Morgan's Comic Corner - The Muppet Show #1

The new Muppet Show Comic Book from Boom! Kids is not totally terrific, but it is good. I do want to read more of the issues. What makes it good is how the comic book is set up like a show - there are short stories like Pigs in Space and the Swedish Chef, just like the Muppet Show on DVD.

Issue #1 is called "Kermit's Story" and it features Kermit singing his swamp song about how he became a part of the Muppet Show.

The artist who drew this comic did a good job but could have made the characters look more like the show. Almost all of the muppets look different.

Mom notes: Written and drawn by Roger Langridge, Boom! Kids has done a pretty good job of reproducing The Muppet Show - right down to the length: 22 pages is about 22 minutes worth of reading for most kids. The variety/sketch style of the show is also maintained, which makes for a good read for kids with short attention spans (or short car trips). It's definitely an all ages title as well. Be prepared, though, if you haven't had your kids watch The Muppet Show, or at least a Muppet movie or two, to explain some of the "inside stuff" like why Gonzo doesn't actually blow music with his trumpet.

And now for something shorter . . . Power Girl #1

Power Girl #1 (JUL '09, written by Gray & Palmiotti, art by Connor) is a fun restart of the PG franchise. Gray & Palmiotti portray Kara as tough and smart, of course, but her new writers also allow her to have a pretty good sense of humor and be rather refreshingly self-aware. Kara KNOWS she's a superhero, she KNOWS she has the "great power and great responsibility" combo that goes along with being from Krypton.

There's not a lot of summary to give, plot-wise. Essentially, PG has decided that, since she's stuck on Earth, she might as well find something to do with her time. She's therefore decided to reopen her company, Starrware Labs, and make a new start. Unfortunately, there's hero-work to do that interrupts our Girl. She barely manages to hire one bumbling geek who can't stop staring at her famous assets and throw one sexist jerk out of her office before the city of New York is under psychic and physical attack by killer robots.

Gray and Palmiotti create a successful arc-starter plot in this opening issue. I'm looking forward to seeing what's in store for Kara next.

I'm also looking forward to more of Amanda Connor's art. Much has been and will be made of the fact that a woman is drawing Power Girl, the cheesecakiest of the pinup superheroines, but, all that aside, Connor just does a really good job of putting PG on paper. She's obviously a big, busty, broad-shouldered girl - but Connor manages her proportions well and creates an hourglass figure for Kara that's almost realistic. The keyhole in the front of PG's white leotard has been squared off a bit, which helps to "support" her ample cleavage - it's there, but again, more realistic than past artists have drawn her. Connor also puts some weight in her thighs and creates a little more balance than we've seen in the past.

All in all, I think this was a successfull debut for Power Girl. That's a big deal for me, as I am picky about spending money on comics AND I'm a big PG fan.

Note for collectors: there are two variant covers and both are quite nice, so be sure to pick them both up if your LCS has them.

Morgan's review #1

Morgan's first review is New York Times Bestseller The Mysterious Benedict Society, by Trenton Lee Stewart.

This book is about four children who have to go to a school to spy on the owner Mr. Curtain, who is trying to put message into people's minds without them even noticing. The four children have to stop Mr. Curtain and his evil machine called the Whisperer.

I thought this book was wonderful. The best part was when the children found out some very unexpected information about their teammate Constance. I would recommend this book to all 8 year olds because it's not really a grown-up and not a baby book. It's right in the middle.

I took an AR test on this book. It was worth 19 points at my school.

I am really looking forward to The Perilous Journey, the second book in this series.



Mom notes: 485 pages, and includes a quiz at the end. The characters send messages to one another in morse code and in riddle form, which encourages critical thinking. Highly recommended for strong readers, and especially gifted children.

Steph's Debut Review

Let's start off the process with a book that has generated a ton of buzz - Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith.

The short part: After driving to Little Rock, then driving from one bookstore to another to acquire the last known copy of PPZ, I ate this book up like a zombie eats brains. It was fun. It was Austen, if Austen had been able to watch MMA competitions. And it had the students who saw me reading it DEMANDING to borrow it.

Always a good sign.

Therefore, for sheer devourability, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies earns 4 Jello Brains.








The long part: I was fascinated with the process that Grahame-Smith went through to create his literary mashup. The grammar and vocabulary were kept pretty precisely within Romantic period standards. Elizabeth and Darcy, whilst expressing some rather "non-Austen-tatious" (you like that? I just made it up) thoughts about each other (mostly involving decapitation), did not behave in any manner inappropriate to their characters or their time periods.
While the zombies were fun, the best part of this novel for me was Grahame-Smith's light tweaking of the relationships between Austen's characters. Mrs. Bennet and Mr. Collins are not given quite as much leeway to behave in their respective assinine fashions in this update. Grahame-Smith allows both characters to get a bit more of a come-uppance than Austen did - especially Collins - but that would require a spoiler I'm not willing to give away here. Sufficed to say, the reasons Charlotte Lucas is willing to marry Collins the Odious become much clearer in the light of the zombie plague in Hertfordshire.

One thing PPZ is NOT, is scary. Don't anticipate shivers. Don't worry about nightmares. It'll be okay if you're still up at 2 am to finish this one. Be careful, though, if you're sitting up in bed reading while your significant other snoozes away beside you. You may just wake them up giggling.

To start it all off . . .

Hi! We are Stephannie and Morgan - the Two Blonds. We're also mother and daughter and we are both avid readers. So, as a new project, we thought we'd start a new blog where we share what we've read and what we thought of it.

A little bit about our reading tastes:

Stephannie: will read almost anything. Has a penchant for (and a Master's degree in) 19th century Brit lit, likes re-interpreted fairy tales, and prefers happy, but not sappy endings. Got into the whole "paranormal" thing BEFORE it was actually a genre and is starting to get really picky about what authors/titles/series are worth reading within the grand spectrum of vampires, witches, fairies, elves, and other otherworldly critters. Is determined to also read things that are "good for you".

Morgan: is into series and likes to be "scared". Loves fantasy and mythology; sci-fi not so much. Will read nonfiction when the topic strikes her fancy. Is 8, but reads on a 7th-8th grade level.

And about our reviews:

Steph's reviews: will pretty much be just that: straightforward reviews. When I review a "good for you" book, I'll often also include anything I think of in terms of using that book in the classroom. I'll try to include any links that might be helpful as well.

Morgan's reviews: will be supervised by Mom, of course, but will include her opinions and impressions of the books and whether or not she would try and talk her friends into reading them. Morgan's also big on taking Accelerated Reader tests, so we'll also have her tell you whether she thinks a book is memorable enough to be worth testing on.

Comments are welcome! Recommendations are encouraged.