Didn't get Everything Everywhere All at Once? Maybe I can help.

I normally try to keep my blog PG-rated, but I want to talk this once about an R-rated movie since it won so many awards, and so many people are talking about it. This post is still PG, or even G. I just went to make it clear the movie isn't.

Some of my friends are saying they didn't get Everything Everywhere All at Once.

I'm about to get boring and sciencey, but here's my (over-simplified) explanation. 

According the the Many Worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, every choice creates a new world. We can access any possible world that stems from a choice, but only until that choice is made. After that, we're stuck with the world created by our choice - but that doesn't stop the other worlds from existing. They continue to exist. We just can't access them. 

This means that there are worlds where you are a martial arts expert, worlds where you are a famous actress, and worlds where you are a chef. There are worlds with every possible version of you.

Many science-fiction stories ask What If? and EEAAO is no different. It asks, "What if you could access those infinite other versions of you by making insanely unlikely choices?" And the beautiful moral of the story is that given every possible version of herself in every possible world, the mom would still choose to be in the world where she is her daughter's mother.  

I don't know if that makes things any clearer, but I hope it helps.

TIP: My Email Was Hacked, So I Changed the Password. So Why Did I Stop Getting Email?

TIP: Think the only thing you have to do when your email gets hacked is change the password? It's not. 

What most people don't know is that you should also click on the three dots at the top of your page on a computer and check to see if the hacker added any rules to your account. After running anti-virus software, changing your password, and adding 2-step verification (if you don't already have it), delete the hacker's rules. 

Sorry to anyone who got a spam email from my account while a hacker controlled it. Thankfully, they weren't able to change the password, so I was able to get it back. I did the first steps, but wasn't aware of how hackers use rules until I looked up what to do if you haven't received any emails since your account was hacked. The rule they set up forwarded all my email to their account and stored it in my archive. After deleting it, I'm once again able to receive email in that account. 

I'm usually VERY careful and suspect my new (or possibly old) phone was vulnerable when I was switching them over. I hope you never get hacked, but if you do, I hope this helps. 

Please feel free to share. Thanks!

Five Graphic Novels

I read five graphic novels this Shabbat. 

Marshmallow and Jordan is a beautiful book about a girl from Indonesia who loves basketball but can't play on her school's team anymore after an accident leaves her paralyzed from the waist down. She befriends a young white elephant, who is more than what he seems. I was a little annoyed that the big reveal was left to the end of the book and told instead of shown, but it's still a delightful graphic novel. 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Allergic was my favorite of the graphic novels I read this Shabbat. It's about a girl who loves animals more then anything, until she gets a puppy for her tenth birthday and discovers she's very allergic to anything with fur or feathers. Still, she never gives up on her dream. She just has to tweak it a little. This is a great slice-of-life middle-grade graphic novel, similar in style to Sisters and Smile by Raina Telgemeier, and it teaches kids about how allergies should be taken seriously. Highly recommended 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

The other three books were the last three in the 5 Worlds series. This is a beautifully drawn sci-fi series about a young sand-dancer who needs to light the five beacons on the five worlds in her planetary system to save from it multi-planet global warming. Oona makes friends along the way, and together they set out to accomplish the impossible.

While the plot was fun and exciting, and the art beautiful, I do feel that some things were missing. Some of the science is wrong. (I hope kids who read the series don't come away thinking it's possible to live inside a star.) And Oona doesn't feel authentically female. In the past, I might have been okay with that, but not today when there are so many women writing terrific graphic novels starring authentic girls. The main characters are also impetuous sometimes, which I feel is kind of an insult to kids, and sometimes the characters are just too lucky, finding exactly what they need in the unlikeliest of places. It's still a delightful series, though. 🌟🌟🌟🌟

And that's it for this week!

What's the best way to get books in English in Israel?

I'm in center city Jerusalem, where there are probably a dozen new and used bookstores that sell books in English within walking distance of where I live. There are also a few libraries a little farther away with very limited selections. I have at least twice as many books as any of them. The American Consul library stopped offering books at all a long time ago, but the British library in Baka I understand has a good selection. My understanding is that it charges a membership fee, though. The selections in all the bookstores, both new and old, are very, very limited. They never have what I want. 

