Pop culture can be defined as traditions, beliefs, value systems, or material cultures practiced by most of the population. On the surface, it may sound extremely simple, but upon closer scrutiny, one would realize there is more to pop culture than a set of practices.
Etymologically speaking, the words that comprise pop culture are eminently relative and arbitrarily popular and pertains to things, concepts, or persons enjoyed by most people in a group. If the pop culture is traditionally old, it’s called pop classic.
Pop classics books help reimagine the simple language you can read to kids at bedtime. The Marvel, DC comic, Disney, and Penguin classics represent the classic pop stories for books or movies. They enrich and show uniquely the pop classic. If you are waiting for a pop classic recommendation, keep scrolling.
| Name | Key Focus | Review (Goodreads) |
|---|---|---|
| The Karate Kid | A kid deals with his first day at school, bullying kids, and karate competition. | 4.1 |
| Clueless | The three protagonists are making their friendship strong and telling their life stories. | 4.0 |
| The X Files | The aliens and kids are facing each other with some supernatural elements. | 4.2 |
| The Day You Begin | A parenting guideline where parents can learn how to make their children self-dependable. | 4.4 |
| Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas | A monster is trying something unusual and showing art, pop culture, and different songs. | 4.4 |
| Hop on Pop | A children’s fantasy picture book with poetry. | 4,0 |
| Back To The Future | Two different stories and two timelines with time travel and adventure show pop culture. | 3.8 |
7 Pop Classics Books
Creation is part of our human nature to have a change of heart in terms of the things that we like and enjoy doing and the people we admire. The culture was defined as the way of life of a specific group of individuals at a particular time. Thus making the culture of a particular group of people change as well. But people can not change pop classics rapidly, and many want them to adopt from generation to generation.
One of the pop classic’s brach is a book that keeps its value whatever happens or new creation. When I was a child, I read many pop classics and still reading them. Now, I will discuss my favorite 7 pop classics books for children, teens, or young adults. Let’s go!
1. The Karate Kid
The Karate Kid is a nice picture pop classic book based on the movie. It has come out to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the book of the movie. Even though it’s condensed, you don’t see much of the stuff in the movie, but it could be of great use in a classroom where kids watch the movie. The author talks a little about how the different themes come through in the book of patients, self-reliance, friendship, all these things.
The story starts when Daniel and his mother move to California and are excited to live by the ocean. But Daniel is nervous about being the new kid. That sets it up so kids can identify with this because every child has had some opportunity or situation where he’s the new kid, and it’s a little nerve-racking. So, in this case, it is what’s happening to Daniel’s life.
Then on his first day of school, some bully kids start picking on him. The leader of the group was named Johnny. So we see this group of kids. When there’s less text and more pictures, it says the bully kids study karate at Cobra Kai. All the students at Cobra Kai were training for a big karate tournament. So the Cobra Kai students chase Daniel home from school, and then we see them cornering. They’ve all got their jackets on-again, colorful texts, large enough pictures that children in the back of the room can see what’s going on.
Daniel was better at karate than the Cobra Kai students. He goes through three things: the core of three, a good structure, and picture books where he is being patient. If you look back through the text again, you’ll notice that when they drove up to their new apartment building, Mr. Miyagi was there. Here he is outside doing the sweeping up for the place. So it’s neat because, with picture books, kids tend to want them to read repeatedly.
The book’s cover is also the cover when you take off the cover. Sometimes you’ll see a picture book with a nice, colorful cover with pictures. But when you take off the jacket cover, it’s blank or a plain color. So you want to have this colorful cover on the front. The other thing I like is colorful endpapers. It gives the scene of the bonsai trees that Mr. Miyagi, the person in the story, does. Also, It represents a desert because the stories are taking place in the desert.
If a teacher reads the book to a classroom of children, and the kids in the back can even see the pictures because of double-page spreads, it is much bigger. There is a little bit of criticism which I didn’t like. The book finished with an unexpected but logical twist and sent a great message to kids. So I would recommend this book.
