A seemingly insignificant clue leads three young would-be detectives to mind-blowing adventures in their outwardly ordinary suburban neighborhood.
Casting about for some small mystery to solve, the Exploration-Mystery-Unbelievable Club—newly founded out of boredom by preteen Stuart, his mildly OCD best bud, Brian, and tag-along little sister, Violet—starts with a loose paint chip. In no time, they are exploring a high-tech underground lair, discovering that Stuart’s pooch, Ferdinand, isn’t at all what he seems and becoming Earth’s first line of defense against an incoming extraterrestrial fleet. Along with creating mildly fizzy chemistry for his squabbling trio, Bolling, creator of the satiric comic strip Tom the Dancing Bug, keeps the surprises coming—with occasional pauses while Brian goes off to wash his hands or practice his didgeridoo. Stuart’s matter-of-fact narrative is strewn with Violet’s cartoon “photos” of important evidence or characters posing hammily. Turning out to be cats and therefore vulnerable to Super Soaker blasts and passing balls of yarn, the aliens are driven off handily without, happily, drawing unwanted parental attention. Stuart follows up with a handy chart of ways to repulse future attacking alien animals, plus hints about upcoming episodes.
A credible bit of sleuthing and a spectacular escalation factor give this opener a bit of bounce. (Mystery/fantasy. 8-10)Pub Date: April 7, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4494-5709-9
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2015
Categories: CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S
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BOOK REVIEW
The theme of persistence (for better or worse) links four tales of magic, trickery, and near disasters.
Lachenmeyer freely borrows familiar folkloric elements, subjecting them to mildly comical twists. In the nearly wordless “Hip Hop Wish,” a frog inadvertently rubs a magic lamp and finds itself saddled with an importunate genie eager to shower it with inappropriate goods and riches. In the title tale, an increasingly annoyed music-hating witch transforms a persistent minstrel into a still-warbling cow, horse, sheep, goat, pig, duck, and rock in succession—then is horrified to catch herself humming a tune. Athesius the sorcerer outwits Warthius, a rival trying to steal his spells via a parrot, by casting silly ones in Ig-pay Atin-lay in the third episode, and in the finale, a painter’s repeated efforts to create a flattering portrait of an ogre king nearly get him thrown into a dungeon…until he suddenly understands what an ogre’s idea of “flattering” might be. The narratives, dialogue, and sound effects leave plenty of elbow room in Blocker’s big, brightly colored panels for the expressive animal and human(ish) figures—most of the latter being light skinned except for the golden genie, the blue ogre, and several people of color in the “Sorcerer’s New Pet.”
Alert readers will find the implicit morals: know your audience, mostly, but also never underestimate the power of “rock” music. (Graphic short stories. 8-10)Pub Date: June 18, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-59643-750-0
Page Count: 112
Publisher: First Second
Review Posted Online: April 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2019
Categories: GENERAL GRAPHIC NOVELS & COMICS | CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S
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A gifted finder of ideas explains how to track the tricky, elusive things down.
Readers should be warned to hold on to their hats, because although it’s presented as one long, breathless mix of hand-lettered expostulations and dashed-off jabs, squiggles, and swipes of blue, red, and yellow paint, Tullet’s monologue veers about like an unknotted balloon. Dispensing with a title page, he opens abruptly by marveling at the “OH!” moment when an idea hits, then rhetorically asking what an idea might be. He goes on to describe hunting for one as an arduous, even “boring” task. Observing that happening upon an idea is “a little like finding a seed” that grows, he suddenly switches his conceit to exclaim that ideas will come in a “messy and bubbly” swarm—but must be sifted to find the “good” ones, which “always” contain “a seed of madness.” Rather than pausing to unpack that vague if fine-sounding phrase, he rushes on to claim (with one minor typo) confusingly that “those seeds” (which ones?) are hidden everywhere but can be found, cultivated, absorbed in the mind, and ultimately combined…to make an idea. (Weren’t we there already?) Finally, following the affirmation that the effort is worthwhile, whether “just for the fun of it” or “to change the world,” he closes with the inspirational assurance that those who seek will find. Well, that part at least is clear enough.
Haphazard stabs at describing at least parts of the creative process—more illuminating perhaps for the artist’s students than the rest of his audience. (Picture book. 8-10, adult)Pub Date: March 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4521-7858-5
Page Count: 88
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2019
Categories: CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S
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