Just Dads Reading Books is about judging your children for what they read. E.J. Sanders and Matt Martens investigate children&#39;s books and young adult novels so you don&#39;t have to. We&#39;ll never tell kids they can&#39;t read something, but we will try to make them feel cool for reading the good stuff.

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It&#39;s taken us a while, but we&#39;ve finally finished our journey with Nnedi Okorafor! The series hasn&#39;t been concluded, but the most recent entry in the adventures of Sunny Nwazue, Akata Woman, was released 2022 and we&#39;ll wait as long as we must for whatever comes next. And with this entry, there&#39;s a lot of growing up to do!

Akata Woman

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We disappeared there for a little bit, but the Dads are back on track. What better way to bring this show back into the world than with our favorite thing: Avatar! We&#39;re nearing the end of our main arc of the Avatar graphic novels, so let&#39;s see how our latest entry compares to the rest of the series.If you want to chat with us and recommend books or tell us your reaction to book we&#39;ve covered on the show, please email us at justdadsreadingbooks@gmail.comMusic by Russian Baths: <a href="https://open.spotify.com/artist/07N9Lr8AIzUbDzjPXUXTLr?si=vegRwDLXSF-IpupxjuEPJQ" rel="nofollow">https://open.spotify.com/artist/07N9Lr8AIzUbDzjPXUXTLr?si=vegRwDLXSF-IpupxjuEPJQ</a>

Avatar: The Last Airbender - Smoke and Shadow

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We missed last week due to a horrible move across country for Matt leaving him computerless for more time than he expected! But it was all worth the wait because we finally get to talk about the follow up to Nnedi Okorafor&#39;s Akata Witch!If you want to chat with us and recommend books or tell us your reaction to book we&#39;ve covered on the show, please email us at justdadsreadingbooks@gmail.comMusic by Russian Baths: <a href="https://open.spotify.com/artist/07N9Lr8AIzUbDzjPXUXTLr?si=vegRwDLXSF-IpupxjuEPJQ" rel="nofollow">https://open.spotify.com/artist/07N9Lr8AIzUbDzjPXUXTLr?si=vegRwDLXSF-IpupxjuEPJQ</a>

Akata Warrior

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Read books with your kids. It&#39;s fun. But boy is it so much easier and more fun when you have books like Mother Bruce by Ryan T. Higgins. Illustrations that evoke so much emotion, humor that actually works for all ages, and stories that are FUN to read. We&#39;ve got a new favorite author/illustrator, folks...If you want to chat with us and recommend books or tell us your reaction to book we&#39;ve covered on the show, please email us at justdadsreadingbooks@gmail.comMusic by Russian Baths: <a href="https://open.spotify.com/artist/07N9Lr8AIzUbDzjPXUXTLr?si=vegRwDLXSF-IpupxjuEPJQ" rel="nofollow">https://open.spotify.com/artist/07N9Lr8AIzUbDzjPXUXTLr?si=vegRwDLXSF-IpupxjuEPJQ</a>

Mother Bruce

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Quick! More Avatar while no one is looking! This is a quick look at a shorter Avatar comic, but also we finally get to start talking about the new live action Avatar series. We&#39;ve only watched a couple of episodes, and we&#39;ll be slowly watching over the next few Avatar comic episodes, so join us for the ride!If you want to chat with us and recommend books or tell us your reaction to book we&#39;ve covered on the show, please email us at justdadsreadingbooks@gmail.comMusic by Russian Baths: <a href="https://open.spotify.com/artist/07N9Lr8AIzUbDzjPXUXTLr?si=vegRwDLXSF-IpupxjuEPJQ" rel="nofollow">https://open.spotify.com/artist/07N9Lr8AIzUbDzjPXUXTLr?si=vegRwDLXSF-IpupxjuEPJQ</a>

Avatar: The Last Airbender - Toph Beifong's Metalbending Academy

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One more! We&#39;re still putting off our Akata Warrior episode but we got our hands on the next set of Avatar graphic novels! This one is perhaps a less impressive entry than the first two, but honestly how is one supposed to compete with those in the first place? If anything, we get a nice filler episode that feels in line with the tone of the show itself!If you want to chat with us and recommend books or tell us your reaction to book we&#39;ve covered on the show, please email us at justdadsreadingbooks@gmail.comMusic by Russian Baths: <a href="https://open.spotify.com/artist/07N9Lr8AIzUbDzjPXUXTLr?si=vegRwDLXSF-IpupxjuEPJQ" rel="nofollow">https://open.spotify.com/artist/07N9Lr8AIzUbDzjPXUXTLr?si=vegRwDLXSF-IpupxjuEPJQ</a>

Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Rift

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Picture books! We&#39;re delaying out Akata Warrior episode a little bit and in the meantime we read a bunch of Olivia books by Ian Falconer. They&#39;re a pleasant little look at a precocious little pig and it&#39;s hard to say whether the titles of the books are ever even relevant to the story in the books...If you want to chat with us and recommend books or tell us your reaction to book we&#39;ve covered on the show, please email us at justdadsreadingbooks@gmail.comMusic by Russian Baths: <a href="https://open.spotify.com/artist/07N9Lr8AIzUbDzjPXUXTLr?si=vegRwDLXSF-IpupxjuEPJQ" rel="nofollow">https://open.spotify.com/artist/07N9Lr8AIzUbDzjPXUXTLr?si=vegRwDLXSF-IpupxjuEPJQ</a>

Olivia

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We&#39;re back on that Avatar grind and galdarnit, they just keep bringing the hits. I&#39;m actually not sure at this point why we didn&#39;t just start an Avatar podcast but it&#39;s beginning to feel like one!If you want to chat with us and recommend books or tell us your reaction to book we&#39;ve covered on the show, please email us at justdadsreadingbooks@gmail.comMusic by Russian Baths: <a href="https://open.spotify.com/artist/07N9Lr8AIzUbDzjPXUXTLr?si=vegRwDLXSF-IpupxjuEPJQ" rel="nofollow">https://open.spotify.com/artist/07N9Lr8AIzUbDzjPXUXTLr?si=vegRwDLXSF-IpupxjuEPJQ</a>

Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Search

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We&#39;re coming full circle on our list of Caldecott winners of the last decade. Matthew Cordell is one of the last ones on our list and we&#39;ve been excited to read more by him since we read Wolf in the Snow over the holidays. He&#39;s a beautiful illustrator that tells a wide range of stories! Is he our favorite?! I don&#39;t know!If you want to chat with us and recommend books or tell us your reaction to book we&#39;ve covered on the show, please email us at justdadsreadingbooks@gmail.comMusic by Russian Baths: <a href="https://open.spotify.com/artist/07N9Lr8AIzUbDzjPXUXTLr?si=vegRwDLXSF-IpupxjuEPJQ" rel="nofollow">https://open.spotify.com/artist/07N9Lr8AIzUbDzjPXUXTLr?si=vegRwDLXSF-IpupxjuEPJQ</a>

Matthew Cordell

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New series time! We put Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor on our list when we started the show and it took us entirely too long to finally get around to reading it. And spoiler alert, it&#39;s so good we&#39;re absolutely reading the entire trilogy as fast as possible.If you want to chat with us and recommend books or tell us your reaction to book we&#39;ve covered on the show, please email us at justdadsreadingbooks@gmail.comMusic by Russian Baths: <a href="https://open.spotify.com/artist/07N9Lr8AIzUbDzjPXUXTLr?si=vegRwDLXSF-IpupxjuEPJQ" rel="nofollow">https://open.spotify.com/artist/07N9Lr8AIzUbDzjPXUXTLr?si=vegRwDLXSF-IpupxjuEPJQ</a>

Akata Witch

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We&#39;ve watch the show and we&#39;ve read the novels, but there&#39;s a huge swath of Avatar the Last Airbender universe we have left untapped, The Graphic Novels. We definitely didn&#39;t know what to expect but we should have higher hopes as Avatar never seems to disappoint. But when we started this series, we both started to wonder if this was the skippable bit of Avatar material and boy were we off base. Some truly stellar work is being done in these comics and we&#39;re not putting them down anytime soon.If you want to chat with us and recommend books or tell us your reaction to book we&#39;ve covered on the show, please email us at justdadsreadingbooks@gmail.comMusic by Russian Baths: <a href="https://open.spotify.com/artist/07N9Lr8AIzUbDzjPXUXTLr?si=vegRwDLXSF-IpupxjuEPJQ" rel="nofollow">https://open.spotify.com/artist/07N9Lr8AIzUbDzjPXUXTLr?si=vegRwDLXSF-IpupxjuEPJQ</a>

Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Promise

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We&#39;re catching up on a couple of recent Caldecott stragglers. Doug Salati is an illustrator who has worked with a number of different writers and the picture book he wrote himself, Hot Dog, won the 2023 Caldecott and boy do we agree with the committee on this one. Doug&#39;s work transports you to such specific, kind, casual worlds and we&#39;d rather not leave.If you want to chat with us and recommend books or tell us your reaction to book we&#39;ve covered on the show, please email us at justdadsreadingbooks@gmail.comMusic by Russian Baths: <a href="https://open.spotify.com/artist/07N9Lr8AIzUbDzjPXUXTLr?si=vegRwDLXSF-IpupxjuEPJQ" rel="nofollow">https://open.spotify.com/artist/07N9Lr8AIzUbDzjPXUXTLr?si=vegRwDLXSF-IpupxjuEPJQ</a>

Doug Salati

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We&#39;re back in Carlos Hernandez&#39;s wonderful Sal and Gabi universe which is actually infinite number of universes with infinite Sals and infinite Gabis and we must assume infinite EJs and Matts as well. The first book was a surprise hit for us and we want to see if the series can keep up the pace!If you want to chat with us and recommend books or tell us your reaction to book we&#39;ve covered on the show, please email us at justdadsreadingbooks@gmail.comMusic by Russian Baths: <a href="https://open.spotify.com/artist/07N9Lr8AIzUbDzjPXUXTLr?si=vegRwDLXSF-IpupxjuEPJQ" rel="nofollow">https://open.spotify.com/artist/07N9Lr8AIzUbDzjPXUXTLr?si=vegRwDLXSF-IpupxjuEPJQ</a>

Sal and Gabi Fix the Universe

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New Year and that means it&#39;s time to make a change! And we&#39;ve got a great idea for everyone: read When the World Runs Dry by Nancy Castaldo and then go get your representatives to take the water crisis more seriously! Thank goodness young adult books like this exist so that hopefully future generations can do a little bit better than the ones before them...If you want to chat with us and recommend books or tell us your reaction to book we&#39;ve covered on the show, please email us at justdadsreadingbooks@gmail.comMusic by Russian Baths: <a href="https://open.spotify.com/artist/07N9Lr8AIzUbDzjPXUXTLr?si=vegRwDLXSF-IpupxjuEPJQ" rel="nofollow">https://open.spotify.com/artist/07N9Lr8AIzUbDzjPXUXTLr?si=vegRwDLXSF-IpupxjuEPJQ</a>

When the World Runs Dry

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Today, Matt and EJ are the odd couple. Matt loves holidays, and EJ apparently holds no love in his heart for them. Can Matt convince EJ that this is a fun time of year through the power of picture books?If you want to chat with us and recommend books or tell us your reaction to book we&#39;ve covered on the show, please email us at justdadsreadingbooks@gmail.comMusic by Russian Baths: <a href="https://open.spotify.com/artist/07N9Lr8AIzUbDzjPXUXTLr?si=vegRwDLXSF-IpupxjuEPJQ" rel="nofollow">https://open.spotify.com/artist/07N9Lr8AIzUbDzjPXUXTLr?si=vegRwDLXSF-IpupxjuEPJQ</a>

Holiday Books!

