MELLYBEAN AND THE WICKED WIZARD

This sequel to Mellybean and the Giant Monster (2020) makes an effective case that “adorable” might be a genre.

In little black dog Mellybean’s second outing, she returns to the kingdom of giant (and benevolent) monster Narra for a world- and cast-expanding adventure. Hetty the hippocorn may be the cutest thing ever. She has the tail of a horse and the wings of a fairy. Even the villain in this story has the face of a Kewpie doll. She has a master plan to remain young forever, but even in her most aged form, her wrinkle lines just make her look like a ventriloquist’s dummy. According to tradition, Mellybean and the three cats who accompany her ought to spend most of the book fighting one another, but instead they come up with a battle plan: They’re going to talk to the evil wizard nicely, rub up against her legs, and lick her nose. Everyone is so infuriatingly nice that even the wizard gets a happy, or at least peaceful, ending. Cynical readers may wish that Mellybean would tip over, since her head is larger than her body, but the character designs are charming, with portmanteau animals like a dragonseal and a griffinbear. The characters don’t always have the dynamic sense of motion they did in the first Mellybean book—the poses are often quite stiff —but there are some spectacular examples of perspective drawing and, as in the first book, the few human characters come from many different races.

If Mr. Rogers wrote sword-and-sorcery adventures, they might look like this.