Comic-Con: Johnny Boo, G-Man, SpongeBob, VIZ Kids Sampler, Okie Dokie Donuts, Pirate Penguin Vs. Ninja Chicken

We went to San Diego Comic-Con last weekend!





















While there we met James Kochalka, author and illustrator of Johnny Boo. Here he is showing us Dragon Puncher:

Our own Johnny Boo picked just that moment to become shy and overwhelmed, so he hid on the floor while Tintin got the goods--autographed drawings by the Kochalka family and books made by Eli and Oliver Kochalka:

Our autographed drawings (Ray Friesen's Pirate Penguin; the Kochalka family; and Chris Giarrusso's G-Man):

Johnny Boo picked out a SpongeBob comic book, which to our surprise has a contribution from James Kochalka:

We also got a free Viz Kids Sampler, with Mameshiba, Winx Club, Taro, Panda Man, Mr. Men and Little Miss, Pokémon, and The Legend of Zelda:

And we bought two new graphic novels (reviews coming soon) from Top Shelf Productions, Okie Dokie Donuts by Chris Eliopoulos and Pirate Penguin Vs. Ninja Chicken by Ray Friesen, both coming out August 30!

Buy them:

• Johnny Boo, Dragon Puncher, Okie Dokie Donuts, Pirate Penguin Vs. Ninja Chicken, and more from Top Shelf
• G-Man from ChrisGComics.com
• SpongeBob Comics from one of our favorite comic shops
• VIZ Kids comics from VIZ Kids Media

Word of the Week/Pippi Longstocking

It's time for our Word of the Week feature here at LitLad. Here's how it works: Every week the boys and I read a book from which they pick their favorite-sounding unfamiliar word. They each write down the word and we try to use it in conversation as much as we can throughout the week. According to The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease, "the only words children learn having heard them only once are the words you wish you had never said in front of them."

This week's word is ignorant, an adjective meaning "lacking knowledge, information or awareness in general or about something in particular."

And we're reading Pippi Longstocking, in which a policeman says to the school-eschewing Pippi, "Yes, but just think how embarrassing it will be for you to be so ignorant."

Pippi Longstocking

Author/illustrator: Astrid Lindgren/Nancy Seligsohn

Publisher: Scholastic

Source: Public library

Pippi is a free-spirited girl who lives by herself (unless you count her monkey, Mr. Nilsson, or the horse that she lifts over her porch whenever she wants to ride him). She gets herself into all sorts of interesting situations:playing tag with policemen, performing circus acts better than the actual circus performers, dancing with burglars, and rescuing children from a burning skyscraper. Her neighbors, Tommy and Annika, join Pippi on many of her adventures while hearing her probably not-always-true tales of her family and of people in the faraway lands she visited when aboard her father's ship.

Tintin's note: My favorite part is when she beat the strongest man in the world for $100.

Johnny Boo's note: It's so great and rockin'! I like it because I like when she says that man has big ears.

Because it's been a couple of weeks since we've posted our favorite titles, here's a short list of what we've been enjoying lately: