Video reviews! Milo and Ezra review my pile of ARCs - PART ONE

Don't call me lazy. No, man, really you can't. I have been reading nonstop - just, I have other obligations, and the books I am reading are not for Pink Me. (Except for Necromancing the Stone by Lish McBride, oh and The Drowned Cities by Paolo Bacigalupi, and Sons of the 613 by Mike Rubens - I've read those recently, I just don't have time to review them! Aagh! They're all great? Can I just say that for now? I promise there will be reviews later.)

Also, they all have great covers:

So, in the interest of actually performing some sort of informational service, which is all I've ever tried to do (insert pious expression and posture here), I brought out the Flip camera and asked my boys about the books on my coffee table. My boys are, after all, the target audience. And they read, oh Jesus they read like crazy!

Here's the big pile of books and an introduction to my reviewers:

 

PART ONE

We start out with the first book in the new graphic novel series Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales, One Dead Spy. My hat's off to Abrams for taking a chance on a graphic novel series about American history - but it was a pretty safe bet, as Nate's art is meticulous but appealing, and his sense of humor, as you'll see in this video, is dead-on. You know Nate's name from Rapunzel's Revenge and Calamity Jack, two of the most gorgeous graphic novels to ever make a kid snort milk out of his nose.

 

Milo is currently galloping through Always October, the new book by perennial favorite Bruce Coville. Coville's many, many books are fun and magic-y and a little creepy, but don't let that fool you: the man has a passion for serving children.

He once addressed a group of librarians and teachers at the biannual Books for the Beast teen literature day He made the extremely provocative observation that "America hates its kids," citing as evidence the fact that the auditorium in which we sat was at least 80% women. Historically female professions are historically underpaid professions, so I would say that the man has a point. He's doing his part though - making our historically underpaid job just a little easier by writing books that keep kids reading. Like this one:

 

We are big graphic novel fans in our house, so when Bird & Squirrel: On the Run by James Burks emerged near the top of the stack, Milo dove for it. He's 11, but surely this book will do for kids as young as 7, and even those precocious readers who are younger than that. I loved Gabby and Gator, so I was pleasantly surprised to come across this longer book. Slapstick? Hee-yeah.

 

 

Watch in the days to come for Milo and Ezra's assessments of Tom Angleberger's Fake Mustache, Nate Wilson's The Drowned Vault, The Familiars: Circle of Heroes, Invisible Sun, Amulet #5: Prince of the Elves, and more!

 

 

Comments

[Nathan Hale]

WOW! This is so great! Can I post your review of ONE DEAD SPY on my site? You guys are the best reviewers EVER!

[marjorie]

Great reviews! And Milo's got an awesome haircut. And I am so getting Bird & Squirrel for Maxine. Non-sequitursville. Sorry.

[AZ]

Thanks for the reviews, gentlemen! Top notch. You made me want to read these even more now!
-AZ

[:paula]

Coming from you, Aaron, that is excellent praise! Thanks!

And Nathan - you should have 9-year-olds review your work all the time. The giggling alone tells you more about the book than 1000 words of adult review!

And Marjorie - it's always nice to get the latest news and opinion from Nonsequitursville. I did that haircut myself! I have a mosquito bite! Maxine will love Bird & Squirrel!