VERDICT An utterly enchanting start to a series that’s bound to be popular among young readers. A song (“I am a narwhal/a happy little narwhal!”) and a brief section with facts on jellyfish and narwhals are fun additions (kids will be impressed to learn that the narwhal’s tooth can be up to ten feet long and that the marine mammal can live 90 years). Clanton includes just a few panels per page and breaks up some of the action with full-page spreads, resulting in a wonderfully accessible option for kids making their first forays into sequential art. The art has a childlike quality, and though Narwhal and Jelly are rendered with simple, thick-lined scrawls, the illustrations are expressive and energetic. I mean what is up with that horn?”) to the tale that Narwhal and Jelly spin in their metafictional turn, which has a waffle, a strawberry, and a sea monkey doing battle with a giant robot. Divided into three tales, the book is light on plot but brimming with a fantastically kid-friendly sense of the absurd, from the friends’ first reaction upon meeting each other (“You don’t look like any fish I’ve ever seen, but you do look kind of jelly-ish.” “Look. Earnest and down-to-earth Jelly the jellyfish is the perfect foil for endearingly airheaded Narwhal. Readers new to graphic novels will be richly rewarded with this series opener about a delightfully quirky duo.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |