Oh my gosh, it’s AWESOME.  Seriously, it inspires rapt attention, giggles and squeals, whacking the book repeatedly when we reach the end so we can read it again, and a tiny tragic meltdown when it’s taken away after the fourth read-through.  And Jonah quite likes it, too! 

Ha ha ha!  But seriously, it’s completely adorable how much he loves it.  I love it because it’s fun to sing, and also, hilariously, for no particular reason, one of the monsters wears glasses.  Take a closer look at that cover image; you can see them on the green monster.  I LOVE that!  All Sandra Boynton had to do was add a couple of lines to his eyeballs to turn them into glasses, but speaking as someone who has worn glasses non-stop since seventh grade (contacts never agreed with me), I think it’s the coolest thing!  A monster in glasses!  Yay!

In other important news, my friends at Wands and Worlds know that I (like everyone else in the world) love the Old Spice Guy:

I thought that commercial was the best thing ever…but then I SAW THIS.  And it is most definitely THE VERY BEST THING EVER:

I think some of the new fall shows could use more monsters, or at least more surprises.  I’ve now watched the first two episodes of No Ordinary Family and Undercovers and they’re kind of, weirdly…boring.  Maybe it’s that the stakes aren’t very compelling, which is something to think about, if you’re a writer.  How do you get your audience to care about what’s happening?  So the spark has faded from this couple’s marriage…why do I care?  And then they go back to being spies, and problem solved in episode one!  Now they find each other hot again!  Yay?  I think the banter is often cute, but I hope there’s something more exciting driving the action soon (most likely something from their secretive past, which has potential). 

Of course, it’s always tough to start with a married couple, because the romance has kind of reached its apogee already.  You don’t want to see them cheating on each other, but then you’re left with no romantic tension.  Joss Whedon gave us a great married couple in Zoe and Wash on Firefly, but there were other romances around to interest those of us who like that sort of thing, and so far (in the first two episodes, at least) there’s nothing like that on Undercovers.

As for No Ordinary Family, their problem is that the family doesn’t spend enough time together, so they’re feeling disconnected from each other.  Yawn.  Maybe it could work if the characters weren’t generic types (father in midlife crisis, mother who’s overworked and too busy, whiny teenage daughter (my least favorite stereotype), boring teenage son).  Plus stopping bank robbers seems also very cliche for a superhero story.  By far the best part of the show is the two sidekicks – I love Autumn Reeser, who should totally have her own show.  And something a little surprising happened in the last five minutes of episode two, so I’ll keep watching for now. 

But I hope they both get more thrilling soon!  Like Nikita, which is wildly ridiculous and somewhat amazing and quite my favorite new show of the fall, not that she has much competition.  :-)  There the stakes are life and death – stopping bad guys from abusing their power – rescuing a bunch of teens who are training to be assassins and don’t even know it – in Alex’s case, avenging her parents’ murder (I assume) – saving the world, basically.  It’s fun, is the real difference; I don’t think it takes itself too seriously, unlike a lot of other shows I could mention.

Hope you’re all staying warm and dry!  🙂