BEDTIME STORY REVIEW: "The Legend of Papa Balloon"

This week, I read “The Legend of Papa Balloon” to my kids for a bedtime story.  The story involves a land where the people are divided into four villages that each makes their buildings from one building material, and of all things would you guess that is balloons .  Each community only builds with one color of balloon. There is a Red Village, Green Village, Blue Village and a Purple Village in the story.  Each balloon village thinks there color is the best and its residents have their own unique trait. Also each village believes its residents are superior to the other villagers and no one really cooperates or communicates with one another. 

One day a mysterious grandfatherly gentleman arrives to the land and visits each of the villages.  He shows the villagers that they may have different ideas and routines but in the overall scheme of life they really are not that unique from one another after all.  Papa Balloon as the mysterious figure is named by the children of the villages shows that when light passes through a clear balloon you can see all of the colors of the villages together in a rainbow that includes red, green, blue, and purple united together.  

The book has a nice message for young children that you should treat other people’s cultures, traditions, opinions and religions with tolerance and respect.  It also cultivates the positive concept of being inclusive of your neighbors even if they may be different from you.  It presents these weighty subjects though in a fun and lighthearted manner that makes it easy for little ones to grasp the topics presented in the book.

While I did not  have a problem with this, a point some parents may want to be cautious of is that the author treats the differences between the villages from a spiritual or religious perspective.  The villages all worship “the Light” and believe that “the Light” is best observed through only the colored balloon their village utilizes.  I unfortunately have witnesses some despicable behavior by residents in my community acting out in bigoted and rude behavior against those who have differing religious views so I was pleased to share this viewpoint of tolerance and understanding with my children.  Also some people may be concerned that the villagers worship “the Light” instead of referencing God, Yahweh, or Allah.  I understand that the author most likely took this approach to avoid any bias of  specific religious affiliation and present the topic in a more spiritual approach which I respect. If you have concerns about religion being included as an aspect of a children’s book storyline or the spiritual nature of the villagers worshiping “the Light” you should read the book yourself before sharing it with your children to make sure it meets your approval.

I found the book to be a well drawn colorful story with some nice teachable moments in it.  Most importantly my kids enjoyed me reading it to them.  If you are looking for some nice short stories that are nicely illustrated to share with your kids at bedtime check out “The Legend of Papa Balloon”. 

“The Legend of Papa Balloon” published by Schiffer Publishing is written by C.R. McClure and illustrated by Steven Kernen.  It is a 40 page hardcover book with 30 vibrant illustrations.  It will be available for purchase March 28, 2013 from Amazon.com and other retailers.

I received a complimentary advance e-book reviewer’s copy of “The Legend of Papa Balloon” from the publisher. The opinions and thoughts in this review are my own.

Comic Book Review: Alice in Wonderland

Our bedtime reading this week has been Dark Horse Comic’s adaption of “Alice in Wonderland”. This hardcover book demonstrates that comics can be a fun outlet for parents to enjoy with their young children...in my case 4 year old twins.  I enjoy finding books that have artwork that will draw their attention into the pages, help expand my childrens' interaction in the story-telling, and foster an appreciation of creativity and the arts.  Eisner & Ignatz Awards-nominated Rod Espinosa accomplishes just that in his sketched version of Lewis Carroll’s classic tale that provides a mind’s eye of Wonderland to its readers.

I appreciated that this book was entertaining enough to keep my children’s attention as we read through the pages together and didn’t have content that would be concerning in regard to potentially creating nightmares for the kids.  Many of the recent revisions of Alice in Wonderland in movies, television, and publications have had a very dark and dangerous tone to them and I was pleased that the comic did not take that tact in its interpretation of Alice’s adventures.  That being said there are challenges and dangers portrayed in this comic where anyone could risk at anytime losing their head at the displeasure of her Majesty ... you just can’t have a Queen of Hearts who doesn’t say “Off with her Head” ...  which demonstrates that Wonderland may be a fascinating place for a visit, but you really don’t want to stay too long.

Espinosa illustrates this comic with a Manga-influence that gives a light air to the artwork which helped capture my kids’ attention.  We had recently read some Beatrix Potter books at bedtime and my daughter was delighted to tell me the drawings in this “Alice in Wonderland” story reminded her of some of the watercolors from the Potter stories.  The other thing the artwork reminded me daughter of, which has become somewhat amusing, is she believes the Mad Hatter character looks like Jay Leno so whenever she sees a commercial for the Tonight Show (of course she doesn’t stay up that late to watch the show) she yells out “look daddy it’s the Mad Hatter”.  One critique is that while characters like the Cheshire Cat, Caterpillar, and Deck of Card Knights really boldly pop out from the pages at you, the White Rabbit just has this blah uninteresting appearance to him that really isn’t up to par with the rest of the drawings in the comic and becomes somewhat of a mild distraction from enjoying that character’s portions of the story.

All in all Dark Horse Comic’s “Alice in Wonderland” was an enjoyable read that passed the Geek Daddy’s bedtime reading test in that it was exciting and interesting enough to entertain my children, kept their attention long enough for them to get sleepyheaded, and didn’t have any content or pictures that result in either of my kids waking up in the middle of the night because they became scared from the story.  My daughter who dressed up as Alice for Halloween last year really enjoyed us reading the story together and seeing how the character was portrayed in the comic so an extra kudos to Rod Espinosa from her as well!

