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Young Readers

A Child’s Name Spelled Out in Animals

Aug 25th, 2014
by rodney.
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Personalized books for kids (that is, books specially printed to include a child’s name or personal information in the story) go back quite a ways. Now ABC Me Books (www.abcmebooks.com) have a new angle on the popular ideas: Teaching kids to spell, using their very own names and a menagerie of animals for each letter. They have two customizable books currently: My ABC Book (working the child’s name into a mini-scene for each letter in the alphabet), and the even more personalized The Perfect Name, in which the animals illustrate why each letter in a child’s name is particularly cool. The books are illustrated by Katie Hofgard (known as the anthro illustrator Wolf-Nymph) and Nordeva.

image c. 2014 ABC Me

image c. 2014 ABC Me Books

Heroes on a Scratching Post

Aug 24th, 2014
by rodney.
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Action Lab Entertainment has a new full-color comic book series for young readers, Hero Cats. “Avengers and Justice League move over! The cutest heroes on the planet have arrived! Meet the Hero Cats of Stellar City in this spectacular first issue. Not your ordinary house cats, they’re a tactical action-packed covert team dealing with extraordinary threats to humanity in ways that will amaze.” Two issues out so far, all brought to you by writer Kyle Puttkammer and illustrator Marcus Williams. There’s an official web site of course, showing off several cover variations and tie-in posters available.

image c. 2014 Action Lab Entertainment

image c. 2014 Action Lab

Kids Can Find Their Inner Beast

Aug 22nd, 2014
by rodney.
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Taking a multi-media approach, Scholastic Inc bring us Spirit Animals — a series of fantasy novels for young readers that tie into an on-line interactive game. “In the world of Erdas, every child who comes of age must discover if they have a spirit animal. This rare bond can unlock incredible power. A dark force has risen from the past, and now the fate of Erdas depends on four brave kids . . . and on you.” So far they have released four books in the series (by a variety of authors), with another one coming later this year and two more slated for early in 2015. The Spirit Animals web site has more details of course. “Read the books, then join the adventure!”

image c. 2014 Scholastic, Inc.

image c. 2014 Scholastic, Inc.

He’s Cool, He’s Rad, He Has A Flea Collar

Aug 14th, 2014
by rodney.
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Well not really (at least the last bit). This September Boom! Box Studios brings us the premier of Teen Dog, a new full-color comic book series by Australian web cartoonist Jake Lawrence. Here’s an introduction from the web site Comic Vine: “Teen Dog is the cool guy you always wanted to be in high school, à la Michael J. Fox and Ferris Bueller, except he’s a dog in a rad denim vest. Each issue contains short vignettes featuring Teen Dog, his best friend Mariella, Thug Pug, Sara the star quarterback, and many more. Teen angst and whimsical adventures collide in this new series that combines the feel of John Hughes movies with ‘90s Nickelodeon cartoons.”

image c. 2014 Boom! Box

image c. 2014 Boom! Box

Pups and Petrol

Aug 11th, 2014
by rodney.
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Author Tonton Jim appeared on the scene recently with a new series of books called Hound’s Glenn. The titular neighborhood is a place where families of dogs and wolves live and work — evidently, families of other species live in other neighborhoods — and the stories feature the daily adventures of a group of young canines growing up. Aimed at young readers and adults alike, each book features watercolor illustrations by the artist E. Felix Lyon.  The first book, Max and the Lowrider Car, introduces us to Max. He’s a fifth-grader wolf cub with a simple-sounding assignment from school: Find something amazing in town to write about. He finds it in the local auto customizing shop, and soon Max and his friends (and family) are off on an adventure seeking old boring cars to bring back to shiny new life. The book is available on Amazon now, published by Dayton. The second book in the series, Harold and the Hot Rod, is coming soon. Hmm, are we sensing a theme here?

image c. 2014 Dayton Publishing

image c. 2014 Dayton Publishing

Monsters Make All The Best Stuff

Aug 8th, 2014
by rodney.
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From the Booklist write-up on Amazon, here’s a quick introduction to The Creature Department by Robert Paul Weston: “Elliot is overjoyed the morning his uncle, professor Archie Von Doppler, invites him to tour the supersecret invention lab at DENKi-3000, a company famous for its unusual, logic-defying products. But the secrets are more super than Elliot had hoped. The professor’s lab is staffed entirely by fantastical creatures—a French-speaking, bird-size fairy-bat; a giant dreadlocked salamander; and a librarian with three dragon heads atop octopus legs; etc.—whose otherworldly technology gives DENKi-3000’s inventions their astonishing appeal.” But all is not well, of course, and Elliot soon finds himself charged with protecting his new monster friends and their invention lab from an evil corporate takeover. It’s all in this new illustrated book published by Razorbill. It even has its own web site, complete with monster animation.

image c. 2014 Razorbill

image c. 2014 Razorbill

Don’t Let the Dead Bugs Bite!

Aug 6th, 2014
by rodney.
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We couldn’t do any better than the actual title here. “Did you enjoy stepping on bugs as a child? Have you ever lit one on fire with a magnifying glass? What if all those bugs could come back from the dead? Don’t Let the Dead Bugs Bite! is the tale of a community struggling to rid itself of troublesome bugs that have come back to haunt their once peaceful town. This exciting story will capture children’s imaginations and may make them think twice before stepping on that next bug.” This new full-color book was written and illustrated by Stephen Zmina. As you can see from the official web site, there’s quite a roster of well-known celebrities who’ve read and endorsed the book! Be sure to check out the horror-movie-style book trailer too.

image c. 2014 by Stephen Zmina

image c. 2014 by Stephen Zmina

Just Give Him Your Socks And Everything’s Fine

Aug 3rd, 2014
by rodney.
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Ndbag is a boogeyman, but not the scary people-eating kind. No, he’d much rather eat one of your dirty socks — usually the left one. Ndbag the Boogeyman lives in the closet clothes hamper of a little girl named Mylene. He’s made friends with her favorite plushie: A panda named Pandaman. They get along so well that Ndbag created his very own panda costume which he calls Pandabag. The little blue boogeyman is also “frenemies” with ZK, a fluffy dryer goblin who much prefers clean socks and munching on lint. Are you getting all of this? It all comes from the mind of Austrian artist E.F. Gludovacz, and you can find out more in the first Ndbag the Boogeyman book as well as the regularly-updated web comic… all at the official web site.

image c. 2014 by E.F. Gludovacz

image c. 2014 by E.F. Gludovacz

She Said, The Horse Said

Jul 26th, 2014
by rodney.
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Back from Comic Con! Give us just a few minutes to get feeling back in our feet, and we’ll get busy with our reports.

Whew! All right, here we go then… Terry Cronin is a writer, best known for his comic book series Students of the Unusual and his Skinvestigator series of detective novels. Recently, inspired by his wife Ava (who loves horses), Terry hooked up with the artists Savannah McKendree and Gary Scott Beatty to create Horse Power G, the story of a young lady named Gertrude (“G”) and her prize horse, Amber. Sounds simple enough, yes? Here’s the twist: Read the comic forwards from the front to the middle and it’s told from the humans’ point of view, but read from the back to the middle and it’s the same story from the animals’ point of view! It all meets up right in the center with a cliffhanger leading right to the next issue. Horse Power G is published in full color by 3 Boys Productions. Visit the official Facebook page to find out more.

image c. 2014 3 Boys Productions

image c. 2014 3 Boys Productions

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