A few of the jokes are worth repeating to friends, but very few kids would want to read the book more than once.
Super Potato returns for a second outing following series opener The Epic Origin of Super Potato (2018).
No one will complain that this story, a Spanish import, is difficult to follow. Almost every plot point is explained, immediately after it happens, by the narrator. When Super Potato is kidnapped by the Slug King, the king’s assistant shouts, “WE HAVE CAPTURED AN EARTHLING! WE HAVE CAPTURED AN EARTHLING!” and a caption notes, “The hunting craft, of course, is headed for the dreaded royal ship of the slug King,” and, “Super Potato is in trouble of a cosmic dimension!” The story isn’t quite novel enough to require that degree of analysis: Super Potato is held prisoner in a galactic zoo. (Even the art repeats itself. There are pear shapes everywhere: classically pear-shaped cartoon ETs, in diverse pastel colors, and a pear-shaped rocket ship. There are, interestingly, no human characters.) But some plot twists are loopy enough to be surprising, as when the robot assistant discovers the joy of singing. And one gag, in which the robot repeatedly changes its mood by pushing its own panel of emotion buttons, improves the more it’s prolonged. But that’s just one.
A few of the jokes are worth repeating to friends, but very few kids would want to read the book more than once. (Graphic humor. 6-11)Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5415-2646-4
Page Count: 60
Publisher: Graphic Universe
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Any day there’s a new Squish (or Babymouse, for that matter) is Pizza Day.
The single-celled everylad who oozed from the Babymouse series to start one of his own in Squish #1: Super Amoeba (2011) tries hanging with the cool crowd.
Squish’s efforts to turn over a new pseudopod on the first day of school look futile—until an invitation to sit at the lunch table with the six hyper-cool Algae brothers offers escape from both his nerdy moocher buddy Pod’s obsession with asteroid disaster and classmate Peggy Paramecium’s relentless optimism. He discovers the price, though, when one brother relieves him of his prized baseball cap and then orders him to dump nacho cheese all over Pod. Fortunately, Squish has beloved comic-book hero Super Amoeba to provide a moral compass. Mixing framed and unframed panels, the Holms alternate between Squish’s dilemma, illustrated with green highlights, and black and white pages from Squish’s comic, in which Super Amoeba has to make a parallel choice. In the end, both amoebae make the heroic decision. The authors tuck in some morsels of biology, end with instructions for making green slime and provide another sort-of closure for the main plot—as Peggy puts it: “Oh no! The algae just got wiped out by an Asteroid!! That’s so sad!!! Gee, I wonder if tomorrow is pizza day!”
Any day there’s a new Squish (or Babymouse, for that matter) is Pizza Day. (Graphic novel. 7-9)Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-375-84390-7
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Squeaky-clean, good fun, even if a little underdeveloped.
A crisp, clear comic romp about two alien friends who uncover a gently sinister scheme that could destroy both their home planet and a small fishing town on Earth.
Stylistically reminiscent of Jar Jar Binks (though highly likable instead of annoying), Dalen and Gole are two extraterrestrial best friends who live for jet racing on their home planet Budap. When they lose a race to the obviously shifty Tunax (who wins a race with the assistance of a mysterious cloud of purple smoke), Dalen—the less cynical of the duo as well as the better loser—offers him both congratulations and an assist in putting his jet racer away. While doing so, Dalen and Gole accidentally discover a tunnel that transports the pair to Earth’s Port Angus, a small fishing village on the brink of ruin, as all of the fish have been disappearing. Upon further investigation, they learn that both the mysterious purple smoke and the missing fish share a “fishy” connection, and the twin fates of Budap and Port Angus lie in their hands. Deas’ art has a clarion brightness and is tidily paneled across the page. Driven mainly by cartoon action, the character development is lacking, and a truly likable character—Rachel, the Earth-girl who befriends Dalen and Gole—is left somewhat shapeless and one-dimensional.
Squeaky-clean, good fun, even if a little underdeveloped. (Graphic science fiction. 8-11)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-55469-800-4
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Orca
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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