Kidsmomo

An intergalactic pioneer, a future President of the United States, and an explorer of a dangerous forest. What do they all have in common? They’re stars of books that come out this month!

AND they all have pretty awesome book trailers. Check ’em out:

The Return of Zita the Spacegirl
by Ben Hatke

The book: In the third and final installment of the Zita series, our heroine is wrongfully imprisoned and must break out of jail to stop a villain’s evil interplanetary plan.

The trailer in a word: Epic

The Meaning of Maggie
by Megan Jean Sovern

The book: It’s a tough year for Maggie. As if her annoying sister and the trials of middle school weren’t enough on their own, there’s something mysterious going on with her father’s failing health — and she’s going to get to the bottom of it.

The trailer in one word: Charming

The Thickety
by J.A. White

The book: Everyone in Kara’s village fears the Thickety, the strange and forbidding forest that covers nearly half their island home. One day, Kara finds herself lured into the woods, where she discovers a strange book that may have magical powers…

The trailer in one word: Creepy

I’ve heard lots of interweb chatter about these three books, and these videos definitely catch my attention. What about you? Will you read any of these books? Leave a comment and let me know!

Karen is worried that The Thickety may actually be a little too scary for her. Was anyone else creeped out by that weird scarecrow?

More about Karen »

You know who’s a genius? Whoever came up with the idea of “related videos.” I’m just minding my own business, watching a specific video that I’ve selected for a very particular reason… and then BAM! It’s like I have no control over my brain, and I absolutely cannot help but watch a different, related video immediately after. And then another. And another. And another!

Most recently, this happened when I discovered the Keepon robot dancing ohmygoshsuperadorably. I won’t lie; it’s also been known to happen when I stumble upon an interview with Zac Efron. But it’s not all fun and games — I also put my video-watching powers to good use in identifying really cool book trailers.

Okay, fine, watching book trailers counts as all fun and games to me. And if that’s true for you too, check out these beauties:

Coming this fall: The Templeton Twins Have an Idea, written by Ellis Weiner and illustrated by Jeremy Holmes…

Wonder by R.J. Palacio — I’ve been hearing AMAZING things about this book, and OMG I wanna read it! I must read it! I will read it!

HA HA HA, what?!

And on that note… well, how can I top that? I think I’ll just end there!

— Karen

Karen also has a big problem when she goes to food-related websites. She starts off just reading one article, and then BAM, it’s suddenly an hour later!

More about Karen »

Have you ever watched a video and been like, “WHOA. Must. Watch. Again.”? And I don’t mean because it’s a train wreck that you can’t believe exists, like Rebecca Black’s music video for “Friday.” I mean because it’s AMAZING.

Well, recently I came across a few book trailer videos so awesome that I replayed them immediately, and then sent the links off to friends right away. No joke. They’re that good. At least, I think so. But you can judge for yourself:

Sidekicks by Dan Santat

The Emerald Atlas by John Stephens

The Search for WondLa by Tony DiTerlizzi

 
And I couldn’t resist including this incredible video for Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. I seriously LOLed when I saw this. At my desk at the office. And then everyone turned around to look at me. Yeah, embarrassing…

— Karen

Karen was never a big fan of Much Ado About Nothing, but who can resist a rapping Shakespeare? Not she.

More about Karen »

Our current theme on Kidsmomo is Superheroes (Kinda), meaning unconventional crime-fighters who aren’t quite at the Superman level — okay, they’re not nearly at the Superman level. But they kick baddie butt nonetheless, and they deserve to be honored.

But after announcing our Superheroes (Kinda) theme, I realized that it’s sort of hard to get the full picture of what these guys accomplish without seeing them in action. Hence… video time! Here are the best trailers to go along with our booklist for this theme:

My personal favorite video is for Nancy’s pick, Powerless by Matthew Cody:

Although, this video for the Lunch Lady series by Jarrett J. Krosoczka definitely gets my vote for best superhero theme song:

Then again, you don’t need fancy music or even animation to make a good book trailer. I give major props to the guy in this video for my pick, the Magic Pickle series by Scott Morse &#151 he got me interested in the books just by talking! (Btw, this video was produced by Scholastic, the publishers of the Magic Pickle series. I also work at Scholastic, but I wasn’t involved in the creation of the books or the making of this video. Unfortunately, because I looooooooove pickles. Yum.) 