The "free" shipping from BookDepository and BetterWorldBooks really just means they up the price of books to include shipping. If you use a VPN and list the USA as your address, you'll get a different, much lower price. Still, sometimes they have decent prices for books, especially BD with books from the UK.  BWB might have that with some old used books. 

Amazon has real free shipping on most new books if you order $49 or more for many but not all items. (If you order books from some local bookstores, they'll just buy them on Amazon for you.) 

If you're into comics and/or graphic novels MyComicShop sells new ones at 35 percent off with preorders, and you can set up shipping so your orders only go out when they top $50. Their international shipping is $25, so it pretty much evens out. They do an excellent job packing everything, and their customer service is wonderful. But they do only deal with comic books, graphic novels, and comic book novel adaptations. You can also add older comics, graphic novels, and comic strip collections, to your preorder orders if they have them in stock. Prices vary depending on collectibility and condition. (You can also sell in demand issues in good condition back to them, but I don't know how that works.)

Someone recommended AwesomeBooks to me, so I'm ordering 10 used books from AwesomeBooks, and shipping is £11.90. Still, most of the books are 60% off with an additional 20% off coupon code (awesome20 for new customers), so it's still a good deal. These aren't books on my want list, just books they have on sale. The total cost for the order is about $40, so that turns out to about $4 per used book. We'll see if it turns out to be worth it or not.

I hope this helps.

Frankie's World, The Golden Hour, and Goddess Girls

I read three graphic novels this Shabbat.

Frankie's World by Aoife Dooley is a book that should be in every middle-school classroom and every children’s library. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. 

Frankie is an 11-year-old Irish girl who thinks she might be an alien. Her brain doesn’t work like anyone else’s she knows, and she keeps saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. She wants to meet her father, because she believes he might be able to explain why she is the way she is. The book is a wonderful introduction to autism in girls, written and drawn by a woman with autism. 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

The Golden Hour by Niki Smith is a modern masterpiece that deserves the great reviews it has received. It deals with the tough topics of school shootings (one teacher is shot, but she recovers) and PTSD in young people, but against a gorgeous rural backdrop and through the lens of an adolescent who loves photography. The story is funny and touching, and the art is gorgeous. This might be a good graphic novel for a young person either dealing with anxiety or PTSD or who knows someone dealing with anxiety or PTSD. The book also teaches a little about photography and composition, as well as farm life. It’s a great book.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Goddess Girls: Athena the Brain by Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams reimagines Zeus as the principal of a high school and the other characters of Greek mythology as the students. Athena has no idea she’s a goddess until she gets a letter from Zeus, who tells her she is his daughter and Hermes will be picking her up to take her to Olympus Academy. There she makes friends with Aphrodite and Pandora.

This book is okay. The writing and art are both fine. It’s a nice introduction to Greek mythology, but there’s no real conflict and no depth. The main girls are cheerleaders, and most of the girls in the book are a bit too boy obsessed. Personalities really don't go very far beyond “this is the smart one, this is the pretty one, and this is the curious one.” Still, I do think this could appeal to some very young girls, maybe in grades three and four, as an alternative to all the fairy and princess books.

🌟🌟🌟

And that’s it. I also started a fourth graphic novel I’m really enjoying, and I look forward to reviewing it next week. 

Happy reading!

a visit to shuk Machane Yehudah in pictures

Random photos of the day: we went to the Machane Yehudah shuk to buy fruit and flowers and eat at Fish en Chips. 

It was cold and a bit windy, but I was warm in my black parka, black fingerless gloves, and a gray knit "Disney" hat with two pompoms like Mickey Mouse ears.  

I bought a lot of strawberries for 18 shekels (a little over $5) after getting a taste. They're really good. There were a so many stalls selling cheap, delicious strawberries (guess it's the height of the season), and we saw a group of teen girls sitting in a circle on the pavement in middle of the open-air shuk and enjoying them. 

I also bought cheap broccoli, Romanesco broccoli (so pretty!), snow peas, and zucchini. At Fish en Chips, I had a grilled salmon salad, my son had fries, and my ex, Gidon, had fish and chips. We bought a grilled tuna salad to bring home for my daughter and we also bought a whole fish to grill at home. I bought sunflowers for Shabbat, and then we returned home under darkening clouds. It drizzled a little, but we avoided the worst of the rain.

What have you been reading?

Every Shabbat, I read. 

