Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Where's Leopold? Your Pajamas are Showing! by Michel-Yves Schmitt, art by Vincent Caut

One morning, Leopold wakes up with a mysterious new power: He can make himself invisible! In a series of comic strips, Leopold and his sister Celine deal with his newfound power.

Of course, what is an approximately six year old boy going to do with powers of invisibility? Well...blackmail his sister for caramels, play fart jokes, and get into all kinds of mischief is a good guess.

The art has all the cartoon conventions kids will recognize from comic strip books - bulging eyes, shocked surprise, and a variety of physical humor. There's quite a bit of detail in the settings, but nothing too elaborate to distract from the stories.

I read this as an egalley, so it's not very easy to tell exactly how the layout will look in the final book, but I liked the simple panel progression and it looks like it will be one short story per page, with an occasional story lasting two pages. The book is only 40 pages long, so this is a pretty slim volume, but it's funny and the cartoon style of drawing will attract young readers.

Verdict: Not a required choice, but an excellent addition to the small but growing number of comics for beginning and intermediate readers. I don't think the library bound editions are worth the cost, for only 40 pages, but Lerner's paperbacks are quite sturdy.

ISBN: 9781467707695; Published April 2013 by Lerner Graphic Universe; egalley provided by the publisher through NetGalley; Added to a tentative order list.

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