Just Dads Reading Books

This week we grabbed a book off the shelf with no research ahead of time. Root Magic is a recent release and the cover looked cool and lemme tell ya we lucked out. An amazing story about American history, family, and the horror of authority and difficulty in trusting others. Please check out Root Magic with us.

If you want to chat with us and recommend books or tell us your reaction to book we've covered on the show, please email us at [email protected]

Music by Russian Baths: https://open.spotify.com/artist/07N9Lr8AIzUbDzjPXUXTLr?si=vegRwDLXSF-IpupxjuEPJQ

We have a new quest on the show following our episode on Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett. We loved the humor of Pratchett's fantasy setting but we felt like a young reader would need more a baseline to enjoy the parody. So now we begin our quest for good, simplistic and impactful fantasy books for kids so that by the time they're 12 or so they are fully Primed for Pratchett.

If you want to chat with us and recommend books or tell us your reaction to book we've covered on the show, please email us at [email protected]

Music by Russian Baths: https://open.spotify.com/artist/07N9Lr8AIzUbDzjPXUXTLr?si=vegRwDLXSF-IpupxjuEPJQ

Last week we checked out a single picture book. This week, we're attempting to evolve our format for picture books by evaluating the work of a single Author or Illustrator. In this case, BOTH! Jon Klassen is an award winning children's book creator whose works evoke wholly unique and specific humor and setting that we can't get enough of!

If you want to chat with us and recommend books or tell us your reaction to book we've covered on the show, please email us at [email protected]

Music by Russian Baths: https://open.spotify.com/artist/07N9Lr8AIzUbDzjPXUXTLr?si=vegRwDLXSF-IpupxjuEPJQ

That's enough of that sophisticated Young Adult stuff. It's time to get into the REAL LITERATURE. That's right, this is a show about children's books and it's high time we actually talked about a picture book. We start with one of the most abstract, bizarre picture books either of us have ever encountered, Cowboy and Octopus. From the creator of The Stinky Cheese Man comes this fascinating lucid dream about friendship and acceptance? This one is a trip, y'all.

If you want to chat with us and recommend books or tell us your reaction to book we've covered on the show, please email us at [email protected]

Music by Russian Baths: https://open.spotify.com/artist/07N9Lr8AIzUbDzjPXUXTLr?si=vegRwDLXSF-IpupxjuEPJQ

Your dads have never ventured into the Discworld of Terry Pratchett, and that's a real shame. So, for their first dive, they're going with book 1 of the City Watch series. It's a hilarious book that bring about some bigger questions about fantasy tropes and fantasy written for young people.

If you want to chat with us and recommend books or tell us your reaction to book we've covered on the show, please email us at [email protected]

Music by Russian Baths: https://open.spotify.com/artist/07N9Lr8AIzUbDzjPXUXTLr?si=vegRwDLXSF-IpupxjuEPJQ

We're back with more fawning over the world of Avatar and the words of F.C. Yee. This book is the conclusion (for now?) of Kyoshi's arc and builds a lot off of the first entry in this series. It is violent and complex and tough to say this even qualifies as a kids book. But it's set in a universe that was supposed to be for a kid's TV show, so I don't know what to tell you. We make the rules around here, okay?

If you want to chat with us and recommend books or tell us your reaction to book we've covered on the show, please email us at [email protected]

Music by Russian Baths: https://open.spotify.com/artist/07N9Lr8AIzUbDzjPXUXTLr?si=vegRwDLXSF-IpupxjuEPJQ

Things get a bit heavier today because we're talking about race, American history, slavery, and American education. We're a couple of dumb white dads that had the opportunity to read something that taught us something we probably should have learned more about 20 years ago. Hopefully our own stupidity is something we can help our daughters to avoid...

If you want to chat with us and recommend books or tell us your reaction to book we've covered on the show, please email us at [email protected]

Music by Russian Baths: https://open.spotify.com/artist/07N9Lr8AIzUbDzjPXUXTLr?si=vegRwDLXSF-IpupxjuEPJQ

Okay, for this final part of our podcast launch we cheated a little bit. We both read the first Avatar novel a year or so ago but it's so good we wanted to check it out again in the context of this show. And it did not disappoint the second time. If you don't know much about the Avatar universe, hopefully this episode still serves as rationale for why all the cool kids are out there reading about the Earth Nation.

If you want to chat with us and recommend books or tell us your reaction to book we've covered on the show, please email us at [email protected]

Music by Russian Baths: https://open.spotify.com/artist/07N9Lr8AIzUbDzjPXUXTLr?si=vegRwDLXSF-IpupxjuEPJQ

Part two of our podcast launch is a total surprise to us! Neither of us had really heard of Timmy Failure (oh except for the part where Matt worked on the Disney adaptation of it for like a day) and it's humor and heart completely took us by surprise. Hopefully your kid likes references to Bob Dylan as much as you do...

If you want to chat with us and recommend books or tell us your reaction to book we've covered on the show, please email us at [email protected]

Music by Russian Baths: https://open.spotify.com/artist/07N9Lr8AIzUbDzjPXUXTLr?si=vegRwDLXSF-IpupxjuEPJQ

This series premiere features E.J. Sanders and Matt Martens grappling with the first entry in Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson books. What began as an intent to possibly check out the whole series instantly changes the scope of this podcast as they realize maybe they don't think the PJ books are that cool?

This isn't a show about being negative, but we are looking for the books we want to read with our kids, so join us as we track down all the stories that will make our kids look smart and cool and fun.

If you want to chat with us and recommend books or tell us your reaction to book we've covered on the show, please email us at [email protected]

Music by Russian Baths: https://open.spotify.com/artist/07N9Lr8AIzUbDzjPXUXTLr?si=vegRwDLXSF-IpupxjuEPJQ