I'd like to tell you about two books I read this last Shabbat: Squirrel Girl Universe and Death & Sparkles. 

Squirrel Girl Universe is basically a cross between the Unbeatable Squirrel Girl (my favorite superhero) and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (my favorite book). 

Squirrel Girl and friends try to stop a super villain in the process of sending New York City to the farthest corner of the universe, and only partly succeed. This lands them and the villain far, far from home. Koi Boy gets help from a space whale, and that's where the adventure really starts. Squirrels, funny footnotes, space whales: what's not to love? 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Death & Sparkles is a middle-grade graphic novel designed to appeal to kids who love jokes about farts and butts, and despite myself...I did find it funny. 

As the last unicorn, everyone wants to be Sparkles' friend, eat the candy he makes, and buy the products he promotes. Death comes to collect Sparkles' soul during a death-defying stunt and ends up with Sparkles' horn stuck up his butt. They soon become fast friends, and in the end Sparkles learns the meaning of true friendship. While I'm not the audience for this book, I have to admit I found it fun. 🌟🌟🌟🌟

And those were my Shabbat reads this week.

Did the MCU get the repercussions of "the snap" wrong?

I just binged The Falcon and the Winter Soldier after watching Wandavision (and watching Hawkeye as it comes out), and I have to say I'm disappointed by how the Disney+ Marvel shows have been handling "the snap." 

(SPOILER ALERT) If you haven't seen Infinity War or Endgame and don't want spoilers, stop here. Otherwise, if you like to talk about sci-fi "what ifs" like I do, read on.

If "the snap" were real and half of all people (and probably half of all animal life) disappeared and then reappeared five years later what do you think would happen?

Imagine half of all drivers, pilots, doctors, mothers, fathers, children, teachers, employers, employees, customers, consumers, politicians, home owners, business owners, guards, homeless people, billionaires and so on disappearing in an instant but leaving all their stuff and half of all other people behind. 

Imagine situations where there's only one of the person who disappears (single-parent households, for example). Imagine situations where there are two. In a quarter of cases both would disappear, in a quarter of cases none would disappear, and in half of all cases one would disappear. 

Now imagine the initial implications, and how society develops over time until all the people snapped away return five years later. 

Let's start with one example: pilots. When half of all single-pilot planes lose a pilot, that plane crashes killing or injuring all left onboard, as well as possibly people on the ground. Any car traveling at speed will behave like a plane with a single pilot. A pilot and a co-pilot means that 75% of those planes should land--provided they don't collide with a falling or already crashed plane, the pilot doesn't panic, and there are still enough people handling air-traffic control and not panicking themselves. If it's possible to rescue people on the ground, half of all the firefighters, ambulance drivers, EMTs, doctors and nurses will have been snapped away, and because of all the out of control cars and abandoned cars on the roads, it probably wouldn't even be possible for a rescuer to get to the victims or get the victims to the hospital on time. 

How many would permanently die or suffer permanent injuries just from the missing drivers and pilots alone? Hundreds of thousands? Millions? Each of those deaths and injuries will have long-term repercussions. They can't be snapped back. And that's just drivers and pilots.

Now imagine the affect on families with young children. (I'm going to assume that pregnant women and their babies are treated as one person by the snap, because anything else is unthinkable.) 3/4 of all remaining children would have lost one parent, and at least 1/4 would be completely orphaned. What would be the affect of having 1/4 of the world's children orphaned? And if they were passengers in cars or buses when the driver was snapped away, how many would not only be orphaned but injured? And imagine all the parents returning after the snap to discover what had happened to their kids. Some would have grown up and be relatively okay, some would have died, some would have been permanently traumatized, some would have been injured, some, particularly those under ten, wouldn't even remember their own parents, some would return to find their kids with new parents, their spouses with new spouses...

I don't think the Disney+ Marvel shows got the implications of "the snap" right? Do you?

Leave a comment with your thoughts. I want to know what you think.

Book Depository's international free shipping is a lie

Ads from Book Depository claim "FREE DELIVERY" on all books mailed internationally--but it's not really free. 

Here's one example: Amazon says the retail cost of this book is $14.95, and the Amazon price is $13.46. If you spend $49 worth on qualifying products (including this and most other new books) at Amazon, shipping to Israel is FREE.

