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

Review: The Factory

By
The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages.  Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: Fowl Play

By
  Fowl Play By Kristin O'Donnell Tubb New York: Katherine Tegen Books, 2024. Fiction 277 pages. Still reeling from her beloved uncle's death, Chloe Alvarez is comforted and confused when at his last will and testament reading, Uncle Will gifts her his African Grey parrot, Charlie. Charlie has a robust vocabulary and loves to make Alexa requests for her favorite songs, but when she starts saying things like, "homicide," and "cyanide," Chloe becomes convinced that Uncle Will may have met his demise by murder instead of a genetic disease, as was previously thought. Ultimately, bringing in her brother, Grammy, and Uncle Frank (and of course Charlie,) Chloe's ragtag and adoring family support her search for answers ---going on stakeouts, engaging in fast pursuits, and searching for clues. But as the suspects stack up and the mystery grows, Chole will learn that the process of death and grieving is complicated, and in the end her Uncle Will's words that, ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: A Strange Thing Happened in Cherry Hall

By
A Strange Thing Happened in Cherry Hall By Jasmine Warga New York: Harper, 2024. Fiction. 211 pages. A painting has been stolen from the Penelope L. Brooks Museum and sixth-grader Rami Ahmed is worried he's the main suspect. His mother works at the museum as the lead custodian and Rami spends a lot of time hanging out at the museum while she works. On the day the painting went missing, the only people there were the security guard Ed, the cleaning crew, and Rami. Then, a mysterious girl appears in the museum. She floats around from room to room and only Rami can see her -- and she looks exactly like the girl from the missing painting. To prove his innocence and help figure out who the floating girl is, Rami partners up with an aspiring sleuth at school named Veda and the two dive into unexpected situations as they try to solve the mystery. This is a cozy mystery that is focused mostly on characters and ambiance and only a little on the mystery itself. Don't read this book if yo...
Post a Comment
Read more