Author: Kim Smith
Publisher: Quirk Books (Illustrated Edition)
Tropes: Martial Arts, Bullying, Fun
Number Of Pages: 40
Grade level: Preschool – 3
Item Weight: 1.1 pounds
Dimensions: 9.28 x 0.38 x 11.25 inches
Available: Paperback | Hardcover | Kindle
2. Clueless: A Totally Classic Picture Book
Clueless is an adaptation of the nineties film. Heather Burns illustrated this adaptation. On the front book cover, we have our three main characters, Dionne, Cher, and Tai, standing on Cher’s staircase from the movie. Then on the back cover, Dionne, Tai, and Cher are surrounded by some other characters at their school.
On the inside flap of the front cover, it says the popular girls learn valuable lessons about fitting in and friendship in the adaptation of the nineties classic. On the back flap, we have a little about the author and the illustrator. The pictures are drawn in a timeless, colorful art style that’s cute. Moreover, the characters all have super big eyes and round faces, sweet and cartoony.
Another cool thing about this book is the characters are much younger than they are in the movie. The characters in the book are in elementary school. So, it makes it even better for kids because they’re about the same age. Every character also has multiple different outfits that they wear throughout the book. The author teaches us about friendship, fitting in, and staying true to yourself, which are all great things that need to be taught to kids.
However, the book would be fun for adults as well. They grew up watching the movie during their childhood, and now they can use the book to share the story with their kids. Ultimately, this book wants to teach kids that their friends don’t have to be the same as them.
You can have friends who are different from you and still have fun together and get along. In this way, you can try new things and become even better friends. To teach your children about moral lessons and children’s psychology, you must pick this pop classic.
Author: Amy Heckerling
Publisher: Running Press Kids
Tropes: Arts Fiction, Social Situations, Feminism, LGBTQ
Number Of Pages: 32
Reading age: 4 – 8 years
Available: Hardcover | Kindle
3. The X Files: Earth Children are Weird
The X Files is great for parents who want to impart or share their love of types of pop culture. So it’s interesting to see classic books that are meant for kids but aimed at parents because parents spend a lot of time reading with kids. If you have kids who are already fans and are interested in aliens, pop culture, and supernatural elements, this book is for them. Or if you’re an adult fan of those topics fan of that show and are looking for a way to connect with kids, it’s a good choice.
Fox and Scully are friends as children, and they are in the backyard having a sleepover, finished reading a story about aliens. Then all these things, sounds or shadow images, appear in true X-Files nature. There’s no deep secret story. It plays on the characters of Fox and Scully from the series and teases kids about aliens in the book. So, you can add this fun picture book to your collection, whether your kids are interested in aliens or you as a parent.
Author: Kim Smith
Publisher: Quirk Books (Illustrated Edition)
Tropes: Humor, Aliens, Horror
Number Of Pages: 40
Item Weight: 1.04 pounds
Dimensions: 9.3 x 0.4 x 11.3 inches
Available: Paperback | Hardcover | Kindle
4. The Day You Begin
The Day You Begin encourages children to speak up and share their personalities, lives, and culture with those around them. Also, it allows children to step into someone else’s shoes. Parents and teachers can discover the children’s secret powers: athletic ability, race, hair style, lunch ingredients, family, and lifestyle. The poetic language is sweet, and the illustrations are unique. But it shows much negativity in comparison to positivity.
I recommend this book to every child who feels different because those differences are what make them special. If you’d rather listen to it, the audiobook is available on Libyan overdrive. I encourage you to check out more books by Jacqueline Woodson. She is a National Book Award winner and writes books for all ages. We have plenty available at the library and on Libyan overdrive.
Author: Jacqueline Woodson
Illustrator: Rafael Lopez
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Tropes: Prejudice, Racism, Social Situations, Self-discovery, Multicultural
Reading age: 5+ years
Number Of Pages: 32
Available: Audiobook | Hardcover | Kindle
5. Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas: The Film, the Art, the Vision
The Nightmare Before Christmas was published in 1993 with a first paperback edition. I got this at Disneyland Paris in 2008 with my mom. It has a wide range of art, pop culture, the lyrics to all the different songs, and many backgrounds about the different songs, the same with the various characters. So it introduces the character, and you’ll meet Jack.
