Skip to main content

Review: The Bawk-Ness Monster

By
 
The Bawk-Ness Monster
By Sara Goetter and Natalie Riess
New York: First Second, 2023. Comics. 205 pages. 

The Bawk-Ness Monster is the kickoff to a new graphic novel series called Cryptid Kids that follows three children on a quest to find Bessie (as she's lovingly called) a hybrid chicken/sea serpent creature that lives in nearby Lake Bockamixon. Penny, our main heroine, was rescued by Bessie after she fell into the lake years earlier. Now, with an imminent move Penny wants to see Bessie and thank her one last time. Penny is joined by her two friends, Luc, an overly prepared skeptic, and K, a budding cryptozoologist. What starts as a simple mission soon evolves into something more when they are mistakenly captured alongside Bessie and taken to the underwater lair of a nefarious businesswoman named Alvida Scales. Not only has the wicked monster-hunter captured Bessie, but also a whole menagerie of other cryptid creatures. Now, Penny, Luc, and K are determined to free all of the captured critters!

Readers will be charmed by the new hybrid creatures cooked up by the creative minds of Goetter and Riess, such as Bigtaur (who has a surprising knowledge of submersible piloting) and Yeticorn. Their partnership has produced an engaging romp of an adventure filled with brightly saturated illustrations that perfectly capture the fantastical nature of the story and plenty of fun banter between this enterprising trio of friends. If you love realistic fiction with a heavy dose of fantasy this one is for you!


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Stand Tall by Joan Bauer

By DeeDee
Stand Tall By Siena Siegel by Joan Bauer Putnam, 2002, 182 pgs Realistic Fiction Tree is 12 years old and over 6 feet tall. That would be great if he were a basketball player, but he is not. Dealing with his unusual size is not Tree's only challenge. Tree's parents have recently gone through a divorce, and his grandfather has had his leg amputated as the result of an old Vietnam War injury. The strength of this book is the characterizations. All of the main characters are dimensional and sympathetic. Bauer sets the characters in real and often funny family situations. Best of all is the character of Tree. He is boy with a heart to match his stature. This is a great book for boys or girls ages 9-12, as a read aloud or for individual reading. This book could also be a good Rx book for children whose families are going through divorce, or for anyone who feels like they don't fit in.
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: The New Girl

By
The New Girl By Cassandra Calin New York: Graphix, 2024. Comic. 261 pages. 12-year-old Lia and her family have just moved from Romania to Montreal, and she's doing her best to keep up with the changes. But, she's homesick. She misses the rest of her family, her friends, and her favorite Romanian treats. She doesn't speak French and her English is shaky, which makes it hard to make friends, even in her international immersion class. And she's dealing with super painful menstrual cramps every month. But before long, Lia starts to hit her stride. She befriends the other bilingual girls in her class, she gets a spot as the artist for her school's magazine, and even has a new crush -- Julien. Though she may be the new girl, Lia is starting to fit in. This slice of life graphic novel is an adorable choice for middle grade readers and young teens. Lia is a likable protagonist and readers will have little difficulty relating to her adjustment to school. The text speaks to a...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: Cincinnati Lee, Curse Breaker

By
  Cincinnati Lee, Curse Breaker By Heidi Heilig New York: Greenwillow Books, 2025. Fiction. 291 pages. Thanks to Cincinnati Lee's no good, dirty rotten, artifact stealing great great great grandfather, Cincinnati's family is now cursed and Cincinnati feels like it's up to her to break the curse. Which involves trying to steal the artifacts back from museums that her grandfather robbed from graves and archeological sites around the world and return them to their countries of origin. But when Cincinnati's first artifact stealing mission goes awry, she decides it might be more effective to steal an all-powerful artifact herself that she can use to break the curse - The Spear of Destiny. Unfortunately her race for the spear will pit her against art smugglers and thieves intent on finding the ancient artifact themselves. If you are looking for an Indiana Jones read-alike, this is the perfect for you! Heavy on the adventure with similar levels of mysticism to those seen in th...
Post a Comment
Read more