BALANCING ACT BOOKS

At the time of writing this, my oldest daughter, Pepper is 8 years old. I have read to her, every night since she was a baby, and I have been reading chapter books to her for years. Below is a list of the books I have read to her, besides the Harry Potter Novels (we finished Half Blood Prince, recently). The list is in order, from favorite to least favorite. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever School for good and Evil The Dollhouse Murders School for Good and Evil: A World without princes Tales of a Fourth grade Nothing Bunnicula Beezus and Ramona The Girl with the Silver Eyes Ramona The pest Black Beauty Howliday Inn Pippi Longstocking Harriet the Spy A Few months ago, my daughter picked out A Princess of Landover , By Terry Brooks, at a nearby yard sale. The book was pretty much a steal, at only a dollar.   I have read a few of Terry Brooks novels, and his book on writing. Why don't I put them in order from favorite to least favorite, too? Sometimes th...

SPOILERS FOR HALF BLOOD PRINCE: A week ago I reread my favorite Harry Potter Novel. The first time I had read Half Blood Prince, I was focused on Voldemort and his delicious backstory. The second time around, as I read the book to my daughter, Pepper, complete with voices to match each of the actors of the film adaptations, I focused on the tragedy of Dumbledore.  I go back and forth about whether it is a good idea for me to be reading these last few Potter books to her. I know that JK Rowling's master plan was to have Harry Potter age at the same rate as his readers, and that the books increased in their level of Maturity, all the way up to the final book. Harry is sixteen, by the time of Half Blood Prince. Pepper is eight. I know girls mature faster than boys, but that is still a bit of a gap in age. I do feel like this book isn't beyond her ability to relate to it, though. This picture above represents an aspect of the story that really stood out to me, this second...

Please don't tell either Sam Humphries or Dennis Hopeless, but sometimes I get the two of them mixed up with each other. I understand how that might seem insulting. I certainly wouldn't want to be indistinguishable from another writer. I mean no insult, however. I don't think I have ever truly disliked a single trade I have read by either author.     I have been a fan of Humphries work on this book, and I am going to make it a point to focus on his other works as well, to get a true idea of his voice. Both Simon Baz and Jessica Cruz have distinct voices of their own. Jessica is the agoraphobic, paranoid shut in, who is just getting used to the idea that she needs to be out in the world, since it is her duty to save it.    Simon is a Muslim man, who decided to rage against the machine, by stealing cars, which utlimately led to his incarceration. So much of Simon's arc has been about trying to come to terms with his former criminal life and the price he had to pay...

SPOILERS Marcus - The Gladiator Centaur Werewolf, with robot legs, a symbiote ....... and Diabetes.    Just to have a call back to Marcus' initial appearance in Deadpool: Dracula's Gauntlet is worth the price of admission for this one.     Ever since we gave up access to the Austin Public Library, and resorted to using only the Cedar Park Library, I have occasionally found myself in desperate situations to get my comic fix. Probably what I initially considered my lowest point was when I borrowed a handful of Deadpool trades written by Gerry Duggan and Brian Posehn. I was not a Deadpool fan. My stock response when I answered how I felt about the Merc with the Mouth was that I only really liked him in Uncanny X-Force written by Rick Remender. That has slowly, but steadily changed. At this point, I have read almost all of the near twenty available Deadpool comic trades in the Cedar Park library, all penned by At least Duggan.    They did it. ...

Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall, Who is the greatest Spider-Woman of them all? It's ok, you know the answer - It's Silk. What????? You were expecting Jessica Drew, right? I am going to have to side with the host of Aurum's comics ( I can't remember his name, at this moment. For the longest time I thought it was Aurum). He believes that Jessica should be disconnected to all of the Peter Parker Spider-Mythos stuff, and have a new, non-Spider-Woman name.     Her origins have nothing to do with Peter Parker, which is the exact opposite of the other two Spider-ladies in this book - Silk and Spider-Gwen. Silk was bitten by the same Spider that bit Peter Parker, and Spider-Gwen is the Spider-Woman from another reality, where the radioactive Spider bit Gwen Stacey, instead of Peter Parker.     If I could rank the current adventures of each of these Spider-Women, it would go as follows:   Silk   Spider-Woman     Spider-Gwen What this book do...

Every time I write a review of a book I read, with my, now, eight year old daughter, I post the list of all of the books we have read together, that are not Harry Potter books. here is that list: The School for Good and Evil Best Christmas Pageant Ever Tales of a Fourth grade Nothing Bunnicula Ramona The pest Black beauty Pippi Longstocking Harriet the Spy I have a few more books to add to this list. I am far behind posting reviews on here. My goal, for Goodreads, this year was to read 100 books (which includes comic book trades). I have actually surpassed that number, at this point, but I have only written a review for five of the books. Hoo Boy! The list above, of Children's books, that are not Harry Potter is in order from favorite, The School for Good and Evil , to least favorite, Harriet The Spy . If I had to place The Girl with the Silver Eyes   on that last, I think I would rank it right under Bunnicula  and just above Ramona the Pest . 5 out of 9 b...

I am trying to remember what I was like, when I first started reading comics. I was ten years old, in 1992, and I was slowly and steadily building my knowledge of the Marvel Universe, by collecting their various Superhero Card sets. Series 1 -3, then Marvel Masterpieces, the Solo Spider-man Card series, the Solo X-men card series. What a wonderful time to be into comics! This was the proto-Wikipedia- reference Materials that also happened to be connected to some fabulous artwork. Of course ten year old me would want to buy them!     What would ten year old me think of a Riri Williams card?      Would I like the design of her suit? Would I be intrigued that she was African American, or would I automatically lose interest, since I was a ten year old suburban white boy?    I will admit that I probably would be intrigued, but I most likely wouldn't pursue the series, unless she was featured in a cool cartoon, like the 90s X-men cartoon show, or Batma...