One of the most exciting parts of this book was the art and the vision. So it started with a poem Tim Burton wrote and illustrated for himself. I find it incredibly interesting to see how the film was created, from ideas to storyboards to actual films. I also found it fascinating how Jack’s expressions are a range of heads that they molded and sculpted and pop them on and off. So there’s so much about the stop motion captured, and they detail how everything was produced and made.
Another exciting aspect the book explores is Tim Burton’s relationship with the Disney Company. He mentioned that much of what he works with is society’s tendency to categorize people. So, you can see that throughout all the films he’s done. Tim said Jack is one of those characters who wanted to reverse the idea of a movie monster and make him more human and likable.
So it’s nice to see the story of what we would categorize as a villain and make him the film’s hero. Apart from Burton, the book also mentions all the other main contributors, such as Henry Selick and Danny Elfman.
Author: Frank Thompson
Publisher: Hyperion (1st Edition)
Tropes: Biographies, Halloween, Fantasy
Number Of Pages: 192
Available: Paperback | Hardcover | Kindle | Mass Market Paperback
6. Hop on Pop
Hop on Pop is a children’s fantasy picture classic pop-up book. If you want to read The Da Vinci Code or Harry Potter or The Vampire Diaries, this might be the book for you. There are many advantages to reading it. First, it was written by Dr. Seuss, a famous author. Secondly, unlike Dr. Seuss’s earlier books, it’s illustrated with four-color illustrations, which all had one or two-color illustrations. So, it is full of four-color illustrations. Also, the book is very easy to read.
Most of the words rhyme and there are not a lot of them, and they’re generally short. So you can figure them out without going to the dictionary. Therefore, you can enjoy sitting down and reading the book. The illustrations are unique, so it’s not the typical comic book that shows musclebound men in spandex running and jumping all over the pages. These are clever and humorous little drawings. So, in conclusion, if you’re looking for a humorous, exciting book to read that you can finish in an hour or two on the weekend, I suggest reading this pop classic.
Author: Dr. Seuss
Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers
Tropes: Humorous Poetry, Classics
Number Of Pages: 72
Item Weight: 8.8 ounces
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Hardcover | Kindle | Board book
7. Back To The Future: Untold Tales and Alternate Timelines
Back To The Future consists of two different stories, both written by Bob Gale, who was involved in the original movie trilogy. The first story is called The Doc Who Never Was. It was cowrote by John Barbour and drawn by Marcello Ferreira. The story takes place in 1962, seven years after Marty, who returned to 1955 but then returned to his own time in 1985. So, we’re given an alternate timeline about what could have happened had Doc been working for the government rather than being independent.
It’s an interesting read, but the only real ramifications we get from this is that we find out what happened to his original mansion. We’re finally given closure as to what happened. An interesting side note is that Marcel Strickland shows up at the beginning of this comic book, which takes place after Marty left the Old West and returned to his own time. That means one of the deleted scenes showing Marshal Strickland being killed by Buford Tannen doesn’t exist.
The second story, called Science Project, takes place in 1984 when Marty is already a part of his life. But as before, he used a time machine to return to 1955 again. Nothing happened in this story too much either. It was Doc helping Marty figure out a science project to use for school. We get an idea about how Doc acquired the DeLorean for his science experiments.
The problem is that the stories don’t seem to matter too much. The previous issue didn’t have any time travel taking place. It would be cool to have all the characters from the Back to the Future series being misplaced in time because of some anomaly and having either Doc or Marty. I will continue reading the mini-series with my fingers crossed, hoping there will be an ongoing series.
Author: Bob Gale
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Tropes: Time Travel, Graphic Novels, Adventure, Arc
Number Of Pages: 120
Available: Paperback
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