 I was provided a free advance copy of the comic to review from the publisher.  The thoughts and opinions in this review are my own.

“Alice in Wonderland” is scheduled to go on sale February 19, 2013 for a suggested retail price of $19.99.  Amazon.com has the book available for pre-order at a discounted $13.59 and Barnes & Noble has it available to pre-order for $13.45.

Book Review: GOODNIGHT BASEBALL

I’ve been a Detroit Tigers fan since I was a little kid with an attachment to the team and the game  of baseball developed through the connection to time I spent with my grandfather and father enjoying the national pastime.  Some of my fondest memories of time spent with my grandpa involved sitting on his back porch with him drinking out of glass bottles a multitude of different Towne Club  soda pop flavors …I think there were 24 flavors in all that my grandparents bought in big wooden grates…while listening  to the Tigers’ games on the radio.  And what young boy doesn’t cherish the ball games their Dad takes them to.   I have such great memories of eating hot dogs with my Dad at the old Tiger Stadium on Woodward & Trumbull while watching Sweet Lou Whitaker and Alan Trammell turn double plays. 

As a parent now myself, I’ve shared my love of the game with my children as a bonding experience with them.  We’ve enjoyed some cherished family moments enjoying games together at the Tiger’s new home Comerica Park and watching on television as a new generation of heroes named Cabrera, Ordonez, Fielder, Avila & Verlander take the field and lead the team to division championships and the playoffs.  I believe that \ my children like the excitement associated with the sport but what they really enjoy is the quality time with me that watching these games together represents.    Enjoying baseball is an important pastime for our family.

With all these baseball memories in mind, I recently discovered a book that ties into our family’s enjoyment of the game published by CAPSTONE YOUNG READERS in partnership with SPORTS ILLUSTRATED KIDS called “Goodnight Baseball”.   I’ve been reading the book to my 4 year old twins this week at bed time, literally all week because they’ve asked me to reread it to them every night, and the kids love it.  I enjoy reading it to them because it is a nice nostalgic tale that our family can relate to about a father taking a son to his first baseball game.

The story written by Michael Dahl explores the sights and sounds of baseball through a fun rhyme that makes the book an easy and fun bedtime read for a parent.  Also because of the rhyme type storytelling there isn’t a lot of text which allows you to really enjoy and focus on the great illustrations in the book by ChristinaForshay.   “Good Night Baseball” does a really nice job of portraying the excitement through a kid’s perspective of experiencing his or her first trip to a Major League ballpark through Dahl’s rhymes and Forshay’s sketches.   Reader’s experience the sights and sounds of a  trip to the ballpark starting from pulling into the stadium parking lot and wrapping up with a Daddy carrying his tucked out son up to bed when they get home.

I appreciated that Christina Forshay’s illustrations had a classic 1960s/1970s feel to them that reminded me of the animation style of cartoons like “Woody Wood Pecker” & “Tom & Jerry” and Disney movies such as “Alice in Wonderland” and “the Fox & the Hound” that I enjoyed when I was a little kid.  Forshay’s drawings drew my kids’ attention into the book artwork rather than me just reading the words to them and allowed aspects of the story to pop out of the pages at them.  Three of my children and mine’s favorite images were a display of the ball diamond that made it seem as if you were sitting in the outfield taking the whole field in; a picture of the daddy taking a photo of his son with a lifelike team mascot; and the last page of the book that shows the son falling asleep in his room holding a stuffed toy of the mascot as the moon is displayed in the child’s window looking as if it is a baseball.  Forshay does an exceptional job portraying the story through the eyes of a child.

Something I thought was funny that caught my attention while reading the book was how Michael Dahl has the young boy say “goodbye” to all the different things at the ballpark as they are leaving the stadium.  He says goodbye to the players, their equipment, the field, the seats, and the trash of the ground as they are leaving.  My son does exactly that when we go out places – saying goodbye to all sorts of people, animals and objects when we are out and about.  For example we were at the grocery store the other day and as we headed to the car he said good bye to the cashier, than the shopping cart, and the food we didn’t buy, and finally to the building as we pulled out of the parking lot – so Dahl’s inclusion of that angle into his story really hit home.  I also appreciated how the author included things that would excite children about going to a stadium such as showing your tickets at the gate, buying snacks, meeting a team mascot, getting a chance to walk the bases and see a dugout, catching a foul ball.  Including the “goodnight” angle too really makes this a great bedtime story because it keeps the kids attention and entertains them but it closes out getting them ready to go to bed themselves – excellent!

The downside for us was that we read “Goodnight Baseball” as an e-book on my iPad.  I really don’t like reading bedtime stories from my tablet to the kids because they have a tendency for me to want to play apps with them instead and it just doesn’t seem as nice to read to them from as a printed book.  Some of the pages weren’t as aligned on the screen and had to toggle the screen somewhat to see the whole picture.  I have a feeling that the book’s images would display better and look a little nicer in print versus digital.  That being said we did find the e-book overall to be a very enjoyable read that my children repeatedly went out of their way to ask me to share with them again at bedtime after I read it to them the first time.

“Goodnight Baseball” hits store retail shelves in March as a hardcover book for $14.95 and is aimed for children ages 4 – 7.  If you are looking for a good bedtime reading book to share with your children the Geek Daddy highly recommends you check it out!

Disclaimer:  I received a free advance copy digital e-book of “Goodnight Baseball” from the publisher to review.  The thoughts and opinions in the review are my own.