This month the giggle book award goes to a story about James, a little boy who wants to be a superhero. He is blessed with an active imagination and an impressive array of highly resourceful talents. The combination gets him into quite a bit of trouble. Therefore, the first half of the book illustrated him doing things that are both destructive and potentially dangerous.

Normally, this fact would result in posting a quote with a gentle warning. However, the second half of the story provides an important twist: Action Movie Kid (AKA: James) gets himself into real trouble. He doesn’t just incur the wrath of his parents, he has to scream for help.

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Mom and dad come running and get him out of trouble – by transforming into Action Movie Mom and Action Movie Dad! Together, as a family, they rescue James from a dangerous situation, defeat the (imaginary) monster and clean up the (very real) mess.

The best part about this ending is the combination of text and images provide an implied solution that does not involve complete forgiveness. It’s more akin to parents taking the opportunity to use the situation as a learning experience.

The children in my life really love the moment when mom and dad come to the rescue. Honestly, I think that one cliffhanger is the reason why this book has been requested many times over.

Also, I should point out that Action Movie Kid entered my home as a book. It wasn’t until I sat down to write this post that I discovered the Action Movie Kid you tube channel. I started viewing the videos and immediately had a child sitting in my lap saying “watch that one next!”

The book and the videos are both a lot of fun. I encourage anyone or any age to check them out!

Quote:

“With teamwork, they put that bad guy right where he belonged, along with everything else. With the enemy defeated, the world could now rest easy – and so could our hero.”

Action Movie Kid, written by Daniel Hashimoto and Mandy Richardville, and illustrated by Valerio Fabbretti