Piece by piece, over a few days, I embarked on the excellent task of assembling this grand masterpiece. With close to 3500 intricate elements to arrange, the process was nothing short of mesmerizing. As I meticulously joined each brick, a sense of calm and tranquility washed over me. It was a joy-filled journey as I witnessed the tower steadily rise before my eyes.

I enjoyed this story.  It was a personal exploration of a nine-year-old boy named Nathan finding a way to escape from the real-world issues of bullies and his older brother dying from cancer.

There is some significant symbolism, and the world is an allegory for how young minds deal with trauma and change.

This quick and powerful read follows a young girl who goes back to visit her mother’s hometown after a storm.  A great backstory is touched regarding her mother’s passing and the seemingly normalized magical creatures that live next to this seaside fishing village.

What I appreciated the most from this book is how some proverbs are like those of the Zarma and Hausa people.  This does make it hard to determine where some of these sayings originated, but it does say a lot about how some phrases and sayings resonate throughout all of West Africa.

What I appreciated about this book, as I have daughters and work as a disability advocate in my day job is how Ben naturally includes into the story strong female characters and normalizes the inclusion of folks living with disabilities.

This is a great children’s book and has a great message for kids, and that is all about following your dreams, and being kind can make you feel good. Amy Baron also found an amazing illustrator for ‘The Gentle Bulldozer’ with Rogerio Coelho. His friendly and accessible style is a perfect companion to Baron’s story.

I have been enjoying reading some of the comics that I bought through doing Proxibid. One of them is the old New Universe series ‘Kickers Inc’. Jim Shooter created the line of in celebration of Marvel Comics’ 25th anniversary.

It was fun and educational along with being a quick and engaging read. I love how Christian set up the world and all the different species that were found by the main characters so far. I am very excited to see what each level of the pyramid brings.

I read Eric Orchard’s book, ‘Maddy Kettle: The Adventure of the Thimblewitch’. This was a fun middle-grade-level graphic novel that is around 90 pages.

It was a fast-paced fun adventure about a girl trying to save her parents and floating toad pet from goblins.

Over the vacation a couple of weeks ago, I read volume two of ‘The Graveyard Book’ which was the graphic novel adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s book of the same name. it was a very good second act to the story. The protagonist, Nobody is a little older than he was in volume 1 and has a much stronger curiosity about what lies outside the graveyard.

I really appreciated how the writers and artists utilized Baum’s original series and did not rely on the more well-known film version of the characters. The writers of the stories also understood many of the characters and lands in the 13-book series, including people like the Shaggy Man and Ozma.

The Brickley Sisters have a great concept about a children’s book about a bookshelf. The innovative character concept, matched with a heartfelt message to young readers: “Everyone has a story” makes this book an instant classic and must-have in every library.

The game is part of the original White Wolf ‘World of Darkness’ game line. The players take on the roles of ghosts and try to navigate the horror and hope of finding purpose and peace in the next stage of existence.

Lords of the Cosmos is a quintessential homage to 80’s culture. On the surface, it appears to reference ‘Heavy Metal’ and influenced by the artwork of the bands of Iron Maiden and Metallica.

As I read more of the story, it was fun to see also inspirations from the 80’s cartoons and toys as well.

Erika Chappell did a fantastic job designing the game and she did a great job putting in the intricacies of aerial combat in the rules-light system. The book is 300 pages long and is an amazing example of a steampunk setting.

This past week was more reading bedtime stories. A couple of years ago I was lucky to find the entire Sweet Pickles series by Ruth Lerner Perle and Jacquelyn Reinach. They were originally released in the late 70s with Weekly Reader.

I read Tony McMillen’s newest book, AttaBoy.

Tony made the book in a treasury size and it was a great idea to have the book in a larger than normal comic book size format.

I really loved the story. It was a combination of classic Nintendo game instructional manual with symbolism and parallels to the narrator’s personal history.

This past week I read the DC Comics 1988 mini-series “The Weird”. With the Big Two publishers, I have been recently gravitating to stand-alone stories and so I discovered this four-issue mini-series.

My 6-year-old raided my bookcase and found a Star Wars: The Clone Wars graphic novel called “Shipyards of Doom” and has been eagerly reading it to me and to her younger sister every night.

I am such a proud dad to see my daughter discover Star Wars on her own. She was even more excited to discover that Disney Plus has all of the Star Wars too.

This past week, I’ve been reading more public domain golden age comics; mainly the old Sheena comics to help me out with the writing styles of the 1940s.