Younger readers who prefer their tales of knightly valor straight up should eschew this droll, double-stranded import. Expressing doubts that King Alfred really burnt those cakes, or that Canute got wet feet, Wilson proceeds in paired cartoon panels to deliver a rhymed official rendition and a slangy factual account of how young Dave the peasant drove a fearsome beast out of Princess Peach’s bedchamber—thus, naturally, earning her hand in marriage. Dave’s quick-thinking mother expedites the process, determining that the “horrid creature” squeaks and is fond of cheese, but persuading the suspicious King Arfwitt and Queen Girdlestein that it’s a dragon nonetheless, then letting nature take its course with the young folk. Wilson outfits every character with eyeglasses, “arms” Dave with a wooden sword and a bucket for a helmet (“you look a right wally,” his mom observes), and encloses verses, dialogue and the frequent asides in balloons. Children trained to expect action on every page may find the episode a bit wordy and slow-going, but there’s certainly food for thought here, as well as an amiable, silly story. (Picture book. 7-9)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2006
ISBN: 1-84507-496-3
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2006
It’s exactly a year after the mixed woodland cohabitation celebrated in The Meeting (2010), and temperamental Ginger Fox has settled in nicely with her three new badger half-sibs—explaining after an exchange of insults (“Fly doody!” “Skunk fart!”) that arguing with friends is OK, but “you can argue much better with a brother. It’s natural!” Ginger’s equanimity is upset, however, first when her roving birth father pays a visit that reminds her how much parental attention she got when she was an only child, and then when two cats from town take over the tree-trunk clubhouse she and the badgers have fixed up. Despite an overt socialization agenda (“I have so many parents!” Ginger exclaims at the end), there are some amusing twists here—“Every fight you avoid is one you win,” homilizes Ginger’s strict and orderly badger dad, just before helping the young folk set up a paint trap to drive off the feline interlopers—and Tharlet’s delicately detailed panels never look crowded despite plenty of speech balloons. Above-average fare for younger graphic-fiction fans. (Graphic animal fantasy. 7-9)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-7613-5632-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Graphic Universe
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2010
If ever a new series deserved to go viral, this one does. (Graphic novel. 7-9)
The hilarious misadventures of a hapless young everylad who happens to be an amoeba.
Countering the (perceived, at least) girliness of their Babymouse series, the talented Holms turn to the microbial world for new graphic material. Like his revered comics hero, Super Amoeba, blobby Squish is determined to “do what’s right.” This turns out to be relatively easy when it’s his mooching buddy Pod suckering him into switching lunches or his relentlessly cheery classmate Peggy the paramecium (her every utterance trailed by a line of exclamation points!!!!!) begging him to come over after school to meet her new slime mold Fluffy. It's a lot harder when brutish bully Lynwood callously envelops and begins to digest the seemingly doomed Peggy for a snack. The siblings draw it Babymouse-style in thick lined cartoon panels with garish green highlights and dialogue balloons. Plenty of helpful arrows point out significant anatomical details (“Pseudopods”) or offer snarky side comments. The episode zips along to a climactic ugly (but just) surprise for Lynwood, then closes with an easily doable prank/science project involving a moistened slice of bread.
If ever a new series deserved to go viral, this one does. (Graphic novel. 7-9)Pub Date: May 24, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-375-84389-1
Page Count: 98
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
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