The Regular Show: Volume One, Children's Books & Series - Review Article #26

reveurgam (60)in #children • 5 years ago (edited)

In this series of articles, I will give brief reviews of various children's books my son picked out at the library. Yes, I actually read them; well, except for the ones that get on my nerves due to lack of real value. All of the books, at the point, are graphic novels (comics), but they comprise a range of types, from little kids’ books to fables, to folklore, to educational, to biographical, and more, covering many genres (although he's not ready for horror, yet).

I hope you'll find these reviews helpful in choosing books for your children. Remember, read a story each night when your child is young to foster a love of reading. Don’t let them watch TV or play video games in their bedroom as too much screen time (more than about 1-2 hours a day) has been scientifically proven to be bad for the brain development of any person who is not finished growing (i.e. around the age of 25 – think wisdom teeth).

Regular Show (series)

Volume One cover
Regular Show image

My son's score: 2🌠
My score: 1🌠
What's taught: teamwork, minimal consequences, fantastical problem-solving (usually involving violence)

Synopsis: The general theme of these books seems to be that Mordecai and Rigby get into or cause trouble, resulting in massive amounts of trouble and damage, and then have to save themselves and, often, everyone else, too. Most often, Rigby (a raccoon?), the more immature one instigates foolish and selfish behavior and Mordecai (the bluejay) aka Mordo, who is smarter and more mature but has poor willpower, gets goaded or weakens and agrees to Rigby’s childish demands. I have to wonder if the creators of this series use LSD, magic mushrooms or THC-dominant marijuana to induce the hallucinatory-style plots. And the worst thing about it is that, after they’ve finished resolving the problems that they (almost always) created, the consequences range from Benson telling them to clean up the mess, or nothing. I certainly don’t recommend these books because whatever redeeming qualities they may have do NOT sufficiently mitigate the negative aspects. Each book has an art gallery of the various covers of the books, which can take up ¼ - 1/3 of the book’s latter end. I forced myself to read all of them, and I hope you’ll not rot your kids’ brains with them.

Volume One contains 6 stories from different people. I’m not sure of the titles of some of the stories because there’s not always a title listed.
The first one, wherein Rigby and Mordo get into trouble, is typical because they goad Muscle Man until he starts a mosh pit at a very quiet concert in the park. It escalates and an evil demon under the park is awakened by all the negative energy, and they resort to violence to win.

The next section doesn’t seem to have a title but it starts with balancing things on their fingers and then moves to Mordecai’s problem – he needs a haircut. They end up going to a strange barber who uses a robot to give him the “perfect” haircut. The boys are not happy and, in the end, they resort to violence as their solution to the situation.

The next section is prefaced by the black “Short Stories, Bro” page as the stories past this point are all short. The first is set at the amusement park where Rigby won’t get on the roller coaster because he’s afraid of more embarrassing photos. In the end, their solution results in an embarrassing photo of them all. Moral of the story? Not sure.

“Wide Awake” chronicles their effort to stay awake and the Sandman because they want to go to an expo where a star will be available for signatures. They succeed but, in the process, fail. There didn’t seem to be any point to this story, either.

“Sugartown” is about the efforts of all of Rigby’s friends to throw him a secret birthday party, and just how hard that can be.

“Freegans” attacks the problem of food wastage, with the resulting karma paid by the little people called “freegans,” who become a major problem. The problem is resolved with Skips’s assistance. This one actually tries to teach kids not to waste food, although I’m not sure it’ll have any real impact since TINY people don’t exist.

If you appreciate this article, please 🏅upvote/like👍, 🤩resteem/share and share it to Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, LinkedIn and wherever else you can!