Alrightreads: Trek Books Again. You Know, for a Change.

Jordan Hofer, Alpha Charlie

2026 / Audiobook / 108 pages

**

80s Trekkie kids versus a weredog, for some reason. AI use may have extended beyond the cover.

Julia Price, The ABCs of Star Trek TNG

2019 / Ebook / 30 pages

*

Data pens an occasionally random (X is for xenophobe) alphabetical poem, out of character and with similarly uncharacteristic typos. Just let your kids like their own stuff.

Various, Star Trek Graphic Novel Collection: Wolf on the Prowl

1977-86 (collected 2019) / Ecomics / 144 pages

***

More mildly interesting non-canonical oddities from a highly specific time frame.

Alex R. White, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – Revenant

2021 / Audiobook / 304 pages

***

No more interesting than Trill stories usually were, but I was there for the warm fourth-season ambience.

Unknown, McDonald's Star Trek Meal Comics

1979 / Ecomics / 45 pages

*

A few brief scenes almost from the motion picture and mini picture books that almost have a plot to keep kids entertained on the way out of the drive-thru.

Alrightgames: Blorg in the Midwest (DIY)

Blorg in the Midwest (DIY)

2018 / Card game / 1 player

***

Like a narrative twist on SpaceShipped in half the cards (just nine, albeit double-sided), this is a cute little runaround with an appropriately small scale, but as someone who always needs to stretch his Button Shy games with expansions, it's not one I can see myself returning to often. Maybe it would have been better as a Flash game or something.

Alrightgames: Trivial Pursuit – Star Trek Edition

Trivial Pursuit: The Sci-Fi Master Game – Star Trek Edition

1995 / Trivia quiz expansion / 2-6 players

**

We were never a Trivial Pursuit household, and I've remained a virgin despite the weak pressure of charity shop omnipresence, but I ordered this video expansion from a catalogue in my Trekkie youth, which didn't really require the extraneous board and pie/cheese setup, and enthusiastically played along to the dice-rolled multimedia questions with a less enthusiastic brother on Christmas morning before being mercifully called downstairs 12 minutes later and never playing the tape again. Now the video's on YouTube with an accompanying booklet scan on Google Drive, I could test my lapsed knowledge in a sudden death tournament and make it even less far.

Alrightgames: Catan – Siedler solo mode

Catan: Siedler solo mode

2020 / Board game variant rules / 1 player

****

These tight dice-based rules for automated opponent actions and placement will always need the reference keys to hand, but it makes for an authentic simulator that I'd take over playing against a computer, even if solo Catan will never be all that satisfying. I use Catan dice for the trade row to give them something to do.

Alrightgames: One-Shot Dungeon

One-Shot Dungeon

2023 / Solo roleplaying game / 1 player

***

HeroQuest economically boiled down to a pencil, paper and one or more standard dice. It may not be the most immersive and atmospheric dungeon crawl, but its admirable simplicity means it actually gets played occasionally. Prefer a spaceship, haunted house or other interchangeable theme? Just swap the nouns. There's an ideal middle ground between this pragmatic pamphlet and heavy RPG rulebooks that I could make myself if only I could be bothered.

Babyliography CCLVII

Mª Isabel Sánchez Vegara and Rebecca Gibbon, Little People, Big Dreams: Hedy Lamarr

2023 / Library book / 32 pages

**

It's a struggle to find people she'll care about, but this old-timey actress scraped in. She could take or leave the telecommunications innovations.

Ursula Moray Williams, Gobbolino, the Witch's Cat

1942 / Paperback / 240 pages

***

A forced chapter book for bedtimes that she picked over the Dahls, I somehow didn't expect this vintage children's animal fable to be as brutal as it was, but there was a brief respite from the misery after a few chapters to help her sleep comparatively soundly. She probably won't go back to it.

Mio Debnam and Nathalia Takeyama, Collins Big Cat Phonics for Letters and Sounds: Taro and the Stag Beetle

2022 / School book / 24 pages

**

Introducing death, bereavement and /zh/.

Gillian Hibbs, Errol's Garden / Le Jardin D'Errol

2020 / School book / 26 pages

**

A dual language book, she said the French was hard to read. No merde.

A.H. Benjamin and Tim Warnes, It Could Have Been Worse

2000 / School book / 32 pages

**

Yeah, but it could have been better though.

Babyliography CCLVI

Ann M. Martin, Raina Telgemeier and Gale Galligan, The Baby-Sitters Club Super Special: Baby-sitters on Board!

2026 / Paperback / 320 pages

***

I was grateful that this double-sized adventure with the return of classic artists was released just in time for her birthday, so she could open something a bit more special than merely Book 18.

