⸘John‽ @john@dads.cool

Drama in the show tends to surround wholesome but otherwise low-stakes questions like, "Will he get too distracted playing with that stick and forget what he was supposed to do?"

There was a kid you just had to feel terrible for. He was carrying like 4x what his parents had planned for him, up a steep hill. He kept dropping things that would roll way back down the hill, like baby Sisyphus.

In this episode the dad is an immigrant from NZ, which is an interesting change of pace.

"Old Enough" is kind of a fun show from time-to-time, and safe to watch with a variety of ages in the room.

It's a Japanese reality show where parents send their young kids on a canned errand to see how self-sufficient they can be.

It's produced by Nippon TV, so... very, very Japanese. But it's fun, and kids' adventures in learning everyday tasks is pretty universal.

Did a simple web search for good Thanksgiving movies.

Pretty satisfied with the conclusion: Planes, Trains & Automobiles

Younger kiddo got tired of waiting for the "pumpkin" from her garden to ripen and decided to open it up to get seeds for replanting.

"Did you plant watermelon seeds?"
"...I don't remember!"

Wife-mom tells me that there were, in fact, a wide variety of seeds tossed in there willy-nilly.

Oh and on a lighter note, I love the ridiculous made-up interjections. Zamboozle!

Another thing I always get a good chuckle at, these books' magic school sports (their quiddich, if you will) is kitten ball. The fluxers (the kids with shapeshifting magic) turn into kittens (the standard starter animal) and bat around a ball of yarn, trying to get it up a climbing/scratching post and into a basket. Main line of defense is to step on the string and unspool the yarn. 😁

We also accidentally skipped ahead to book 8 ("Big Night" - Sebastian's book). We're currently reading book 3 ("Show Off" - Pepper's book). Gotta admit I kinda like pepper. She's cool :)

Anyhow, would recommend, especially if your preteen kid feels like they don't quite fit in, and/or that the world around them is too narrow-minded (as Nory's clearly is).

The other kinda heart-breaking, almost too on-the-nose part of the first book is the "Box of Normal". Nory basically figures out that she can be people want her to be, and what she thinks her dad will accept, and that she might get to move home again, if she practices repressing the most powerful and special parts of herself.
And it kind of works, but there's a couple adults who disagree with the philosophy of it.
9/10

... and he basically just doesn't talk to her ever. Apparently hasn't really been able to communicate on hard issues ever since the mom/wife figure died (prior to the start of the first book). It's honestly kind of insane, he's sending her off to live with her aunt and never tells her? Even when the aunt comes to pick her up, he just hides (literally turns invisible) in his office? Kind effed up. We obviously don't know what he's going through in his head, but c'mon the kid needs her dad y'know?

The underlying thesis of all the books is that differences are valuable. That we should be tolerant and empathetic, and also look for ways your uniqueness comes in clutch. There's a lot worse theses kids books can and do push.

Since this is dads.cool I feel the need to mention that Nory's dad is frustratingly bad. One can see what is probably his logic, and that he's trying to do what's best for her and loves her and whatever, but we never hear that from him because we're following Nory...
7/?

... chapters switch off, a chapter with Bax & Nory together, a chapter where we're just following Bax and seeing things from his perspective, and then a chapter with Nory again, etc..
Bax, by the way, is a somewhat macho Indian-American (I believe Hindu, though I admit some ignorance), with a depressed recently-divorced, recently-laid-off dad. And Bax is deeply ashamed of his differences, his talent/curse especially but also his family.
Probably some young reader relates to him.
6/?

... in a way they might not with your kid if they don't happen to match up so closely.

They did try to be inclusive, though. The various members of her class are written fairly well, with fairly realistic but various personalities. And the superficial diversity is there, too. And though in the first book Nory is the unquestionable protagonist, in each subsequent book she shares the limelight with one other member. So for example, in book 2 "Sticks and Stones", that's Bax's book. The...
5/?

And Nory's school is not _THAT_ different from our schools. It sounds a bit more dangerous, particularly with the "flares" not fully in control of their fire magic, but whatever, it's basically a normal school. And their experts come from a named real university (forget the name, something in Maine).

Magic is basically a thinly-veiled allegory. And Nory's special Upside-Down Magic class she got sent to... it's straight-up a special-needs class. The rhetoric People's attitudes and match.
3/?

And from what I've heard the "film" "adaptation" is pretty terrible and bears little resemblance to the book.

However, it's really not Harry Potter. It's not high-fantasy. There's not a lot of world-building. Nory Horace, for all intents and purposes, lives in our world. Except there's a touch of magic. Not hidden - non-magic people are perfectly aware of the magic people and vice versa, e.g. Bax's dad was a normal accountant who just happened to have a weird magical talent he doesn't use.

2/?