Go...Hokies...Go! (No, GO TARHEELS, but still I like this book.)

Let it be known that I am NOT a Hokie fan.  At all.  Despite living in Richmond and having many Hokie friends, I think Hokie fans are all kinds of obnoxious.  They plaster their cars with turkeys and then have the audacity to change lanes without signaling.  They wear orange and maroon ALL THE FREAKING TIME.  I have a dear friend who is a Hokie who had Maroon and orange purses made for herself on Etsy.  I think it's a requirement if you graduate from Virginia Tech that you get a vanity plate to announce that fact.  Apparently Hokies think we care.  For my North Carolina readers, imagine if all the intelligent Carolina fans weren’t so snobby and behaved like State fans.  Got that?  Smart and obnoxious.  Yeah, they’re like that.  And they. are. everywhere.    

That said, I really am praying AGAINST out of state tuition, so I have to start grooming my kids to be either Hokies or Hoos.  Imagine my delight when I got my hands on this little book.  

You know that mascot book you’ve already got that is all kinds of lame?  And you read it a couple of times because a college friend gave it to you when your kids were born.  But what your child REALLY wants to read is that flap book about the bunny with the fuzzy tail?

Enter  Go… Hokies… Go!  

It takes HokieBird and walks him through the VT campus.  You can rub his feathers, help him flip through a book in Newman library, take him tubing on the New, and help him score a basket in Cassell Coliseum.  You can even scratch and sniff his pizza in Owens Food Court.  (I’m hoping that Hokie pizza actually doesn’t smell like the scratch and sniff.  Because this scratch and sniff pizza smells just like Raggedy Ann’s cooking in my favorite childhood interactive book.  Which made the smell awesome, but not so appetizing.)  It even has the Hokie fight song at the end.  Or, I’m assuming that “Tech Triump” is the Hokie fight song.  Admittedly, I probably would’ve enjoyed the book even more if I had remembered sleeping in Newman library or making out at the duck pond.  (I’m assuming people made out there.  Again, I’m not a Hokie.  And I kinda don’t like Hokies.  But if there had been a Duck pond in Chapel Hill, I think people would've made out there.  Because North Carolina is for lovers.  Wait, no, that's Virginia.)

My kids loved the book.  Henry’s favorite part was helping HokieBird score the basket and looking at the pile up of football players on fold out page.  Gracie’s favorite part was playing with the fans' pom poms.  As a Mom, my favorite part was the sturdiness of the book.  Most flap and play books get ripped up the first time you read them.  But this is printed on thick pages, almost like a board book.  That said, Gracie did rip out a few of the streamers on the pom poms.  But she’s like the Hulk, breaking pantry doors with just a look, so we shouldn’t really count that.  The writing rhymes and the illustrations are cartoony and reminiscent of Gary Larson or Berkeley Breathed.  

Bryan assured me that books for Carolina, NC State, UNCC, ECU, and Appalachian State should be coming out this fall and winter.  You can bet your bottom dollar that we are pre-ordering our Tarheel edition and will be emailing Bryan on a regular basis until there is also a Gamecock edition.   

Want a copy of your own?  You can buy yours here:  www.collegiatekidsbooks.com.   I think there may also be some copies floating around some specialty shops and kids’ stores in the Richmond area.   

Because you aren’t getting my copy.  We love it.  Even though it has that stupid turkey on the cover. 

*In the interest of full disclosure for the FTC, I was NOT compensated for this post.  The book was given to me by the author because we are friends and he was in town.  And by friends, I mean to say that his little sister is one of my childhood besties.  So in this case, “friends” means that he mocked and made fun of me for my entire childhood.  As in, when I told Sloan about the book and Bryan dropping it off at our house, he replied, “You mean that guy who always makes fun of you and calls you “Kings and Queens?  Sinchy Sinchy?”  Yes, Sloan.  That guy.

But we’ve both evolved.  For those of you who know us, Bryan Jones becoming a children’s book author is about as hilarious as me going to seminary.  Am I right?  

Also, let it be known that if one of my three books in process ever gets published, I fully expect all of you people to buy it, read it, and market the crap out of it on your blogs and facebook walls.  Cause that’s what friends do.  Unless the book sucks.  Then you can do nothing.  And that’ll be fine.  Because if this book had stunk, I wouldn’t have done this review.  Also, for the record, Bryan did NOT ask me to do this review.  I'm just doing it because I'm awesome like that.

So nobody sue me, because all of my money is tied up in adoption and giant holes in my kitchen ceiling.