Meanwhile, Book Depository offers "FREE" shipping on the same book but sells it for 95 shekels, which is about $30. That's about $16.50 you pay for "FREE" shipping, or $15 above even the retail price. 

How is this sort of false advertising even legal?

Have a problem? Here's the best way to find a solution

No matter the problem, the answer can be found by asking questions. 

When I run into a problem, I ask myself several questions that almost always help me find a solution. 

1) Why did I start this thing?

2) What did I expect to get out of this thing?

3) Am I getting that with this thing? If not, am I getting something else out of this thing?

4) What is this thing costing me (time, emotionally, etc)? Is the reward for this thing (see 3) worth the cost?

5) What are alternative ways to get what I wanted to get out of this thing and what are their costs? Out of the alternatives, which one offers the greatest reward for the lowest cost?

6) When weighing the rewards and costs of what I'm currently doing versus the rewards and costs of the best alternative, which one offers the greatest reward for the lowest cost?

I've done this analysis with classes, jobs, and all kinds of big life decisions, and it's never steered me wrong.

All the helpful information about Covid in Israel: lockdowns, coronavirus case tracker, regulations, vaccine distribution, and more

I tried to post a shorter version of this post in the Secret Jerusalem group on Facebook. It was deleted supposedly because it didn't mention Jerusalem. So I posted the post below mentioning Jerusalem, and the post was locked because it supposedly went against the rules mentioned in a non-existent pinned post. Gaslighting. Here I was trying to help people find the most useful information - information with the potential to literally save lives, and they hit me with lies and gaslighting. 

So here's the post for anyone looking for answers to questions about Israel's lockdown, vaccination rates, and anything else involving coronavirus in Israel. Better here where anyone who wants can have access to this information rather than a closed Facebook group.

_____________________________

I'm mentioning Jerusalem now and adding a Jerusalem specific graphic to this post to appease the admin who removed this post from the Secret Jerusalem Facebook page on the grounds that it didn't mention Jerusalem. (Even though that rule apparently doesn't apply to questions about when will Ben Gurion open, when Ben Gurion isn't in Jerusalem.) 

Unfortunately, there's no Jerusalem specific graph showing new cases and deaths, just for Israel in general, but I've added the map of coronavirus cases in Jerusalem. 

As you can see, it's all red except for Ramat Rachel. Red means the rate of transmission of the virus is over 7.5%. (Jerusalem is currently at 8% on January 31, 2021.) You can find the updated version of this map on the Jerusalem municipal website here: https://www.oref.org.il/12409-17309-he/Pakar.aspx

People keep asking when the lockdown will be lifted, so I hope the following answers the question once and for all:

Below is the current graph of daily deaths in Israel since the start of the pandemic. You can find it by Googling "Israel coronavirus statistics deaths." It's updated daily. (As I said, there is no Jerusalem specific graph, however, Jerusalem has had the highest number of deaths in Israel in recent weeks.)

People are dying because there are too many severely ill patients to take care of them all. Hundreds are currently intubated, and thousands of medical personnel are currently in quarantine because they have been exposed to Covid. The graphic below shows that, as I write this, Shaarai Tzedek in Jerusalem is 96.93% full and has 105 members of staff who are in quarantine. 

This information and lots more can be found here: https://datadashboard.health.gov.il/COVID-19/general

The lockdown won't end until the hospitals can handle not only the patients they have now but also the patients they're likely to get if the lockdown is lifted.

We can all help lift the lockdown by following the guidelines of the health ministry and staying home as much as possible. If we don't, the alternative would mean death to hundreds, possibly thousands more.

I'm following the guidelines, because I know my kids need me alive, and I love them. If you knew now that one of the people likely to die is you or someone you love, wouldn't you follow the guidelines for them? Wouldn't you want others to do it too?

ADDED after the moderator said that if he allowed the post above he would have to allow multiple similar posts a day:

Then pin a single post with all the relevant links to the top of the page and write in the pinned post that it's where all the info can be found so there's no reason to post it again or to ask questions that are already answered by the links in that pinned post.

Otherwise, it looks like you're deliberately hiding helpful information that would allow members of the group to find answers to questions they keep asking over and over so they can make informed decisions.