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This guy has a lot of books! We recently discussed his series Elephant and Piggie, and we want to eventually cover the Pigeon books in depth, but today we&#39;re going to cover the grab bag of his other works!If you want to chat with us and recommend books or tell us your reaction to book we&#39;ve covered on the show, please email us at justdadsreadingbooks@gmail.comMusic by Russian Baths: <a href="https://open.spotify.com/artist/07N9Lr8AIzUbDzjPXUXTLr?si=vegRwDLXSF-IpupxjuEPJQ" rel="nofollow">https://open.spotify.com/artist/07N9Lr8AIzUbDzjPXUXTLr?si=vegRwDLXSF-IpupxjuEPJQ</a>

More Mo Willems

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We&#39;re celebrating 50 episodes and taking it as an opportunity to just smile for over 40 minutes. We get to talk about Bill Watterson&#39;s legendary run of the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip. One of the most influential comic strips ever made, Calvin and Hobbes has an evergreen appeal that we just hope new generations aren&#39;t going to miss it. Please give your kids Calvin and Hobbes books. You will fundamentally improve their lives...If you want to chat with us and recommend books or tell us your reaction to book we&#39;ve covered on the show, please email us at justdadsreadingbooks@gmail.comMusic by Russian Baths: <a href="https://open.spotify.com/artist/07N9Lr8AIzUbDzjPXUXTLr?si=vegRwDLXSF-IpupxjuEPJQ" rel="nofollow">https://open.spotify.com/artist/07N9Lr8AIzUbDzjPXUXTLr?si=vegRwDLXSF-IpupxjuEPJQ</a>

Calvin and Hobbes

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We&#39;re a bit late to be doing something spooky, but Coraline by Neil Gaiman is an all-timer so it seemed fine to talk about in December! And we didn&#39;t just read this book. This time we have fully consumed Coraline in nearly every medium it has ever appeared. Come listen to a discussion about the differences between the book, audiobook, graphic novel, and movie!If you want to chat with us and recommend books or tell us your reaction to book we&#39;ve covered on the show, please email us at justdadsreadingbooks@gmail.comMusic by Russian Baths: <a href="https://open.spotify.com/artist/07N9Lr8AIzUbDzjPXUXTLr?si=vegRwDLXSF-IpupxjuEPJQ" rel="nofollow">https://open.spotify.com/artist/07N9Lr8AIzUbDzjPXUXTLr?si=vegRwDLXSF-IpupxjuEPJQ</a>

Coraline

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It&#39;s our first foray into Mo Willems! He&#39;s won more awards than almost any illustrator and he has multiple best selling series. We&#39;ll get to more of them eventually, but we wanted to start with the Elephant and Piggie series because both of our kids immediately gravitated towards these books and we couldn&#39;t stop reading them!If you want to chat with us and recommend books or tell us your reaction to book we&#39;ve covered on the show, please email us at justdadsreadingbooks@gmail.comMusic by Russian Baths: <a href="https://open.spotify.com/artist/07N9Lr8AIzUbDzjPXUXTLr?si=vegRwDLXSF-IpupxjuEPJQ" rel="nofollow">https://open.spotify.com/artist/07N9Lr8AIzUbDzjPXUXTLr?si=vegRwDLXSF-IpupxjuEPJQ</a>

Elephant and Piggie

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We&#39;ve caught up to the last of F.C. Yee&#39;s books set in the Avatar: The Last Airbender universe and guess what? We still love it and him. Honestly at this point this books can&#39;t really fail either of us, so prepare your ears to listen to two joyful dads.If you want to chat with us and recommend books or tell us your reaction to book we&#39;ve covered on the show, please email us at justdadsreadingbooks@gmail.comMusic by Russian Baths: <a href="https://open.spotify.com/artist/07N9Lr8AIzUbDzjPXUXTLr?si=vegRwDLXSF-IpupxjuEPJQ" rel="nofollow">https://open.spotify.com/artist/07N9Lr8AIzUbDzjPXUXTLr?si=vegRwDLXSF-IpupxjuEPJQ</a>

Legacy of Yangchen (Avatar: The Last Airbender 4)

Just Dads Reading Books is about judging your children for what they read. E.J. Sanders and Matt Martens investigate children's books and young adult novels so you don't have to. We'll never tell kids they can't read something, but we will try to make them feel cool for reading the good stuff.