{"id":247,"date":"2023-10-20T19:08:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T19:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carolfranksrandall.com\/?p=247"},"modified":"2025-05-20T20:51:21","modified_gmt":"2025-05-20T20:51:21","slug":"vlad-the-rad-by-brigette-barrager","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carolfranksrandall.com\/?p=247","title":{"rendered":"Vlad the Rad by Brigette Barrager"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Happy Halloween! Read Dr. Toughlove\u2019s October 2023 column.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1720\" height=\"1731\" src=\"https:\/\/carolfranksrandall.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Dr.-Toughlove-Book-Club-Column-Oct-2023.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-248\" srcset=\"https:\/\/carolfranksrandall.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Dr.-Toughlove-Book-Club-Column-Oct-2023.jpg 1720w, https:\/\/carolfranksrandall.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Dr.-Toughlove-Book-Club-Column-Oct-2023-298x300.jpg 298w, https:\/\/carolfranksrandall.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Dr.-Toughlove-Book-Club-Column-Oct-2023-1017x1024.jpg 1017w, https:\/\/carolfranksrandall.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Dr.-Toughlove-Book-Club-Column-Oct-2023-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/carolfranksrandall.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Dr.-Toughlove-Book-Club-Column-Oct-2023-768x773.jpg 768w, https:\/\/carolfranksrandall.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Dr.-Toughlove-Book-Club-Column-Oct-2023-1526x1536.jpg 1526w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1720px) 100vw, 1720px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Happy Halloween! Halloween is quickly approaching, so Dr. Toughlove thought it would be a great time to review the book \u201cVlad the Rad\u201d, written and illustrated by Brigette Barrager. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Vlad, the star of the story, is a vampire. And like many vampires he likes cats, bats, bendy straws, glow-in-the-dark stickers, and bugs (p. 3). But most of all he LOVES to skateboard! <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Vlad attends Miss Fussbucket\u2019s School for Aspiring Spooks, but he is not a star student. While his classmates walk through the halls looking scary and sullen, he is on his skateboard wreaking havoc, much to the displeasure of his teacher, Miss Fussbucket. But Vlad feels alive and joyful when he skates, which is the exact opposite of what Miss Fussbucket wants. Even while sitting at his desk, trying to do his schoolwork, Vlad has a hard time concentrating, and is thinking about new skateboarding tricks he would like to try. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After writing \u201cI will not skateboard at school\u201d on the blackboard dozens of times, Vlad discovers the ultimate challenge during a class field trip to the Natural History Museum. Dr. Toughlove doesn\u2019t want to give the story away, but let it suffice to say that the end of the story involves huge dinosaur bones and a skateboard ride that is akin to a roller coaster ride. Vlad creates mayhem on a larger scale than at school, and has a ball doing it! Children and adults alike will get a chuckle out of Vlad\u2019s ultimate skateboard adventure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Brigette Barrager is the author and the illustrator, and she does a magnificent job in both capacities. Her colorful illustrations capture the absurdity of the situation to perfection. Children will ask to read this book again and again, and each time they do, a new discovery or nuance will be found. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If Dr. Toughlove had to use three words to describe this Halloween-themed book they would be whimsical, charming, and hilarious. \u201cVlad the Rad\u201d is appropriate for children aged 3-7, and is available at the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.qaclibrary.org\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.qaclibrary.org\/\">Queen Anne\u2019s County Library<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Happy Halloween! Read Dr. Toughlove\u2019s October 2023 column. Happy Halloween! Halloween is quickly approaching, so Dr. Toughlove thought it would be a great time to review the book \u201cVlad the Rad\u201d, written and illustrated by Brigette Barrager. Vlad, the star of the story, is a vampire. And like many vampires he likes cats, bats, bendy [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolfranksrandall.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolfranksrandall.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolfranksrandall.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolfranksrandall.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolfranksrandall.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=247"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/carolfranksrandall.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":630,"href":"https:\/\/carolfranksrandall.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247\/revisions\/630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolfranksrandall.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolfranksrandall.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolfranksrandall.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}