“Corgi” is also IMO overrated—lovely art, yes, but you’re not getting all that much meat otherwise. I’d love to see him illustrating some other writer’s work.

“Owly”, OTOH, is awesome. As is “Johnny Boo”. Both of these are very good, and highly recommended if you have kids in the 3-7 range.

Alex Robinson’s “Lower Regions” is basically a comic-book walkthrough of a good night spent playing D&D. That doesn’t really convey how awesome “Lower Regions” is. Umm, try this :

http://www.topshelfcomix.com/ts2.0/west_gate/1

If that amused you, “Lower Regions” is similar but three times as long, much more violent, funnier and better. It’s a must-buy if you were an RPG nerd. Otherwise, okay, probably not.

Doug M.

Early MAD. Not books, admittedly.

A lot of “children’s books” written by the celebrities du jour are actually aimed at their grandparents.

It’s a completely different book read at thirty compared to ten.

For example, at one point Deja Thoris is about to marry the crown prince of Zodanga. She can end the war, create a grand alliance, greatly reduce the depradations of the green hordes, etc. And do pretty well for herself, too.

But the chaos creature John Carter intervenes and by the end of the book Zodanga is in ruins, the Green Hordes have giant new pastures, Carter has announced an alliance between her city Helium and the green men which will make it even harder to cull their numbers, and Carter (with the skin color of the lowest caste anywhere and no particular indication that he’s her species or even from an egglaying species at all) is going to marry her and she can’t say no. Her father meets Carter and breaks down in tears and Carter interprets it as crying for joy.

Little details like that are easy to miss when you’re ten. Also the masterful way he blackmails the green leader. Green men can’t lie because they’re such good telepaths, but Carter has a metal plate in his head or something that keeps anybody from reading his mind. So he picks a green girl who’s been sent away and he tells this story he claims she told him, about how Tars Tarkas seduced a green woman and helped her avoid the breeding laws; she kept her egg separate from the rest and incubated it herself and mixed her child in with the rest at the last moment. Tars Tarkas has a choice, he can fight Carter to the death and probably lose, or he can fight the jeddak of jeddaks and then lead the united green men into slaughter attacking Zodanga. He has no third choice. He cries in despair which Carter interprets as laughter, and gives in. Carter interprets it as a simple romantic story and Tars Tarkas is fighting for the memory of his lost love.

Once you realise that Carter consistently lies about his own intentions and everybody else’s, it all makes sense. Lots of things get cleared up that didn’t even make sense with the ten-year reading.