AW, NUTS!

Two adorable foods have an adventure in Beaudry’s graphic novel for young readers, illustrated by Perry.

In the colorful city of Foodtopia, different types of food live, work, and play, but their lives are governed by a strict hierarchy. As in the real world, a pyramid structure dictates where the different food items fall, but in this case, it’s in terms of their power and influence. The rich and famous foods—also known as “the glitz and the ham”—sit at the top in the Toppings, while the bottom layer of this society are the Crumbs, made up of “the dreamers…the party animals…and, of course, the strange.” This latter category is where heroes Peanut and Jelly figure into Foodtopia. Peanut longs to rise to the top one day, but getting there as a lowly crumb-yard worker is a tall order, and his boss already thinks that he jokes around too much with his co-worker and best pal Jelly. His boss might just be right: When Jelly’s horsing around accidentally sets loose the deadly Crumb Feeder—a giant, purple, snakelike monster—all of Foodtopia is threatened. Can Peanut and Jelly work together to contain the beast and prove their worth as top-shelf toppings? Creator and writer Beaudry’s background in children’s animation, including as a staff writer for Muppet Babies, can be felt throughout this romp of anthropomorphic condiments. The action-packed sequences, witty puns, Jelly’s joyful attitude, and a sense of humor based in non sequiturs easily calls to mind the wonderfully absurd world of SpongeBob SquarePants. Also, as in an animated series, the events of this graphic novel feel like a self-contained episode with low stakes and relatively easy resolutions—but the possibilities are there for more adventures investigating this fictional world. Perry’s vibrant, full-color cartoon illustrations feel perfectly matched to the story’s zany qualities, and Beaudry’s pop-culture references and wordplay will elicit chuckles from readers of all ages: “I’m no wise-cracker,” Peanut cries at one point. “I’m too brittle for that life.”

A swift introduction to a colorful world that’s a bit light on plot but offers great jokes.