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Animated Fun for Everyone from Hoopla and the Cartoon Network

7 Jul

Looking for some cute cartoons the whole family will enjoy to watch together this summer?  Hoopla has a variety of shows available from Cartoon Network including everything from the Powerpuff Girls to Ben 10.  I wanted to take a look at five of my favorites (and yes childfree adults who love animation will enjoy them too).

Amazing World of Gumball
(TV-Y7)
The Amazing World of Gumball is one of my son’s favorite shows, but for Gen X and Millennial Parents there are plenty of hip references (everything from music videos to the Golden Girls) for you to enjoy while watching with your kids. Gumball will appeal to fans of The Simpsons with its loving but dysfunctional family, but what makes it unique is an interesting look that merges different styles of animation from traditional hand drawn to stop motion.

We Bare Bears
(TV-Y7)
We Bare Bears stars a talking grizzly bear, polar bear, and panda bear as they go on adventures and cause trouble in the human world around the San Francisco Bay Area.  Their nemesis of course is a famous koala bear.  Some episodes flashback to when the bears were young cubs and first became friends often with touching moments that will resonate for those who have also created their own found families.

Steven Universe
(TV-PG)
Steven Universe is about a half human/half alien boy and the Crystal Gems who are guardians of humanity.  The show is often embraced for showing that super heroes can have diverse body types and love comes in many forms (it was the first animated series to win a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Kids & Family Program in 2019).  For Halloween one year, my family dressed up like Steven and his parents Greg and Rose Quartz.

Adventure Time
(TV-PG)
One of my favorite shows from Cartoon Network, Adventure Time, stars Finn, one of the last humans, in a post-apocalyptic world  featuring a candy kingdom, an ice king, and my personal favorite- a guitar playing vampire queen.  Finn’s loyal side kick is Jake, a dog with magical powers.  You can check out my previous Adventure Time post when I was discussing Fan Fiction. If you like your high fantasy with a helping of quirky surrealism than check this one out.

Grim Adventures Of Billy & Mandy
(TV-Y7)
What if the Grim Reaper was one of your besties?  Shenanigans occur on both sides of the spirt world when Billy and Mandy befriend the coolest Grim Reaper around in the Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy.  Looking for more gothy cartoon fare; also checkout Canadian fave Ruby Gloom which is also available from Hoopla.

What are your favorite family friendly cartoons? Share them in our comments!

Written by:
Aimee Harris
Head of Information and Digital Services

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Two Sweet Romances for LGBTQ Pride Month: Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake and For the Love of Cake

30 Jun
images from Overdrive

I started off Pride Month, this June, with a post about Trans and Non-Binary Authors writing speculative fiction.  To end the month I thought I’d focus on two romance novels, I recently enjoyed, featuring bisexual protagonists both set in the competitive world of baking shows.

Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake
by Alexis Hall
Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake is the first in Alexis Hall’s new Winner Bakes All series.  The series has as its backdrop a baking competition that bears striking similarities to the fan favorite Great British Baking Show.  Rosaline is a young single mom and amateur baker.  Her wealthy parents, despite being loving grandparents, are disappointed in how Rosaline has lived her life and what they see as her lack of ambition.  The baking competition is her chance to shine and set an example for her daughter about following her dreams.  It also gives Rosaline the unexpected opportunity for finding love when two very different fellow contestants catch her eye.  Rosaline is proudly bisexual and the book handles this in a nuanced way looking at issues of bi-erasure and prejudice.  Even though both of Rosaline’s love interest are men, her identity as a bisexual woman is never undermined. Interested in reading more books by Alexis Hall; I’ve written previous blog posts about some of Hall’s other work including The Affair of the Mysterious Letter, Looking for Group, and the Kate Kane Series.

For the Love of Cake
by Erin Dutton
Erin Dutton’s For the Love of Cake is also situated in the world of competitive baking although this show feels slightly more generic and is representative of many that air on TV or streaming channels.  It features some characters from one of Dutton’s previous romance novels, A Place to Rest.  Maya is the first winner of For the Love of Cake, who is tasked with both coaching and judging a competition with middle aged baker Shannon as one of the new contestants.  They find themselves fighting an attraction to one another which could spoil Shannon’s chance at a win and Maya’s career.  Maya is bisexual while Shannon, despite a previous marriage to a man, identifies as a lesbian, which causes a brief moment of friction between the two early on.  The novel despite having a sweet romance at its center also manages to examine a variety of social issues.

Love baking competitions? You can also check out a previous post which featured bake-off fiction and non-fiction that is sure to delight your palate.

Written by:
Aimee Harris
Head of Information and Digital Services

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