Dana Simpson, Phoebe and Her Unicorn: Galactic Unicorn

Collected 2025 / Paperback / 176 pages

**

After 22 collected editions covering multiple Christmases and other annual events, Phoebe finally turns 10. The race is on.

Liz Miles, Collins Big Cat Phonics for Letters and Sounds: Poles Apart

2020 / School book / 24 pages

***

She was off sick for a couple of days, but these phonics books won't read themselves. Until she discovers ebooks and screen readers anyway.

David Lumsdon and Shiei, My Little Pony: The Manga – A Day in the Life of Equestria, Vol. 2

2020 / Paperback / 120 pages

***

The young reader was gripped by what may be her first time loop tale, but this distinctly rarer sequel was distinctly less funny than the first one, so it's probably not worth the proportional expensive disappointment of the third.

Isabel Thomas, Collins Big Cat Phonics for Letters and Sounds: Reptiles Follow Break Rules

2020 / School book / 24 pages

***

She found one scary and one cute. Long may the non-fiction reprieve continue.

Babyliography CCLV

Hawys Morgan and Ludovic Salle, Collins Big Cat Phonics for Letters and Sounds: The Great Fire of London

2020 / School book / 24 pages

***

She has to read these three times at home (after the school sessions), so I advised she read the sad last chapter three times in a row to spare her feelings the rest of the week.

Javi De Castro, The Spectacular Space Loop

2026 / Library book / 64 pages

***

Making a dual narrative out of optical illusions was a bold move, and a few of the objects don't even look uncannily like upside-down faces.

Mª Isabel Sánchez Vegara and Ana Albero, Little People, Big Dreams: Louis Braille

2025 / Library book / 32 pages

***

She usually picks these out and doesn't bother to read them, but I knew the combo of disability and secret code would hook her.

Jane Bingham, Fiona Chandler and artists, The Usborne Illustrated English Dictionary & Thesaurus

2010 / Paperback / 448 pages

***

Does this dad know how to buy fun birthday presents or what?

Neill Cameron, Donut Squad: Take Over the World!

2025 / Paperback / 208 pages

****

Not as funny as the second book, whether due to the slow burn or repetition getting old in reverse, but the dangerously saccharine Sweetums was a hit and she was inspired to draw her own.

The Smiling Man by Aimee

Another Halloween tale, likely based on relatively tame creepypastas that I still probably shouldn't have shared yet.

The Smiling Man

Once, I was walking in the street. I saw a man smiling at me. I blinked my eyes – he disappeared.

Wait, what just happened? Was I daydreaming? Or was that real?

The next day, I saw the same man every single day, and every time I blinked my eyes every single day, he disappeared.

I thought it was very strange, but I kept ignoring him. One day, after 10 years, that was still popping in my head. I saw him clearly in my eyes. It was just... it didn't make sense to me.

Well, I still went every single day out to the supermarket when I saw him there, smiling, but I tried to think about it again, then I remembered about the details. At the beginning, he wasn't looking at me, but left, away. But every time, he went a bit closer to me. This time, at the supermarket, he was looking straight at me. When I blinked, he didn't go away. And then I ran away. He chased me!

When I ran back home and got in bed, I covered myself in the cover. When I woke up, I tried to get out of my blanket, but I wasn't in my blanket. I was surrounded by black. But then, after a few minutes, I was in my blanket. Was I daydreaming all that time?

Then, I went to the supermarket and I saw the same man, but he was not grinning at me. He was just a normal man. What could have happened?

Alrightreads: Decapitating in the Street

R. L. Stine, Fear Street: The Face

1996 / Audiobook / 148 pages

**

Another one where you can figure out the story in your head from the cover and save yourself time.

R. L. Stine, Fear Street: Secret Admirer

1996 / Audiobook / 148 pages

**

The culprit was probably just as blatant for the target audience of slightly nerdy girls.

R. L. Stine, Fear Street: The Perfect Date

1996 / Library book / 147 pages

*****

Thirty-seventh time's the charm. I could see the non-existent movie in my head and watching this accidental killer get his excessively bloody just desserts was morbidly moreish.

R. L. Stine, Fear Street: The Confession

1996 / Ebook / 150 pages

**

The dishonest "psyche!" cliffhangers are so rife and pathetic in this one that I'll imagine it was ghostwritten.

R. L. Stine, Fear Street: The Boy Next Door

1996 / Ebook / 147 pages

***

Columbo-style transparency made this more tense right from the start and was a welcome break from the usual compulsive misdirection.

R. L. Stine, Fear Street Super Chiller: Goodnight Kiss 2

1996 / Ebook / 208 pages

**

The predictable return of the beach vampires.