"When will the lockdown be over?" (Already asked again today.) Check out the ministry of health here: https://datadashboard.health.gov.il/COVID-19/general

"Why is Jerusalem under lockdown?" Find Jerusalem on this Covid tracker here: https://imoh.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=20ded58639ff4d47a2e2e36af464c36e&locale=he&/

"Is my neighborhood safe?" See where the red zones are here: https://imoh.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=20ded58639ff4d47a2e2e36af464c36e&locale=he&/

"What is the traffic light plan?" "When will Ben Gurion be open for passengers?" (Already asked again today.) "Where can I find information on contact tracing?" "Who's in quarantine, where, and what are the rules for that?"
The answers for all of that can be found here: https://govextra.gov.il/ministry-of-health/corona/corona-virus-en/

 And finally information in English can be found here: https://www.oref.org.il/en

You could make it easy for people to answer their own questions once and for all with one pinned post at the top of the page, but what would I know? I'm only a former consumer columnist from the Jerusalem Post.

Looking for photo references, and then I remembered I had this...

Sorry for the rambling. I'm considering making a graphic novel with stories from my mom's, my grandmother's, and my great-grandmother's lives, and I realized I had a very special resource for photo references. This is a volume from 1947-1948 of the newspaper my grandfather published in Jerusalem. The modern State of Israel was born in 1948, when my mother was 12 years old.

I get nervous in front of the camera, hence the rambling.

Facebook video of the newspaper my grandfather edited in 1948, the year Israel became a modern state.

Disney Pixar's Soul: a review

Saw Soul, and while I like all Pixar movies, this one is at the bottom three of the list for me. 

Pluses: it's so beautiful, especially in 3D, and Tina Fey is hilarious. I liked Moonwind and the Jerrys, too, and their interactions with Terry were fun. I also really liked 22 and could understand what she was going through. Heck, I'm at a loss as to why she wasn't the main character. I would have loved to see her story from the start.

Negatives: I couldn't relate to Joe or his selfish quest, which I'm just now realizing is an issue I have with the main character of another Pixar movie, Cars. In addition, for a movie centered around music, it's weird that I can't remember a single piece of music from it. I recognize the music from Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Cars, and Brave, so I know Pixar can do better in this regard. 

Don't get my wrong, it's still a good movie. It's just not as good as it could have been.

Who Decides What We "Can't" Do?

When someone says women "can't" or "shouldn't" - or that boys "can't" or "shouldn't" because "that's for girls" - I always remember these photos. 

That's Katherine Switzer, the first woman to run in the Boston Marathon. She had to hide in the bushes near the starting line so no one would stop her before she even started, and when a race official noticed that a woman was running in the marathon, he physically assaulted her. 

Katherine Switzer in this photo is every woman who was prevented from doing what she was fully capable of doing, because a man said she couldn't. 

She's me when an agent implied (repeatedly) that he was ready to take me on as a client until he discovered I wasn't a man. She's every female author whose chances of publication went down 70% because her name was Katherine or Sarah or Joanne, instead of JK. Sadly, she's every woman at some point in her life.

Because it's not that a woman "can't." It's that there are men who believe it's their right to choose what women - and therefore girls and even boys - are allowed to do. 

What makes matters worse is that too many women buy into this. Who says women can't be political leaders? Who says girls can't study engineering? Who says boys can't enjoy dancing? Who says there are "boy books" and "girl books," and boys aren't allowed to read "girl books?" Who says, and what gives them the right?

I think a lot of what we've seen since 2016 comes down to these men not wanting to give up the right to decide who gets to do what, a right they never deserved and never should have had. I hope things will change starting in 2021, because it has to. 

It has to.

https://kathrineswitzer.com/2018/10/how-the-worst-moment-of-her-life-revolutionized-womens-running/

"Do you have graphic novel recommendations for a precocious five-year-old girl?"

A mom asked me for graphic novel recommendations for her young daughter who likes Calvin and Hobbes, and Avatar: The Last Airbender graphic novels. 

Here's my answer:

Avatar graphic novels are great, and so is Calvin and Hobbes. 

Based on those, I recommend Squirrel Girl, Marvel Rising (it's a very young version of Marvel comics focused mainly on Ms. Marvel and Squirrel Girl), Diana: Princess of the Amazons, Baby Blues, Lightfall: The Girl and the Galdurian (unfortunately, only the first book is out and it ends on a bit of a cliffhanger), Phoebe and Her Unicorn, Mutts, maybe The Prince and the Dressmaker, maybe The Deep & Dark Blue, maybe Bone, Zatanna and the House of Secrets, Amulet, El Deafo, and maybe All's Faire in Middle School (the last two are realistic). 

