose from the cleaner's grip, she quickly begins CPR.  CPR on a squirrel?  Oh, yes indeed.  Revived the furry miracle remembers his one single previous thought.  Lifting the vacuum cleaner over his head with one paw, he loosens food from the inside before lowering it to the ground.

Mrs. Tickham thinks she has a brain tumor.  Flora thinks she is in the presence of a superhero.  She names him Ulysses.

Let's pause here for a moment.  Of the eleven living characters in this book, we've met four, a husband, Mr. Tickham, with less than perfect taste in choosing birthday gifts, his wife currently in a state of shock, a resourceful girl named Flora and her new companion, a squirrel who understands human speech and is stronger, a lot stronger, than he should be.  Continuing throughout the ups and downs of this tale, we meet Flora's mother, Phyllis, a writer of romance novels, who appears to love plunking out stories on her typewriter and her recent purchase of a shepherdess lamp she named Mary Ann, more than her daughter, Flora's father, George, a mild-mannered accountant who enjoys reading Amazing Incandesto as much as Flora, William Spiver, an extremely intelligent boy, banished by his mother, staying with his Aunt Tootie (Mrs. Tickham), a knife-waving cook, a hysterical waitress, a disreputable cat name Mr. Klaus, and Dr. Meescham (philosophy not medical).  Of significance to this story is the fact of Flora's parents' divorce.

With all the excitement of the exploits and dialogue found in the comics she loves so well (and the advice they provide, proving to be helpful in the most unbelievable circumstances), Flora, Ulysses and company, fight the evil of the arch-nemesis, defy threats and attacks, revel in poetry written by someone with a huge capacity for compassion, and soar, like an eagle, when necessary to save life and limb.  Least you think this is a series of tension-filled episodes only, rest assured it is not.  Deftly woven into the adventures are revelations which hurt and heal the heart.  Founded in hope, love finds a way.


You can't help but feel the need to celebrate the characters, the plot and the use of language conceived by Kate DiCamillo in this title.  The layers of dialogue and thoughts of her people and animals is rich in its realism even when it steps into the world of fantasy.  She makes you believe the impossible is probable.

Humor, the kind making you laugh out loud every time you read a passage, is an integral element enhancing the appeal this story has for readers.  Vocabulary, which may have some heading for a dictionary (a good habit really), conveys the exact mood necessary for everything to mesh together.  Pauses and pacing are perfection in DiCamillo's hands.  Here are a few samples.

She said the words, and then she had a strange moment of seeing them, hanging there over her head.

"YOU'RE GOING TO VACUUM UP
THAT SQUIRREL!"

There is just no predicting what kind of sentences you might 
say, thought Flora.  For instance, who would ever think you would 
shout, "You're going to vacuum up that squirrel!"?

"Holy bagumba," said Flora.

"Talking to my baby doll? said Flora.  She felt a flush of 
outrage crawl up her cheeks.  For the love of Pete! She was ten
years old, almost eleven.  She knew how to administer CPR.
She knew how to outwit an arch-nemesis.  She was acquainted
with the profound importance of seal blubber.  She was the
sidekick to a superhero.
Plus she was a cynic.
What self-respecting cynic would carry around a doll in a
shoe box?


The first four pages of this book are done in the style of a comic book with panels.  Each time Ulysses is highlighted all text smoothly switches to the pencil drawings of K. G. Campbell.  We are also treated to full page illustrations and insets as well as one double page picture; each deftly presented, filled with the emotion of the moment.  They not only enhance the narrative, but become the narrative.


 Captivating, entertaining, causing uncontrollable bursts of laughter and warming our hearts as only the best kind of storytelling can, Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures written by Kate DiCamillo with illustrations by K. G. Campbell is one of this year's finest pieces of literature.  It would be a wonderful read aloud with your children or your students.  I daresay, Holy bagumba, will find its way into your conversations.

For more information about the author and illustrator please follow the links embedded in their names.  Flora & Ulysses have their own website containing Flora & Ulysses Teacher's Guide, Read an Excerpt, Flora & Ulysses Discussion Guide and Q & A with Flora & Ulysses author Kate DiCamillo.  Follow this link to Holy Bagumba! An exclusive webcast with beloved children's book authors, Kate DiCamillo and Jon Scieszka.

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

There are some moments, events, you never forget.  When I was growing up my hair was long and fairly wavy naturally.  My mom, using bobby pins,would make rows of pin curls after shampooing to make it extra curly when it dried.  In the spring of my tenth year that abruptly ended with a visit to her hair dresser (who, by the way, did her hair for fifty years).

My protests, which were many but respectfully presented, were not taken into consideration.  My hair was cut...short.  Perhaps this is some misguided rite of passage.  Author/illustrator and Caldecott Honor winner (Blackout), John Rocco, addresses this very thing in his new title, Super Hair-o and the Barber of Doom (Disney Hyperion).

Every superhero gets his powers from somewhere.

Young Rocco gets his from his hair which grows and grows; the longer his locks, the stronger his powers.  It's the same with his buddies and their hair.  These four are champions.

They are able to swing inside a tire hanging upside down by their ankles, leap across a stone bridge, frog and net firmly clasped in each hand, make awesome bike jumps off a homemade ramp, skateboard over train sets, kick box building block towers and dive off a ladder into a kiddie pool.  All is well until the fateful day when Rocco is abducted and turned over to the enemy, the big...bald...barber.  Ack!  Thoughts of retaliation swirl in his brain.

He can hardly climb into his treehouse in his weakened state; the loss of his hair makes him feel diminished.  He wonders, worries and attempts to replace it.  Plants, mops and dogs are not what he needs.

In this dejected state he meets with his friends only to discover they too have met with a similar fate.  Sitting on the playground bench, holding her doll, an observant younger girl zooms in to the rescue.  In a moment of instinctive reaction superpowers reappear as if by magic.


Part of the sheer fun in reading this title is the word choices used by John Rocco.  In telling this story as if it is an adventure shared by a champion and his comrades with extraordinary talents, he gives it a sense of heightened drama with a humorous flair.  The mix of first person narrative with dialogue and thoughts in balloons makes this boy's experience read like those superhero comic books he loves.  Rocco excels in the placement of the text with each turn of page.

When opening the book's jacket seeing Rocco whizzing along on his bike atop the big, bold primary colored title letters and on the back, astride his bike, Sidekick Sam sitting next to him, cape and hair billowing out in a breeze, you simply have to smile.  Close-ups of the superhero on his tire swing and riding his bike, filled with animated action illustrate the cover.  The exuberance in these four pictures is contagious.

The opening and closing endpapers done in two shades of rust feature silhouettes of Rocco performing various feats of derring-do with words like POW!, WHOOSH and SPLASH! patterned among them.  Readers paying close attention will notice the difference between the two; it's all in the hair.  Before the title page Rocco begins the story, a full page illustration of the boy superhero running from a comic book store, huge grin on his face.

With that initial page and in the remainder of the visuals within the book,  readers see the blend of black, white and gray with the full color elements; drawing your eyes toward the central character or action of that moment.  The book is alive with activity; alternating illustration size, switching between smaller ones surrounded by white space to the larger double page spreads.  The use of all the dots makes you feel like you are stepping into the pages of your favorite comic book.

The first two pages are extremely clever.  Rocco, in full color, is kneeling on a carpet reading his comic books.  The carpet is compromised of enlarged comic book pages.  We see the bottom of a chair, adult shoes and a portion of pant legs in the upper right hand corner.  These two pages are one of my favorites in this title.

From beginning to end Super Hair-o and the Barber of Doom written and illustrated by John Rocco is pure pleasure, destined to be read over and over again.  You can't avoid an appreciation for the resilience and ingenuity of all the characters in this book.  With many people looking for a first day read aloud, this title addresses having a passion for what you like and finding the source of your strengths.

There is a link embedded in John Rocco's name above to his official website.  Stop in and have a look around.  Enjoy the book trailer below.


SUPER HAIR-O and the BARBER of DOOM from John Rocco on Vimeo.