Probably not to everyone’s taste—but sure to be popular with the fart and barf set.
It’s take two for Catwad and Blurmp, along with more giggles, grossness, and exaggeration.
Blue-gray Catwad hates everything except torturing his painfully naïve and pathologically happy orange roommate, Blurmp. Across 25 named episodes ranging from three to seven pages of brightly colored comic panels, the two cats play pranks and toss out one-liners at each other’s expense. In “Gaming,” Blurmp is really enjoying his video game even after Catwad points out that the controller is not connected…and the game is actually a commercial for a diarrhea remedy. In “Salad,” Blurmp makes Catwad a salad that Catwad does not want to eat. Catwad points out that koalas, cows, manatees, and pandas all eat nothing but salad and are “slow and lazy.” Blurmp realizes that Catwad doesn’t want to eat the salad because (poking Catwad’s flab) Catwad must eat a lot of salads already. In “Dumb,” Blurmp is patient zero in a dumbness epidemic that destroys the world—thankfully it’s only Catwad’s nightmare, but it prompts Catwad to take Blurmp to “save the world.” Fans of Benton’s first collection will probably enjoy this one even more (and hope for a third). The target audience won’t know Ren and Stimpy, but they may see Squidward and SpongeBob in this feline friendship. A couple of puzzles round out the collection at the close.
Probably not to everyone’s taste—but sure to be popular with the fart and barf set. (Graphic short stories. 7-11)Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-32603-1
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 7, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Skip this meal.
Four foodstuff friends help a student stave off ill effects from a brushed-aside breakfast.
Snacks are absolutely not allowed in Mrs. Sternbladder’s classroom at the James H. Pinchkid Elementary School. When the four taco-ingredient Hunger Heroes—Tammy the tomato, Leonard the cheese, Mr. Toots the bean, and Chip Ninja the tortilla chip—get an alert about a student’s missed meal and his flagging energy before a big test, they immediately take to their taco hovercraft to save the day. This job won’t be easy: An autonomous vacuum, a gym full of dodgeballs, and a snack-loathing teacher all stand in their way. The first in a proposed series, this graphic hybrid is bland as white bread. All the elements are seemingly there: cute, cartoony characters, silly jokes galore, and zippily paced chapters. Unfortunately, the whole never quite equals the sum of its parts. The characterizations are thin, the resolution is quick and questionable, and many scenes feel like dreaded heavy-handed teachable moments having all the allure of a brownie made from brussels sprouts. There is little connection for its readers, who most likely will wonder why they should care about a kid (hardly more than a name and a face) who missed breakfast and why taco ingredients care so much. Humans portrayed throughout show a range of skin tones; however, there is little differentiation between adult and juvenile characters.
Skip this meal. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 7-10)Pub Date: Oct. 26, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5344-6282-3
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2021
A crowd pleaser in an otherwise crowded oeuvre.
The ubiquitous rodent journalist returns in a new iteration.
Geronimo Stilton, publisher extraordinaire of the Rodent’s Gazette, has a new story to investigate: New Mouse City is plagued by a deeply malodorous stink. As the stench intensifies, the residents flee, selling their homes. Stilton, flanked by his banana-loving friend Hercule Poirat, forays into the sewers to locate the fount of the funk. There, the duo encounters rat queen Trashfur Sparkles XIII and her Grand Council. Trashfur, the mastermind behind the nefariously noxious plan, has set her sights on wedding Hercule and marrying Geronimo off to one of her council members; how will Geronimo escape this time? This new graphic-novel series published by Graphix/Scholastic (not to be confused with Papercutz’s ongoing Geronimo Stilton, Reporter graphic-novel series) and illustrated by Angleberger (of Origami Yoda fame) utilizes a decidedly more cartoonish style than the Papercutz version, more along the Dav Pilkey aesthetic. Funny and fast-paced, this offering is infused with a generous amount of over-the-top silliness, with occasional breaks to explain jokes to readers (explaining that gorgonzola is a type of cheese, for example). With easy-to-read and varied typefaces and oversized, full-color panels, this should effortlessly appeal to the younger set, making it an obvious choice for those deciding what to read next after Dog Man.
A crowd pleaser in an otherwise crowded oeuvre. (Graphic fantasy. 7-10)Pub Date: May 5, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-338-58730-2
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Feb. 25, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
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BOOK REVIEW
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