There's a bunch of other semi-autobiographical graphic novels for kids, but I'm not sure if she'd like them because they're not fantasy, but they include Sisters, Smile, Guts, and Stargazing. 

Doodleville is very popular with little kids, and it's very cute, so I'll add that, though it didn't really appeal to me. 

And I once attended a library panel about graphic novels for kids where the librarians said kids couldn't get enough of Lumberjanes. It's great, but it's the same creator as She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, so use that as a guide to whether it's a good fit for your daughter. 

And Zita the Spacegirl. 

Hope that's not too many. I just love graphic novels. 😁

EDIT: Someone else asked for comics for a five-year-old girl, and while I directed him to this post (and to ask the comic-book store for their kids section), I realized I left out a bunch of comics from this post. 

I didn't mention Power Pack, My Little Pony, Teen Titans Go, and a bunch of other comics. If she has a favorite cartoon, there's probably a comic book for that. Ryan North has done a bunch of kid friendly Adventure Time comics, and both Ryan North and Chip Zdarsky have written kid friendly Jughead comics. There are loads of comics for little kids. You just need to know who to ask. 

A good children's library section will also have loads of graphic novels. Just ask the children's librarian for recommendations.

EDIT: I would also add the Witch Boy series by Molly Knox Ostertag to this list. It's wonderful.

The Okay Witch is also great, but it might be better for slightly older kids. Parents should read it before deciding if their kids are ready for it. (There's a bit of a Romeo and Juliet situation with the main character's parents. It doesn't end in death, but some kids might still not be ready for it.)

Facebook scams

Facebook is full of scam stores like this one:

What makes me think this is a scam?

A reverse image search with TinEye shows the image of the coat on the left was taken from NoraCora.com. See? It's the exact same image. 

It's from last year, so Nora Cora isn't selling it anymore, but Nora Cora does have clothes with the same cool vibe.

This is what scams like this do: they steal images from legit online stores, collect money from customers, close and then reopen under a different name to start the scam all over again. 

It's best to treat every store that you don't know that advertises on Facebook as a scam. Sad that this is the case, but it is. Better safe than sorry.

 

What Are the Best Graphic Novels for Kids and Teens?

“Can you recommend a good graphic novel for my son/daughter who is [so many] years old?” 

I’ve heard this question a lot, and I’ve been pondering the answer a long, long time. My main problem is that there are just so many great books out there for kids! How do you choose?

Well, I do have one easy answer, and it's The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl by Ryan North and Erica Henderson. Squirrel Girl eats nuts and kicks butts and is just the best superhero there is, hands and paws down. 

I don’t care how old your child is, what their gender is, or even if you have a kid. Squirrel Girl is just the best comic-book/graphic-novel series there ever was.   

So I'm just going to tell you why the Unbeatable Squirrel Girl is the graphic novel series you should get your kids (and yourself), and then I'm going to follow it with a long, though incomplete list of some great graphic novels for kids and teens.

A bit about me: I’m a mom, a life-long lover of comics, a former comics magazine editor, editorial cartoonist, consumer columnist and arts-and-entertainment writer, and I have degrees in English Literature and Theater Studies, as well as a teacher’s certificate. I have no personal connection to any of the graphic novels mentioned here other than having read them.   

So let’s get to it.  

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl 

By Ryan North and Erica Henderson 

Recommended age group: All of them  

As the name implies, this is the story of a girl with squirrel powers. She has a powerful tail, agility, proportional squirrel strength (including in her bite), and she can talk to squirrels. 

That's not what makes her my favorite superhero. 

Squirrel Girl defeats her enemies by turning them into her friends. How? She talks to them and finds out why they are behaving badly. Then she offers them a less destructive alternative.

One teacher I introduced Squirrel Girl to said, “Oh, she’s a superhero psychologist!” Well, she’s actually a computer science student, but yeah. She helps villains become better people. How is that not the best superhero ever?  

Here she is making friends with Galactus, who before meeting Squirrel Girl was the "Devourer of Worlds." She convinced him to eat nuts instead, thus saving planet Earth, as well as countless other planets. How cool is that?

