Oct 07 2021
Technically, this is a children’s book, but honestly, I wish everyone would read this! In the fifth volume of this deeply intelligent, highly accessible history series, our intrepid guides, Annie and Nico, go on a tour of historical pandemics, focusing primarily on the plague. They cover the historical and geographical spread of the disease — …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/10/07/magical-history-tour-5-the-plague-history-of-a-pandemic-by-fabrice-erre-sylvain-savoia/
Oct 04 2021
Odd that the book is subtitled The Importance Of Admitting Mistakes when those words are nowhere to be found in the copy I was sent. Not that there are many words at all in this book, which is a gorgeously illustrated, deceptively simple parable acknowledging how hard it is to say sorry but how worthwhile …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/10/04/a-difficult-thing-by-silvia-vecchini-sualzo/
Sep 29 2021
Ever since her father left and her mom moved her and her younger brother Matt away from the larger Hmong American community to live in small town Wisconsin, Pahua Moua has felt like the weirdo outsider. It isn’t just that she’s the only Asian person in her class. Her single mom has to work long …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/09/29/pahua-and-the-soul-stealer-by-lori-m-lee/
Sep 18 2021
I don’t have all that much to say about Fletcher and Zenobia except that reading it makes me very happy, every time. It hits just the right note of whimsy without being twee. It’s mildly melancholy at the beginning, then enlivened, then worrisome again, and then everything is pleasantly resolved at the end. What more …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/09/18/fletcher-and-zenobia-by-victoria-chess-and-edward-gorey/
Aug 27 2021
I got really emotional finishing up this affecting picture book, in a way that my kids understandably didn’t. As an open borders absolutist, many of this book’s gentle lessons were old hat to me, but they were presented in such a manner as to remind me of the constant tension between truth and assimilation, that …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/08/27/marty-by-rachel-noble-zoey-abbott/
Aug 24 2021
Ha, how fitting that I should read this right as I’m running my kids through their very first tabletop roleplaying game campaign! In the thirteenth volume of The Loud House series, based on the hit Nickelodeon show, whole families get involved in playing Orks, Horks, Wizards, And Pork (or OHWP, for short) after Lynn Loud …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/08/24/the-loud-house-13-lucy-rolls-the-dice-by-the-loud-house-creative-team/
Aug 23 2021
After a decade of seeming indifference to my role-playing hobby, my eldest child suddenly asked me one day if we could play “Magick And Monsters.” This was probably prompted by his recent re-read of Book Two of the Diary Of A Wimpy Kid series, Rodrick Rules. Plus he’s been watching me game master one of …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/08/23/hero-kids-by-justin-halliday/
Aug 10 2021
If I’m being perfectly honest, I did not go into this book with the highest of expectations. Papercutz is not the most culturally sensitive of publishers (and not in a malicious way, just in a, perhaps, homogenous viewpoints sort of way,) so I was definitely braced for the worst as a Muslim reader and mom. …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/08/10/magical-history-tour-4-the-crusades-by-fabrice-erre-sylvain-savoia/
Aug 02 2021
I liked Volume 2 of Lola’s Super Club a bit more than Vol 1, tho I think that’s due in large part to being more prepared for the absurdist humor of this title, which may or may not be to everyone’s taste. Overall, I think the quality of both art and gags were better here, …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/08/02/lolas-super-club-2-my-substitute-teacher-is-a-witch-by-christine-beigel-pierre-foiullet/
Jul 27 2021
I grew up with The Smurfs as a child, tho in all honesty, I was one of those children who barely absorbed the “mythology” of the overarching story vs enjoying the gags of each standalone episode. And while I certainly gobbled up my fair share of Asterix and Tintin comics, I never got into the …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/07/27/the-smurfs-tales-1-the-smurfs-and-the-bratty-kid-by-peyo/
Al Singh
Doug Merrill
Doreen Sheridan
John Pitzel
Lars N. Goldschlager
Laura Eilers
Professor X
Robert Maedgen
Sylvere Ap Leanan
The Shire