And as a final treat, I’ll leave you with these two videos for NERDS: National Espionage, Rescue, and Defense Society by Michael Buckley. The first one provides the scoop on the series direct from the source itself &#151 the author. But the second video is even better! It’s an introduction to all the same characters, but in German! Trust me; even though you won’t understand a word, you will still love it. I guarantee.

So first, meet the author:

And now, NERDS… in German!

Man, I wish I knew German! Apparently, hypnotized squirrels are funny in any language. 🙂

— Karen

Karen just CANNOT get the Lunch Lady song out of her head. Darn you, liver and onions!

More about Karen »

Have you heard of a not-so-little feature on our site called the Mystery Book Theater? Hopefully, yes. Because we make a couple of them a month.

Well, Karen recently showed me to some book trailers made by kids — and whoa, they’re really good! I’m totes jealous*… especially since I’ve been slaving away, drawing all of these Mystery Book Theaters for every Kidsmomo theme!

Check out these book trailers:

Amazing, huh? Inspired by these book trailers, I think Kidsmomo will be taking a stab at this video style! First up: our upcoming Mystery Book Theater for mythology-inspired books. So make sure to check back next Tuesday for our super-duper-fancy-schmancy awesome book trailer.

— Nancy

Nancy seems to be complaining about illustrating MBTs in this post, but where else does she get the glorious opportunity to draw someone drowning in puke?

More about Nancy »

*I don’t usually say the phrase “totes jealous.” Forgive me. It just exited my brain, spilled out onto the keyboard, entered this blog post, and now there’s no turning back.

This book trailer for The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle was originally the Mystery Book Theater video for our Globe-Trotting Adventures theme. For more on The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, check out our “Adventure Is Out There!” podcast.

You’ve probably heard the saying, “Getting there is half the fun.” Well, for the heroine in Avi’s The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, the journey is not so much fun as… a terrifying, near-deadly experience!

This book trailer for Aquamarine was originally the Mystery Book Theater video for our Beach Reads theme. For more on Aquamarine, check out our “Just Beachy” podcast.

It’s a bummer summer for BFFs Hailey and Claire because at the end of the season, Claire has to move away. But at least they have one last summer together, to hang out at the beach club, crush on older cutie Raymond, and… meet a strange creature from the deep? Yep, there’s summertime magic in Aquamarine by Alice Hoffman!

This book trailer for Time Cat was originally the Mystery Book Theater video for our Books About Cats theme. For more on Time Cat, check out our “Cat’s Meow” podcast.

In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Hermione’s got her Time-Turner to travel into the past. In Lloyd Alexander’s Time Cat, the main character’s got his… cat? Watch our video to get the scoop on this feline feat!

This book trailer for the 39 Clues series was originally the Mystery Book Theater video for our Summer Series theme. For more on The 39 Clues, check out our “Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer” podcast.

Summer vacation is the perfect time to make your way through a good series — unless you’re one of the kids in the 39 Clues book series. For these two, it doesn’t matter what the season is because instead of sitting at desks in a classroom, they spend their time traveling the world on a high-pressure hunt. Watch our video to get the lowdown on their whereabouts…

Thanks to our friend Agent M. for his assistance on this video!

This book trailer for Number the Stars was originally the Mystery Book Theater video for our War Stories theme. For more on Number the Stars, check out our “Lock and Load” podcast.

You’re probably familiar with the story of Anne Frank, who lived in a secret attic for years to escape the Nazis. But did you know lots of Jewish children hid in plain sight during WWII, pretending to be parts of other families? In Lois Lowry’s Number the Stars, the police investigate a family in Denmark when one “daughter” doesn’t look like the others. Watch our video to see what happens.