But it’s more than that, of course. Squirrel Girl also introduces readers to some math concepts and computer science. I’m not kidding! Here she is teaching how binary can let you count up to 31 on one hand. 

And speaking of kidding, did you notice the footnote above? Ryan North includes hilarious footnotes on most pages of Squirrel Girl, as well as many of the other comic books he writes. It goes above and beyond what you get with any other comic book (or at least any other comic book that wasn’t written by Ryan North).  

And let’s not forget Erica Henderson’s artwork, which perfectly complements the writing. 

Henderson makes every character unique, and I have to love that so many different faces and body types are represented. Squirrel Girl herself has thick thighs, like me. The body positivity is just wonderful. 

Derek Charm replaced Henderson toward the end of the series, and while Charm’s work is dynamic, I really missed Henderson’s artwork. She brought these characters to life and made them real for me. No other artist who's drawn Squirrel Girl had done it so well.

An A+ just isn’t a high enough grade for the Unbeatable Squirrel Girl. This series can be enjoyed by every member of the family and deserves an A++.  

Shannon and Dean Hale’s novels about Squirrel Girl’s early adventures are also very highly recommended for middle-graders and advanced younger readers, as are Ryan North's Power Pack, Jugheah, and Adventure Time graphic novels. His choose-your-own-adventure books, Romeo and/or Juliet and To Be or Not to Be, as well as his nonfiction book How to Invent Everything are recommended for teens, adults and more advanced middle-grade readers.

I just can't recommend The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl written by Ryan North and illustrated Erica Henderson highly enough. 

But wait, as they like to say in infomercials, there's more!

A Partial List of Other Recommended Graphic Novels for Kids and Teens

OZ: The Complete Collection adapted by Eric Shanower, art by Skottie Young  (7+ for some tense situations)

Bone by Jeff Smith (7+ for some tense situations and bad behavior)

The Ballad of YaYa by Patrick Marty (10+ for very tense situations. This series deals realistically with war from a child's perspective.)

The Okay Witch by Emma Steinkellner (7+ for some tense situations)

Giant Days by John Allison (older YA for adult situations) 

Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass by Mariko Tamaki, art by Steve Pugh (10+ for tense situations and bad behavior)

Zatanna and the House of Secrets by Matthew Cody, art by Yoshi Yoshitani (grades 1-4)

The Backstagers by James Tynion IV (7+ for some tense situations and mild, not graphic romance)

Lumberjanes by Shannon Watters, Grace Ellis, Brooklyn A. Allen and Noelle Stevenson, who created the new She-Rah and the Princesses of Power (7+ for some tense situations and mild, not graphic romance)

Space Boy by Stephen McCranie (10+ for tense situations and peril, some implied violence, and teen romance)

Enola Holmes by Séréna Blasco, originally published in France, based on the novels by Nancy Springer that inspired the Netflix series starring Emma Watson (10+ for tense situations, bad behavior, and implied violence)

Brave, Awkward and Crush by Svetlana Chmakova (10+ for middle-grade subject matter, such as first crushes, school gossip, and bullying. Particularly recommended for school libraries)

Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson (7+)

The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang (10+)

Stargazing by Jen Wang (7+ this book involves a tense situation with a child who has a serious medical issue)

The Deep & Dark Blue by Niki Smith (7+) 

Jughead by Chip Zdarsky, illustrated by Erica Henderson, and Jughead by Ryan North and illustrated by Derek Charm (ALL ages. I learned to read with Archie Comics, and these are Archie Comics written by North and Zdarsky. Nuff said.)

Adventure Time by Ryan North (ALL ages with some mild tension)

Amulet by Kazu Kibuishi (7+ Super easy to read but high in tension, perfect for middle-grade reluctant readers) 

Avatar: The Last Airbender, based on the animated series from Nickelodeon (7+ High in tension and peril, some violence, though nothing graphic, some romance but nothing shown beyond kissing) 

Sisters, Smile, and Guts by Raina Telgemeier (all ages, although Sisters deals realistically with sibling rivalry and Guts deals realistically with a health issue, particularly recommended for school libraries)

El Deafo by Cece Bell (all ages, autobiographical, deals with growing up with hearing loss)

Lightfall: The Girl and the Galdurian (7+ for some tense situations) 

Diana: Princesss of the Amazons by Shannon and Dean Hale, illustrated by Victoria Ying (grades 1-4, easy to read, some tension, peril, and naughty behavior)

More: The Unstoppable Wasp, Spider-Man (by Brian Michael Bendis), Ironheart, Supergirl: Being Super, All-New Wolverine, Marvel’s Runaways, Ms. Marvel by G. Willow Wilson

 

Why do I like Marvel movies and not DC movies?

Someone recently asked this on a fandom group on Facebook, and here's my answer: 

The difference between Marvel and DC started in the comics and only got bigger in the movies and it's this: Marvel involves "real" people in the real world; DC doesn't. 

Superman used to pick up whole buildings; meanwhile, Spider-Man had a building collapse on top of him, exposing wiring and bursting pipes -- because in the real world you just can't pick up a building without it falling apart! 

Superman is a superpowered alien. Batman is a rich guy who can build any tech he wants. (Sure, Tony Stark has that too, but he mostly builds tech to get rich and improve his life, not to live out a revenge fantasy. Tony Stark is like Elon Musk but more...realistic?) 

The Fantastic Four are a family, like most families. Does the DC universe have a real family that acts like a family? I don't know.

Marvel's mutants represent intolerance toward minorities.

While both Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel represent powerful women, most of us didn't grow up on an island of goddesses. Captain Marvel, on the other hand, grew up with an abusive dad, and she learned to get back up every time she was knocked down. It's easier to relate to Carol than Diana. Most of us women could be Carol. None of us could be, well, a goddess. 

Thor is different, but his relationships with Loki and Jane humanize him. Heck, in his first independent movie, he was, in fact, reduced to a human. Way to be too on the nose, Marvel. 

Keep in mind that Marvel movies that weren't controlled by Kevin Feige were created by people who didn't get what made people love Marvel, which is why they got it so wrong almost every time. MCU movies, though, they absolutely get it. Make it real and relatable, and audiences will love it. 'Nuff said. 

Now Zack Snyder understands some of what makes DC comics great, but he's very one note. He only knows how to paint in one color, and it's the darkest color there is. That's not the real world, and there's only so much of it audiences can take. 

I did like Wonder Woman, though. (No Zack Snyder, thank goodness.) And Birds of Prey, which made one very significant change but otherwise remained true to the silly mayhem that is Harley Quinn in the comics. And I liked the Deadpool movies that Feige didn't work on, although Ryan Reynolds is such a huge Deadpool dork there's no way he would have changed a thing. 

But I digress. 

Marvel is great, because it's relatable. DC's heroes are larger than life, and that can make them less relatable. It works for some audiences, but it doesn't work for you or me.

I found this online, and I'm pretty sure it's not a real movie poster. Kudos to whoever made it. It's very well done.

Wolfwalkers

I highly, HIGHLY recommend Wolfwalkers, which is available on Apple TV. It's by far the best animated movie of 2020. You don't have to believe me: it has a 98% freshness rating on RottenTomatoes among critics and a 100% freshness rating with audiences. Even if you can't see it, I hope you'll at least check out this clip. I just want to hear "Running with the Wolves" from

Wolfwalkers over and over. It's so beautiful.

Why the finale of How I Met Your Mother was perfect (spoilers)

 For anyone who thinks the finale of How I Met Your Mother came out of nowhere, I don't think you and I were watching the same series. 

There were at least a hundred hints that that's where they were heading. 

Ted starts with the story of how he met Robin, not the mom. Why? Because this isn't a story about the mom. It's about Robin. 

Ted talks to his kids about meeting the mom, but the mom isn't there. Why? Because she's no longer there to tell her side of the story. 

The kids are enrapt by this very long story no kids want to hear about their parents. Why? Because the only way they can know their mom is through their dad's long boring stories. 

The mom's story starts with her talking to the spirit of her late boyfriend, asking him if it's okay to get married to someone else. Why? Because that's what Ted is doing, asking the spirit of his wife through their kids if it's okay to date (and probably marry) Robin. 

Heck, Ted and the mom look sadly at each other when one of them says, "What kind of mom would miss her own daughter's wedding?" because they both know she's not going to live long enough to see their daughter get married. 

And there are like a hundred other clues. 

You clearly weren't watching the same show I was if you thought it was going to end any other way.